OpenStreetMap
My name is Jonathan Witcoski. I am running for 2015 OSM US Board.
I joined OpenStreetMap November 7,2014 as part of a HOT MissingMaps party hosted by the Red Cross at their headquarters in D.C. I have participated in many Missing Maps mapping parties since then. Along with participating with HOT I began mapping my hometown in Northeastern Pa. For the last year I have also dug deeper into the OpenStreetMap and and companies that use it (i.e mapbox, cartodb) API and tutorials. I have also attended the State of the Map 2015 in New York City and presented at HOT Summit 2015 in Washington D.C. I also learned about OpenStreetMap US, joined a few days ago! I would like to play a greater role in OpenStreetMap by being apart of the OSM US Board.
I can bring many of my professional experiences to the table for the OpenStreetMap community. From 2009-2014 I worked on a project known as Homeland Infrastructure Foundation – Level Data HIFLD. The project mimics OpenStreetMap at a inter-federal governmental level in that it focused on capturing federal, state, and local government geospatial information and then distributing it as base data for the federal, state, and local governments to use. This experience has taught me a lot of about data license agreements and the hassle it is to get agencies to change their policies on sharing.
As a board member I would help however possible including:
1.) Encouraging participation from colleges and universities. Training future professional geographers that there is more than just official data sources. Scholarships to conferences, encouraging professors to incorporate it into his curriculum, more meetups.
2.) Living near D.C. I am very close to many federal agencies and could help facilitate discussions with them about openstreetmap and participating.
Discussion
Comment from Super-Map on 10 October 2015 at 09:17
That “good”! When somebody look at a map throughout OpenStreeMap, he can thought that “funny”, not really serious and it’s a waste of time… however, when you improve your knowledge about this project you can’t close your eyes and obviously we recognize the work of the funders of this project. All man et women who are contributed to make it a “reality”, the work of engineers, computer scientists who continue to work to the improvement of software like: “ID (for html pages), JOSM for most popular and powerful tools for to work correctly!
I have discovered Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team “recently”, I bring in to it my own contribution. I have learned all “himself”, alone… I recognize the “WORK” I RESPECT this project! The life are magic and wonderful, however, it isn’t easy each days, for all of us and we do all to much “mistakes”. We are unable to take some crucial “decision” in the right time for several “reasons”. But in the interest of the humanity and the future of our children we have interest to “work” all together… The Climate change it’s all except a jock, the CO2 growth, a planet most warm will have a lot of consequences in our days life… it’s time to change our behaviors! It’s time to CHANGE!
I’m a contributor of OpenStreeMap, I work on Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and I know perfectly WHY!…
I love the life, I’m afraid about the human stupidity, if we stay blind about climate change, if we are unable to fix the adequate “rules” for the fight against the: “greenhouse affect”! I request everyone to do the maximum for to make the next meeting in PARIS in December: “THE ANSWER WHO NEED THE WORLD AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE”. For the children, for all of us. I “invite” everybody who have enough “skill” to collaborate white Humanitarian OpenSteetmap Team.
Have a nice week-end.