Looking at the contact page of small and large companies in Belgium, I see that many use Gmap or Bing.
How can we convince schools to teach students how to also implement OpenStreetMap in websites?
So that later, when these students build websites, they know that OpenStreetMap exists and can be used alongside Gmap and Bing.
Besides companies, you also have e.g. tourist info via website with map for walking or cycling tours.
The more people come into contact with OpenStreetMap data, the more widely known the project will become. So it is to our advantage if more website use e.g. maps from OpenStreetMap.
Recently I saw a tourist website where they use Gmap, on the Gmap map you could not see the cycle bridge that was described. On OpenStreetMap you could, and I managed to convince them to use OpenStreetMap for certain maps on their website. Furthermore, I spoke to a hiking blogger who uses Gmap and did not know OpenStreetMap
Hence, I started wondering how we can bring OpenStreetMap to the general public
How do you guys think how we can make OpenStreetMap more known to people?
That’s unfortunately not an easy task.
I can only speak from a German perspective here.
One way it is done in Germany is that people from OSM usually participate in one of the ’ Long nights of science’. It’s a pretty good format because you are usually interacting in a university but also general public setting.
Schools can be more tricky. Here teachers can/have to participate in upskilling seminars. One could offer one for OpenStreetMap but people would also have to choose it. Or one could offer it as an after-school activity for students.
Unfortunately it’s only one half of the problem.
The other part is that IT systems in those big systems often are very inflexible. Even if you get the interest of teachers, you’d need to convince IT department to offer the necessary tools. In the case of OSM the browser might be sufficient but even then some schools heavily restrict which websites can be accessed.
I think on of the best things to do is beeing present at events that fit your target group (web developers).
When it comes to the educational system unfortunately it often comes down to the preferences of individual educators. Some might be more inclined/in favor of open source/open data and others and therfore shape what things students get exposed to.