A guest post from German OpenStreetMap contributor Matthias.
Mapping 24hrs in the US
You remember the Night of the living maps, right? NO?!? Well that was the first virtual global mapping party, where >200 mappers contributed from over 14 countries. As people asked again and again if we could do another 24h party, we do so at the end of November: Operation Cowboy
This time, we book a whole weekend (23.-25.11.) to let everybody decide, when you like to start their local 24hrs mapping sprints. Yes, you heared right, it’s not that virtual, as it consists of local parties, where teams of the community meet, to chat, to train newcomer and to work of course 🙂
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Operation_cowboy/join Maybe you already know that this time we picked the **USA as working area**. Mainly, because it’s build up very similar (from an aerial point of view) and has still some problems with [unfixed imported data. Our US members work hard in bigger cities, but most of this nation lacks still in some details. But as we are a really great community, a lot can be fixed by everyone of us 🙂
Yes, only using armchair mapping isn’t what we all understand as ‘true’ mapping, as you can only map the reality, when you go out and see what is at a certain place. But currently we just haven’t enough people in America on the ground, so the best what we all can do is, to encourage this users by mapping obvious details (as buildings, landuse, …) and helping them fixing imported data. Maybe, this will attract new users, if they can contribute further more details, just by clicking an OpenStreetBug.
Sounds like an interesting event before the busy Christmas time starts? The first local parties in Germany are already announced, so how about your local chapter? Time to meet your OSM buddies again 🙂
