Planning session 2017-03-04

Gregory Marler 2017, Minutes

We had our first in-person meeting on Saturday 4th March 2017 in Birmingham. Details and original hackpad which shows who contributed each idea:

  • https://www.loomio.org/d/4Zr1u05D/first-event
  • https://hackpad.com/OSM-UK-In-person-meeting-3VKrKyY0mQW

The meeting was a chance to get to know each other, and start to explore what we can do to meet the company aims.

To do this we first asked ourselves “Why” we are not currently fulfilling the aims. This helped us to get to the root cause of the issue.

Root cause analysis: Just keep asking why!

Company Aim 1

Aim is: Increase the quality and quantity of data about the UK in OpenStreetMap.

Basically we keep asking “Why” until we run out of ideas! We start with the aim rephrased as a problem:

  • We struggle to increase the quality and quantity of data about the UK in OpenStreetMap.

We then ask why – continuously!!

  • Why? Because we don’t have enough skilled mappers in all areas of the UK.
    • Why? Because not enough people know about OSM.
      • Why? Because we don’t have a good outreach program.
        • Why? Because we haven’t made a joined up attempt.
        • Why? Because it takes a surprisingly high amount of effort.
      • Why? Because the normal landing page (OSM.org) doesn’t emphasise what the project is?
        • Why? Because it is “just a map” / looks like Google Maps
          • Why? Unknown – has always been like that.
          • Why? Design is probably guided by the expectation (held subconciously even by those who understand why it might be wrong) that we use our front page to offer a useable map just as https://www.google.com/maps and other providers do.
          • Why? design change invites massive “bike-shedding” which leads to inaction.
            • Why? Lot of eyes on the front page. Lot of diverse opinions
      • Why? Because for a lot of people there is little ’need’ to know about OSM.
        • Why? Because we aren’t clearly articulating the difference to Google Maps or Ordnance Survey
      • Why? Because there are not enough apps which put OSM data in front of them and make them want to know more.
        • Why? Maybe there are and we just aren’t promoting them
          • Action: Case studies / top 10 list of OSM apps
          • Why? lots to do/decide
            • Action: get companies to write their case study, we can validate the text & publish it
      • Why? No/limited relationship to other open data consumers/generators? (ODI).
      • Why? Because too many people quit after their first experience
    • Why? Mapping tools are too difficult.
    • Why? No/limited mapping parties in areas with few active mappers.
  • Why? Because we don’t have clear quality guidelines
    • Why? Because the project evolved with a ’tag as you like’ philosophy
    • Why? Because the OSM wiki is too big
      • Why? Because it is a global project / not just UK.
    • Why? Because best practice for UK mapping is documented haphazardly.
      • Action: identify people as “the expert on… [item]”, get them to update wiki
    • Why? Because best practice is often gained by asking the experts (which is both a good and a bad thing)
  • Why? Because people don’t read the guidelines we already have.
    • Why? Because tool presets aren’t clear / using best practice (for the UK)?
    • Why? Because they are long
      • Why? Because we are good at adding new content for every edge case but not so good at simplifying
        • Why? Because it takes more time to write something succinctly than something long
        • Why? Because there is bad history of wiki wars (!)
    • Why? Because people use Google?
      • Why? Because we need good SEO pages
      • Action: Need to have a “our top 10 guides” for new comers. Guides on popular things, but also guides on most important things(how to use the crap map).
    • Why? Because people are lazy
      • Why? Because they have got used to consuming bite-size info in other ways (e.g. youtube)
      • Why? Because they expect the user interface to “just work”
      • Why? Because they expect the systems to be as high-quality as something that they had paid for
    • Why? Because people don’t know the guidelines are there
  • Why? Because mappers can’t access data they need (e.g. complete postcode data)
    • Why? Because the data is not open (see Aim 4).
    • Why? Because copyright status of data sources is not understood.
      • Why? Because it can get complicated
      • Why? Because mappers are not (generally) lawyers.
  • Why? Because mappers are not motivated to add detail which is not visible in common renderings (c.f. Aim 2)
  • Why? Because good data gets degraded by bad edits.
    • Why? Because the data is brittle, esp. polygons and relations.
    • Why? Because deletion is easy.
    • Why? Because observable items and unobservable items (e.g. boundaries) are mixed in editors.
    • Why? No review mechanism for new mappers. Stopping a keen but misguided newbie gets confrontational
  • Why? Because contributing is seen as a thing for “techies”
    • Why? Because apps don’t make it easy to add textual / numeric data
      • Why? Because we want simple apps. E.g. Does this pub have wifi?
        • Action: GSoC or pay people for such an app that is gamified?
    • Why? Doesn’t stress the artistic aspects of drawing up a map.
      • Why? Stress the fun! https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web#t-840790 about 16 mins in.
    • Why? Because documentation for OSM (in the UK) is fragmented — there’s no single simple website?
  • Why? Because there aren’t enough different ways to contribute – nothing between leaving a note and using a map editor
    • Why? Because tools are hard to design, hard to develop, and hard to add to openstreetmap.org

