community

The recently concluded GEOdaysIT conference that was held from June 12th to June 17th at the Politecnico di Bari and the University of Bari showcased the potential of Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) and open geospatial information.

From June 7th to June 9th 2023, we organized a three-day mapathon aimed at mapping disconnected roads from the main network in Eastern DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), as a challenge in MapRoulette, a microtask platform for collaborative contribution in OpenStreetMap.

Our Mapper of the Month of July is Pedro André Faria, based in Portugal.  Pedro distinguished himself during the MapRoulette challenge held from June 7th to June 9th, emerging as the winner. His mapping skills were also showcased in 2021 when he secured first place in the UN Map Marathon. Pedro is a highly active member of the community. We asked him some questions about his contributions to the mapping community.

João Pedro de Andrade Eduardo, from Brazil, is our mapper of the month of June 2023. João is a geographer with a master’s degree from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. He has distinguished himself during the “OSM and Humanitarian Mapping” training that was conducted in Portuguese.  Read his story!

Our mapper of the month of May 2023 is Sango Bishiri Narcisse, based in Chad he lives in N'Djamena. He has distinguished himself during the global training that was conducted in French. He mostly maps during his free time; we asked him to tell us his story.

Located in the heart of Yaounde, Cameroon, is the ENSTP (National Advanced School of Public Works). This school provides training for engineers in different fields such as Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Town Planning, Architecture and Land Surveys. The students here are introduced to concepts like topography, geodesy, projections, cartography, GIS and sustainable development. These make the student community in this school a target of high potential as concerns initiation to participative mapping.

Ingrid Reine Fotso Tuedjo is our mapper of the month for April 2023. Ingrid is a student in surveying and topography at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Travaux Publics in Yaoundé. She is enthusiast in all aspects related to GIS. She recently co-organized a training course for the students at her school to introduce OpenStreetMap and approach it with great dedication.

Our mappers of the month for March are Said Turksever and the entire OSM Türkiye community, for the invaluable coordination and mapping work done in the aftermath of the earthquake that hit Syria and Türkiye on the 6th of February 2023. We asked Said to tell us how the coordination was carried out and what were the main challenges faced.

Sajeevini Sivajothy is our Mapper of the month for February 2023. Sajeevini is a Geography student, passionate about GIS, at the Eastern University of Sri Lanka, Batticaloa, who contacted us a few months ago to organise a training course for students at her university. During the training, Sajeevini was very active and committed to the involvement of the participants. We asked her to tell us her story.

Charles Donkor is one of the trainees who actively participated in our recent "OSM and Humanitarian Mapping" training. During the evaluation of the homework required by the training, we discovered that Charles was doing a lot of mapping in his hometown and asked him to share his experience.