On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 11:09 AM, Eleanor Tutt <eleanor.t...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, Serge. > > As a member of the chapter board, I feel a bit erased? misrepresented? by > your email. It hurt, especially because I think you and I share some common > ground about why we map and that it is important to feel a connection to a > place.
You're right that I painted everyone with the same brush, and that wasn't my intent; I'm sorry. It's hard to be critical of an organization and not the individuals, but you're right, I probably could have done a better job. > At any rate, while you are more qualified to speak to the history of OSM as > a whole than I am, I do want to say a few things that will maybe help you > get the know my personal history with OSM: There are people on this list who were involved in OSM longer than me. I don't believe I have special qualifications beyond being there. > When I was new to OSM and first learned about editathons, I didn't know > anyone involved with OSM or have any preconceived ideas about the project. > All I knew was that editathons sounded amazing, so I made the effort to > connect with other local mappers and start building more of a community in > my region. My first editathon - led by another community member - involved > walking around outdoors on a college campus. My second editathon - led by > myself - involved walking around outdoors in a neighborhood commercial > district. In my experience, editathons have always been a way for community > members to get together and map in whatever manner made the most sense - > sometimes outdoors, sometimes indoors. There can be value in both. > I remember Paul's post, I was elected to the chapter board, and - it's true! > - I don't have very many OSM edits compared to many members of the > community. That doesn't mean I don't go out and map my community - I > described in a different email how I do so. But I contribute in other ways > as well. Last month, I led a group of students in a survey of a nearby > neighborhood. I spent hours walking through the neighborhood with them, > helping mark points, and then helping them enter their data when they > returned. I did not personally make a single edit with my OSM user name. > However, I contributed to those edits invisibly, behind the scenes, and I > believe several of those students will become regular contributors. Maybe time erases this stuff, and that's a good thing. Again, my apologies. Especially as someone who doesn't have a car, I know the challenge that mapping can be for folks like us, and major kudos to you for your mapping and community work. - Serge _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
