The OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) Board of Directors is excited to share this blog post with all of our community members. From June 6th-7th, members of the Board of Directors Craig Allan (Chair), Dani Waltersdorfer Jimenez (Secretary), Roland Olbricht (Treasurer), Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, Laura Mugeha, Maurizio Napolitano, and facilitator Allen Gunn (also known as Gunner), met for two full working days in Madrid to discuss and tackle priorities and action items that need to be accomplished in the next 12 months. Amongst the discussed topics are a fundraising campaign, the “reviving” of the Communications Working Group (CWG), a new job posting which will be shared in the next coming months, the OSMF move to the European Union (EU), the launch of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy, and other topics. It is truly a pleasure to work with a team that is aligned on shared values including trust and respect, who are pushing for the success of a shared passion: the OpenStreetMap project. It must be noted however, that all of this could not have been possible without the leadership, patience, and tremendous organizational skills of Gunner who has been the OSMF facilitator for over 10 years. Thank you, Gunner!
What made this meeting particularly special is that we had the honor and pleasure of working from the TomTom offices in Madrid. We want to truly highlight our gratitude for TomTom for sharing their space with us, and most of all, we want to give a big shout-out to Priscilla Zachée for spending her weekend with us.
Face-to-face meetings are unlike others. For those who don’t know, us Board Members live in different countries all over the globe, so having the opportunity to work together, “ideate”, brainstorm, discuss tough topics, and enjoy our time together is quite treasured and important for us. And on the front of the importance of human connection, we promise to keep pushing forward the key that makes OpenStreetMap truly unique, unlike any other geospatial database out there: Our essence is our community.
We’d like to extend a thank you to all members of the community for your continued trust and passion for the OSM Project. We are always here for you should you have any questions or comments.
From 28th April to 1st May 2026, I attended the Geospatial World Forum (GWF) 2026, representing the OpenStreetMap Foundation. The GWF is an annual forum attended mostly by companies and public administration delegates in the geospatial domain. Henk Hoff, all the way back in 2013, was the last OSMF representative attending the GWF, when we received the award for “Geospatial Content Organisation of the year 2012”. So it was long overdue that OSM’s voice could be heard in this professional setting.
Aarti Holla-Maini, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, speaking at the Opening Plenary. Own picture under CC-BY 4.0
This year’s theme was Sovereignty, Economy, Society. A theme greatly fitting to OSM’s mission: to collaboratively create open geospatial data, by everyone and for everyone. Data that allows reuse -including commercially-, and which runs on open source software. The forum included several days of talks and panels, and a tech and exhibition fair, where companies and governments could showcase their solutions and make business deals. OSM is integral to the solutions of many of the companies exhibiting, so directly talking with representatives of these organizations is relevant, to explain how important it is to contribute back to the ecosystem, so it can be kept sustainable over time.
Sovereignty, but not isolation, was one of the main ideas mentioned during the event. As we need to collaborate in an evolving and uncertain world, both politically and also technologically with the rise of AI agents, while keeping the infrastructure that powers so many use cases up and running, and stable for the years to come. OSM and the open-source software that powers it can be key to this, as shown by the recent decision by the French government to use a fork of OSM’s core infrastructure as its choice to renew the technology powering its Cadastral systems.
“OSM is more vibrant the more diverse its community is”, this is the main idea I shared at the panel I took part in. A panel that, paradogically, could and should have been more diverse. We need more, and more diverse, people and organizations to know how important it is to contribute to OSM and its ecosystem, so we can together build an accurate representation of our world. Contribution to the ecosystem does come in various forms: data, resources (people, money, time), community building, improving the technology that powers the project, and more. In that sense, communication goes a long way, and it is something that we are improving on at the Foundation, and we should keep aiming for. Thanks to Geospatial World for allowing us to participate in the forum, so the OpenStreetMap voice could be heard in these professional events.
Panel “Embedding GKI into Digital Public Infrastructure: Connecting Digital Systems to Physical Reality”. Own picture under CC-BY 4.0
On 4-6 September, we attended the State of the Map Latam 2025, the Latin American OpenStreetMap conference. This year marked the 7th edition, taking place for the first time in Colombia, in the vibrant city of Medellín. Medellín has been a model of urban transformation and community-led projects in the last couple of decades, with the conference venue being a perfect example of this. The Parque Biblioteca San Javier was the first Library Park to be built, a project aimed at bringing green, cultural, and educational spaces to the less affluent districts of the city.
Parque Biblioteca San Javier surroundings in Panoramax
Day 1
Day 1 started with the welcome speech by Juan Arellano and Andrés Gómez from the Organizing Committee. Afterward, we enjoyed a live performance of traditional Colombian dances, courtesy of Ballet Nacional El Firulete.
We at the OSMF had the privilege of conducting the first keynote presentation. Most attendees were unfamiliar with the Foundation and its role prior to the event, so attending events like this is a great way to spread awareness and diversify our membership.
