OSMCal is a comprehensive, crowdsourced calendar of OpenStreetMap-related events worldwide. It aggregates conferences, workshops, mapathons, social gatherings, and other activities relevant to the OSM community, allowing users to browse events by location, date, and keywords. The calendar aims to facilitate connection and collaboration within the OSM ecosystem by providing a central resource for discovering and promoting these events. Users can submit their own events for inclusion, ensuring the calendar stays up-to-date and reflects the vibrant activity of the OpenStreetMap community.
The OpenStreetMap Calendar, hosted at osmcal.org, serves as a centralized, publicly accessible platform for discovering and promoting events related to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of gatherings, workshops, conferences, mapathons, and other activities relevant to the OSM community worldwide. The calendar facilitates connection and collaboration within the OSM ecosystem by enabling users to easily find events happening near them or online. Furthermore, it helps individuals and organizations spread awareness of their OSM-related initiatives by providing a simple and effective method for event announcement and promotion.
The website features a clean, user-friendly interface that displays events in a variety of formats, including a list view, a monthly calendar view, and a geographical map view. This allows users to browse events based on their preferred method of navigation and quickly identify relevant events based on location, date, or topic. Event details typically include information such as the event name, date, time, location (physical or virtual), a brief description, and links to external websites or registration pages for further information.
Organizers can add their events to the OSM Calendar through a submission process. This process likely involves providing the necessary details about the event, ensuring accuracy and completeness of the information. The centralized nature of the calendar allows for better coordination and avoids duplication of effort in promoting OSM events, contributing to a more informed and connected OSM community. The calendar likely uses established data standards and formats for interoperability with other mapping and calendar applications. This may include support for iCalendar subscriptions, allowing users to integrate the OSM Calendar with their personal calendaring tools.
Summary of Comments ( 2 )
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42993044
Hacker News users discussed the usefulness of the OpenStreetMap Calendar (OSMCal) for discovering local mapping events. Several commenters expressed appreciation for the resource, finding it valuable for connecting with the OSM community and learning about contributing. Some highlighted the importance of in-person events for fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing within the OSM ecosystem. Others wished for improved filtering or search capabilities to refine event discovery, particularly by region or specific interests. The calendar's role in promoting OSM and coordinating community efforts was generally seen as positive. A few users also mentioned alternative or supplementary resources, such as weeklyOSM and the OSM forum, for staying informed about OpenStreetMap activities.
The Hacker News post titled "OpenStreetMap Calendar" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42993044) has a modest number of comments, generating a brief discussion around the linked OpenStreetMap Calendar website. While not a highly active thread, several commenters express their appreciation for the resource.
One commenter highlights the value of the calendar for discovering local OpenStreetMap events, mentioning they hadn't been aware of such gatherings in their area. This points to the calendar's success in surfacing relevant information that might otherwise be difficult to find.
Another commenter focuses on the technical aspect, inquiring about the backend implementation of the calendar. They specifically ask if the calendar utilizes the Indico platform, showcasing a curiosity about the underlying technology driving the project. This technical query isn't answered within the visible comments.
A further comment expresses a desire for an iCalendar subscription feed for the displayed events. This suggests a practical need for integrating the OpenStreetMap Calendar data with personal scheduling tools, highlighting a potential area for improvement or expansion of the calendar's functionality. This commenter also notes the absence of an "export to iCal" option, which reinforces their point about the desired integration.
Finally, one commenter draws attention to a separate project, "OSMCha", and suggests it could be a valuable addition to the calendar. This implies that the commenter sees synergy between the two tools and believes including OSMCha-related events would enrich the calendar's offerings for the OpenStreetMap community. This suggestion also implicitly compliments the usefulness of the OpenStreetMap Calendar by proposing further additions.
While the discussion is not extensive, the comments present demonstrate a positive reception of the OpenStreetMap Calendar, highlighting its utility in discovering local events and expressing desires for enhanced functionality like iCalendar integration and the inclusion of related projects. The comments also briefly touch upon the technical implementation, illustrating a curiosity about the platform powering the calendar.