Vote today. OpenStreetMap US elections are open now. You can vote until October 12th. If you are an OpenStreetMap US member, you have a ballot in your inbox. If you’re not you can become one in minutes and still vote.

I’m running for re-election to the the OpenStreetMap US board to expand OpenStreetMap US as a convening organization for everyone.

Over my past two years on the board, we have doubled the size of the State of the Map US conference, expanded its appeal to non-traditional audiences, increased diversity with scholarships and a distinct cross-audience appeal, and supported over 70 mapathon events that you all have helped organize.

OpenStreetMap is about the combination of the community: individual mappers and businesses and the humanitarian community and governments. We will succeed even more if we make an even more open community for everyone to collaborate. Working with Martijn, John, Jim, Kathleen, Mele, and Ian has been incredibly rewarding and I’d like to continue this into a third year.

To create a better map, we need to continue to expand OpenStreetMap beyond its current limits to communities we’re not talking to yet. We need to bring OpenStreetMap to a broader set of industries, organizations, and communities. This is also the key for creating more diversity in terms of gender, global presence and ethnicity. To become more diverse as a community we have to grow in numbers.

The key tool to accomplish these goals is the annual State of the Map US conference. I am looking forward to further hone this conference as a space for everyone to come together and share their vision for OpenStreetMap and for newcomers to become part of the community. OpenStreetMap is about bringing the community together and bringing new people into the community. This includes a continued international appeal. We are playing an important role to bring international community members to the US to meet with them and to discuss core OpenStreetMap improvements but also help grow OpenStreetMap internationally.

Lastly, I don’t want to finish my note without this appeal: If you care about OpenStreetMap you should run. Never think that to be on the board of OpenStreetMap you need to fill some sort of profile. Whether you’re an individual mapper, whether you’re a teacher or business person or use OpenStreetMap at your nonprofit, whether you’re famous on the mailing lists or whether you just opened your first OpenStreetMap account last week. Put your hat in the ring and help OpenStreetMap grow in the US and beyond!

I would love your vote on October 4th. To participate, all you need to do is become a member. You can do so now, in just a minute. Find a full list of all candidates on the OpenStreetMap Wiki.