Hi CloudMade feels that helping the US community grow would be a good thing and to that end we've been hiring, for want of a better term, mapping ambassadors. These full-time employees will be doing things like running mapping parties, speaking at events, doing webinars and anything else we, they or you come up with to help get the US community as strong as the European one.
So far we've found three great people. Richard Weait ([EMAIL PROTECTED] ) is kicking things off in the North East of the US. Sarah Manley ([EMAIL PROTECTED] ) is working on the Bay Area (the 50 miles or so around San Francisco) and Brandon Aguirre ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) is focusing on the West of the US - Washington down to California essentially. We'll be looking at helping groups like linux user groups and cyclists run mapping parties, answering questions and generally trying to take all the lessons learned in the EU and apply them in the US. We're very open to ideas and think that some things work differently both between EU nations and the US - for example there seem to be more cars and driving in the US. The mapping ambassadors are focused on helping people find and use openstreetmap and they will be travelling a fair amount running these events. Feel free to mail them about anything OSM, like maybe if you want help running a mapping party or want to borrow some GPS units. We're also looking to hire more ambassadors too, so get in touch if you're interested. Best Steve _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk