Category Archives: State of the Map

State Of The Map. The OpenStreetMap conference organised by the foundation

Call for SotM 2024 Travel Grant Program Application now OPEN!

State of the Map, our annual gathering, welcomes all who are involved  with or interested in OpenStreetMap. We extend an invitation to everyone  passionate about OSM – whether you’re an amateur mapper, a research  academic, involved in humanitarian efforts, part of an NGO or government  entity, running a small business, or representing a multinational  corporation. Join us in Nairobi on September 6-8, 2024, to exchange  insights and strategies for advancing the OSM ecosystem. Our goal is to  include as many of you as possible in State of the Map 2024! Your  participation at State of the Map is anticipated and encouraged upon  selection. This may involve presenting a talk if chosen by the program  committee, or participating in lightning talk sessions designed for  scholars. Additionally, there are various other ways to contribute to  and support the conference’s success while you are there.

Apply now for support to join us in Nairobi for State of the Map 2024! 

Deadline: 31 January 2024, 23:59:59 UTC

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.

Here are some tips to help you complete your application.

  • The clarity and concise answers will be helpful. Keep sentences short. 
  • 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 and other potential funding sources.
  • 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 on our  shortlist, we might look at these additional details.
  • The motivation statement on why you decided to apply for the TGP

More detailed information on the Travel Grant Programme can be found on the State of the Map 2024 website: https://2024.stateofthemap.org/calls/travel_grants/

Stay tuned to know more about the news and the events of State of the Map 2024! See you in Nairobi and online.

The State of the Map Working Group

Announcing State of the Map 2024: Join us in Nairobi and online on 6-8 September 2024!

Get ready to meet and connect with old and new mappy friends from the global OpenStreetMap community again!

We are thrilled to officially announce that the global conference of the OpenStreetMap community, State of the Map (SotM), will be making its way to Nairobi, Kenya from September 6th-8th 2024! This landmark event will bring together passionate mappers, data enthusiasts, technologists, and community members from all corners of the globe to celebrate the spirit of collaboration and open mapping.

Following the good feedback for State of the Map 2022 Firenze, the upcoming State of the Map 2024 will once again be held in a hybrid format. Building on the valuable lessons and experiences from the previous events, we are committed to making this edition even more accessible to everyone who wishes to partake in this grand celebration of open mapping, sharing passionate voices with the entire community.

Photo: View of Nairobi, Kenya from KICC by Daryona, CC-BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

We are very looking forward to collaborating with the local Nairobi team to organize an innovative and inclusive experience at State of the Map 2024, with sessions being as accessible and inclusive as possible for our global community.

Mark your calendars and get ready to be part of SotM 2024! Stay tuned for more updates on speakers, agenda, ticketing, and how to get involved as the event draws closer. Let’s gather our maps, pack our ideas, and prepare to embark on an unforgettable journey at State of the Map 2024 in Nairobi!

SotM Organising Committee

Follow us @sotm to stay updated on the next steps of the process!
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, is financially supported by membership fees and donations
. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.


OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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.

Why State of the Map Conferences Are So Important to OSM

If you’ve been lucky enough to attend a State of the Map (SotM) conference, you already know that they offer some of the best GIS and geospatial knowledge, skills, and training available. That’s on top of being a terrific networking event with lots of fun and engaging social time. If you’re new to the OpenStreetMap community and haven’t yet attended a SotM, or you’re part of a company thinking of sponsoring a SotM, alongside sending a team to attend, this post is for you.    

Image credit: Parker Michels-Boyce Photography. Please tag @OpenStreetMapUS in social media posts when using these photos.

What Is a SotM?

OSM’ers organize annual State of the Map meet-ups as a way to build community, share tools and research, and network with each other toward the shared goal of improving the map. They come in all sizes and are organized locally, regionally and globally, but the goal is always the same: to get together to talk about mapmaking research, tools, initiatives, and other community topics.  Local and Regional SotMs are organized by local communities and the global SotM is organized by the OSM Foundation. 

State of the Map conferences build bridges between OSM mappers and community activists, open-source developers, researchers from universities and academic institutions, designers, cartographers, as well as technology professionals from private companies and public institutions.

What Kinds of Topics are Discussed?

The range of topics is as diverse as the community. The types of presentations range from 5 minute “lightning talks” to 15-20 minute presentations to 75 minute workshops. They cover topics such as platform and tool development, data analysis, humanitarian mapping, and many others. Presenters are affiliated with local communities, Youthmappers, HOTOSM, maplibre, FOSS4G, academia, other nonprofits, and small and large companies.

The 2022 global SotM in Firenze, Italy provides a good example of the range of information and skills that are represented at a SotM. Here are a just few of the session titles: “OSM Carto as Vector tiles; Innovating on Derivative OpenStreetMap Datasets”, Mapping a Small Town”,  “maplibre-rs: Cross-platform Map Rendering using Rust”, “Ten Years iD Editor—The Road Ahead”, “Women Leadership in Mapping Riverside Communities in the Amazon Forest Using OSM.”

These examples just barely scrape the surface.  Here’s the whole programme and here are the recordings of the presentations. Here is the poster exhibit—yes, even the walls of the 2022 SotM were educational! And, here is a summary of the academic proceedings.

So, as you can see, a SotM offers inspiration and knowledge for anyone who is interested in the future of geospatial technology, OpenStreetmap and free and open source software and data.

The OpenStreetMap community spends 365 days a year building the best map of the world together. State of the Map US is our opportunity to spend a few days, in person, building the best community. The event is unique in geo, as it draws such diversity of topics and attendees. Private industry, individual hobbyists, academia and government come together to network, innovate and learn from each other.

 
 –Maggie Cawley, Executive Director, OSMUS

Why is it Important to Sponsor State of the Map Conferences?

There are so many good reasons!

  • The expertise shared at all SotMs contributes directly to the quality of OpenStreetMap.
  • It’s the right thing to do; companies that benefit from OSM should support the community as well as attribute the data. Donations to the project via the OSMF, sponsoring SotMs, becoming a corporate member, and sharing tools and data are all good ways to give back.
  • It’s an excellent recruiting opportunity. Where else can you find many of the best minds in GIS and geospatial all in one place?
  • It’s an excellent professional development opportunity. You’ll connect with other companies working within OSM, learn from other engineers and analysts, and be inspired by dozens of interesting new tools and projects.
  • It builds brand awareness through corporate social responsibility. It’s well known that customers are more loyal to companies that invest in creating a better world.

There are too many SotMs to picture them all here, but here are a few recent examples.

How Can I Support a SotM in 2023?

There are four large, regional SotMs coming up, and all of them need sponsors.

FOSS4G Oceania
Aukland, 16-20 October, 2023: sponsorship prospectus

This conference amalgamates FOSS4G and SotM into one conference to focus Oceania’s open source geospatial efforts. The conference gives Oceania mapmakers a link to global communities of developers and users and is supported by OSGeo and the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Previous FOSS4G SotM Oceania conferences in Melbourne, Wellington and Suva were an overwhelming success:

  • Melbourne and Wellington were sold out with over 250 attendees at each conference
  • Attendees from over 14 countries from Oceania and further afield such as Canada, the UK, and the USA
  • Attendees included GIS professionals, developers, hobbyists, humanitarian workers, and government agencies

State of the Map EU
Antwerp,  10-12 November, 2023:  sponsorship prospectus

This conference offers an opportunity for a diverse group of individuals to meet and exchange knowledge, experiences and plans for developing use and improvement of OSM. Around 400 attendees from Europe and all over the world are expected to participate. The conference will be offered as a hybrid event, allowing additional participants to join via live- stream if they are unable to join in-person.

“State of the Map is the place where you’re the closest to actually feeling the heartbeat of the whole project. The international SotM can and should travel around the world! But there are way too many mappers and data users in Europe for there to be no big OpenStreetMap conference in Europe for two years.”

–Joost Schouppe, OSM Belgium, co-organizer of SotM EU 2023

State of the Map Asia
Bangkok, 21-25 November, 2023: sponsorship prospectus 

After a successful comeback last year in the Philippines, SotM Asia will be held in Bangkok, Thailand this year! We hope to serve and gather 300-500 participants from Asia and beyond to connect and discuss not only OpenStreetMap and open data tools, projects and challenges, but also showcase diverse Asian cultures.