Company Aim 2

Aim is: Improve and increase the size, skills, toolsets and cohesion of the OpenStreetMap community in the United Kingdom.

Problem statement: We struggle to improve and increase the size, skills, toolsets and cohesion of the OpenStreetMap community in the UK.

  • Why? Because when it comes to the size of the community we are not growing it as quick as we could?
    • Why? Because of the issues addressed in Aim 1 above (see above)
    • Why? Because it is a challenge to come to local OSM meetings
      • Lack of time (travel time can be large)
        • Action: Virtual meetings (video etc)
      • Lack of interest. OSM not important.
        • Why? Don’t see benefit of non-mapping activities?
    • Why? Because there aren’t that many OSM groups across the UK anymore
      • Why? Because we haven’t had a big traditional mapping party in the UK for some time now?
      • Why? Becasue we aren’t as good as Missing Maps / HOT at promoting commun
      • Why? Because the attraction of the initial mapping has disappeared
        • Why? Because people don’t get the same buzz out of “filling in the gaps” as they did with initial mapping of roads
          • Why? Because non-road data is deemed less important
            • Why? Because we don’t articulate the importance of other map data
              • Why? Because we may not fully understand it ourselves
                • Action: Top 10 list of mapping areas (geographic & theme)
          • Why? Because the visual feedback “reward” is less obvious
            • Why? Because of the way we present map data
            • Why? Because we have no other way of providing feedback “reward” other than the map display
              • Why? Because previous ideas stall due to the “gamification” issue.
  • Why? Because people think the road network is done or 97% done. Rural/Northern still needs work.
    • Why? Not limited to OSM (also Schools roadshow), north of Sheffield limited.
  • Why? Because the map looks complete
    • Because we don’t visualise a “crap map” render.
    • Action: Need some system for for finding things in your locality to map
      • Maybe should be a mobile tool
    • Why? Because the Notes system includes all sort of things (notes to self, mapping changes that are expected in a few years)
      • Action: Enhance the Notes system to allow better filtering.
  • Why? Don’t know/understand our demographics.
    • Have never done a survey
      • We don’t have contact details
        • Action: Start to build contact details for our community (e.g. through a newsletter sign-up / by asking OSMF for access to this data)
  • Why? Because we don’t do promotional campaigns
    • Why? It’s long work, almost another day. Needs a group of people.
      • Why? Need money to hire someone to take our aims into promotion.
      • Why? Need to decide which demographic(s) to go after.
        • Need to then develop “people profiles” for each group we want to target.
      • Action: put together templates for articles to send to media/groups.
    • Why? Don’t have contacts to local media
      • Why? Don’t have articles “About Us” explaining why OSM is different.
    • Why? We don’t know who to promote to (existing members and new members)
      • Why? Because sign up to OSM.org is not shared
        • Why? Not allowed in current terms and conditions
          • ACTION: Ask if we want to change T&Cs to allow us to get a list of new mappers in the UK.
  • Why? Because we struggle to pass on skills
    • Why? Because there’s a lot to understand. Overwhelming.
      • Action: Filter down for those tutorials that make most sense in the UK and promote those
    • Why? Because we don’t run many training sessions
      • Why? Because they take a lot of organising
      • Why? Because it may cost individuals to run these (e.g. venue hire costs)
      • Why? Because we wouldn’t know what a training session should focus on
