Many places around the world right now are experiencing community lock downs to help mitigate the spread of CoVid-19. Non-essential travel is restricted or banned, including even exercising outdoors.

That’s our new normal here in the Philippines, especially those villages, towns, and cities in Luzon under “community quarantine”, or the more restrictive “enhanced community quarantine”, in other words we are staying at home as much as possible, and most us are online doing many other things, trying to keep our minds of from worrying.

In fact, I recently enrolled to an online language course, to brush up on my Nihonggo, which I took up many years ago, but never really got to use except, for my perfect “Wakarimasen” replies. 😉

Last week, the OSM community in the Philippines kicked of a re-formatted MapaTime initiative. In our previous normal, MapaTime events are mapathon sessions held in venues where people physically gather to contribute, learn, map, exchange ideas about specific themes, or initiatives. It’s a term we use, instead of the jargon “mapathon” which many people may not understand, based on feedback we received from past sessions.

This initiative is referred to as “WeMap”, a portmanteau of “Wednesdays MapaTime” , where we plan to organize sessions every Wednesday night, hoping to reach out to online volunteers who are keen to contribute to positive efforts, with tangible outcomes during the lock down.

The “pilot episode”

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Last Saturday, we gathered together OSM enthusiasts and humanitarian volunteers for Open Data Day with MapaTime! in SLU Baguio event - the first mapathon event hosted by Saint Louis University, and their very first Open Data Day Celebration. We are pleasantly surprised with the turnout of 30 plus participants, apart from SLU’s own students, we have guests from the University of Baguio next door, and 3 participants from Divine Word College of Vigan, and traveled 130 kilomters for 7-hours just to MapaTime! We even have representatives from a local NGO involved in disaster preparedness and response.

Arch. Tabangin of the SLU School fo Engineering and Architecture welcomes everyone to the GIS & Simulation Lab.

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We’re calling on OpenStreetMap, open data, and mapping enthusiasts in Baguio City to join us this Saturday, 7th March at Saint Louis University, to Celebrate Open Data Day, and to showcase the power of regular citizens doing extra-ordinary things.

Check out the poster below, for details.

Please save your free spot, and RSVP at: https://ti.to/mapatime/slu-osmapaaralan

See you there!

Last Thursday, on the first day of August, the inaugural Pista ng Mapa conference officially welcomed participants to the wide and green spaces of Foundation University in Dumaguete, Philippines. It was two-and-a-half days of mappiness for the 166 participants who gathered to celebrate Open data (especially, geodata) and Free software with local mapping communities in the Visayas region.

It was awesome to see the enthusiastic number we’re able to gather, but it was more pleasing to note their diversity. We didn’t ask for our participants’ gender in our registration, but this group photo shows that no particular gender group eclipsed the other.

2019 Pista ng Mapa group photo. © 2019. Neyzielle Ronnicque Cadiz.

If you’ve ever been to a Filipino festival, then you may have some idea how it’s like: noisy, tummy-filling, plenty of good stuff to be had, and a great time to party with old and new friends.

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The Philippines is known for our thousands of colorful, loud, and fun fiestas (festivals) we celebrate yearly. Our Fiestas can be religious, cultural, or both and are marked by religious activities, parades, cultural rituals, trade fairs, exhibits, concerts, pageants and various games and contests. There’s always one thing, or another, reason to celebrate.

The reality of that of the Philippine open mapping community is that many (if not most) of the community activities happen in the capital region, Metro Manila. It is not that we don’t have contributors but outside of our metropolis, they are less organized and thinly spread out across our 7,641 islands.

In 2016, when advocates from the local OpenStreetMap and FOSS4G community organized the State of the Map Asia conference in Manila, many of us were inspired in organizing a similar, major event but with a more local flavor, targeting local enthusiasts and participants.

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The LRT2 light-rail line that runs from Recto to Santolan in Marikina allows riders to bring their folding bikes (only in the last coach, and only up to 4 folded bikes per train)

Yesterday’s Marikina City Mapping Party is the first field mapping activity organized by MapaTime! - and our first activity for the 2019. Also, the last the local OpenStreetMap community organized such an activity was back in 2016. This time, we also encouraged people to bring their bikes (or skateboards, and kick scooters)

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… or maybe just Nemo then. ;)

Road data are essential for most maps, whether they’re used for tourism, navigation, or business - but especially critical in emergency response. Our project goal is to validate and map the road network that connect settlements and residential areas for the country, and make this open data available to all through OpenStreetMap.