State of the Map Africa 
Cameroon, 1-3 December, 2023: sponsorship prospectus

OSM Africa is a regional community of contributors, users and supporters of OpenStreetMap from countries within the African continent. This includes mappers, scientific researchers, humanitarians, NGOs, government agencies, small business and global companies having and/or supporting work within the continent. The network is aimed at growing and producing a complete and well detailed map of Africa on OpenStreetMap in order to advance the quality, completeness and sustainability of geospatial data in Africa.

 

State of the Map 2024 – Call for Venues Open!

The Call for Venues for State of the Map (SotM) 2024 is now open! Build a team, shape your idea, and submit your proposal to host SotM 2024!

SotM Logo

Everyone is welcome to submit their bids for next year’s conference. We highly encourage community proposals from places where global SotM is yet to happen.

Read the guidelines and selection criteria on the OSM Wiki page to start planning your application for next year’s conference venue. 

This early call gives you the greatest flexibility over dates you can pick in 2024. Please observe when other OpenStreetMap-related events (like FOSS4G and local SotMs) will take place in order to avoid possible clashes with other relevant conferences for the community.

You can start your bid by visiting https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_2024/Call_for_venues

Key Dates

  • Call for venues open: 31st March 2023
  • Deadline of bids: 31st May 2023
  • Announcement of venue 2024: August 2023

Need help? 

The SotM Working Group is available for any further clarifications! Please contact via email: sotm [at] openstreetmap.org as early as possible so that we can provide guidance, if needed.

We look forward to collaborating with you.

SotM Organising Committee

Sign up for event updates and follow us @sotm!

—-

Do you want to translate this and other blog posts in your language…? Please email communication@osmfoundation.org with subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

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. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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.

Announcement: Decision on international State of the Map 2023 and 2024

SotM Logo
Summary: After carefully considering and reviewing the Call for Venue bids for State of the Map (SotM) 2023, the SotM Working Group (WG) has decided not to organize an international State of the Map 2023. Instead, we focus on finding a venue in Africa for 2024 that ensures safety criteria.

The State of the Map Organizing Committee (SotM WG) is a volunteer-led working group that organizes international SotM conferences that bring together members from the worldwide OSM community. To achieve this, we partner with a local OSM community to bring home the SotM conference in their country. The local community is selected among other bids after our open Call for Venues.

The Call for Venue for SotM 2023 received three bids from local organizing communities:

SotM WG has held multiple voice meetings and discussions within the group. We have carefully reviewed the bid applications and considered the issues that may arise along with each.

Bid 1: Paris, France 

The France team had withdrawn their bid application for SotM 2023.

Bid 2: Prizren, Kosovo

The Kosovo team had submitted a strong bid that clearly laid out all the details and plans for the conference. This was planned to be closely before or after FOSS4G 2023, similar to what happened in SotM 2022 in Italy.

However, the SotM WG acknowledges that in-person international SotMs had been held in Europe for three consecutive years, and overall (excluding online conferences in 2020-2021), 9 out of the 13 international SotM conferences were held in Europe (source: [1])

Bid 3: Yaoundé, Cameroon

The Cameroon team had also submitted a strong bid that clearly laid out all the details and plans for the conference. SotM Africa 2023 will take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and they had offered that if this bid is accepted, the conference will merge with the international SotM 2023, which would be the first-ever international SotM in Africa and an opportunity to reach new faces and OSM communities.

We looked very deeply into this bid and discussed all possibilities with the local team of Yaoundé. However, security and safety are pressing issues in Cameroon (sources: [2][3][4]), and members of the OSM community had also expressed concerns about this.

No SotM 2023, and plans for SotM 2024

After carefully considering and reviewing the bids for SotM 2023, we have decided not to organize an international State of the Map 2023. Instead, we will focus our efforts on finding a perfect venue for 2024 in Africa – or if there is no possibility in Africa for 2024, we will look for a country in a region which was underrepresented in the history of SotMs.

We hope to open the Call for Venue for SotM 2024 by early 2023.

