Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Michael Reichert]

Dear US electorate,

Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
> And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
> list by October 10th.
> 
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates

And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098

*Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not 
suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first 
map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
exceptions).

You, the US community, have got some very great candidates which have
recognized the bad situation the US community is in (see posting by
Martijn van Exel). These candidates have realized that the board has to
change its focus and focus on the community all over the country and not
the so-called "community" attending SotM US. A good map needs a large and
active community and not an annual conference which is present in the
media and tweets 1440 times per day.

Reading some of the manifestos, I threw my hands up in horror. Some
candidates have less experience – neither in editing nor in OSM-related
coding. I believe that following fictional conversation might have
happened:
"I want to join OSM." – "Well, you just have to run for OSM US board
elections. You'll get to know the US community after election and learn
mapping after election, too."

I myself wonder if these people just want to become a board member to 
have a nice entry in their CV. If someone is really crazy about OSM, he/
she invests more time into OSM than just uploading 40 changesets.

This user diary entry is not neutral and shows my European-based opinion.
That's why editing/coding experience is a very important criteria from my
point of view. I don't pussyfoot aroung, I clearly write what's in my 
mind.

Best regards

Michael aka Nakaner


PS I have already watched the first half of the virtual townhall.


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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Steve Coast]

Picking up on the SOTM point - SOTM US isn’t for the community, it’s a 
corporate showcase. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just probably not what OSMFUS 
should be focused on.

A more interesting question is what should OSMFUS try to do to build editors in 
the US, and what metric should we use (presumably active editor headcount)?

What we’ve tried so far:

* SOTM getting bigger every year
* We tried paid ambassadors at CloudMade, running mapping parties with some 
success but the timeframe was very long to see people turn in to editors.
* We've tried making the web editor nicer multiple times (potlatch, mapzen, iD 
etc) and that doesn’t lead to meaningful growth in editors.
* Mapping parties appear to have some traction, but take a long time
* Getting schools involved appears to work briefly, then everyone goes home or 
to the next class
* Competitions to map areas (google also tried this for mapmaker)

All of these are good things to go do, they just don’t seem to impact active 
editing very much.

It feels like we should try some different things (ideas?) on a per-state 
basis. For example, we run 100 mapping parties in Idaho and we engage 100 
schools in Tennessee and so on so there’s distance between them and we can 
really measure the effectiveness of anything.

Some ideas to try:

* Linux User Group outreach (do these still exist? Very successful back in the 
day)
* Mass media (billboards, newspaper stories, magazine advertising)
* Tighter partnerships with existing orgs (USGS?)
* More scoreboards & leaderboards. We seem to have some success with ranking 
people and places against each other (e.g. Wyoming is more mapped than Nebraska)

Best

Steve

> On Oct 14, 2015, at 8:44 AM, Michael Reichert  wrote:
> 
> Dear US electorate,
> 
> Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
>> And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
>> list by October 10th.
>> 
>> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
> United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates
> 
> And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:
> 
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098
> 
> *Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not 
> suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first 
> map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
> exceptions).
> 
> You, the US community, have got some very great candidates which have
> recognized the bad situation the US community is in (see posting by
> Martijn van Exel). These candidates have realized that the board has to
> change its focus and focus on the community all over the country and not
> the so-called "community" attending SotM US. A good map needs a large and
> active community and not an annual conference which is present in the
> media and tweets 1440 times per day.
> 
> Reading some of the manifestos, I threw my hands up in horror. Some
> candidates have less experience – neither in editing nor in OSM-related
> coding. I believe that following fictional conversation might have
> happened:
> "I want to join OSM." – "Well, you just have to run for OSM US board
> elections. You'll get to know the US community after election and learn
> mapping after election, too."
> 
> I myself wonder if these people just want to become a board member to 
> have a nice entry in their CV. If someone is really crazy about OSM, he/
> she invests more time into OSM than just uploading 40 changesets.
> 
> This user diary entry is not neutral and shows my European-based opinion.
> That's why editing/coding experience is a very important criteria from my
> point of view. I don't pussyfoot aroung, I clearly write what's in my 
> mind.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Michael aka Nakaner
> 
> 
> PS I have already watched the first half of the virtual townhall.
> 
> 
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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Mike Thompson]

Michael, I appreciate your interest, research and opinions.  Thank you for
sharing it with us.

