Monthly Archives: January 2020

Applications for State of the Map 2020 scholarships are now open!

State of the Map 2020 logo by Ed Nicolai, CC-BY-SA 4.0

State of the Map is the annual event for all mappers and OpenStreetMap users. We invite all OSM enthusiasts – whether you are a hobby mapper, a scientific researcher, a humanitarian, with an NGO or a government agency, a small business or a global company — to join us in Cape Town, July 3-5, 2020 as we share experiences and ideas of taking the OSM ecosystem forward.

We want to enable as many of you as possible to be part of State of the Map 2020. We are happy to announce that we can provide financial support, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. This year we are offering new travel grants to reimburse a portion of travel costs, in addition to our previous program that fully covers all costs with a full scholarship. 

If you are selected, we invite and expect participation at State of the Map. That could be a talk if selected by the program committee, or in lightning talk sessions we’ll make available for scholars. There are other ways to participate and support the operations of the conference while you attend too. 

Apply now for support to join us in Cape Town
for State of the Map 2020!

Deadline: 15th February 2020

Each year we receive more scholarship applications than we are able to support. To help us best allocate the funds, please specify the minimum types of support you need to attend. If you are requesting a travel grant, then tell us the amount of money to cover a portion of your travel and make a difference to attending, or not.

Please review our privacy policy covering how we will handle the information in your application.

Some of the SotM 2019 scholars. Photo by OSM CWG, CC-BY-SA 3.0.
OSM logo by Ken Vermette, CC-BY-SA 3.0, trademarks apply.

Here are some tips to help you complete your application. You can also check out Gregory’s post on how we selected scholars in 2017.

  • Select the minimum level of scholarship you need. This will help us to make the best use of limited funds and enable more scholars to join.
  • Make sure you clearly state your visa and travel requirements, as well as potential other funding sources.
  • Answer the question “Please describe your involvement in OSM and how will attending State of the Map benefit you, your local mapping community and the wider OpenStreetMap project” in 1500 characters maximum. Keep sentences short. Focus on the benefits to you and to OpenStreetMap.
  • We want to hear about your contributions to OpenStreetMap, your project or your group. We do not want an account of a group’s work but your individual part in it. Try to use “I” not “we“.
  • You may include links to your OpenStreetMap profile, a local group you run, or software you created. If your written answer is satisfactory to get in our shortlist – we might take a look at these additional details.
  • What topics or views will you bring to SotM that are otherwise missing?
  • What do you plan to achieve through coming to the SotM?
  • What do you plan to do when you return home after SotM?
  • Are you applying to organise sotm?

We encourage all applicants to already have passports and they should be valid 30 days from exit from South Africa and 6 months from entry in South Africa. 

Review process

Reviewing scholarships

You can read about the scholarship review process for 2019 here. For SotM 2020 we again asked community members to join the review process, and will be finalizing the review team in the coming weeks.

Here’s a list of factors that we will consider when reviewing the applications:

  • Is the applicant part of an under-represented minority group?
  • Are they from an under-represented location?
  • Are they contributing to OSM in a substantial way? (Not only OpenStreetMap edits, but contributed to wiki and documentation, trainers, developers).
  • Have they applied previously and not gotten a scholarship?
  • Do they have a unique story or experience to share?
  • Are they in a position to share their SotM experience with a larger group?
  • Will their attendance benefit their local community in some way?
  • How difficult will their visa application be?
  • How will attending State of the Map benefit them and OpenStreetMap?
  • Are they interested in organizing future OpenStreetMap events?

SotM 2020 scholarships team

Interested to help the SotM Working Group..? We are looking for you.

The State of the Map conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap, organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project and you can support it by becoming a member. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is a international project to create a free map of the world. To do so, we, thousands of volunteers, collect data about roads, railways, rivers, forests, buildings and a lot more worldwide. Our map data can be downloaded for free by everyone and used for any purpose – including commercial usage. It is possible to produce your own maps which highlight certain features, to calculate routes etc. OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps which can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

Share your thoughts on OSM’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities and threats that OSM faces

Allan Mustard, the new OSMF board chairperson, is asking the OSM community members to share their perspectives on OSM’s Strengths, Weaknesses and Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) that OSM faces. Strengths and Weaknesses refer to internal facets of OSM over which we, the community, have control. Opportunities and Threats are external influences with which we may and in some cases must deal.

Please share your thoughts on this page:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_SWOT
(you need an OSM wiki account – register here)

Allan writes:
One usual practice in SWOT analysis is “brainstorming”. There are two rules of brainstorming. First, no idea is bad. All ideas are good and may be added to the list. We are in that phase, so no matter how crazy or unusual your idea may be, if you believe it is a genuine SWOT, put it down. We will sort out the good from the less good later. Second, no ad hominem (i.e., personal) attacks. If somebody puts something on this page that you don’t like, express your opinion politely later on.

You are welcome to also translate the initial page in other languages and add them to the OSM wiki. If you don’t know how, please send us an email to communication@osmfoundation.org

Reference materials about this type of analysis are on the wiki page.
Discussion about the analysis can take place at the OSM wiki and the OSM diaries.

Thanks for participating 🙂

OSM Communication Working Group

Do you want to translate this and other blogposts in your language..? Please send us an email to communication@osmfoundation.org with subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups. Please consider becoming a member of the OSM Foundation.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is a international project to create a free map of the world. To do so, we, thousands of volunteers, collect data about roads, railways, rivers, forests, buildings and a lot more worldwide. Our map data can be downloaded for free by everyone and used for any purpose – including commercial usage. It is possible to produce your own maps which highlight certain features, to calculate routes etc. OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps which can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

Call for help reviewing State of the Map 2020 scholarship applications

Preparation for State of the Map 2020, Cape Town is underway and the organizing team is calling upon you to join the scholarships review and selection team. We would like to set up a diverse team with a wide geographic scope, ethnic and gender diversity, and different kinds of experiences in the OpenStreetMap community.

State of the Map 2019 scholars. Photo by Thomas Skowron, CC BY 2.0

What does being part of the review team mean?
Being on the scholar selection team means that you will read and rate most or all of the SotM 2020 scholarship applications. You will learn about interesting projects and about the contributions of other OSMers first hand. We will help you by providing the criteria to judge the applications. We expect the scoring to take a half day to a full day all together, spread out over several days. We will send you a spreadsheet or a link to an online spreadsheet and you will be asked to
i) provide a single rating for each application and
ii) add a note why you gave that rating. We will use those comments during the final selection.

After scoring the applications you can participate in the team’s discussions about the final selection – but this is not an absolute requirement. So, if you do not feel comfortable or have technical difficulties, do not worry. Please note that we expect any personal information provided by the applicants, or by other team members, to be kept confidential.

What is the timeline?
Submissions for scholarship applications will open on January 15, 2020 and close on February 15, 2020 so you will have to read and rate the applications up to March 1, 2020. During the last week of February, you will be asked if you want to participate in the discussions about the final selection.

Are you interested?
If you are interested in being considered as a member of the selection team, please fill this form by January 7, 2020.

If you have any questions/feedback, send us an email at scholar-sotm@openstreetmap.org.

SotM 2020 scholarships team

Interested to help in other ways..? We are looking for you.

The State of the Map conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap, organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project and you can support it by becoming a member. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is a international project to create a free map of the world. To do so, we, thousands of volunteers, collect data about roads, railways, rivers, forests, buildings and a lot more worldwide. Our map data can be downloaded for free by everyone and used for any purpose – including commercial usage. It is possible to produce your own maps which highlight certain features, to calculate routes etc. OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps which can be very quickly, or easily, updated.