        • Why? Because we haven’t developed a training pack
          • Why? We don’t know what people are interested in (case examples)
          • Why? Unsure what skill level to picth at
            • All levels (separate classes for beginner, to advanced)
        • Action: Survey the community about what training sessions they want.
    • Why? Need to train people(with skills) how to be trainers. (like Wikimedia did)
    • Why? Because we don’t meet in person that regularly
      • Why? Because we don’t hold a State of the Map UK (although there is SotM Scotland occasionally)
      • Why? We have not done a “roadshow” like the BCS do in local schools. Set of the same stuff, delivered to different locations.
        • Piggy-back on their network?
      • Why? Because the meetings that do occur tend to be local groups only
  • Why? Because we don’t pass on our “mentoring role”. Create the next 200 mentors.
    • Why? Reward people for mentoring newer OSMers
  • Why? Because we don’t promote *using* OpenStreetMap as well as they do in the U.S. nowadays
    • Why? Because in the US they focus on *using* more than contributing
      • Why? Their landscape of free data imports has created a very different dynamic there, in which they have a relatively small contributor community (if you discount importing as contributing)
    • Why? Events like MapTime are very focussed on users, and we don’t do these in the UK much.
      • Why? Need a venue with laptops & projectors for evening or weekend and companies are not falling over themselves to offer this
        • Why? Frankly it’s disappointing. Even organisations where the alignment seems obvious: Open Data Institute & FCC don’t help.
          • Why? Lack of genuine interest, support and understanding of our open data good cause mission.
          • No staff interested enough to attend at weekend
          • Desire to find revenue streams. “How much can you pay for the venue?”
      • Why? London would be the prime location (good likelihood of attracting an large audience of users) but…  limited organiser capacity
        • Why? Harry’s the only organiser and he had a baby.
          • Why? When two people love each other very much and they give each other a “special cuddle” …
          • Why? Not enough folks with Harry’s supreme organising skills (!??)
            • Why? Despite being quite popular and long-lived, the London community of OSMers (leaving aside the big humanitarian mapping community) isn’t big and diverse enough.
            • Why? Because many mappers active in London never attend and do everything online.
    • Why? Because Mapbox Stamen and various other well-funded OSM-focussed map provision (user supporting) companies are in the U.S.
      • Why? Similar operations exist in the UK but ~1000x less well funded
        • Why? Fledgling organisations don’t attract investment (Could OSM UK help attracting investment?)
  • Why? On cohesion existing portals may not support everyone
    • See areas above about skills sessions, meetings, etc.
    • Why? Don’t have a UK chapter (oh, we do now!)
  • Why? On toolsets, we have many but they are not unified
    • Why? Have been developed independently?
    • Why? Not a central repository of tools
      • Action: Have a list of useful tools and example uses.
    • Why? People find out about things through the osm.org homepage only. Only small space for that.
      • Action: code for the osm.org banner that is UK-viewer specific, so we can have it more often
      • Why? Need a UK website so we can control design/features.
        • Why? Need people to focus effort on it.
    • Great work by Robert Whittaker.

Company Aim 3

Aim is: Promote and facilitate the use of OpenStreetMap data by individuals and organisations in the United Kingdom.

Problem: We struggle to promote and facilitate the *use* of OpenStreetMap data by individuals and organisations in the United Kingdom.