To continue to build on the success of OSM in the US, we need people with
diverse skill sets.  Alex has already listed some of them. Here is a list,
in no particular order:
* yes, editing the map
* software development
* server administration
* documentation creating/ wiki editing / tutorial creation
* outreach
* communication / pr
* legal
* ability to organize events / projects
* ability to teach others about osm
* ability to inspire others to join OSM / use OSM
* ability to form partnerships with third parties (governmental, non
governmental, commercial, other open projects)
* "supervise, control, direct and manage" (part of what the bylaws call for
the board to do).
* (probably others I overlooked)

Not everyone can be - or need be - a "heavy mapper."  I will be considering
skills, experience and ideas in all of the above areas in making my
decision.

Mike


On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Randy Meech  wrote:

> Wow Michael, that sure is an all-male US board you're suggesting. I hope
> nobody heeds you our we have bigger problems than I thought.
>
> The question of growth in the US is complex, as is the question of gender
> and contributing to communities such as this. Communities, that is to say,
> that have zero self-awareness about the problems in a message like this.
> Who knows: maybe threads like this explain the edit history, too.
>
> One thing that's certain is that there is no correlation between the work
> of a competent board member and making edits. Things like leadership,
> fundraising, organizing, project management, events, etc. are part of the
> work of a board.
>
> It's too bad we also require the ability to don a radiation suit to deal
> with threads like this.
>
> -Randy
> Dear US electorate,
>
> Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
> > And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
> > list by October 10th.
> >
> > https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
> United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates
>
> And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:
>
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098
>
> *Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not
> suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first
> map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
> exceptions).
>
> You, the US community, have got some very great candidates which have
> recognized the bad situation the US community is in (see posting by
> Martijn van Exel). These candidates have realized that the board has to
> change its focus and focus on the community all over the country and not
> the so-called "community" attending SotM US. A good map needs a large and
> active community and not an annual conference which is present in the
> media and tweets 1440 times per day.
>
> Reading some of the manifestos, I threw my hands up in horror. Some
> candidates have less experience – neither in editing nor in OSM-related
> coding. I believe that following fictional conversation might have
> happened:
> "I want to join OSM." – "Well, you just have to run for OSM US board
> elections. You'll get to know the US community after election and learn
> mapping after election, too."
>
> I myself wonder if these people just want to become a board member to
> have a nice entry in their CV. If someone is really crazy about OSM, he/
> she invests more time into OSM than just uploading 40 changesets.
>
> This user diary entry is not neutral and shows my European-based opinion.
> That's why editing/coding experience is a very important criteria from my
> point of view. I don't pussyfoot aroung, I clearly write what's in my
> mind.
>
> Best regards
>
> Michael aka Nakaner
>
>
> PS I have already watched the first half of the virtual townhall.
>
>
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>
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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Eleanor Tutt]

Michael -

Let me start with where we agree! I share your enthusiasm for Martijn's
position statement (and I am basing that on the position statement itself -
NOT Martijn's contribution history) and I will concede that it would make
sense for *one* of the OSM US board members to have in-depth mapping
experience (though, honestly, if none of the elected board members end up
having in-depth mapping experience they can call upon established community
members for guidance.)

However, as others have said, OSM US needs a diverse board with different
skillsets. I have worked with and served on many boards and the best
functioning boards have a variety of perspectives represented (I second
Mike Thompson's list above as a good starting point.) In fact, I
specifically do NOT want a board with only "heavy mappers" represented -
because to grow our community we need new mappers, and new-ish mappers will
understand their perspective better than established mappers.

There are also many valid reasons why someone may not make a lot of edits
to OSM. To give one example - perhaps, like myself, they are a community
organizer. There have been several times that I have intentionally *not*
mapped something, because I know that someone else in my city who has been
curious about OSM has an interest in the place. Instead of doing the fun
work of adding to OSM under my own name, I will often do the hard (and -
based on your post - apparently thankless?) work of introducing OSM to
someone else, telling them something like, "hey - here's a perfect thing to
add! your favorite restaurant isn't on the map yet."

In other words, the number of edits made does NOT correlate to a person's
investment of time and energy into OSM as a map *and* a community of people.

The OSM US board needs to inspire and support a community of people - their
job is not to edit the map.

Thanks,
Eleanor

PS: I also appreciate that Randy Meech mentioned gender in his post - I
believe that encouraging women to join, contribute, and *stay involved in*
the OSM US community (because it isn't just a "pipeline" problem) is
critical to OSM US's long-term growth, and electing competent women to the
board (like the candidates running!) is one way we can encourage
participation.


