Birmingham Mapping Party 2008

When

Sat 12th / Sun 13th April 2008 from 9:00am onwards. Group gatherings/instruction at 10:00, 14:00

About

Birmingham and the greater West Midlands conurbation, which includes Wolverhampton, the Black Country and Coventry, is not served with Yahoo! imagery and therefore we need your help to get it all mapped by the end of 2008. Sutton Coldfield is done as is most of the South East area of the city and Coventry. This mapping party will focus on the centre/south of Birmingham. Future mapping parties will focus on Wolverhampton and the Black Country.

If you are new to OpenStreetMap you might like to check out the Beginners Guide.

Where

Meeting Room, Kitchen Garden Café, 17 York Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7SA. (lat/lon 52.43408,-1.8939)

Parking is difficult around York Road after the shops open. You may find better space on the east side of the High Street where the roads are wider.

Map. Free wifi available to us

The Kitchen Garden Café is a tranquil oasis in the heart of Kings Heath’s busy shopping centre, combining a garden shop, café, deli and meeting room surrounding an old blue brick courtyard.

Who's coming

• User:Blackadder
• Higgy - will do areas 1,4,5,14,16 eventually (possibly the Sunday, transport dependent), no particular preference for during the mapping party
• steve8 can only make the Saturday
• Greg Robson - would be silly not too, I live just down the road from Bournville Station!
• Nickb
• tomb- nick's brother. Coming over 2 film the mapping party as part of my media course. read info below
• Richard - hopefully coming on Saturday (going on a cycling holiday on Sunday, hooray)
• brianboru
• Ciarán - First time helping out, I have no equipment besides a bike, a pen, and paper.
• Mattwestcott - can hopefully make Saturday
• Simon Ward—Saturday (not Sunday, bah, unless I can get a cheap bed). (Simon, chances are that someone can help you out on this, so if the backpackers hostel isn't your thing then someone may be able to offer some floor space. blackadder 13:13, 10 April 2008 (BST))
• Alex Willmer

DAY 1 happenings

Awesome day 1. A good dozen+ mappers meant we got loads done and the venue is first class. Pictures and trace animations will be posted soon. Most of the above users attended. Ciarán wins the star award for excellent first timer tracks on the bike havening been given some excellent tuition by Brian Prangle (brianboru) in the morning. Sadam, a young volunteer, was the first person we know of to be stopped by the police and given a "street encounter" notice! Thanks to those who traveled long distance to be here. Six of us sampled the local Balti dishes before all departing. Hope tomorrow is as much fun :-) blackadder 00:06, 13 April 2008 (BST)

Most of the day one traces below:

Getting There

By Train

• Chiltern Trains do mega cheap deals from London Marylebone To Birmingham Moor Street / Snow Hill stations
• New Street Station is on the West Coast Main Line. Virgin Trains from London Euston, Manchester, Liverpool and cross country routes.

By Coach

National Express and megabus both offer services to Birmingham.

By Air

• Birmingham International Airport - Birmingham International Train station is adjacent to the airport with regular train services to Birmingham New Street.
• Coventry Airport

Local Services

• Network West Midlands (Bus/Train/Metro)
• Bus routes 35, 50, 177, 178 and 179 from/to the city centre

Lifts (scab a free ride)

• user:nickb (nick@blacksworld.net 07835054292)- Leaving Liverpool in a car with two free places at 17:00 on Fri and returning to Liverpool for 19:00 on Sunday
• user:moreati <alex@moreati.org.uk> 07790 816339 - Lift to or from New Street Station/Snowhill at start and end of day, in case you're unsure of local buses.

Where to Stay

Hostels

• Birmingham Central Backpackers (Now full we understand)

Organisation

Join this list to help organise this and other parties.

Sponsorship

It costs around £500 to run a mapping party, cost of the venue, refreshments and including organising of the Sat evening socialising. If you would like to donate something towards the costs of running this event please drop Blackadder an email or give him a call on 0777 553 7872. Mapping parties need your support.

outreach

• Press release sent out to local newspapers, TV and radio
• Blackadder did a radio interview for BBC WM
• Blackadder did a short roving piece around Kings Heath with another reported from BBC WM on Thursday 10th which went out on air at 10:30am Friday 11th. Listen Again Here and wind forwards 25mins (starts about 27mins in)

call Andy (blackadder) on 0777 553 7872 for more information

• Event added to upcoming.org

FILM

• Tom Black is coming over to film the mapping party as part of his media course. He is intending to make a short documentary on Open Street Map. He will be looking for people to interview and film while mapping. So if you fancy being in the first OPEN STREET MAP documentary then let him know !
• go on [1] to check the blog I've made. It's good to do as part of my course and I can see what I've done when looking back.

• I'll be looking for mappers who I can interview about OSM and there involvment. Also I'll be wanting to go along with a few of you as you map. So if you want to be filmed let me know !

The cake

These two images show the areas of south and southwest Birmingham that are yet to be mapped. Each numbered area is or no particular size but generally each has logical boundaries of major highways, canal or railway. Areas with a red boundary are non-urban. The first image is the area around the venue plus that to the north. The second image is the area around the venue plus areas to the south. There is some overlap between the two images so that those attending can refer to the two at the same time. Blackadder has printed B&W zoom 15 blow-ups of each area that can be used during the weekend.

If you have a specific preference of area you would like to map in then add your name and the area number to the "Who's Coming" section above.