My journey with mapping began during my undergraduate studies in geography at Eastern University, Sri Lanka. My fascination with maps and the potential of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to solve real-world problems sparked a deep interest that would shape my career. In 2019, I joined OpenStreetMap (OSM), an open-source platform that allows users to create and share maps of their communities. This was the beginning of a transformative experience. Through OSM, I discovered a vibrant community and shared my passion for open data and community development. I quickly became an active contributor, dedicating countless hours to mapping underserved areas in Sri Lanka.

As my involvement with OSM grew, I became proficient in using various mapping tools and mobile applications, which allowed me to conduct efficient and accurate mapping projects. I got appointed as the YouthMappers Chapter Secretary at Eastern University, where I played a pivotal role in promoting open mapping practices among students and local communities. My commitment to mapping and community development led me to join Sarvodaya Fusion, an NGO dedicated to empowering communities through technology. At Sarvodaya Fusion, I organized workshops and training sessions to teach others how to use OSM and GIS tools. These initiatives not only enhanced the mapping capabilities of participants but also fostered a sense of community and shared purpose.

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President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on strengthening support for teachers and advancing education at #SONA2024 #Mapper

I wish an Irish wristwatch.

P.S. The wristwatch shall be wish-washed

I am mapping every day, but i am unable to write a diary entry for every day i map. due to limited internet access and being on the move most of the time.

During the past 4 days, including today, i have mapped Villages Mesul, Cerjan, Bishqem and Papër and i have done a lot of mapping in Kosovo.

I have also gotten some private message these days to whom i have been unable to respond, so i ask you to bear with me. I will be back home in a week and will catch up with you all. Thanks a lot for contributing on mapping Albania! <3

“#100villagesin100days “

Hello, I am logus and I am from Vietnam. It would be amazing if all of us from South East Asia collaboratively map for OpenStreetMap’s 20th birthday at August 9th. Right now, I am currently mapping Hanoi’s center at here. If you are interested, do leave a comment below. Thank you!

Good morning!

This is my first diary entry. I am new to OSM and have a lot of learning and growth to do. I have to say I knew nothing about OSM and am absolutely blown away by how many companies use OSM in their mapping efforts. Truly awesome!

I am starting out building a interactive eruv map using OSM. I am getting lot of help and I am learning all the code words of the OSM community. Learning what for instance nods are points, I think they are called wazes or lines, and relations are a combinations of points and lines. Learning to Tag as well. I am also learning and trying to learn daily the LearnOSM website. Going through the tutorials are very good. I am enjoying doing it, yes it is frustrating at times but that is learning.

I am building this eruv map for my community and looking to embed it on the Synagogues website. Learning right now I am learning about the editor and how to place points and lines.

I will keep posting every so often my wins, loses, and how it worked for me.

by:

New OSMer

Jason

On May 24, 2024, I led an “Introduction to OpenStreetMap (OSM)” training session at the Geography Department of the University of Laos in Vientiane. The session was organized with the help of Professor Sonnasack Phaipasith, who provided translation support and organized the venue and invited his students. We had 15 participants, all students of Geography - eight women and seven men.

This training was part of my assignment with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s (HOT’s) Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific (AP Hub) Guru Fellowship program. The Guru Fellowship program is a program aiming to engage with and upskill OSM mappers to fully utilize their knowledge and experience in advancing the Open Mapping movement in the region. Within this Open Mapping Guru Fellowship program, I also organized a Happy Hours OSM mapping meetup in Vientiane as well as 2 online trainings about “Mapping Relations” and “Good practices of Tagging Names in OSM”.

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Getting to know OpenStreetMap (OSM)

I love maps. Since I was a kid, I was fascinated by the old atlases and maps I found in my grandfather’s drawers. I could spend hours learning about countries’ borders, historic events, and the world through those thematic and topographic pieces of art and science.

Circumstances had it that eventually I ended up with a Masters Degree in Geography, unleashed onto the professional world, trying to make some positive contributions, some might say, “to change the world”, on the beautiful island of Lombok, Indonesia.

I still remember, when back in 2008, my colleague showed me an article about a crazy project to make a free map of the world, basically by using GPS tracks as the main data source – high resolution satellite imagery as we know it now, was not yet accessible. Crazy idea, impossible, overambitious, were a few thoughts that popped up. Though, “why not give it a try” and add a few roads and places in my neighborhood. I don’t think those few edits made a big difference to OSM – but it thought me of how to use and contribute to OSM.

