Interview about OpenStreetMap community

Hi there,

I wondered if there might be someone who would be interested in provide an interview on your thoughts and experiences in running a open data community, to help us with our current project.

The Open Data Institute is conducting a consultation process about the future role of open data in the sport & physical activity sector. We currently steward an initiative called OpenActive.io and we want to establish a robust vision for future sustainability of the initiative.

We are consulting people who have experience of establishing sustainable data publishing ecosystems in other sectors, to get some views on how we might structure the OpenActive initiative going forward.

We thought that understanding the challenges and solutions OpenStreetMap had found would be really helpful for improving our thinking. If there was an/some individuals from the community who could share on this topic, it would be great to speak with them.

If anyone would be up for it, or if you would like further information, please let me know.

Thanks

Melanie @ the OpenActive team

Hi Melanie,

Could you clarify who you are seeking responses from here?

This is a very rarely used communication means for the OSM Foundation. If you are seeking an official viewpoint from the foundation I would perhaps use one of their email addresses, such as those listed here: https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Communication_Working_Group.

If you want more general responses from the OSM community as a whole, the appropriate forum will depend on the community. For instance for the UK virtually all communication is via the talk-gb mailing list, and not via these forums.

Best wishes,

Jerry

Hi Melanie,

Jerry has helpfully pointed out this is unlikely to be the best place to get the response you want.

The OSM Foundation is a form of “official viewpoint”, but it’s local chapter OpenStreetMap UK CIC(https://osmuk.org/) is also worth talking to (I’m on the board). We’ve been talking with other people at ODI HQ lately so they know us well. I’d be happy to chat and explain through some of the aspects/history of OpenStreetMap which might help you.

For a general or wider community response, it would be good to have a web page you can point to with all the information including how to get in touch. That page could then be posted to the talk-gb mailing list (as Jerry said, a lot of people read that) but could also be shared in other places (the OSM UK CIC newsletter might be possible to). Other communication options can be found at https://osmuk.org/community-dicussions/

All the best with your project and feedback,
Gregory (LivingWithDragons)

Thank you both for the replies, I will follow up with the suggested channels :slight_smile: