There’s an ongoing questionnaire I’ve started to see what did it effort to motivate mappers to participate, to join OSM and to help to improve the map. This little diary provides an anonymized overview of the answers:

Survey

• Opportunity to help providing an alternative source for geo-data that is corporative and free for all.
• Opportunity to access free topography data.
• Opportunity to see changes on the map immediately instead of days or months after. This way you get a good reward yourself (you feel like “Oh wow! That was just me! I helped to improve something sustainable and innovative!”).
• OSM is more detailed than the maps of other Map Providers.
• Saw that objects were missing on the map
• Free license
• Privacy
• Enjoying that people come together, work together and make something non-commercially.
• OSM allows “creative use of geodata”, allows more than just one user group to profit from.
• Geodata can be used offline.
• Enjoy that you can improve the map by yourself rather than relaying on others.
• Enjoy that you get to know the world around you better.
• Your contributions are yours and not Googles or some other company.
• I can actually help people to navigate and find places better.
• Spotted a mistake and enjoyed that I can improve it right away.
• I love the friendly community.
• The maps in my area from various map providers were catastrophic.

Result of the survey

The result is a promotional text we will use for Hamburg but which can also be used in other cities and countries with slight differences:

Variation 1 (Translated from german)

The open project OpenStreetMap aims to create free map data for walkers, car drivers, cyclists, hiker and many more. Our collected data are used by HVV (Hamburger Verkehrsverbund) and the Tagesschau but also by games such as Pokemon Go. Everybody can participate. You don’t need any technical background or to know how to work with maps.

Variation 2

The open project OpenStreetMap aims to create free map data and lets you improve map data by yourself without requiring any technical knowledge. You also don’t have to know how to work with maps. Our tools will make it easy for you to add to it. And you will see changes you make to our huge database immediately instead of having to wait for months. You don’t believe this is true? Try yourself out and download the app “StreetComplete” for Android on Google Play, F-Droid or directly by APK.

Variation 3

The open project OpenStreetMap aims to create free map data and lets you improve map data by yourself without requiring any technical background. The changes you make are really yours and not the ones from a company. You work hand in hand with a joyful community ready to help you out when you get stuck. OpenStreetMap is the data used by many NGO’s in crisis regions because they’re the most up to date ones and because they can improve it right away.

Variation 4

The open project OpenStreetMap aims to create free map data and should you spot a mistake you can fix it yourself without waiting for months for having your changes disabled because the changes you make are immediately visible to others and can be used by them. That is why OpenStreetMap is in most cases more accurate and more detailed than the maps from other map providers.

More variations to come. I will make use of every single input from you.