THATCamp Open Street Map session anyone?  OSM is a wiki-style map of the world that anyone can edit and it’s one of the few sources of free GIS data for many parts of our world.

This week there’s big news from the Open Street Map community as MapQuest launches their United States OSM collaboration at Open.Mapquest.com.   This seems certain to attract a new crop of OSM contributors and editors to the 300,000 plus already working to crowdsource data that can be reused without restrictive copyright limitations.

Topic ideas for a THATCamp Virginia OSM discussion:

• How can I contribute to OSM?  What’s the workflow?  Do I need to be a GIS expert or Cartographic Guru?
• Take the new open.mapquest.com site for a spin and learn to edit some data in your neck of the woods.
• Compare this new site to other OSM editor tools
• What mobile tools exist for accessing and editing OSM data – iPhone, Android…
• OSM Mapping Parties – ever organize one or participate?
• Walking Papers – what’s that and why?
• GPS – tips and tricks for collecting and adding your own data
• Hands-on walk-around to improve the OSM data for the UNESCO World Heritage Site outside the front door of Alderman Library
• CloudMade OSM downloads and their wonderfulness when asked for GIS data for (fill in Euro city name).
• ESRI’s ArcMap Version 10 OSM editor
• OSM blankets – yes warm and snuggly OSM blankets – ideas for other OSM merch?