Dear all,

Wikimedia Italia has been in touch for some time with some representatives of the Italian community of OpenStreetMap. The OSM community in Italy is very numerous (see this data[1] for a rough figure) and has a long history, so they were wondering since some time to create a local chapter of the OpenStreetMap Foundation[2] (OSMF) in Italy.

Local OSM chapters are similar to Wikimedia Chapters, to the point that the idea and the draft[3] of chapters agreement for chapters and OSMF is taken from Wikimedia Chapters agreement.

The idea of creating a local chapter for OSM in Italy has been around for several months, but the community has not yet taken "the big step", then some members of this community proposed to join forces with us, given our greater experience as association.

Further, being <del>addicted</del> dedicated to free knowledge some of Wikimedia Italia's members are long-time OSMers. Wikimedia Italia has sponsored OSMit (the Italian OSM conference) in the past and this year we are planning a joint event in October (more info soon)

At this stage we are still in the discussion phase. so we would like to hear your feedback.

Cristian

[1] http://osmstats.altogetherlost.com/index.php?item=countries [2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/Agreement [3] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/Agreement