I was just looking at my user map to see what’s going on with OpenStreetMap users who are in my area. It turns out many of them have zero edits. They signed up for OSM, even put in the additional, optional effort of setting their home location, but never edited. Why?

That is the Big Question we want to try and answer in the Welcome Working Group. That, and trying to come up with solutions for the ‘retention problem’. Simply said, provide a warmer welcome to new users. Our focus will not be on editors. Rather, we want to look into documentation, welcome messages, incentives to map.. You could say: the social and educational dimensions of welcoming newcomers to the community.

Do you think you have something to contribute to this process? Helping (re-)write documentation? Research new user behavior? Another angle you would like to explore? All it takes is constructive ideas and some time to act on them. We meet on #osm-strategic every Thursday at 1900 UTC.