The Oxford portion of OSM might well be getting some mapping help from the fine members of the local cycling campaign group Cyclox. Back in late September I was contacted out of the blue by the University's Sustainable Transport Officer who is working with Cyclox to help improve (upon) the county council's old, rather unhelpful cycle map of the city. To quote: "I think something based upon OSM and the OpenCycleMap is the way to go".

This is awesome news because Cyclox are a decidedly enthusiastic and committed group, because the association will raise the profiles of both groups, and because there's the possibility of some involvement from the university (who want useful maps of good bike routes taking in colleges, departments, and noting parking in those places). There might be some nice printed maps based on OSM data coming out of this.

It's early days yet, but feedback from an informal meetup over lunch and a committee meeting I've attended seems positive. Next step is a little presentation at their AGM, and then I think a series of little workshops and mapping mini-parties to get people up-to-speed with our processes and out improving the map. I dare say there'll be further meetings working on the details of what Cyclox need and what the University needs. Now I just need to learn Mapnik and figure out a custom rendering to show off how easy it is to subset and snapshot the OSM data nicely to meet those needs.