Photo: Monica May Mendoza, University of the Philippines Resilience Institute
On October 3rd to 5th, 2025, the global State of the Map (SotM) conference was held in Manila, Philippines and remotely. Attended by nearly 350 participants, the conference gathered diverse contributors and open mapping communities from all over the world - mappers, community activists, open source developers, university researchers, and GIS professionals.
The conference provided a space for the open mapping community to exchange ideas, experiences, challenges and learnings on the generation and usage of open geospatial data as well community building. The program included a combination of OSM Science (formerly known as Academic Track), plenary and parallel/breakout sessions, technical and community workshops, and self-organized sessions (Birds of Feather / BoFs). The UN Maps Crowdsourcing Team organized a UN Mappers presentation onsite and a JOSM Workshop online.
UN Mappers: Building a Community of Mappers to Support Peace with OpenStreetMap
Photo: OpenStreetMap Italia
In Manila, Arnalie Vicario, UN Mappers' Community Engagement Specialist, shared updates about the UN Maps Programme and the UN Mappers community through a parallel session. She shared about the recent UN Mappers mapping and community activities including the co-creation of the ongoing UN Mappers Ambassadors and Chapters. The recording will soon be available via https://2025.stateofthemap.org/.
Introduction to JOSM and some plugins
Online, Michael Montani, UN Mappers' Community Engagement Coordinator, hosted a beginner workshop about the JOSM editor including basic plugins and advanced features that makes it different from iD Editor. The latest tested version of JOSM can be found here: https://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/Download.
State of the Map 2026: Paris, France
During the closing session, it was announced that the next global State of the Map conference will be coming to Paris, France on 28-30 August 2026. More information: https://www.openstreetmap.fr/le-state-of-the-map-2026-aura-lieu-a-paris/
We can't wait to meet you there again!
Our gratitude and how to reach us
Photo: Joshua Baranda | Yugto Live
Our experience in the State of the Map 2025 was inspirational. We once again met and celebrated with OpenStreetMap enthusiasts in-person and online. Our heartfelt appreciation to the dedicated SotM 2025 volunteers and organizers,sponsors, participants, and the local venue hosts and services who made this conference a success!
As we continue to grow and sustain the UN Mappers community and UN Maps' offerings, we invite open data and OSM contributors to co-create with us on building the open mapping community and the open geospatial database. Reach us through email un.mappers@un.org and/or via our social media accounts.