The second keynote was presented by TomTom, one of the two event sponsors (the other being Geoapify). We thank all the sponsors who make this and other community events possible, as well as for their continuous support of the OpenStreetMap project.
Ballet Nacional El Firulete dancing Cumbia1OSMF Keynote2
After lunch, the program continued with the talk from Trufi, on how OpenStreetMap can be used for mapping Public Transport, and become the foundation of MaaS in the Global South. Informal transport is a common occurrence in many parts of the world, yet knowing where these routes go can be a challenge for both users and planning authorities. The day continued with a discussion on the future of Humanitarian Mapping after the stopping of USAID funding. Parallel to these two sessions, attendees could also take a guided visit to the neighbourhood around the event location, accompanied by social entities.
To conclude the day, we took part in the General Assembly of OSM Latam for three hours, which included a lengthy discussion on the challenges both the region and OSM face in the future. Following the official program, we continued to have dinner together and celebrated the 15th anniversary of HOT.
The second day featured a diverse range of talks and workshops, with up to four sessions running in parallel! Since it is impossible to discuss all of them, we encourage you to explore the program and contact the authors of the talks of interest to you.
The topics discussed during the day were categorized into Governance and Community, Risk Management, OSM Data, OSM Tech, Informal Settlements, Amazonia, Academic Talks, and Workshops. Community partnerships are a cornerstone of the Latin American mapping community, where making a social impact and strengthening the social fabric are among the most important aspects of mapping, a characteristic that is very present in the day’s talks.
Risk management panel discussion, showcasing experiences in Peru, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador4natural=tree survey mapping workshop5
From gender representation in the OSM community to localized geocoding, from social justice slum mapping to student training and engagement, from indigenous mapping to infrastructure and risk mapping, from storytelling to public transport maps. A blog post cannot do justice to the use cases and social transformations the Latam community is creating. An engagement that is possible through the power and openness of OpenStreetMap.
We invite you to review the slides from each talk and workshop in this Commons category.
Merchandise and snack exchange table. Shout out to the volunteers who make it all possible!6
After the event, we continued on to socialize and have dinner together.
Day 3
Day 3, the final day of the conference, started strongly, with four parallel talks already scheduled in the first allocated slot. This day featured more technical talks compared to day 2, with topics categorized into the following areas: Public Transport, OSM Tech, Governance and Community, Trees and Forests, Pedestrian Mapping, OSM Data and Use Cases, Academic Talks, and Workshops.
From OSMCha to OpenHistoricalMap, from OSM and Wikidata integration to mapping with OSMTracker, from sidewalk mapping to Python, and from YouthMappers to Government collaboration. The exchange of technical knowledge is an important way to connect ideas and use cases with the tools that can bring them to life. Additionally, the engagement of the younger generation and governmental entities is crucial to the long-term sustainability of the data in the region.
Sidewalks as a separate geometry, or as attributes on the street?7Youth panel discussion8
A personal highlight of the day was the drone imagery workshop. Most Latin American countries lack high-quality government mapping imagery and, therefore, must rely on satellite imagery. But mappers took matters into their own hands to produce high-quality drone imagery to meet their surveying needs! And while the workshop was underway, we used the same drone to take the group pictures of the event; we were quite a crew!
Drone mapping workshop9Group picture, hands up and wave!10
The day then concluded with the event’s closure, which included the election of the venue for SotM Latam 2026. There was only one bid, but the attendees agreed it was a strong one. So see you in Mexico City in 2026, ¡órale!
The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed 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. Our volunteer Working Groups and small core staff work to support the OpenStreetMap project. Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation for just £15 a year or for free if you are an active OpenStreetMap contributor
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM-Latam-2025_Show5-9.jpg by Andrés Gómez “Angoca” under CC-BY ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM-Latam-2025_OSMF2.jpg by Andrés Gómez “Angoca” under CC-BY ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM-Latam-2025_15a%C3%B1osHOTOSM2.jpg by Andrés Gómez “Angoca” under CC-BY ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM_Latam_2025_-_d%C3%ADa_2_-_imagen_20.jpg by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz “Robot8A” under CC-BY-SA ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TallerMapeoTree_SotMLatam2025.jpg by Paul Dassori “Pdassori” under CC-BY-SA ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM_Latam_2025_-_d%C3%ADa_2_-_imagen_13.jpg by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz “Robot8A” under CC-BY-SA ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM_Latam_2025_-_d%C3%ADa_3_-_imagen_17.jpg by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz “Robot8A” under CC-BY-SA ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM-Latam-2025_Panel8-2.jpg by Andrés Gómez “Angoca” under CC-BY ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM_Latam_2025_-_d%C3%ADa_3_-_imagen_36.jpg by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz “Robot8A” under CC-BY-SA ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM-Latam-2025_participantes-6.jpg by Andrés Gómez “Angoca” under CC-BY ↩︎
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SotM_Latam_2025_-_d%C3%ADa_3_-_imagen_43.jpg by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz “Robot8A” under CC-BY-SA ↩︎