  • Why? Because comparing to Google, we don’t have obvious competing offerings for various features.
    • Why? We don’t have something simple like MyMaps
      • Why? Closest we have is uMap. Pretty good, but maybe not *as* good.
        • Why? It’s a 3rd party site. Not slickly built into the “product offering” of OpenStreetMap
        • Why? Featurewise maybe doesn’t offer parity. Maybe offers too much (TODO: analyse differences more)
    • Why? We don’t have a satellite layer
      • Why? because it’s not what OpenStreetMap does. It’s available from elsewhere but that’s not as good as just using google maps
        • Why? 3rd party sites. Not slickly built into the “product offering”. Not trivially part of a slippy map deployment
    • Why? We don’t have something like StreetView
      • Why? because it’s not what OpenStreetMap does. It’s available from mapillary & OpenStreetCam. Not as good as just using google maps
        • Why? 3rd party sites. Not slickly built into the “product offering”. Not trivially part of a slippy map deployment
        • It’s not got the coverage or quality of StreetView (in the UK)
  • Why? Because comparing to Google, people don’t know about our advantages.
    • Why? Web developers and mobile developers know google maps API and don’t feel the need to learn something new
      • Why? Google maps works well and has features we can’t replicate (above)
      • Why? Google maps got in early and have massive dev community and larger body of examples/discussion on the web
      • Why? We didn’t manage to make using google maps uncool in the same way running MS windows is uncool in the developer community.
        • Why? We didn’t point and laugh enough at developers who go to “open data hack” events and use google maps instead of leaflet
          • ACTION: Promote use of OSM map in Open Data hack events / promote OSM to the developer community. Be the annoying OSM evangelist/activist that points it out.
        • Why? Persuasion and knowing it’s good to use it.
          • Action: again, case studies.
          • Why? Switch2osm website doesn’t include case studies
  • Why? Because large map users in the UK all use Ordnance survey
    • comparing to Ordnance Survey we’re not as good in some ways
      • Why? Because we have a consistency issues
        • Why? Because mapping tends to be focused on areas with active mappers
          • Action: Promote a consistent level of mapping (focus regions – geographic and thematic)
  • Why? Because comparing to Ordnance Survey, people don’t know about our advantages.
  • Why? Because Ordnance Survey are making more noise with their OpenData offerings
    • Why? Because they have funding
      • Because they are an organisation with funding in general, but also…
      • Because the government paid them �x million to do open data
    • Why? Because they are scared of being left behind by open data and are stepping into the gap
    • Why? Because they need to attract data users and visibly promote open data usage as justification for the �x million.
    • Why? Because they’re using open data offerings now as a hook into using their technologies which also happen to work well with their paid data.
  • Why? We miss some opportunities with large UK GIS users
    • Why? We don’t pitch ourselves to big consulting/engineering firms (although some recent traction with Missing Maps events)
      • Why? We don’t have contact details for them
        • Why? We haven’t collected them
          • Why? No focus to do so/no CRM system
          • Action: Have a dedicated person to be point of contact / media relations
      • Action: attendance at conferences. Ask the GIS organisations where we should be, where they expect us.
      • Action: run workshops and invite their staff
    • Why? We don’t pitch ourselves to local councils
      • Why? The OSM wiki has a messy list of councils focussing mostly on whether we’ve nagged them about PROW data.
        • Why? because harry has been meaning to tidy it up for years now
  • Why? Because OSM search can seem poor compared to google
    • Why? because google is a search company with deep web spidering capacity. They’re good at this stuff
    • Why? OSM front page search is unforgiving of e.g. trivial spelling differences.
    • Why? OSM front page search fails on UK postcodes
  • Why? Because CMSs are less likely to have well-maintained and popular plugins for OSM.
    • Why? Because Google make it really easy?
    • Why? Because CMS Developers don’t see past the quick and easy ’stick points on a map’
    • Why? Because developers know about google maps more than leaflet
    • Why? Need to know the good plugin for your CMS
      • Why? sometimes there’s too many (e.g. plugins for wordpress)
      • Why? need to know to search for OpenStreetMap, OSM, or Leaflet to at least avoid the mass of Google ones
