Cultural practices of local OSM contributors
Get to know the local contributors
A vital first step is to understand and get to know local OpenStreetMap contributors. These questions should help guide your initial research:
- Is there an official local chapter or a group of enthusiastic individuals?
- Does the local community meet in person (such as at meetups, State of the Map conferences etc.)
- What are their mapping priorities and focus?
- How active are they on the communication channels below?
To improve your research, here's where to find out more:
Where to search for information
Every group with a common hobby has its preferred channels for collaboration and discussion. It's important to use the right channel to reach the community.
📧 Common channels include:
- Mailing list
- OpenStreetMap Forum
- IRC
- Facebook pages & Twitter handles
- Slack channels
- Messaging apps like Telegram, WeChat, etc.
First contact with mappers
Considerations
Local mappers are in most cases individual volunteers. They have full-time jobs but are passionate about mapping certain features of OpenStreetMap - not necessarily the same features you may be interested in.
These volunteers often spend their evenings and weekends mapping, so won’t be able to attend a daytime meeting during Cityhall office hours.
If there’s no official local chapter in your region, we recommend to find power mappers in your region to contact first: The neis-one project allows you to filter on the most active users locally.
Attending local meetings
Once you’ve made first contact with engaged mappers, meet them in person at one of their regular events.
Meetings often take place in form of meetups. Next to local OSM meetings, popular local mapping events are: