On September 25th we announced the winners of the OpenStreetMap Awards, for which hundreds of mappers voted this month. The results are:At State of the Map, which is about to kick off in Brussels, Belgium, we will be officially launching this year’s OpenStreetMap donation drive! This time around, we are raising money with a most important goal: our continued independence as a project.
OpenStreetMap is the largest open geographic database in the world, the data infrastructure for multitudes of mapping projects around the globe. OpenStreetMap data is, and will always be, free to use. Your donation to the OpenStreetMap Foundation will cover our core operational expenses in supporting the OpenStreetMap project: hardware costs, legal fees, administrative assistant and other expenses of our working groups and administration.
We currently run extremely lean for an operation for a project the size and importance of OpenStreetMap. The OpenStreetMap Foundation relies on revenue from individual and corporate membership dues, profits generated by the annual State of the Map conferences, and past donation drives (thank you so much for the support last year — GBP 60,000 for updating our server infrastructure). We must keep our income sources diversified, as these vary from year to year, but our modest needs stay the same. For this, we need your support.
Thank you for considering donating to OpenStreetMap! We are truly grateful for donations of any amount. Whether you can give €100 or €5, please know that your donation will go directly towards keeping OpenStreetMap strong, stable and independent. Thank you!
A Fork in the Road
A successful conference is the perpetual fork in the road. Which path (otherwise known as “track”) will you walk down? Because honestly — the entire program of State of the Map is amazing (otherwise known as “mouth-watering”).
In parallel to our regularly scheduled programming of such amazing talks (including yours truly!) on Friday we have the excitement of five minute lightning talks AND on Sunday we invite you to get your hands dirty in our workshop sessions.
Now most seriously, it is important to wash your hands before attending any State of the Map event so we don’t advise attending workshops unkempt. But if you are interested in trying on some of the newest development and contribution to OpenStreetMap we very much encourage you to come.
Come find the Lightning Talks on Friday 4-5pm in Auditorium A
And get your silverware ready for a Workshops 15 course meal (that means there are 15 workshops!) starting at 10am and going until 5pm on Sunday. There will be Workshops in rooms QA and QC as well as Room 1 and Room 2, in Building D.
And if we don’t see you at those we will see you at the talks, otherwise know as the spoons and knives of the conference. Because the entire State of the Map program is designed to satisfy your your OpenStreetMap appetite. Come hungry!
This year, for the first time in history of our project, we are preparing for the first OpenStreetMap Awards, which will be presented this September at the State of the Map 2016 conference in Brussels.
Again, this is a community award: nominees and winners are chosen by you, the community. During the preliminary stage, you have submitted more than a hundred nominees for six categories, including the Ulf Möller Memorial Award. From those, a group of active members of the OSM Foundation have prepared a short list: five candidates for each category. It definitely was not simple: a lot has happened during the past year, and we had to omit some good nominees to fit in these five slots. With the remaining list we’re left thinking “can we just award all of them?”, but there can be only one winner (for each category). So the rest is up to you!
Please vote for your nominees on the awards website. For each of the six categories, choose one nominee. Whoever gains the most votes by the end of the voting, on September 22nd, will receive the award. The winners will be announced on Sunday, September 25th, at the State of the Map conference.
When we get together for State of the Map, there is so much to do… in-person.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday of State of the Map, we will have several spaces for Birds of a Feather (BoFs). BOFs are informal meetings, planned ahead or thought up spontaneously. These can be gathering points for discussions, mapping, code and documentation sprints, and hacking sessions. They can even be organized rest and napping sessions! These meeting are whatever you want and whatever you need to make a successful State of the Map.
The Birds of Feather sessions will take place in the Foyer and “Building D” classrooms, adjacent to the main conference hall. We will have a sign up board prominently in the main area to schedule sessions and add ideas.
And all day Sunday, we have Free and Open Space in Nelson Mandela Hall! Collaborate together on coding, mapping, or documentation sprints. Plan the next big thing. Unlike a Birds of a Feather session this is a non-bookable room; let’s make it a hive of activity open to all.
Start sharing your informal session ideas for State of the Map. And keep up with the latest State of the Map on the @sotm twitter account. See you there!
We’ve had plenty of State of the Map conferences in 2016. Japan, United States, France, and Italy all organized their national conferences. Czech Republic and Slovakia united to run their event together. In September it’s the time for the global State of the Map in Brussels, Belgium. And to end this great year of events, we are going to have two continental State of the Map conferences: in Asia and Latin America.
Both conferences had their first editions in 2015 and will repeat their success this year. Both events are also offering free tickets for all attendees.
The State of the Map Asia will take place in Manila, Philippines, from October 1st to 2nd. The call for presentations has already finished, and the program will be published soon.
São Paulo, Brazil, will host the State of the Map Latam from November 25th to 27th. The call for talks, workshops and working groups is still open: submit yours before September 25th! The event accepts activities in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Book your place and go meet the mappers of Latin America and Asia.