        • Why? We need to review them. Have a recommended page on our site (with good SEO)
  • Why? Because OSM has an uneasy relationship with for-profit users.
    • Why? Because disorganised community and a lack of accountability – but OSM UK should help fix this
    • Why? Because volunteers can feel that someone else shouldn’t profit from their work
      • Why? Volunteers don’t always understand the point of the open license
    • Why? Because for-profit users often do not always follow community expectations giving (reasonably prominent) credit to OpenStreetMap
      • Why? Because even our best companies re-supplying OSM maps fail to set a good example of giving credit sometimes (Mapbox, Carto)
        • Why? Because in their position it’s not in their interest. They want to be thought of as the main map supplier brand involved. or…
        • Why? They don’t find it important
          • Why? Unknown. It’s not because we haven’t complained to them enough
        • Why? The OSM logo looks too much like a search button.
  • Why? Because there are no “killer apps” for end-users
    • Why? Because even good apps (e.g. OsmAnd) don’t have much penetration
      • Why? Because they are not well promoted.
      • Why? Because people think they will be too techie. A lot of OSM apps (and software in general) are powerful but with steep learning curves.
  • Why? Because openstreetmap ’standard’ style doesn’t follow some user’s expectations.
    • Action: Welsh language map
    • Why? We don’t promote the fact that you can take the data and render it however you like.
    • Why? because it doesn’t follow popular UK road atlas conventions eg motorways being blue
      • Why? because it’s global and UK road atlas conventions will only seem massively logical if you regularly see UK road signs.
      • Why? because UK road atlas conventions use a lot of colours just on roads, while we’re trying to represent many different features in addition
    • Why? because it is too busy with features
      • Why? to help mappers add rich data (and show off rich data)
  • Why? Because people don’t understand the difference between OpenStreetMap data and the slippy map
    • Why? Because all they see is the map
  • Why? Because organisations don’t want incomplete data and may perceive OSM as incomplete
    • Why? We have inconsistent levels of completeness across the country.
      • Why? We need more mappers in certain areas (see above)
      • Why? There’s no cap on the level of detail we add. Mappers will add ludicrous detail in one area which can never be replicated UK-wide.
        • Why? Because we don’t organise or incentivize efforts to even out coverage enough.
    • Why? We don’t help data users cope with the inconsistent levels of coverage
      • Why? We don’t have a lot of examples of tools/configurations/techniques for hiding excess detail e.g. rendering without the buildings
    • Tagging system is unfamiliar to GIS folks. creates some misunderstandings
      • Why? Tag docs might give the impression we have very rich data but… disappointment as it turns out we don’t use all the tags we document.
      • Why? Many tools remain close to representing the tag soup which can make the data look more incomplete than perhaps it is
        • Why? Efforts to rationalise the tag soup as 3rd party conversions, don’t gain much traction.
  • Why? Because organisations don’t want inaccurate data and may perceive OSM as inaccurate.
    • Why? Because organisational pride causes them to over-estimate their need for map accuracy.
      • Why? because people naively believe some maps to be 100% accurate
    • Why? Because OpenStreetMap does have inaccuracies, but knowing the “crowd sourced” nature of it makes data users nervous.
      • Why? We don’t convince people that our community can arrive at reasonable results similar to professionals.
    • Why? People need to know how to add “notes”, or have a way to request a fix.
      • Why? Note can remain 3 years later, and people get annoyed. Need a program to pay attention.
        • Why? We want assurance it is true.
          • Why? we should trust people more? Default should be to trust it, unless we have a reason to suspect it.
        • Why? Need to at least add a comment to say it’s been looked at. That might encourage people to log in more.
          • Action: tool of new notes without comments on?
  • Why? Because organisations cannot assign liability if the information is incorrect
    • Why? because they’re not paying a company to take liability
  • Why? Nobody knows OSM
    • Action: create more of the shop window stickers “we’re on the map” (done in the US)
  • Action: pay someone to develop an app.
    • Rob N has a technical document
    • Got some funds.
    • Wikimedia grant?

