Hi! This is a document with everything you need to know about getting started with your Maptime chapter. Please read through it carefully and respond with any information we've asked for. Thanks! We're so happy to have you!
MaptimeHQ includes Beth Schechter, Lyzi Diamond, Alan McConchie and Camille Teicheira. All of us are available to help get your chapter onboarded, so don't hesitate to reach out! You can also reach all four of us at hello@maptime.io.
Be sure to also read our draft bylaws and our code of conduct.
In a blog post from last year, Lyzi outlined some of the important reasons why Maptime exists and who it exists to serve. She writes:
Maptime is a collection of beginner-focused community groups for learning geospatial technology, techniques, and concepts, particularly using open source tools and hands-on practice and exercises. But Maptime is also an important idea: it shouldn’t be so hard to learn, and we have the power to make it easier – and teach ourselves in the process.
As your local Maptime evangelist, you will be asked often both what Maptime is and why you decided to start one. This blog post should give you sufficient material to tackle those questions and any others folks throw at you.
You can also read over these slides from Lyzi's lightning talk about Maptime at NACIS 2014. These provide a very basic overview of what Maptime is, where we're at now, and how you might work to start one. This may give you some additional guidance.
If you're reading this document, odds are you've already talked to us about getting on all of our various lists and platforms. These include:
- Twitter. You should have a Twitter account for your Maptime chapter, typically in the format of MaptimeCity. Be sure to follow MaptimeHQ! You should only use abbreviations if they're commonly used. If you're having trouble coming up with one, let us know. Some examples include:
- MaptimeLA for Los Angeles
- MaptimeSF for San Francisco
- MaptimeAlpes for Grenoble
- MaptimeMI for Milan
- MaptimeBER for Berlin
- MaptimeBend for Bend, Oregon
- MaptimeBoston for Boston
- Slack. We use Slack as our primary communication tool, so you should get set up with an account. Let us know if there are any co-organizers we should add to Slack as well. Once you're on Slack, you can make a channel for your chapter!
- GitHub. All of our web presence management happens through GitHub. We will add an organizer from your chapter to our GitHub organization, which will help in maintaining your website, etc. Let us know who we should add from your chapter.
- Meetup. Almost every Maptime chapter has a Meetup group for managing events. If you do choose to set one up, please add Maptime as a tag for your group so we can continue aggregating all Maptime chapter events. NOTE: Meetup does have a nominal fee for usage, so keep this in mind.
- Mailing lists. We have two mailing lists that are used infrequently, but you should sign up for them anyway: maptime-organizers and maptime-announce.
There are two places you need to make yourself known on our website:
- Set up a website for your chapter using these instructions. This will give you a maptime.io/yourcity page that you will be able to update with new events, etc.
- Add your chapter to our
chapters.jsonfile using these instructions (which are soon to be improved).
Don't hesitate to let us know if you need help with anything!
One key to having a successful Maptime is to find the community of people who might be interested in attending and presenting. Some places you may want to look:
- Existing geo groups (URISA, OSGEO, OSM, etc.)
- University geography and computer science programs
- Local government agencies (GIS folks, technology folks)
- Local tech groups
- Local email lists for GIS/geo/technology/developers
- Elsewhere? Let us know!
The idea is to have a mix of geo folks and developers so they can learn from each other. No matter the skill level of your participants, Maptime is always explicitly beginner-focused, so make sure that if people are attending, they're down with that. It's also best to keep a Maptime meetup to 30 people or fewer so as to not make the event unwieldy.
Also, it's a good idea to have at least one co-organizer for your chapter. That way you don't have to manage all the logistics yourself. Plus, planning is more fun with other people!
There are a few things a good event needs:
- A space to meet! Try out:
- Local companies that may be able to give you space
- Coworking spaces
- Libraries
- Snacks for the attendees. Don't overthink it; simple does just fine!
- Internet. This is important!
- Good communication. Be sure to keep your attendees up to date about your next meeting and its location. We can create a yourcity@maptime.io email address for you if that would make keeping in touch easier; let us know. Other ways Maptime chapters stay in touch with each other are through Twitter and their own Google Groups email lists.
- Make an event on your Meetup page and be sure to tag it as a Maptime event.
- Limit the attendees to no more than 30 or so. Anything more than that becomes difficult to manage.
- Decide what format you want to use for your event:
- Informal hack night. If you choose this style of event, be sure to include some activity for beginners who will not show up with something to work on.
- Tutorial night. This is an event where you have a presentation of some kind that includes a hands-on element for attendees. It should be explicitly beginner-friendly.
- Hybrid event. A short tutorial followed by hands-on/hack time. This is nice if you have a group with a mixed experience level.
- Split event. Tutorials in one room, OSM editing in another. Two different tutorials happening simultaneously. Any way you wanna do it, this is also a great option for a mixed group.
Regardless of meeting type, the final thing a Maptime event needs is a topic. You can find many resources on the Maptime Lessons and Resources page, or you can choose to create your own tutorial. Common topics and resources for initial meetups include:
- Anatomy of a Web Map
- OSM 101
- Introduction to Web Maps (from MaptimeSEA)
- Introduction to QGIS (from MaptimeBoston
- Introduction to Geographic Data Formats
If you make a new tutorial or resource, be sure to let us know or add it to the Lessons and Resources page!
After the event, be sure to fill out this post-event survey. This is required for all Maptime chapters, so be sure to do it! It's also how you can let us know if you need more stickers or other kinds of support.
Aggregated from above, this is the list of things you need to do:
- Reach out to us if you need help with anything at hello@maptime.io.
- Read the Why Maptime blog post, the Intro to Maptime slides, our draft bylaws, and our code of conduct
- Set up a Twitter account for your chapter
- Send us an email to hello@maptime.io with:
- Email addresses of all organizers to be added to Slack, our email lists, etc.
- GitHub usernames of all organizers to be added to our GitHub organization
- Your chapter's Twitter account, Meetup group URL, and any other place you can find your chapter online
- A mailing address for us to send Maptime stickers
- Whether or not you want a yourcity@maptime.io email address
- Set up a website for your chapter on the Maptime site
- Add your chapter to the
chapters.jsonfile in GitHub - Reach out to the local community to get people excited about your Maptime chapter
- Find a place to meet, a sponsor for your event (if possible), a date for your first meetup, a plan for snacks, etc.
- Plan the events to take place at your first meetup
- Have an awesome event! :)
- Fill out the post-event survey
If you want to get even more involved, there's lots of ways you can help!
- Write tutorials and resources: join the #tutorial-dev channel on Slack
- Help out with the website: join the #website-admin channel on Slack
- Give talks at local and regional conferences about Maptime; email hello@maptime.io for assistance with this
- Write to #general in Slack if you see any cool opportunities that Maptime should be aware of!
- Join Maptime on IRC (#maptime on freenode), write on the Maptime subreddit, and join the Maptime LinkedIn group
You are the best. Thanks for starting a Maptime chapter! We like you a lot.
great!