Heard about the Atlanta Mapathon and want to set up your own? – here’s how

Some suggestion on how to organize a Mapping Party.

You may have recently heard about the Atlanta Mapathon that OpenStreetMap members in Georgia threw on October 16-18 on the BBC Online, AJC or Fox 5 News. This event brought people from all over the city together for a giant weekend mapping party. The Mapathon was a fun way to kickoff the Atlanta Mapping Initiative, a collaborative effort to make Atlanta one of the best represented cities on www.osm.org. Now, following the success of the Atlanta Mapathon, people in communities all over America are joining the international volunteer effort to create a free and open map of the world by organizing their own OpenStreetMap events.

To help newcomers, experienced OpenStreetMap members and community groups join forces to map their cities, we have put together a few pointers on planning a successful mapping party. We hope this information provides some useful tips, helps you avoid some common pitfalls and ensures that your city is also one of the best of OSM.

1. Get acquainted with OSM, pick a date and determine a target area

The first step to planning a mapping event is to sign-up for an OSM account and an account on the OSM wiki page. These two accounts will give you access to edit the map and provide you with a place to post your mapping event, connect with other mappers and see how OSM members in your area are already contributing. Connecting with experienced mappers can show you where work in your local area has focused and where additional work is needed. The information contained on the wiki can also provide you with background knowledge about the project and important terminology and procedural issues.

Next you should pick a date, location and target area for your mapping party. We suggest you work with city and or county officials to determine which, if any, permits are needed and check for competing events planned for the day of your Mapathon. Pick a location to host the Mapathon that is in a safe area with easy access to parking and public transportation. It is also a good idea to look for a place with free internet and meeting space. When you have selected a date, location and target area, post the event on the OSM wiki events page. You should also contact other OSM members in your area to notify them of the event.

2. Team up with local organizations

One of the biggest factors in the success of our Mapathon was the participation of local community and non-profit groups. By teaming up with established organizations you will be able to put more sneakers on the ground the day of your event. These partners can help plan and publicize the event, and bring new perspectives and contributors to the map.

Some great places to look for partners are your local university GIS clubs, municipal GIS departments, hiking and outdoors clubs, community development groups, open source user groups and GIS professional organizations. These groups can help with technical issues, promotion and volunteers.

3. Get sponsors where possible

The more people who attend, the more GPS units you will need. Getting a sponsor for your event such as a local outdoors store, mapping company or university to provide GPS units to mappers is always a good idea. When this is not possible, using walking-papers is always a good option. This allows mappers to record points of interest without a GPS receiver.

4. Secure several meet-up locations

If you get everyone to meet in one place, you’ll only get one piece of your city mapped. Encourage each of the organizations that you are partnering with to lead a base station and promote the locations heavily in any press coverage. Not only will you get better data from mappers if they’re mapping their own neighborhoods, you will get people who are passionate about keeping their section of the map up to date. For the Atlanta Mapathon, we provided kits to each location which included the following:

• Printed Walking Papers of the area around the Mapathon location.

• Garmin eTrex GPS units that could be borrowed by mappers

• Pens and paper for recording data

• Internet access and work-space

• ‘We’re on the Map’ OSM stickers for bars and restaurants to identify points of interest that have already been added to the map.

Securing press coverage

In order to build interest in your Mapathon and get as many people there as you can, getting the word out is vital. Here are a few tips for success:

1. Draft a press release.

For the Atlanta Mapathon, we issued a press release a month prior to the event and followed up with the main regional newspapers, then radio and TV. We chose to target one national online publication with the largest reach possible, for an exclusive story as soon as we had drafted the press release – this happened to be the BBC. This resulted in may other news outlets distributing the story.

We also drafted a release in conjunction with our NGO partners – we obtained quotes from their most senior executives – which helped strengthen the news story.

2. Get the regional press involved

After distributing our press release, we followed up immediately on the phone with the main regional paper for Atlanta and invited a journalist along to the training day to experience how to map ahead of the big Mapathon event. This gave the journalist time to take photos, interview people and write the story ahead of the Mapathon – the article came out the day before the mapping event helping drive traffic to the event.

3. Getting broadcast media to cover the story

Two weeks before the event we reissued the press release to local TV and radio stations and syndicated news organizations such as Associated Press. Tell the producer or reporter who you’ll have available for interview and what their involvement in the event is. Also, make sure you get their cell phone number and provide yours for backup. Ensure that you mention OpenStreetMap.org in any interviews or use some OpenStreetMap pop-up stand or banner as a back-drop.

4. Manage press on location

Ensure you have some experienced mappers and organizations prepped and ready to speak to press. Have 3 bullet points you want to get across and stick to them (these should revolve around: what, when, why and how)

5. Get in Touch

Good luck with your Mapathon. Should you need any advice please contact us at:

Thea Clay: thea@cloudmade.com

Paul Jarratt: paul@cloudmade.com

October 29th, 2009 - Posted by Thea Clay | 0 Comments

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