Company Aim 4

Aim is: Promote and facilitate the release by organisations in the United Kingdom of data that is suitable for use in OpenStreetMap.

Problem: We struggle to promote and facilitate the release by organisations in the United Kingdom of data that is suitable for use in OpenStreetMap..

  • Why? Because getting a dataset released takes dogged and persuasive “salesman-like” qualities.
    • Why? Because organisations holding data don’t understand the benefits of open data.
      • It’s new to them
      • Need for examples. If you do this, this happens. ROI.
      • Need measurable feedback of benefit/use. KPIs? Who is using it?
        • Action: have a central repository of who is using OSM.
    • Why? Because organisations holding data are frightened of legal issues.
      • Companies feel like they are on their own.
        • Point of contact may not be obvious
        • Lack of case studies
        • Lack of community of business users
        • Action: statement of accuracy to expect (SLA?)
        • Action: signposting to resources. Like successful data releases and FOIA releases.
    • Why? Because releasing data takes employees’ time.
      • Why? Well it doesn’t need to really but organisations always say it does
        • Action: sign-post to individual consultants & companies that can help with services
    • Why? Because successful release probably requires updates and a process for incorporating them.
      • Action: explanation of how our software and crowd of people can help improve their data.
      • Action software for tracking data changes to certain IDs
      • Why? Too big (e.g. NaPTAN) to keep people interested in updating, and technology data.
        • Action: asking NaPTAN to help create the process to update it. Also with tree data.
      • Action: case studies of how it’s been done
      • Why? Two types of organisations: those who have data but no interest in OSM; and those who have interest in using their data in OSM.
    • Why, invoking of national security
      • Why? not supported by Information Commission (ICO).
        • Action: Have a contact with the ICO and engage with them.
      • Why? despite it being easy enough to see the sites/features.
        • Action: mapping it is easier
    • Why? Because their competitors haven’t done it yet.
  • Why? Because organisations don’t even realise that their data would go in OSM
    • Why? They don’t understand or know OSM (see earlier point).
    • Action: more effective is saying “please release this openly, it’s beneficial beyond OSM”
    • Action: As a chapter work with other organisations. E.g. ODI, WikiMedia, mySociety (WhatDoTheyKnow), Open Knowledge Foundation.
    • Action: links with smaller organisations? E.g. Angling society, do they care about data of waterway fishing rights.
      • Action: Get into specialist magazines to promote OpenStreetMap and benefits to organisations to release data.
  • Why? Simple use of datasets as a check-list for contributors, is an under appreciated under-utilised approach
    • Why? It feels like we could do with more/better/easier tools to facilitate
      • Why? NOVAM viewer and Bike shop locator were nice examples of tools for merging in simple point-based data. They disappeared.
      • Why? Tools like NOVAM viewer and Bike shop locator were nice topic-specific tools. Equivalent generic “upload your CSV file” tool?
      • Why? Maproulette presents the challenges nicely to mappers, but doesn’t do the preparatory dataset analysis/comparing.
      • Why? Potlatch 2 merging functionality didn’t seem to catch on for use with lots of datasets
    • Why? Not always welcomed
      • Why? We generally prefer survey-based contributions (particularly in UK)
        • Why: That is our USP. Comparing data sources (local knowledge, GPS traces)
      • Why? A tool like MapRoulette can make the challenge appear too simple. Mappers then unthinkingly blast throught the checklist (tasks) messing up data in various ways.
      • Why? A lot of effort to import data, and a lot of effort to maintain the data.
        • Why? The community don’t value imported data as their own.
          • Why? Less exciting.
            • Action: It should be fun to check data.
              • Like “StreetComplete”, checks data and says what’s missing.
              • Action: some game (like Pokemon Go). Some prizes?
              • Action: get groups like Scouts involved. Create the OSM badge? Do they know what’s on a postbox, types of postbox, postbox reference numbers.
      • Why? Lack of case studies of good cases where data has been released and merged in OSM.
  • Why? Because often organisation’s data *doesn’t* go in OSM.
    • Why? Most geo-datasets in the UK were built using Ordnance Survey maps which might be a derived data problem.
      • Why? OS claimed to have eased of enforcing derived data, but OSM still applies similar ’derived data’-like strictness on imported data.
        • Why? because our data must be open. That’s point of the project.
    • Action: lobbying (long-term) that planning notices should be as open data, so that it can be used.
  • BIM-compliant for building projects. Could a front-end be put on OpenStreetMap to make it BIM-compliant?
  • Why? Need a wish-list of organisations we want data from. Track our progress.
    • Action: form the list.
  • Why? Didn’t want to give us a perpetual license because they don’t want us having stale data
    • Why? Doesn’t work for OSM, we need perpetual even though we want to up date it
      • Action: get them to put a date in the data. Get them to be excited about providing updates.
      • Action: could put it into an app asking people to check/validate the data in person. The data could go from the app after a year.
  • Wy? Need better import tools?
  • Why? Atmosphere for imports is tough.
    • Why? Need to have UK standards for imports, based off OSMF standards
    • Why? Need OSMers to support the import, and help with the process of gaining wider community support

Ideas

Ideally these should be tagged to the root cause analysis. If they are linked in many places then this is a good indicator that it is a valid idea for improving our situation.

  1. Welsh language map
    1. and other UK-specific renderings
  2. Pay someone to develop an app for collecting photos and notes
    1. Rob N has a technical document
    2. Got some funds.
    3. Wikimedia grant?
    4. GSoC or pay people for such an app that is gamified?
  3. Other tools
    1. tool of new notes without comments on?
    2. Need some system for for finding things in your locality to map
      1. Maybe should be a mobile tool
    3. Enhance the Notes system to allow better filtering.
    4. Make it easier to contribute from mobile
      1. e.g. an app asking people to check/validate released OpenData data in person. The data could go from the app after a year.
  4. News article
    1. We’ve launched OSM UK! We’re here. Still stuff for us to be doing…
  5. Collaborate with HS2 to keep the map up to date.
  6. Need to do annual surveys. Why do people come? Why do they not stay?
    1. What has academic research done? Survey popup on osm.org or sites like CycleStreets? Strava?
    2. Survey the community about what training sessions they want.
    3. Try to find out the different types of  user journey through OSM. All we see are the people who are left. Some  people just want to do a little bit, and that is okay.
  7. Have an outreach program to attract new contributors.
    1. e.g. get groups like Scouts involved. Create the OSM badge?
    2. Do outreach to older peoples’ groups. They may be the type to go walking, have many under utilised skills, have time to spare.
    3. links with smaller organisations? E.g. Angling society
    4. Get into specialist magazines to promote OpenStreetMap and benefits to organisations to release data
  8. Virtual meetings (video etc)
  9. Have a more sophisticated onboarding process with more stages between leave a note and learn how to use an editor.
    1. Adopt a trusted-user approach, eg as StackOverflow does? Ten verified edits and you’re “in”? (Not everyone will want to be “in”, nor should they. See also point 8 below.)
  10. Have a formal mentoring programme to systematically encourage new contributors and keep up interest.
    1. As has been mentioned in the Company Aims section, there might be a tendency to see an area as “done” when in reality all the low-hanging fruit like roads, landuse, etc was mapped years ago. This might put people off whereas they could actually add a great deal of value by filling in details.
    2. Maintain interest for new or lapsed mappers by encouraging different ways of looking at the mapped data, eg concentrate on your local area (an obvious win) or pick a feature and investigate data coverage nationwide (could be anything).
    3. Encourage people to be mentors?
  11. Have a landing page (website) that emphasis what the project is about and is not “just a map”
  12. Improve our quality guidelines for UK mapping
    1. Explore alternative mediums for this content (aka present it better than “the wiki is over there”)
    2. Maintain an up-to-date set of examples of “best practice” UK mapping
    3. Develop lists of approved data sources, inc. local / regional, and also of disapproved sources (to avoid doubt).
    4. statement of accuracy to expect from OpenData (so that organisations are not embarrassed about the quality of their data)
  13. Develop a training pack that can be used to teach people to edit OSM (similar to the way HOT have training material). Self-guided *and* a workshop that can be proposed and presented by anyone at a conference or group meeting.
    1. Could do with a dedicated YouTube channel of quick how-tos as screencasts with live commentary.
