Mapping Weekend Howto
From OpenStreetMap
Contents |
What is a mapping party?
A mapping party is where a group of openstreetmappers and novices descend on an area to map it exhaustively, usually over a weekend. It's a very social event where people can meet up and talk (usually at a pub) in between mapping sessions. A mapping session consists of dividing up an area between participants and mapping it, be that by car, cycle or walking. There have been many mapping parties so far, all over the UK and Europe in the Isle of Wight, Manchester, Reading, Surrey Hills, Bath, Rutland, Hamburg, Munich... If there hasn't been one near you, please organise one using this handy guide.
Getting Started
For a successful mapping party you need three key ingredients: a place, some people and a date. Finding a suitable venue is usually the hardest thing to achieve. Everything else will just fall into place.
- When Once you have a rough venue ('London' or 'Berlin') and a couple of people, then put up a wiki page with all the details and confirming the date. The rest is easy. On the day, unless you get a lot of newbies, it will all just happen.
- Where The simplest venue is a pub, preferably with free WIFI. You may find though that you can get a local company, arts centre, library or hall to provide free space for the weekend.
- Who The next thing is to get some people signed up. It's a good idea to contact two or three local mappers in advance and find out what dates would suit them. If possible, get them committed before you make a general announcement.
Planning
Here's a checklist of things to do in advance
Time
- Announce your event at least two months ahead of time. Pick a weekend that doesn't clash with major holidays.
- Choose a weekend
Place
- Choose a place that's reasonably near major transport like airports, train stations and motorways. Remember: some people will come from abroad.
- Choose meeting places for lunch times and evenings that are family friendly (people may bring children)
- The pub in the evening really matters - building community is all about social interaction so pick a good pub and tell everyone you're going for drinks there afterward.
- Get the lat/lon for the meeting places and announce in advance
- Try to get somewhere with free WIFI
Other
- Start the wiki page
- Put an Osmarender on the page
- Make a 'cake' diagram to divide up the area into manageable chunks. (For an example see London_mapping_party page)
- Put your phone number on the wiki
- Reserve the loan GPS units and Banner for the chosen dates and make arrangements to get them to the venue.
- FAQ for Newbies
- NaviGPS - newbies guide to operating a NaviGPS
- Garmin Geko 201 - newbies guide to operating a Geko
- Check for rail engineering works and other scheduled transport disruption on the chosen weekend
At the event
- Make sure you have hardware and software like
- SD Card reader (NaviGPS units)
- Garmin serial cable (and serial to USB if you need it)
- JOSM
- GPS Babel
- NaviLink software (for NaviGPS units)
- Camera
GPS units
Unless you are mapping a city covered by Yahoo! Aerial Imagery, you will need to do surveying using GPS Units.
- Get deposits (bank card / passport) and contact details for anyone you lend a GPS to
- Make sure the GPS units have sufficient battery charge and are blanked.
- Make sure the GPS units are set to record and newbies know how to operate the basic functions
- Make sure newbies know to make sure the GPS can see the sky
If you are in Germany, you can lend GPS units for free. See http://www.openstreetmap.de/gps-verleih/
Publicity
Internet Promotion
- Stick the event on upcoming.org
(particularly popular for London tech events) Tag it 'OpenStreetMap'. And/or other calendar event listing services.
- Look for local groups of technology enthusiasts (local linux user groups) and contact them
- Find the Wikipedia article which best matches the location. Add a note on the talk page (Take care to avoid sounding too spammy. You can justify this promotion, since the party will probably result in a better map to illustrate the Wikipedia article)
- countless other ways of promoting on the internet
Press Release
- Prepare a press release (examples:)
- Send press release out about three weeks before the event to:
- Local newspapers (use this wonderful site: http://news.mysociety.org or a Google search for town news to find these)
- Local radio stations
- BBC Local radio
- Local museums, libraries etc
- Local community web-sites and forums
- Local tourist offices
Poster
- Prepare a poster (example: Image:Poster002.jpg)
- Visit venue a couple of weeks before the event to distribute posters:
- The venue itself
- Ask shops to display the poster in their windows
- Local museum
- Local library
- etc
Flyers
- Prepare a flyer to distribute to anyone who wants to know more.
- Print some copies and have them available on the day.
Schedule
Draw up a schedule for the weekend and post it, in advance, on the wiki project page.
- Plan a Friday evening social event / pub meet for early arrivals.
- Start with a kick-off/planning meeting first thing on each day. Allow at least an hour for this. Encourage participants to get going as soon as they are ready (especially old-hands).
- Schedule mapping sessions for a maximum of 3 hours as many GPS units will need uploading after that time.
- Organize a convenient rendez-vous point and ensure that someone will be there with a laptop (and cables etc) to upload tracklogs. A pub with free wifi and food would be a good location choice.
- Schedule an end of day meeting time. Include a session on each day to teach newbies how to upload and tag their tracks. Encourage newbies to do their own tagging.
- Plan a social event for the Saturday evening. For example: a curry followed by the pub.
Micro Mapping Party
If you want to do some collective mapping but find this all too much then consider a Micro Mapping Party.
