Five years ago I became involved with the OpenStreetMap community. As I was conducting a community mapping project in western Kenya, I saw the need and opportunity to use OSM data and tools. An open community of mappers and data were the critical piece for me to access information and data for a malaria prevention project.

HOT is that open community that can impact humanitarian responses and development projects with open data and open source tools. After returning to DC and joining the Development Seed team, I’ve become more active in OSM and the HOT community – participating in activations, contributing ideas and conversations, and assisting where I can with satellite imagery acquisition.

As I’ve worked with Development Seed, I’ve had the opportunity to run mapping workshops and parties in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Moldova, and Morocco. These have been incredible opportunities to work with OSM communities around the world.

Over the past year, I’ve been working more closely with HOT on the OpenAerialMap project and the imagery coordination working group. OAM has given me the opportunity to work more closely with HOT to strategize on how satellite and aerial imagery can directly support response activities. As a part of the HOT Summit, the imagery coordination group held a session on how we coordinate that has helped identify ways to improve and grow how HOT is able to have satellite imagery available for remote mapping.

I would like to take the next step to become a voting member and continue to contribute to the growth and sustainability of HOT as an open mapping community. As a voting member, I will work to actively contribute to healthy conversations and continue to be a direct support of HOT activities.