    2. run workshops and invite their staff
  14. Run events
    1. Get serious about finding a venue and making a map *user* oriented event happen (something like the U.S. MapTime events)
  15. Provide case study examples / have a central repository of who is using or contributing to OSM.
    1. of organisations that have released data and the benefits to them
    2. of organisations that use OSM data
    3. of organisations experience with the OSM licence
    4. successful data releases and FOIA releases.
    5. of work by OSM users/community
      1. HS2
    6. get companies to write their case study, we can validate the text & publish it
    7. put together templates for articles to send to media/groups.
  16. Have a dedicated person to be point of contact / media relations
    1. Provide an explanation of how our software and crowd of people can help improve their data.
  17. Promote a consistent level of mapping (focus regions – geographic and thematic) / Top 10 list of mapping areas (geographic & theme) / Need to have a “our top 10 guides” for new comers. Guides on popular things, but also guides on most important things(how to use the crap map).
    1. Top 10 geographic regions
    2. Top 10 mapping themes
  18. Set up a community of OSM experts
    1. identify people as “the expert on… [item]”, get them to update wiki
  19. Build a network of key organisations
    1. Have a contact with the ICO and engage with them
    2.  work with other organisations. E.g. ODI, WikiMedia, mySociety (WhatDoTheyKnow), Open Knowledge Foundation.
    3. Set up a community of business users (advisory group / panel of technical experts)
    4. Promote OSM related businesses. Sign-post to individual consultants & companies that can help with services
    5. attendance at conferences. Ask the GIS organisations where we should be, where they expect us.
  20. Gamification / alternate visualisations: Make adding data as fun as it originally was with roads
    1. Alternate data visualisations
    2. Games and prizes
  21. Help with merging data
    1. software for tracking data changes to certain IDs
    2. Promote tools for keeping merged opendata up to date
  22. Provide guidelines for councils to get their data on to data.gov.uk
  23. Create a top 10 wish list of 3rd party data we want access to.
    1. e.g. planning application data
  24. Top 10 list of Apps
  25. Start to build contact details for our community (e.g. through a newsletter sign-up / by asking OSMF for access to this data)
    1. Need to decide which demographic(s) to go after.
    2. Need to then develop “people profiles” for each group we want to target.
    3. Ask if we want to change T&Cs to allow us to get a list of new mappers in the UK.
      1. Or have the OSMF send on our behalve
  26. Improvements to OSM website:
    1. code for the osm.org banner that is UK-viewer specific, so we can have it more often.
  27. Promote use of OSM map in Open Data hack events / promote OSM to the developer community. Be the annoying OSM evangelist/activist that points it out.

Top focus

  • 1. Welsh/UK rendering (6 votes)
  •  2. Notes photo app (5 votes)
  • 15. Case studies (5 votes)
  • 20. Gamification (5 votes)
  • 7. Outreach (3)
  • 17. Consistency (3)
  • 23. Top 10 data (3)
  • 3. Other mapper tools (2)
  • 13. Training pack (2)
  • 16. Having media point of contact (2)
  • 19. Developing our org network (2)
  • 21. Developing merge & import tools & update (2)
  • 6. Surveys (1)
  • 9. Onboarding process (1)
  • 11. Landing page (1)
  • 25. Contact details of OSM community (1)
  • 26. OSM web banners (1)

This is advisory from the discussions. It can be wise to work on it from other ideas. Board to decide what’s possible, and to ask who’s going to be responsible.