GB/UK group naming question
Formation of a GB/UK Group has now proceeded under the name OSMUK (with website https://osmuk.org and twitter account https://twitter.com/OSMUK)
It was agreed that, while the following naming question wasn't entirely settled, we could go with "UK" project code name, while other organisation-forming activities take place. However OSMUK is rapidly bedding in as a name. Unlikely to change now, so this page is largely...
Historical interest only
The naming of a Great Britain / UK group ("Group" becoming local "Chapter" organisation), and its geographic coverage, has presented a tricky quandary for some time. Arguably it's rather distracting, hence the decision to proceed with the "OSMUK" name, but some aspects of these questions may still need resolving.
GB? England? UK?
The administrative region covered by the chapter could be Great Britain or UK, or England or the idea of splitting up the England area in some way was discussed.
We see some level of organisation (wiki pages and twitter accounts) springing up around @OSMScotland, and @osm_ie (ireland), these could form into chapters of their own, if that was best way to organise things. We also have OSM London and Mappa Mercia. There was talk of a "north england" area, and "Bristol". City sized organisation is good, but for a Chapter organisation we probably want a larger "country level" area drawing on a larger volunteer pool.
Harry Wood has the twitter account @osmuk. Not very active currently, but he's quite willing to try do something more interesting with this should we decide to name an organisation OSMUK.
OSMGB name clash
Another organisation bagged the name OSMGB related to OpenStreetMap in britain, but not attempting to be a community chapter. OSMGB as a project has wound down completely now. The domain name osmgb.org.uk was originally owned by them, but is now lost (owned by domain squatters). The twitter account @osmgb is held by OSMGB.
We (the OSM community) have a popular IRC room #osm-gb (not related to OSMGB), a talk-gb mailing list, and a GB G+ community
GB vs UK summary
| GB | UK | |
|---|---|---|
| domain | osmgb.org.uk domain was owned by OSMGB and they were willing to transfer ownership, but have since let it lapse (gone) | |
| @OSMGB would need to be transferred from OSMGB folk (They are willing) | @OSMUK - Already owned by Harry (and already set-up with grouptweet) | |
| mailing list | Called 'talk-gb' ...and presumably can't easily be renamed | |
| forum | called united kingdom | |
| irc | called #osm-gb | |
| wiki | UK wiki page could be renamed | WikiProject United Kingdom is the current page name |
| G+ | GB G+ community | |
| The Irish | Doesn't include Ireland | Technically "UK" includes Northern Ireland. Could be stated to be not included |
| The Scottish | Includes Scotland (which already has an organisation) | Includes Scotland (which already has an organisation) |
| ISO correctness | GB is the UK's ISO 3166 country code | .UK is the top level domain name (despite the iso standard. Because we're awkward like that) |
| Wikimedia chapter | They called it wikimedia UK. And since they tend to debate things pretty thoroughly, this is saying something |