Hi,
Re: this and subsequent posts about storytelling and OSM.
As a member of the CWG, I can tell you that a) there is a lot of opportunity for getting media coverage for free because the story of OSM is compelling, multifaceted, and positive and b) OSM needs writers to pitch it and write these stories.
Part b takes time. Writing and placing a story cannot be tasked. It takes hours of thought equity, and it only sometimes results in any form of payment.
(and for all of you who are about to type ‘what are ten great stories of OSM into ChatGPT’, just don’t. That’s not the quality of story this project deserves, and it won’t get placement anywhere that matters.)
Writers and storytellers who know how to place stories via social and digital media, pitches, interviews and commentary are rare in OSM. We are working hard to build up the volunteer resources of the CWG, including getting ownership of and making content plans for OSM social media. It’s just like any other discipline. It takes skill and time.
Another CWG member and I were musing yesterday that OSM is a treasure of stories that are rarely told on any of its public communications outlets. Usually it’s the other way around: organizations have to stretch their one or two fairly bland stories for many outlets.
One thing I notice, often, is that the people who are very fluent in the data or the software are too close to the project to see the stories. I also think that the impact of the data on many, many aspects of modern business and technology is not well told. Very broadly speaking, OSM’ers tend to be exact and data-centric, privileging exposition and facts over narrative and metaphorical imagery. It’s hard for people who don’t have GIS or similar backgrounds to understand the project without narrative and imagery.
In the early days of the project there was a strong commitment to evangelizing it to people who didn’t already understand mapmaking. Now, the conversation is almost entirely amongst insiders
I think OSM should have a chief storyteller who is given free reign to narrate the story of project and its people in ways that storytellers knows are effective. The community should fund a stipend for it because such writing takes time and few writers are independently wealthy. The community should protect this person from the everyday criticisms of the forums and lists, as well, so that they can delight and inform and entertain in the ways that storytellers do.
It would pay off in fundraising and visibility that could raise interest for the next generation of contributors. More importantly, it would be a wonderful complement to the enormous good that the OSM project already does for the world.