Call to action: We’d like to invite you to join the SotM WG and help us with the work for SotM 2024. If you are interested, please send us a message by emailing sotm [at] openstreetmap [dot] org.

= State of the Map Working Group

State of the Map 2022 – Thanks, what you can still do, statistics and upcoming regional SotMs

The 15th State of the Map conference took place in Firenze, Italy and online from 19th-21st August. This would not have been possible without the work of the organising team and other volunteers, speakers, attendees in person and online, people who submitted posters or talks, translators, the contributors to the project and the sponsors.

Self-submitted photos of some State of the Map 2022 attendees. Compilation by volunteers of the State of the Map working group.
State of the Map 2022 attendees in Florence, Italy. Photo by Carlo Prevosti, CC BY-SA 4.0

You can read about some of the attendees’ experiences (in various languages) or post your own if you attended either in Florence or online. Feel free to add the link of your entry to the above OSM wiki page (requires a different log-in than your log-in to www.osm.org).

Some videos are already available on media.ccc.de and on the State of the Map YouTube channel (playlist here). The recordings are currently being processed by volunteers. You might also be interested in the Geomob podcast, the (at the time) live blog by Ilya and Gregory and in Gregory’s videos.

If you saw photographs of the catering hall, you might have noticed the posters on the walls. But what were they about..? You can check the interesting variety of posters here – which is fortunate even for Florence attendees, as in some cases the posters were not easy to reach due to the placement of the tables 🙂

As in the previous years, this year we had a lot of academics visiting the conference. If you are interested in the academic track, the proceedings are published on Zenodo.

Ticket statistics

If you like statistics, you can find some below 🙂 Please note that these are related to the tickets purchased/obtained and do not correlate 100% with the stats of attendees (as a few people had tickets but did not manage to attend the conference). Additionally, providing information such as country or organisation/company (if applicable) was optional.

  • 195 people with online (Venueless) tickets only.
  • 406 Florence ticket holders (with online ticket as well).

The online (Venueless) ticket was needed only if you wanted to interact with other online attendees. Otherwise, you could see the talks streamed for free – and the recordings are currently being added online (more information below).

Of the 406 Florence tickets obtained, there were

  • 218 for people associated with organisations/companies (profit, non-profit, local OSM organisations – as self-declared during registration), including
    * 74 for people from State of the Map 2022 sponsoring organisations.
    * >= 34 for people associated with HOT (most self-declared during registration).
  • >= 58 for people from Universities/research institutes (most self-declared during registration).
  • 30 for State of the Map 2022 volunteers.
  • 20 for OSM Foundation travel grantees.

Regional and country statistics of Florence ticket holders

136 people (33% of the Florence ticket holders) provided a country during online registration.

Regional statistics for the 33% of Florence ticket holders:

  • 90 Europe
  • 19 America
  • 14 Asia
  • 11 Africa
  • 2 Oceania

The following countries had five or more ticket holders:

  • 26 Germany
  • 16 United States
  • 15 Italy
  • 11 Great Britain
  • 9 France
  • 7 Netherlands
  • 5 India
  • 5 Romania

People from the following countries also had tickets and mentioned their country during online registration: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Greece, Hungary, Japan, Malawi, Moldova, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Statistics of online-only ticket holders

Most online-only ticket holders did not provide much information during online registration. For example, none of the 195 online-only ticket holders provided their country.

Organisation
95 of the 195 online-only ticket holders provided an organisation during registration. Of these, 11 were associated with a university or research institute and 7 were from State of the Map 2022 sponsoring companies.

T-shirt preferences

Of the 406 Florence ticket holders,

  • 122 (30%) chose a lady t-shirt.
  • 284 (70%) chose a male t-shirt.

Visa support

We helped 64 people with supporting documents for their Visa applications. This number was increased compared to State of the Map 2019, where we received similar requests from just 19 persons. The increase was partly due to increased requests by YouthMappers and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

  • YouthMappers: ~20 Visa-related requests.
  • HOT: ~14 Visa-related requests.
  • OSMF travel grantees: ~ 11 Visa-related requests.