Together with contributors from the local community, including the enthusiastic volunteers of the PUPSJ CWTS++ program, we’ve completed or made head-way in some regions in the recent past.

Utilzing the ImproveOSM tools, contributors were able to validate, identify, and map, the potential missing roads in the countyr some months back, with technical and logistical support from Kaart.

The Philippines, compared to neighboring countries visualized from ImproveOSM’s iD editor.

We’ve recently updated our GIS analysis of available data, and refreshed our Philippine tasks :

• Luzon
• Visayas
• Mindanao

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I participate in the PUPCWTS++ initiative as a mentor for volunteers undertaking their National Service Training Program, collaborating with a the San Juan campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

One of our program objectives is to provide the participants with a better appreciation for spatial data, and the same time, provide them with digital mapping skills, by contributing to other open data projects. We also would like to impart the value of volunteerism in them, and what it takes to become (digital) humanitarians.

Back in June, before we started, this is how the Philippines looked like with ImproveOSM:

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It’s been almost a week since I got back from Davao, but I’ve yet to write anything down about the OpenStreetMap activities we had there. So, here’s a quick round-up:

“Open Source Mapping” with Tambayan Center

“Is the Bermuda Triangle for real?”

This is the most interesting question I got from this workshop!

This mapping project was in the pipeline since the middle of 2017 when Tambayan Center sent me a query over email, and it just happened that I was also in Davao at that time. I dropped-by (and, of course, mapped ) their office to get their feet wet about OSM, and maps in general, and listen to details of what they’re trying to do. Tambayan Center is a long-standing NGO operating in Davao and working mostly with concerns and rights of young people, and their communities.

Breaking ~~bread~~ ice cream and chips with the Tambayan Center team during my last visit

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Yesterday, a unit of the Social Welfare Department organized and hosted MapaBabae - an OpenStreetMap workshop for Women, with Women - in their central office in Quezon City, to mark Women’s Month, and to introduce OSM as a tool for mapping, and to promote the value of diversity and inclusiveness in any community.

Kudos to the organizers for a refreshing take of mapa-thons, and the interesting discussion about language, empowerment, the potentials of open data in their work.

Jen, draws inspiration from the local Geo Ladies first (and only?) meet-up from 2014

As with other mapping activities, they also learned and edited maps of their communities. However, I found the discussions, and questions, more interesting.

A notable query was: “what’s the tag for baby feeding rooms?” I did a quick search, and to my surprise (and dismay), there’s no accepted convention. And yet, a proposal for baby_care was made in 2015.

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Happy to see folks from various communities coming together to celebrate ODD with us.

Last Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Open Data Day 2018 in PUP San Juan, with several volunteers from OpenStreetMap Philippines and the local FOSS4G chapter facilitating the parallel workshop sessions we ran.

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The Free Software and Open Data advocates of Manila is going to celebrate international Open Data Day 2018 on March 3, Saturday with an afternoon of Open Mapping workshops in San Juan Campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philppines, in Metro Manila.

The event is open to everyone, with parallel activities available, depending on your experience and interest:

• [Workshop] Introduction to Open Mapping with OpenStreetMap
• [Workshop] Intermediate+ Mapping on JOSM
• [Unconference] Open (geo)Data for Disaster Preparedness and Resiliency.

In the beginner’s workshop, a computer laboratory will be available for your use. Limited seats are available.

In the intermediate workshop, participants are required to bring their own laptops, with JOSM already installed. This workshop is intended for participants with some JOSM experience.

No computers are necessary for the unconference. Just bring some enthusiasm, and an open mind.

Registration is free. Just head over here to get your free ticket: https://ti.to/mapamore/odd2018

Refreshments and swags are to be given away, for registered participants.

The areas surrounding Mayon volcano is still in Alert Level 4, which means an imminent hazardous eruption is expected.

https://tasks.hotosm.org/project/4037

We’d like to share the progress of the hard-working humanitarian volunteers who has already mapped 91% of Mayon’s Extended Danger Zone 0. Last week, volunteers also completely mapped Mayon’s Permanent Danger Zone 1. We’d like to especially acknowledge the big mapping boost we got from the DevSeed data team from Peru.

