> 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 t...@stateofthemap.org, or directly to myself on this email address.
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