Please note that not all Visa applicants managed to get a Visa, and that some of the OSMF travel grantees were also connected to YouthMappers or HOT. There might be a blog post or diary entry in the near future dedicated just to the SotM 2022 travel grants provided by the OSM Foundation.

Upcoming regional State of the Map conferences

Was State of the Map 2022 too far for you to travel? One of the upcoming regional State of the Map conferences might be closer and at least one of them is also online. These regional conferences are organised by local communities and not by the OSM Foundation. The current information is:

  • State of the Map Nigeria 2022, 1-3 December 2022, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
  • State of the Map Japan 2022, 3 December 2022, Kakogawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Centre, Japan.
  • State of the Map Asia 2022, 21-25 November 2022, Legazpi City, Philippines.
  • State of the Map Tanzania 2023, 20-22 January 2023, Dar es Salaam and online.
  • State of the Map Africa 2023, 6-8 December 2023, Yaounde, Cameroon.

…or you might be interested to organise a regional State of the Map event with your local OSM community. In this case please remember to submit the State of the Map quick licence form 🙂

Next international State of the Map

The decision about the host country of the next international State of the Map is pending. Watch this space.


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

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. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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, calculate routes, etc.  OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps that can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

How to Participate at SotM 2022

Are you attending State of the Map in person (in Italy) or online? Here are some ideas on how to actively participate/contribute to the conference in person or online!

1. Help out as a volunteer

Volunteers are the driving force of OSM and SotM conference. Would you like to help by volunteering to ensure the SotM is as smooth as possible? Here are the roles you can help with:

In-person Volunteers (Note: You must be physically present in Italy)

  • Conference setup (volunteers must be already at 18 August available)
  • teardown/clean up
  • registration/info desk
  • video/recording
  • video/cutting
  • technical assistants for the speakers
  • Session hosts (OSM knowledge is mandatory)

Online Volunteers

  • the info desk at Venueless
  • technical assistants for the BBB rooms

If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to the SotM Working Group via sotm [at] openstreetmap [dot] org and sign up at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_2022/volunteers#Schedule

2. Submit a lightning talk

Share a 5-minute talk about your mapping initiatives/experiences in OpenStreetMap or about your local community activities to the global OpenStreetMap community! Sign up at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_2022/registration_lightning_talks

Deadline for submission is 12 August 2022 16 August 2022

3. For technique-oriented people, you can help as part of the video team!

Please reach out to the SotM Working Group via sotm [at] openstreetmap [dot] org

4. Be the SotM 2022 photographer(s)

The person(s) could generally take some photos in the name of SotM organization team and also should take the group photo. We kindly as ask the released photos have CC licence (*) so we can use them later in the SotM context.

(*) under an open license (CC-BY-SA 3.0 or later recommended or CC0)

5. Organize a self-organized session

Besides the main programme, we will offer space for self-organized sessions (or Birds of Feather / BoF). We have set up the OSM wiki page https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_2022/self-organized_sessions, where you can sign up for a self-organized online session. For the on-site self-organized session, we will set up a whiteboard where you can reserve your timeslot and room at the conference venue. You can brainstorm for your session topic as early as now!

6. Check the SotM 2022 Programme schedule and plan which sessions you are attending

We have a variety of tracks (general, academic, workshops) and topics in our programme schedule https://2022.stateofthemap.org/programme/ so you can plan as early as now which talks/sessions you are attending as well as list your questions to the speaker(s)!

Did we miss anything? If you have participated in SotM conferences before, let us know how and share your experiences in the comment/reply!

SotM Organising Committee

Sign up for event updates and follow us @sotm!

Do you want to translate this and other blog posts into your language…? Please email communication@osmfoundation.org with the subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

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. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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, calculate routes, etc.  OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps that can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

State of the Map 2023 – Call for Venues

The State of the Map working group is delighted to announce that the call for venues for 2023 is now open!