On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 11:56 AM, Mike Thompson  wrote:

> Michael, I appreciate your interest, research and opinions.  Thank you for
> sharing it with us.
>
> To continue to build on the success of OSM in the US, we need people with
> diverse skill sets.  Alex has already listed some of them. Here is a list,
> in no particular order:
> * yes, editing the map
> * software development
> * server administration
> * documentation creating/ wiki editing / tutorial creation
> * outreach
> * communication / pr
> * legal
> * ability to organize events / projects
> * ability to teach others about osm
> * ability to inspire others to join OSM / use OSM
> * ability to form partnerships with third parties (governmental, non
> governmental, commercial, other open projects)
> * "supervise, control, direct and manage" (part of what the bylaws call
> for the board to do).
> * (probably others I overlooked)
>
> Not everyone can be - or need be - a "heavy mapper."  I will be
> considering skills, experience and ideas in all of the above areas in
> making my decision.
>
> Mike
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Randy Meech 
> wrote:
>
>> Wow Michael, that sure is an all-male US board you're suggesting. I hope
>> nobody heeds you our we have bigger problems than I thought.
>>
>> The question of growth in the US is complex, as is the question of gender
>> and contributing to communities such as this. Communities, that is to say,
>> that have zero self-awareness about the problems in a message like this.
>> Who knows: maybe threads like this explain the edit history, too.
>>
>> One thing that's certain is that there is no correlation between the work
>> of a competent board member and making edits. Things like leadership,
>> fundraising, organizing, project management, events, etc. are part of the
>> work of a board.
>>
>> It's too bad we also require the ability to don a radiation suit to deal
>> with threads like this.
>>
>> -Randy
>> Dear US electorate,
>>
>> Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
>> > And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
>> > list by October 10th.
>> >
>> > https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
>> United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates
>>
>> And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:
>>
>> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098
>>
>> *Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not
>> suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first
>> map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
>> exceptions).
>>
>> You, the US community, have got some very great candidates which have

Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Greg Morgan]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 7:44 AM, Michael Reichert  wrote:

> Dear US electorate,
>
> Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
> > And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
> > list by October 10th.
> >
> > https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
> United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates
>
> And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:
>
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098
>
> *Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not
> suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first
> map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
> exceptions).
>

Thank you for the analysis.  It is the same message that I heard last
year.  I applaud the courage of these inexperienced mappers or whatever the
criteria is to run for the board. New blood and old blood would make things
better regardless how many nodes or their consistency level of adding map
features.  It feels like the experienced people want more mapping parties
like England and Germany for example.  That practice does not scale outside
of densely packed US urban areas. A new/old mapper might come up with a new
way of doing business in the US.  Experienced people like DBAs have told me
that I should not store images in a database.  Then MapBox comes along with
MBTiles and has a great solution to managing tiles. Inexperience people can
find new ways of looking at the same people that's results in game changing
techniques. The diversity of experience and opinions make this a strong
slate of candidates.  What would the US board do if the main problem is at
the OSF level as far as new ideas or unrecognized problems?

Regards,
Greg
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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Wolfgang Zenker]

* Steve Coast  [151014 17:21]:
> [..]
> A more interesting question is what should OSMFUS try to do to build editors 
> in the US, and what metric should we use (presumably active editor headcount)?

> What we’ve tried so far:
> [..]
> It feels like we should try some different things (ideas?) on a per-state 
> basis. For example, we run 100 mapping parties in Idaho and we engage 100 
> schools in Tennessee and so on so there’s distance between them and we can 
> really measure the effectiveness of anything.

> Some ideas to try:
> [..]

Thanks for steering this discussion in the direction of possible
improvements. To add a bit to Steves ideas:

I suggest to focus on the rural parts of the US instead of big cities
for a while. These are usually neglected by "the other map", looking
there shows better geometry then OSM but the same crappy, typo-infested
and incomplete TIGER based road names that we have, which tells me that
they never really looked at the area. And IMHO rural areas are where
you can win "hearts and minds" of the american people.

One idea would be to have a mapping party doing TIGER fixup for one
rural county, then contact the local newspaper, write an article what
has been done and ask for help regarding wrong/incomplete road names,
wrong data caused by outdated imagery, etc.
My guess would be that newspapers in rural towns would be happy about
every article regarding their local area that they can get.

What I noticed in many years of doing TIGER fixup in Montana is that
TIGER data in reservations is even worse than the already bad data in
other rural areas. Maybe organising mapping parties together with e.g.
a local mission inside a reservation, or working with the BIA?

Wolfgang

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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Mike N]

On 10/14/2015 1:33 PM, Wolfgang Zenker wrote:

One idea would be to have a mapping party doing TIGER fixup for one
rural county, then contact the local newspaper, write an article what
has been done and ask for help regarding wrong/incomplete road names,
wrong data caused by outdated imagery, etc.
My guess would be that newspapers in rural towns would be happy about
every article regarding their local area that they can get.


