Our Mappers of the Month for August 2026 is the Myanmar OpenStreetMap (myOSM) initiative! MyOSM community helped translate the OpenStreetMap educational materials on the UN Maps Learning Hub into Burmese.
We interviewed myOSM about their experience and motivation in ensuring accessibility of open mapping resources to support UN peacekeeping efforts as well as humanitarian preparedness, emergency response, and community resilience across Myanmar. Read below:
Can you tell us a bit about Myanmar OpenStreetMap (myOSM) initiative?
We are a group of volunteers and geospatial practitioners who have come together through the Myanmar OpenStreetMap (myOSM) initiative. We bring diverse backgrounds and experiences in forestry, GIS, geography, mapping, Remote Sensing, and open geospatial technologies. Many of us began our GIS and Mapping journeys through academic studies and professional work and have continued to strengthen our skills through mapping projects, research, training, and community activities.
Through the myOSM initiative, we promote the improvement and use of OpenStreetMap and open geospatial data to support communities across Myanmar. We are particularly interested in applying open mapping data to humanitarian preparedness and disaster response, sustainable development, and evidence-based planning in Myanmar. We also aim to grow and strengthen the OpenStreetMap community in Myanmar by engaging volunteers, NGOs, INGOs, academic institutions, and other organizations interested in using and contributing to open geospatial data.
How did you know about UN Mappers?
Many of us became familiar with UN Mappers through our involvement in the OpenStreetMap community and related training and mappathon events. Through myOSM and our engagement with the wider mapping community, we have followed UN Mappers activities through community platforms, Mappy Hours, discussions, learning resources, and video tutorials.
Some myOSM contributors have also had opportunities to contribute directly to the UN Mappers Learning Hub by translating learning materials from English into Myanmar (Burmese).
Can you share your experience while translating the Learning Hub in Burmese? Did you face any challenges?
Overall, the translation process was a positive learning experience, and we did not encounter many major difficulties. To make sure our translations would match the high UN mappers quality standards and to have a translation that is truly useful and easy to understand we also sought the support of a professional translator who is familiar with GIS and mapping, therefore, we mainly assisted by providing technical guidance and reviewing the translated content to ensure that OpenStreetMap, GIS, and humanitarian mapping terminology was used consistently and accurately. One of the main challenges was finding appropriate Myanmar-language equivalents for technical terms and concepts that do not have widely accepted translations. In these cases, we worked closely with the translator to ensure that the terminology was both technically correct and easy for Myanmar-speaking learners to understand. We also tested some of the tools and workflows described in the Learning Hub to verify that the translated instructions matched the actual user experience.
This collaborative approach allowed us to translate not only the language but also the technical meaning and practical instructions in a way that would be clear and accessible to Myanmar-speaking learners.
Why did you participate in the translation?
As part of the myOSM initiative, we supported the translation of learning resources into Myanmar language to make open mapping knowledge more accessible to local communities. The translation work was carried out with the support of a professional translator, while we provided coordination, technical guidance, and review to ensure that GIS, OpenStreetMap, and humanitarian mapping concepts were accurately communicated in the local context. Helping with the translation also gave us the opportunity to practice and use our english skills for the benefit of the Myanmar OSM community.
Do you also map? If yes, please share your favorite feature or place to map and any tips in mapping.
Yes. Many of us are active OpenStreetMap contributors, with a particular interest in mapping building footprints, settlements, roads, and other important features, especially in areas across the country where existing geographic data is incomplete or outdated.
Our motivation is closely connected to the context of Myanmar. The country faces recurring natural hazards and humanitarian challenges, and the magnitude 7.7 earthquake in 2025 further demonstrated the importance of accurate and up-to-date geographic information. Detailed building, road, and settlement data can support vulnerability assessment, disaster preparedness, damage assessment, emergency response, and search-and-rescue activities.
While we map all over Myanmar to improve the OSM and hoping esp. to create a truly useful basemap for our country, we are particularly fond of mapping remote areas such as Tanintharyi region as well as the towns of Mandalay & Sagaing (which was strongly affected by the 2025 earthquake) and Mawlayine Town (where we were involved in a very detailed urban mapping with a special focus on health facilities).
Our main mapping principle is quality over quantity. We encourage contributors to carefully verify their edits using reliable imagery and available data sources, follow OpenStreetMap community guidelines, apply appropriate tags, and make clear and consistent edits. We also consider data safety, ensuring that sensitive or potentially harmful information is handled responsibly and not mapped in ways that could put individuals or communities at risk. Small, accurate, and well-documented contributions can be more valuable than a large number of inaccurate edits.
Through myOSM, we aim to strengthen local mapping capacity and contribute high-quality open geospatial data that can support humanitarian preparedness, emergency response, and community resilience across Myanmar.