SotM Logo

State of the Map 2022 in Florence and online is approaching. We – the State of the Map (SotM) working group – are co-working with an awesome local team based in Italy. They found the venue. Checked the technical conditions for video and more. They ordered catering. The social event is planned. Next steps will be the managing of all volunteers in all roles and shifts. Not too easy 🙂

So we take some time and start thinking about State of the Map 2023

We are looking for a local team that wants to bring OpenStreetMap to their home town. Do you have any suitable locations in your city? Can it host 300 or 500 people? And .. this cannot be too expensive as SotM wants to stay affordable for the community. How is the catering managed? How easy can attendees and participants travel your city?

We can help you investigate and develop a suitable bid. Please contact us.

Or you can directly start your bid here:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_of_the_Map_2023/Call_for_venues

– Christine, SotM Working Group

Sign up for State of the Map updates and follow us @sotm!

Do you want to translate this and other blog posts into your language…? Please email communication@osmfoundation.org with the subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

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. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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, calculate routes, etc.  OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps that can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

Call for Lightning Talks for State of the Map 2022

Photo by Ilyass SEDDOUG on Unsplash

Did you miss the deadline for the Call for participation for State of the Map 2022 but still want to get a chance to present your latest news and inventions around OpenStreetMap? Like previous years, we have reserved some slots for Lightning talks.

Lightning talks are quick 5-minute talks about any topic related to OpenStreetMap. Since SotM 2022 will be our first attempt at doing a hybrid conference, there are two options for holding a lightning talk:

  • In-person lightning talk in Firenze: These are traditional lightning talks held during one of the Lightning talk sessions at the conference. The registration for in-person lightning talks opens on 19 August when the State of the Map 2022 conference starts. You can register for a slot directly at the conference venue.
  • Pre-recorded lightning talk: Like in the two previous years, we offer the opportunity to submit a short video with a pre-recorded lightning talk. So if you don’t make it to Firenze, you can still participate with a lightning talk and present your topic to a wider audience.

Submission for pre-recorded lightning talks is now open. We are looking forward to your videos about any topic related to OpenStreetMap. The deadline to register and upload pre-recorded lightning talks is 12 August 2022 23:59:59 UTC

For more details and to register a pre-recorded lightning talk, please visit the OpenStreetMap Wiki

SotM Organising Committee

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Do you want to translate this and other blog posts into your language…? Please email communication@osmfoundation.org with the subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

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. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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, calculate routes, etc.  OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps that can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

Call for Posters – SotM 2022

Viewing SotM 2018 posters. Photograph by Thomas Skowron, CC BY 2.0

Building on the previous State of the Map culture, we love to hear what has been done with OpenStreetMap data, but we also love to see more, SotM 2022 invites you to submit a poster today.

Your poster could show how well your home region is mapped; it could be a beautiful new style or map. It might focus on a community project or statistics; it might be a poster explaining and inviting people to OpenStreetMap. What is important is that we want it to be about OSM. We are also welcoming academic posters about research around OpenStreetMap data.

For inspiration, see SotM 2021 posters – https://2021.stateofthemap.org/posters/

Submission requirements

  • The poster should be for A0 size (841×1189 mm)  
  • The poster should be related to OpenStreetMap
  • The poster should be open, innovative, and transparent (no copying)
  • The poster must be your own work (individual, team, or institution)
  • The poster should be under an open license (CC-BY-SA 3.0 or later recommended or CC0 )
  • Maximum two entries per person, team, or institution

How to enter

  • Upload your poster via https://files.osmfoundation.org/s/xKeT6JRapjWBAgC
  • File size maximum 30-40 MB
  • Format: PDF
  • Please email sotm@openstreetmap.org with a description of your poster. For example, the background of the project or whatever you consider important to mention in the context of the poster – all that you would tell people if you show them your poster. We will publish this text together with the poster on the SotM website.
  • Please also mention the filename of the uploaded poster in your email, so that we can know which of the uploaded posters is yours.

Timeline

  • Deadline: 31 July 2022

The SotM team hopes to shortlist up to 20 posters that will be published on our website and some other SotM channels under CC BY SA 3.0 (or later)

SotM Organising Committee

Sign up for event updates and follow us @sotm!

Do you want to translate this and other blog posts into your language…? Please email communication@osmfoundation.org with the subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

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. The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an 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, calculate routes, etc.  OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps that can be very quickly, or easily, updated.