It's okay for us as we are in the deep end and are well informed. For those outside or on the fringes of OSM, the naming of conferences may be a little confusing. Just saying.
I partly think it comes down to what we want SotM events to be. Are they simply community get togethers for general chat and organising the local team's mapping events, or are they more influential [1]. That is, do global decisions get made at the main SotM conference (directly or indirectly)? If yes, then there should be some emphasis that the annual SotM is a global event, otherwise people may get it confused with local events and only attend if it is in their country. This will lead to a lower participation, loss of talent and potentially big decisions being made based on the opinions of the few local attendees. [1] Note, I don't really know as I've never been - you tell me :-) Rob p.s. Does the SotM US organising team intend to bid for main SotM next year - if not then surely you agreeing that SotM is less relevant? On 27 March 2013 21:44, Martijn van Exel <m...@rtijn.org> wrote: > Hi, > > > On 03/23/2013 11:21 AM, Rob Nickerson wrote: > >> Hi All, >> >> I saw the request for a banner [1] and replied via email as I am not >> on the design mailing list. For transparency here is my reply: >> >> === start === >> There is a wider issue (and don't mean to be a spoil sport) that >> local events using the SotM "brand" could lead to a weakening of the >> main SotM. I cannot think of any big conferences that allow their >> brand to be used almost identically for local events. The exception >> that comes to my mind is TEDx events [2] but they have a clear >> communication that they are independent. >> > > We have been doing this for a number of years now, with SOTM EU, US, > Scotland - and I think it has been working really well, actually. > > FOSS4G is another conference closer to our field that has local events > that share the same name, with success. > > >> Now for OSM (given the crowd-source structure) you could say that the >> main SotM is independent too, with other people suggesting main SotM >> is becoming less relevant. Either way, I think some clearer >> communication would be useful. >> > > Who is suggesting that the main SOTM is becoming less relevant? What are > their arguments? > > What do you suggest we make clearer? SOTM US (an event I am helping to > organize) profiles itself clearly as a conference targeted primarily at the > U.S. This does not mean that we do not welcome participation from abroad - > quite the contrary - but we don't aim to be the global community conference > that SOTM is, and in my view, will continue to be. > > [..] > > > >> Now before this turns into an argument about my use of the word >> "brand", I would like to add that I am all for local OSM groups. Also >> I think Richard's idea is a great one. Particularly the idea to "use >> GeoIP etc. to find what country the user is from. Serve the message >> for that country." Adding to that, can I suggest that if no local >> banner is found then my suggestion of a generic "attend an event" >> banner be explored. >> > > I like that idea too, but that's something to follow up on on design@ > > -- > Martijn van Exel >
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