[OSM-talk] Community Conference

Rob Nickerson rob.j.nickerson at gmail.com
Wed Dec 2 23:56:12 UTC 2015


> Steve wrote:
>I’ve heard from a few people thinking of organizing an OpenStreetMap
conference focused on the community, very different from what SOTM has
become.
>
>I’m curious what people here think of the idea?
>

Hi Steve,

It's good to hear from you again and thank you for raising the profile of
State of the Map. For those who have not yet seen we (I currently lead the
SotM group) have just announced the location and date for SotM 2016. Check
out our blog post and the new website where you can sign up for our
newsletter:

https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2015/12/02/here-comes-sotm-2016/
http://2016.stateofthemap.org/

The State of the Map working group has taken on a lot of new members in the
last 12 months (no longer are we reliant on just one or two people). I am
delighted to be able to lead a team that includes members of previous SotM,
SotM EU and SotM US groups. We can also pull on the expertise of SotM LatAm
members when required and have members who have included other events such
as SotM Scotland (I single this one out as it's format is very different
from other SotMs). We are also building better ties with HOT Summit.

As the SotM group is essentially a re-boot (we all know that no SotM
occurred/is planned in 2015), my primary focus for this year is to ensure
that the group is built back up and that the 2016 conference goes ahead
without any hiccups. All looks good so far. With the foundations in place
the group is able to start thinking more strategically about "what is
SotM". In the blog post and the upcoming sponsorship pack, you will see
reference to our aim of bringing (1) data contributors, (2) data users and
(3) core/tool-chain software developers together. This is a first look a
the aim of State of the Map and the people it serves. We recognise that at
a very high level the members of the OpenStreetMap community will belong to
one (or more) of these 3 groups (or in the case of academia, have an
interest in studying one or more of these groups). Our aim is therefore to
be able to bring these groups together in an environment that enables them
to celebrate the successes of OpenStreetMap, share ideas and plan for the
future. Working together we benefit each other and ultimately the
OpenStreetMap project.

As with all things the challenge is getting the balance between the groups
and the size of the conference right. Some will prefer small gatherings,
whilst others enjoy the larger events. You will have noticed in the OSM US
elections discussions about whether bigger (of which group??) and better is
working for the community and we are very much listening to the views of
others as they are shared.

Can I encourage you to share your views too. If you explain your thinking
in the form of "The conference should be more focused on the community as
this will lead to ..." this will greatly help and I can see what can be
done to help. Feel free to encourage the others who you have been speaking
to, to share their views on this too.

Best wishes,


*Rob*
P.s There is already a placeholder for a call for venues for 2017 on the
OSM wiki and I have scheduled some time in our plan to look again at the
function of SotM. We want this to work for the community and for
OpenStreetMap so please do share your views with us either via this mailing
list, via team at stateofthemap.org, or directly to myself on this email
address.
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