A free evening in Shrewsbury introducing people to OpenStreetMap. In particular how to edit the map, add information, make changes, that sort of thing. Presented by the likeaword consultancy, in collaboration with Andy Mabbett, Shrewsbury Coffee House Ltd. and ShropGeek. Why would you care? OpenStreetMap is a free to use mapping dataset with a very wide range of uses. It can be used commercially,...
[read more] A free evening in Shrewsbury introducing people to OpenStreetMap. In particular how to edit the map, add information, make changes, that sort of thing. Presented by the likeaword consultancy, in collaboration with Andy Mabbett, Shrewsbury Coffee House Ltd. and ShropGeek. Why would you care? OpenStreetMap is a free to use mapping dataset with a very wide range of uses. It can be used commercially, in community projects and just for fun. It's remarkably easy to use and you won't know how useful it could be to you unless you come and give it a go. Open Street What? It's often described as wikipedia for maps and it is a similar idea. Anyone with internet access can edit the map and the resulting maps can be used for any purpose. You can add huge amounts of data onto the map and create your own maps showing the bits of data that interest you most (such as cycle routes). How's the evening going to work? Andy Mabbett, who knows a lot about Open Street Map and is very good at explaining things, will give a bit of an introduction to the project. Then he'll show everyone how to make some edits. Then you'll make some edits. You will need to bring a laptop with a wifi connection and enough money to buy a drink from the fabulous Shrewsbury Coffee House Ltd. There's a bit of homework we're going to ask you to do first (see below). We'll remind ticket holders about this nearer the date. We plan to use the basement of the Shrewsbury Coffee House. This is accessed by a flight of stairs. Please let us know if you might find that a barrier and we will try to sort something out. Here are some other questions you might have Do I need to be specially trained to edit Open Street Map? Certainly not. There's plenty of useful information on the OSM wiki. You can get started at any time. You do not need to come to this event in order to start using and editing OpenStreetMap. BUT Some people like to be shown things and it is for those people that we have organised this event. I'm already a keen OpenStreetMap volunteer. Should I sign up? Certainly, we'd love you to come. Please get a ticket. It would be great if you would drop us a quick note to say that you're not a novice. Just so we understand what skill levels to expect. I don't know if OpenStreetMap is really my thing. Should I sign up? Certainly. We have no interest in trying to persuade anyone to get mapping. We just want to give people the chance to understand how the system works. Are you going to be running a series of these? We have no plans to. Everyone involved in this is donating either their time or their facilities. Something may happen down the line. Or it may not. What's this homework you talked about? We'd like you to: sign up for an OpenStreetMap account (it's free) install an OpenStreetMap editor onto your laptop before you turn up. That will save time on the evening. There are several editors around but we're going to be using the "Java Open Street Map" editor (JOSM). This runs on pretty much anything. Instructions on installing it are online. Drop us a line if you get stuck. We're also going to ask you to go out in the week before the event, take pictures of shops and pubs in your local area and bring them with you on the day. We'll remind you about that nearer the date. I have another question. Drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. About the people involved. Andy Mabbett is a freelance geek for hire who crafts and curates on-line communication, content and communities. He's based in Great Barr in Birmingham but travels far and wide in pursit of work and interesting bird life*. In particular he works on: web strategy and project support; from the modest to the massive social media and community-building: not so much “how to use Twitter” (or whatever) as “how to use Twitter well; to meet organisational objectives” help with Wikipedia and open-licensed or community-generated content, and QR Code deployment, especially in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums sector Ben Proctor from the likeaword consultancy is a specialist in community resilience and digital skills for emergencies. He organised Shropcamp in April and runs the Shrewsbury Jelly. He's based in Shrewsbury but travels far and wide, sometimes on a bicycle. The Shrewsbury Coffee House is a great new coffee shop in Shrewsbury town centre. It's quickly become the centre of a whole social whirl. The coffee is great and it is run by some frighteningly charming, intelligent and good looking people. (We're quite grateful for their help with a venue. Can you tell?). Shropgeek is a collection of like minded people based in and around Shropshire; who like to meet regularly to catchup on the latest goings on and socialise with fellow geeks. Meetups are held regularly on the first friday of each month (although this does change from time to time) at The Admiral Benbow in Shrewsbury. They organise other things too. *he's a trustee of the West Midlands Bird Club not a hunter
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