GB/UK group naming question

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Formation of a GB/UK Group has now proceeded under the name OSMUK (with website https://osmuk.org and twitter account https://twitter.com/OSMUK)

It was agreed that, while the following naming question wasn't entirely settled, we could go with "UK" project code name, while other organisation-forming activities take place. However OSMUK is rapidly bedding in as a name. Unlikely to change now, so this page is largely...

Historical interest only

The naming of a Great Britain / UK group ("Group" becoming local "Chapter" organisation), and its geographic coverage, has presented a tricky quandary for some time. Arguably it's rather distracting, hence the decision to proceed with the "OSMUK" name, but some aspects of these questions may still need resolving.

GB? England? UK?

The administrative region covered by the chapter could be Great Britain or UK, or England or the idea of splitting up the England area in some way was discussed.

We see some level of organisation (wiki pages and twitter accounts) springing up around Twitter user@OSMScotland, and Twitter user@osm_ie (ireland), these could form into chapters of their own, if that was best way to organise things. We also have OSM London and Mappa Mercia. There was talk of a "north england" area, and "Bristol". City sized organisation is good, but for a Chapter organisation we probably want a larger "country level" area drawing on a larger volunteer pool.

Harry Wood has the twitter account Twitter user@osmuk. Not very active currently, but he's quite willing to try do something more interesting with this should we decide to name an organisation OSMUK.

OSMGB name clash

Another organisation bagged the name OSMGB related to OpenStreetMap in britain, but not attempting to be a community chapter. OSMGB as a project has wound down completely now. The domain name osmgb.org.uk was originally owned by them, but is now lost (owned by domain squatters). The twitter account Twitter user@osmgb is held by OSMGB.

We (the OSM community) have a popular IRC room #osm-gb (not related to OSMGB), a talk-gb mailing list, and a GB G+ community

GB vs UK summary

  GB UK
domain osmgb.org.uk domain was owned by OSMGB and they were willing to transfer ownership, but have since let it lapse (gone)
twitter Twitter user@OSMGB would need to be transferred from OSMGB folk (They are willing) Yes check.svg Twitter user@OSMUK - Already owned by Harry (and already set-up with grouptweet)
mailing list Yes check.svg Called 'talk-gb' ...and presumably can't easily be renamed
forum Yes check.svg called united kingdom
irc Yes check.svg called #osm-gb
wiki UK wiki page could be renamed Yes check.svg WikiProject United Kingdom is the current page name
G+ Yes check.svg GB G+ community
The Irish Doesn't include Ireland Technically "UK" includes Northern Ireland. Could be stated to be not included
The Scottish Includes Scotland (which already has an organisation) Includes Scotland (which already has an organisation)
ISO correctness GB is the UK's ISO 3166 country code .UK is the top level domain name (despite the iso standard. Because we're awkward like that)
Wikimedia chapter Yes check.svg They called it wikimedia UK. And since they tend to debate things pretty thoroughly, this is saying something