It was a minor feat to pull it all together and I learned loads. We had a good attendance, not massive, but quality. The Mayor led a toast and seemingly quite interested in pursuing OSM within the council; the Sussex Fire Chief attended and expressed great interest; the North Laine Traders Association; and a good showing of Brighton’s geeks and “regular” folks; and a cameraman from ITV Meridian, though I haven’t spotted any segment on air yet.

Chris Corbin, my partner in mapping Brighton, gave a storming talk on the state of government and geodata, and heartily recommended OSM. You can see his slides: OpenStreetMap Brighton – Chris Corbin. And my slides: OpenStreetMap Brighton 1.0 part 1 and OpenStreetMap Brighton 1.0 part 2.

This was a first for OSM. I really recommend other local OSM groups hold community events when they map is ready .. it’s a great way to get the word out.

I’m still trying to locate some photos of the night .. let me know if you took any.

We also printed the first finished OpenStreetMap map. We have many posters for distribution .. let me know if you’d like one. Particularly want to get these out and around Brighton.

The posters are sponsored by the generous local companies Mobbu and FuturePlatforms. Gemini Press did a very fine and quick print job. And many thanks to Richard Fairhurst for a great design.

On the same day, another first. The Deckchair Guide, a local guide to Brighton written entirely by local people, published by QueenSpark uses OpenStreetMap. This, I believe, is the first use of OSM in a print publication. Buy a bunch, nice Christmas presents.

We also hosted the public premiere of Locomatrix, a platform for GPS gaming, developed by Richard Vahrman and FuturePlatforms. Think of it as Playstation for the outside.

Also thanks to the very helpful Butlers Wine Cellar with bubbly and wines for the evening — wish we could have drunk more! And thanks to Malin for helping out with the serving. Finally everyone at the Brighthelm Centre for hosting, and Matt Weston Brighton Digital Festival for kicking the whole thing off.

A good mix of dConstruct attendees (who weren’t nursing a hangover ) .. Colin Schlueter, Maria Schaake .. OpenStreetMap veterans .. Dean Earley, Robert .. and interested locals .. Kathryn Hall, Ed Griffiths-Jones, (GI Policy Expert) Chris Corbin, (Councillor) Roy Pennington, Tim Small, Richard Vahrman.

Great portions of Hove, the North Laines, the Deans and Kemp Town are covered, with good starts on Preston Park and Seven Dials. Remarkably most everything went smoothly technology wise. Our collected traces. With a little push through the soggy winter, we’re aiming for a complete Brighton map by Spring.

Thanks to Richard for the beautiful venue, Ed for the press release, and Jeremy Keith for publicity around dContstruct.

Stay tuned to the wiki for notes on our progress, from out of copyright map..

.. to whiteboard planning ..

.. to collected GPS traces of the day ..