Becoming an OSM contributor

The following year I ended up living and working in the town of Putussibau, Kapus Hulu District. Take a dart, throw it somewhere onto the middle of a map of Borneo, the biggest Island in Indonesia, and if you slightly missed the exact middle a little bit to the north-west - that’s where I found myself. Surrounded by amazing nature, amid local Dayak, Iban, Punan and Malayu as well as other Indonesians who had moved there more recently from other parts of the archipelago, I was teaching GIS and conservation, mapping forests, customary boundaries and the manifestations of an increasing human footprint there – road infrastructure, oil palm plantations, gold mining areas and the like.

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These days i am very busy and i have not been able to write a diary entry as I do every day, but i have mapped some villages and improved some already mapped villages. Too tired, to remember the names or go back and look them up. Hopefully ill get some more free time in the next days to make a more detailed diary entry.

“#100villagesin100days #day41&42”

This week, I am attending State of the Map Europe 2024, where I’ll be a speaker on at least two occasions. Because of that, I have been working on material for the conference, and I would like to include it in my development diaries. However, to avoid spoilers, this must obviously be done after the conference :P. Please expect development diary #15 to be published shortly after SOTM EU, which ends on Sunday. I will also try to get the video recording of my talks in case you miss them. Cheers 🦀!

Are you familiar with the OpenStreetMap Statistics created by Piebro? It’s a handy tool that analyzes OSM changeset files and creates graphs from various perspectives.

• https://piebro.github.io/openstreetmap-statistics/
• https://github.com/piebro/openstreetmap-statistics

The project’s README also indicates that analysis can be performed for individual countries or regions. I analysed the Japanese region in my local environment, so I’ll summarize the procedure.

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a

I started contributing some edits to OSM using StreetComplete, it’s nice to be able to help!

Yesterday i received a message from perenniallylate notifying me that he had mapped village 99 on the list, Tremul, and asking me if it was okay for him to map some villages in the upcoming weeks.

I thanked him in private, but also want to thank him publicly for contributing to mapping Albania and putting Albanian villages on the map.

Anyone can map any village from the list, because I can always add more villages to it. It would be amazing if you could send me a message or leave a comment that you mapped it, but even if you do not, it is totally okay.

Today I continued mapping and mapped Kryemadh and the surrounding areas, including villages Kalimash and Shtanë.

“#100villagesin100days #day40 #+1contributor”

↓ Version française ci-dessous ↓

The latest 2.4.X release sets the path for two major requested features: real-time collaboration and one-click remote data importers.

Additionally, minor improvements and bugfixes have made the tool more stable and usable.

Real-time collaboration

Thanks to our NLnet sponsorship, we have been able to make the first push in that direction. This is not yet activated in any (known) instance but the underlying code is deployed and we will be able to manage allocated resources and fine-tune how websockets are deployed. Details of the next steps are available on Alexis’ blog post.

Given the required server changes for that new feature, it will be part of a future 3.X version when the dust has settled.

Remote data importers

We made 4 importers to begin with:

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Today I mapped in Peshkopi. Tomin ain’t really a village of Peshkopi but a neighborhood, so after mapping it I proceeded to the villages closest to Peshkopi.

I mapped Pilafë which is a small village very close to the city. I have been in Pilafë in 2021,for a door-to-door campaign in support of a local miner who was representing the miners in the parliamentary elections. As soon as we entered the village, a 10-year-old boy saw us and wanted to show us the village, and he walked with us and showed every house in the village for two hours straight.

After Pilafë, i moved to Staravec and partially mapped it too.

“#100villagesin100days #day39”

Almost did not make it to contribute today but i found some time just before the days ends.

Today i mapped Saraqinisht and also the villages Krinë and Tranoshisht.

“#100villagesin100days #day38”

Hello, Openstreetmap community! I’m Brazil Singh, Open Mapping Guru, and I’m excited to share the highlights from my recent training session at Jahangirnagar University. As an Open Mapping Guru under the Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific, this experience was both enlightening and thrilling, filled with dynamic discussions, insightful training sessions, and endless fun. Here’s a summary of our amazing day together!

Event Highlights

The session began at 2 PM with a vibrant atmosphere. We were honored to have several distinguished guests who contributed immensely to the event:

Chief Guest: Dr. Sheikh Tawhidul Islam, Professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Jahangirnagar University
Special Guests:
    Md. Munir Mahmud, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Jahangirnagar University
    Sawan Shariar, Regional Ambassador at YouthMappers and President of OSM Bangladesh

Session Details

OpenStreetMap Training:

… See full entry

Dear diary, today I made my account. I hope this can count for CAS :skull:

Yesterday was a hectic day and I missed a day of mapping. I will try to make it up.

Today I mapped Duhanas which is a big village in Berat with a population of around 1500.

“#100villagesin100days #day37”