News
Indonesian Project Report: Get it while it's HOT
Kate Chapman, with assistance from Emir Hartato, her Indonesian teammate, and editing assistance from members of HOT and AusAID, officially finished the project report for their work earlier in the year (March 2011 to March 2012). The Report: Community Mapping for Exposure in Indonesia details details the initial workshops, key accomplishments, university competitions, and new software, support and resources developed.
Understanding Risk Forum, Mapping Global Risk, July 2-6 2012
The World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Risk and Recovery (GFDRR) organizes the Understanding Risk (UR) Forum every two years. The theme of this...
Out and about in Yogyakarta, Indonesia: An OSM workshop sponsored by the World Bank
My name is Katrina and I am a new addition to the HOT team in Indonesia. My first day of work started out with a morning plane from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, the historic and cultural kingdom of Indonesia. The reason why I call it a kingdom is because it is the only precinct in Indonesia that still contains a king. Unfortunately, Kate, Emir, Vau and I were too busy with the two day workshop to see the king's residences. Hopefully, we can sneak away next time we visit for an intermediate and advanced OSM workshop we will have more time... I would love to map those quarters. The Participants
Return to the training in Saint-Marc, Haiti: mixing generic and specific teaching aid to build strong OSM mapping capacities
Our previous posts about the Saint-Marc, Haiti project did not focus really about the training made there, what was one the main activities as the objectives were both improving the baseline data and buildings strong local mapping capacities. We wish we would have posted this post earlier, but as it deals with a specific documentation whose main version was in French, we had to clean the English original version so that it fits with all the changes we made in the French one throughout the three months of the program.
HOT's first days in Senegal
The first days in Sénégal flew by for the three of us engaged in this intense exploratory mission of HOT in Senegal led by Nicholas Chavent along with Stephane Goldstein and Will Skora.
Finishing off the refugee camp mapping
Last month we asked people to help map refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia.It was an excercise in coordination using the HOT Tasking Manager, but this was initially also an experiment testing out various workflows and organisational interactions as part of a "Camp Roberts" excercise for the acquisition and setting up of imagery. We were working with the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development using special aerial imagery from NextView. They wanted to see how, given this imagery to trace from, our community could map the refugee camps in a short space of time.
OpenStreetMap at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Disaster Simulation
Last year I spent a bitterly cold day in a forest in Massachusetts, witnessing how people who have never experienced a disaster somehow prepare for taking part in a response. Instructive, frightening, and sometimes funny. Jennifer Chan has been bringing information tools into the process, with an Ushahidi instance last year. This year, there was the opportunity to bring OSM into the mix, and Christian Spanring, Kate Chapman, and myself helped to bring some maps together for the sim.
First Use of New Imagery Agreement: Join HOT to Trace Refugee Camps in Kenya and Ethiopia
Over the past year, HOT has been working with the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development to obtain current high-resolution satellite...
Update from HOT's Strategic Planning Meeting
Two weeks ago through a micro-grant from the Wilson Center; the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team board of directors, the Meridian Institute and staff from the Wilson Center met in Washington D.C. The goal of these two days of meetings was to develop a strategic plan for HOT to continue to grow in the next 3-5 years.
Back the First Haitian Creole OpenStreetMap Book!
When the January 2010 Earthquake happened in Haiti the OpenStreetMap community began mapping. We mapped and mapped until OpenStreetMap was the most detailed base map for Port-au-Prince available. In March of that year the handover of the map began. Two years later the handover is not complete, HOT and Community OpenStreetMap Haiti continue to work together coming closer to that day. One very important missing step is having adequate training materials available in Haitian Creole.
Graduation for STM020
On the evening of April 24th there was a graduation for the young people from Saint-Marc who participated in the OSM project. As is customary in Haiti, graduations are an important event. And this one was no different. Among those attending were leaders within USAID, other organizations, and the mayor of Saint-Marc. Many people gave speeches, certificates were dispersed, and there was even a song created by the participants about their experiences.Here is a picture of the mayor of Saint-Marc addressing the program graduates.
Friend Marc-Henry and USAID communicated how pleased they were with the project and the desire to see a program like this happen in the next location.
Washington DC is Nothing... but HOT next week!
Next week the Board of Directors of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is descending upon Washington D.C. for a strategic planning meeting. You may have previously seen an announcement on some of the digital volunteer oriented mailing list. The micro-grant provided by the Wilson Center is providing facilitation and support with help from the Meridian Institute to further refine our mission and goals. Along with this high-level meeting we've used the opportunity to speak at other events in the area. We hope to see you at some of them.
May 2nd 7:00pm-? GeoDC - Crisis Mapping Focused May Meet-up
Coming to a close in Saint Marc
Hey kiddoes!Brian checking in from Saint-Marc. We are in the final throws of the program here. Hard to believe 3 months is wrapping up. Bananas.The team and trainees here has pretty sufficiently mapped the entirety of Saint-Marc. The last week we have been focusing on quality control, and enhancing the data that is already in OSM. Things have been going well with that, the advanced have really stepped up to show their skills.Other than that there has been much council forming and meetings of the active youth members in the forming of COSMHA-STM, which will be the Saint-Marc chapter of the Community OSM Haiti. Appointments and elections have finished, congrats to them.
Finishing Up in Indonesia...for the Moment
Tomorrow marks the end of HOT's pilot to evaluate the use of OpenStreetMap for collection of information for exposure models in Indonesia. As I sit waiting for my flight back to the United States there is a lot of reflect on and to be proud. Of course there are always things to do better or explore further, but overall I feel that the past year has been a success. There is much to continue and further expand.
Accomplishments
The World Bank and Open Maps for Development, I'm Excited
Yesterday the World Bank further committed to open-data on their blog by stating "the World Bank only supports citizen-mapping efforts that give users free...
Creating Sustainable Community Mapping Projects Workshop
Last week I attended a meeting to discuss expanding the community mapping projects using OSM eastern Indonesia, as well as ensuring they are sustainable....