Ideas for the Schools mapping project
We made some amazing progress in January and a number of great tools have been developed. How else can we support the quarterly project to map schools?
Robert Whittaker
Fri 12 Feb 2016 12:23AM
But if it's to be picked up, I think we'll need some sort of angle to make it newsworthy. This might be achievement based, or perhaps something that explains the benefits to society, or both.
Jez Nicholson
Fri 12 Feb 2016 7:11AM
I think it's a great idea which fits strongly with the proposed aims of OSM-GB. But I/we lack the practical knowledge to do it properly. There are people like https://pressdispensary.co.uk who can help. But money.
Harry Wood
Fri 12 Feb 2016 3:46PM
Why not? But the project description/docs are not really currently in good enough shape for a big bang promotion. It needs a clear description and call to action. Current wiki page is a jumble tags and links, and lots of assumed OSM knowledge.
RobJN Thu 11 Feb 2016 10:13PM
So how should we take the press release idea forward. Anyone want to have a go at putting a rough draft together?
Gregory Marler (former Director) Fri 12 Feb 2016 11:57AM
In the spirit of do-ocracy I bashed out a start, but I have looked at the many resources on Google that can help. https://hackpad.com/OSM-UK-Schools-Project-bcgTXlEJ0K3
Personally I think the benefit to society is a good angle to go for.
Is the Guardian's open data stuff still strong? Thhey might be interested.
Once we've written the press release I could pass it to a good friend (front-page journalist for a number of North East papers) & get feedback on it. He recently wrote this on FB...
I was just searching for a photo in our archives and came across [2007 photo of me].
It was one of those conversations I that usually I dread...
"What do you do?"
"I'm a reporter."
"Why don't you write a story about me?"
But in this case, it turned out better than usual...
RobJN Fri 12 Feb 2016 6:01PM
That's easy to fix with a bit of work! Do you have any contacts from your time on sky news etc?
Gregory Marler (former Director) Thu 25 Feb 2016 3:40PM
On 9th March I'm meeting up with my journalist friend about some stuff we do, but we've also tacked on to talk about an OSM Press Release.
I'm not really sure what to talk about. Does anyone have any questions? Does anyone want to try and work on it further so I have something closer to finished that he can then comment on?
Jez Nicholson Sat 27 Feb 2016 7:51AM
I'd like to know where they get their stories from, and what sort of thing are they really after. Would a straight story about the latest school mapping be interesting in itself or does it need to be wrapped in something linked to the latest current affairs (e.g. mapping hospitals linking to junior doctors strikes) or something whimsical and shareable (e.g. the map of rude UK placenames). Do they want stats? Do they want us to create images (maps, charts, graphs) that they can republish, or just provide figures, or both?
Gregory Marler (former Director) · Wed 10 Feb 2016 9:43AM
"no idea who would be on the distribution list"
Local press might be interested, as schools are an important local issue.