The southern section of the EDZ, considered as high priority because of the settlements within, are now 100% complete, and validated.

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Very active mapping activity around Mayon, in the last several days.

We are grateful for the help extended by very dedicated mappers all around the globe, for helping map the Permanent Danger Zone around Mayon. This has been 100% validated today.

Mt. Mayon is still a looming threat for many towns and small settlements in its vicinity, and we have an on-going mapping project to map the Extended Danger Zone. And because of the positive response from the community, we’re now halfway done, and would welcome extra helping us to make this complete as soon as possible.

Kudos to Maning Sambale for initiating this activity, to make available Free and Open geodata to local governments and humanitarian organizations for their disaster management planning, and response.

Thank you.

Mt. Mayon ash plume. Photo credits: unknown.

Mayon, the Philippines most active volcano, with 48 historical eruptions is restive. Over the weekend, tremors, lava fountaining, and lava collapse events has been noted. Government volcanologists report that “relatively high level of unrest as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days.”

The authorities has prohibited the public from entering the 6 kilometer-radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ), and the 7-km Extended Danger Zone (EDZ) on the southern flanks “due to the danger of rockfalls, landslides and sudden explosions or dome collapse that may generate hazardous volcanic flows.”

Yesterday morning, we appealed for help to map the 6-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone of Mayon, and the community responded quickly. Today, it’s been 100% mapped, 57% validated (and still on-going). Thank you! The names of the generous mappers may be found in the project dashboard.

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On-going humanitarian mapping around Mt. Mayon, Albay, Philippines

This morning, barely 12 hours ago, the OpenStreetMap volunteers from the Philippines set up a task to map an area threatened by the restive Mt. Mayon.

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Last week, we shared a a tasking project to update missing highways in Metro Manila 0 in the local mailing list. We’ve also published a few more tasks to cover adjacent provinces:

• Rizal
• Bulacan
• Cavite
• Laguna
• Pampanga
• Batangas
• Quezon

The data is not perfect, and you may even encounter false positives, but it’s pretty good with pointing out a good number of missing roads in essential areas that local mappers have yet to digitize.

These are all part of the on-going initiatives by Kaart, to make awesome data for PH, and help grow local mapping communities.

If you’re keen on improving the map of your home town or province, and they’re not on this list yet, please let me know so I can put them up sooner rather than later, and we can work together in filling-in gaps in your favorite neighborhoods.

How about a mapa-thon soon? I’m planning to organize one, primarily to work on these tasks, and for the community to meet each other, and maybe welcome new ones. Would you folks have any suggestions, or is your org interested in collaborating? Let me know.

See all the Missing Highways tasks in PH. Do email me for any concern, or other questions, about these tasks.

Earlier today, we (belatedly) celebrated Geoweek 2017 with students from the University of San Carlos of Talamban, Cebu. Many thanks to Ms. Rose Lapad (Cebuano Studies Center) and Ms. Lalia Labajo (Chairperson, Department of Anthropology, Sociology and History) for accommodating the mini workshop to introduce OpenStreetMap to their students.

We were able to do basic editing with iD, work with the Tasking Manager, and capture a few Mapillary imagery of the campus, plus the usual Q&As for beginners. >Group photo of participants of the Geoweek micro-workshop. © 2017, Debra Ouano. >

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I always enjoy reading many diary entries, and since this is a very global community, it’s not a surprise to see many people writing in their native languages.

I’d love to see an translate link or button under each entry (and comments). It’s not perfect, but for the most part, you get a gist of what the author is saying:

Our Zen Center hold a regular outreach progam for kids called Bodhi Star. Along with teaching basic mindfulness techniques, life-skill ideas and concepts are also taught or introduced.

Yesterday, it was my turn to teach skills class and I’ve always been keen on teaching something related to maps and geography.

The kids had great fun trying to identify objects from aerial imagery, “visiting” remote places, and wonder about the beauty of our vast, interconnected world.

Some of the places we visited had limited street-level imagery, which they were quite fond of, so I even got to discuss Mapillary with some of them - who wanted to capture images of their neighborhood. There are plenty of caveats, of course, and there are parents around to keep them grounded.

I should seriously plan for a Mapillary field-trip idea for kids.

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