 I agree with this - just some armchair work from existing mappers 
won't increase overall participation in rural areas, but some 
preliminary work (untangling TIGER is *hard* for new mappers), followed 
by newspaper announcements to check road names, etc would bring in some 
people.   Also suggesting to add parks, park details, trails, etc would 
further attract some people.


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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Simon Poole]

No, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for in the elections :-).

However I believe there is some substantial misunderstanding of the
numbers involved.

Martijn noted in his manifesto that the daily editors numbers was flat
for the US and Michael used that as one of the corner points in his
diary post. However the daily editor number is the slowest growing
metric for OSM in general increasing from roughly 2000/day to 3000/day
since 2012, compared to that the growth in the US since 2012 is from
roughly 100 to 250 and there is no indication that it is stagnating at
all. In comparison the same metric has been flat in D-A-CH over the same
period. IMHO I don't see any indications that this is a real issue, it
is likely more a result of partial exhaustion of some of the well mapped
areas.

Now Martijn is correct in focusing on contributor growth in that the US
community is relatively speaking substantially smaller that say D-A-CH
and is still falling behind (new mappers last 7 days  D-A-CH 266, US
229, population D-A-CH roughly 1/3 of the US). Note: community still
growing substantially in D-A-CH despite the stagnating daily editor metric.

But the thing to take away from the above is that the US is nowhere near
saturation and there's plenty of room for improvement and if anything,
the numbers indicate that you are slowly digging yourself out of the
TIGER hole.

Now as how to facilitate growth, I don't have a recipe. Matter of fact I
tend to be a bit fatalistic about it, in that I don't believe the
underlying trend can be directly influenced at all, it is trivial to
create blips but over time they vanish in the noise.

I would however side with Andy in that what does seem to have some
lasting effect is constant news coverage. Vastly overrated in that
respect are mapping parties which are great as a fun focal point for the
community, but are hopeless at any measurable increase in new mappers.

Simon

PS: I do admit that I had to chuckle at the realisation in some of the
manifestos that SOTM-US size was/is a self-inflicted rat race.







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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Martijn van Exel]

Great points in this thread. I feel more inspired than ever to work on 
improving the US map, whether I will be on the board or not. We have a great 
group of mappers in the US, it’s just way too small. 

I want to pick up on the word ‘community’ which is used differently by 
different people to suit their needs. When I talk about community I mean you - 
the folks who actually map, build the tools to enable others to map, and 
organize the events that mappers come to. Not companies and institutions that 
use OSM or are interested in doing so. 
I would be curious to hear the other candidates define community.

Suggesting that board members need to be heavy mappers is really beyond the 
pale and I thought we had dispensed with this notion years ago. It is sad to 
see it rear its head again. I have worked with a great group of people this 
last year and couldn’t have cared less if they had made 10 edits or 1.

Lastly. Everyone, please do vote. It’s important we hear from you now. We can 
only function if we have a strong mandate from you, the mappers.

Martijn

> On Oct 14, 2015, at 1:46 PM, Simon Poole  wrote:
> 
> 
> No, I'm not going to tell you who to vote for in the elections :-).
> 
> However I believe there is some substantial misunderstanding of the
> numbers involved.
> 
> Martijn noted in his manifesto that the daily editors numbers was flat
> for the US and Michael used that as one of the corner points in his
> diary post. However the daily editor number is the slowest growing
> metric for OSM in general increasing from roughly 2000/day to 3000/day
> since 2012, compared to that the growth in the US since 2012 is from
> roughly 100 to 250 and there is no indication that it is stagnating at
> all. In comparison the same metric has been flat in D-A-CH over the same
> period. IMHO I don't see any indications that this is a real issue, it
> is likely more a result of partial exhaustion of some of the well mapped
> areas.
> 
> Now Martijn is correct in focusing on contributor growth in that the US
> community is relatively speaking substantially smaller that say D-A-CH
> and is still falling behind (new mappers last 7 days  D-A-CH 266, US
> 229, population D-A-CH roughly 1/3 of the US). Note: community still
> growing substantially in D-A-CH despite the stagnating daily editor metric.
> 
> But the thing to take away from the above is that the US is nowhere near
> saturation and there's plenty of room for improvement and if anything,
> the numbers indicate that you are slowly digging yourself out of the
> TIGER hole.
> 
> Now as how to facilitate growth, I don't have a recipe. Matter of fact I
> tend to be a bit fatalistic about it, in that I don't believe the
> underlying trend can be directly influenced at all, it is trivial to
> create blips but over time they vanish in the noise.
> 
> I would however side with Andy in that what does seem to have some
> lasting effect is constant news coverage. Vastly overrated in that
> respect are mapping parties which are great as a fun focal point for the
> community, but are hopeless at any measurable increase in new mappers.
> 
> Simon
> 
> PS: I do admit that I had to chuckle at the realisation in some of the
> manifestos that SOTM-US size was/is a self-inflicted rat race.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[stevea]

Simon Poole writes:

I would however side with Andy in that what does seem to have some
lasting effect is constant news coverage.


Great to read this thread!

Yes, I agree.  And even YOU, too, can influence this, especially if 
you have a newsworthy bit of rah-rah to report about something 
recently completed in OSM (whether you actually did the contributing 
yourself, or you are "simply" the reporter-of-facts).  While I don't 
know what effect it had, I did publish in OSM's 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenStreetMap_in_the_media/2013 
for September (as that is when it occurred) an article about some 
success that OSM had achieved in our United Stated Bicycle Route 
System WikiProject.  It was that Adventure Cycling Association had 
published an article in its blog, offering accolades to OSM for 
harmonizing the national bicycle network in the USA.  Leveraging the 
media is GREAT!


Similarly, when I began my efforts to better express rail in the USA 
in this forum (talk-us, December 2014), and the need to correct noisy 
TIGER rail data, this got picked up by the "wochennotiz" (I think 
that's correct).  Concomitantly, this certainly had something to do 
with the explosion of good rail updates the USA has seen over the 
last ten months:  people do read "weekly news feeds" (whether in 
German, English, discontinued, started up again, or otherwise) as 
well as "press feeds."  You just don't know when these will get 
picked up by more local press (newspapers, the news department of a 
TV station, a weekly city paper...).  However, as they do, such 
"press coverage" definitely increases the exposure of OSM to a wider 
public that may be unfamiliar with it or what the project actually 
does.  (We MAP!)  This is a rolling snowball:  it starts slow, but it 
gets bigger and bigger and bigger.


You can't expect to move boulders with the flick of your wrist.  It 
takes a nudge here, a bit of effort there, a little bit of press 
coverage over in the distance.  Keep chipping away like this, bit by 
bit, over the long-term, and it really does make a difference!  We've 
had National Public Radio coverage and other national press, and we 
can keep that momentum going if we have the right things to report at 
the right times to "feed the media."  Let's do so!


SteveA
California

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Re: [Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Randy Meech]

Wow Michael, that sure is an all-male US board you're suggesting. I hope
nobody heeds you our we have bigger problems than I thought.

The question of growth in the US is complex, as is the question of gender
and contributing to communities such as this. Communities, that is to say,
that have zero self-awareness about the problems in a message like this.
Who knows: maybe threads like this explain the edit history, too.

One thing that's certain is that there is no correlation between the work
of a competent board member and making edits. Things like leadership,
fundraising, organizing, project management, events, etc. are part of the
work of a board.

It's too bad we also require the ability to don a radiation suit to deal
with threads like this.

-Randy
Dear US electorate,

Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
> And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
> list by October 10th.
>
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates

And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098

*Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not
suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first
map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
exceptions).

You, the US community, have got some very great candidates which have
recognized the bad situation the US community is in (see posting by
Martijn van Exel). These candidates have realized that the board has to
change its focus and focus on the community all over the country and not
the so-called "community" attending SotM US. A good map needs a large and
active community and not an annual conference which is present in the
media and tweets 1440 times per day.

Reading some of the manifestos, I threw my hands up in horror. Some
candidates have less experience – neither in editing nor in OSM-related
coding. I believe that following fictional conversation might have
happened:
"I want to join OSM." – "Well, you just have to run for OSM US board
elections. You'll get to know the US community after election and learn
mapping after election, too."

I myself wonder if these people just want to become a board member to
have a nice entry in their CV. If someone is really crazy about OSM, he/
she invests more time into OSM than just uploading 40 changesets.

This user diary entry is not neutral and shows my European-based opinion.
That's why editing/coding experience is a very important criteria from my
point of view. I don't pussyfoot aroung, I clearly write what's in my
mind.

Best regards

Michael aka Nakaner


PS I have already watched the first half of the virtual townhall.


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[Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Alex Barth]

OpenStreetMap US board elections are coming up October 12 - 18.

We're running a virtual townhall on October 12. Ask your candidates about
their vision for OpenStreetMap and their plans for once elected:

http://openstreetmap.us/2015/10/candidates-townhall/

And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the list
by October 10th.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates

-- 
Alex Barth
Vice President
OpenStreetMap United States Inc.
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