News
Hottie Humberto Yances presents the La Boquilla Project
Humberto Yances has written up his wonderful OSM community work in La Boquilla, and HOT wants to share great work by HOT members (note, this is not a formal HOT project). From an idea, to engagement, to mapping, to distribution, to use, La Boquilla clearly demonstrates what can happen with an open, networked, community based approach. [inline:equipo.jpg]From these evocative beginnings ...
Starting a HOT Activation in Central African Republic
Bangui, la capitale de la République Centrafricaine, a été prise le 24 mars par les rebelles de la Séléka, trois mois après leur arrivée depuis les contrées septentrionales du pays. Dans la mesure où la situation dans la capitale est devenue assez tragique, comme elle l’était déjà depuis quelques temps pour de nombreuses autres villes et villages, il est temps maintenant de démarrer une Activation HOT officielle afin de répondre à cette crise. Dans les lignes qui suivent, je fais un rapide aperçu d’OSM dans le pays et des besoins à combler.
La communauté Dakaroise est rejoint par de nouveaux mappers
Voilà déjà un mois que j’avais quitté Dakar. Sur place, le projet OSM_SN initié par HOT en mai 2012 avait déjà touché de nombreuses...
Senegal : mapping in Saint-Louis is going well and OSM_SN project getting stronger
Après la semaine de formation réalisée au sein de l’Université de Ziguinchor, sujet du dernier blogpost, retour le 28 janvier à Saint-Louis avec Bassirou...
Burundi: maybe a small country, but great opportunities for open data with Eurosha
One Eurosha country we did not talk about so far here (sorry for this) is Burundi, this small but crowded country between DRC, Rwanda and Tanzania. There, Adelina, Alexandra, Anna, Désiré, Gloria, Iolanda and Marion are hosted in Bujumbura, the Capital city, and are lucky to live and work in a big, quite comfortable house called “Le Château” (“the Castle” in French, what is though a bit exaggerated: not so cosy, and more pasta for dinner than game birds...), without actually being hosted by lazy chatelaines, but fierce defenders of the open source and open data causes.[inline:DSC_0231 800x600.jpg]In the country, there was no local mappers, but already some areas traced remotely by foreigners, essentially over Bujumbura, sometimes from old Yahoo imagery.
How to engage with non-spatial partners, feedback from the field in Kenya
When presenting OpenStreetMap to stakeholders who are already engaged in some kind of GIS and mapping activities, the biggest challenge to overcome is usually...
Eurosha in Kenya: making-up and perspectives for the second Hot support
In Kenya, 6 Eurosha volunteers have been deployed since Early October. Caroline, and Hannington from Kenya and Janja, Barbara Lenka, Marine from Europe are all are hosted in Molo by People in Peril Association, a Eurosha partner that works with a Kenyan NGO called NECOFA (Network for Ecofarming in Africa) they fund with the support of Slovak Aid. Necofa acts on various areas in Central Kenya, especially along the Molo River. Necofa’s office in Molo is where the Eurosha volunteers normally works where they do not travel for their outreaching or collecting activities, using then a “matatu", a local minibus, used the rest of time for safaris.
Naissance d'une communauté OSM à Kinshasa
Durant les derniers mois, de nombreux contributeurs à travers le monde ont participé à la cartographie de la RDC suite à l'activation de HOT dans l'est du pays. Grâce à leur support et au Tasking Manager de HOT, des villes et infrastructures importantes dans des régions en crise ont pu être numérisées sur base de l'imagerie Bing malgré le nombre extrêmement réduit de contributeurs actifs à l'intérieur de la RDC.
Mapping for Preparedness in Nepal
Today I bring you a guest post about a great project in Nepal. It comes courtesy of Nama Budhathoki, who is working to help ensure there is better data for disaster planning using OSM in Nepal.Nepal is a beautiful country with eight out of ten highest mountains in the world including Mt Everest. Its capital city has eight UNESCO-listed heritage sites. Nepal is a popular destination for tourists. Recently, several reports have warned that this spectacular nation is at high risks from earthquakes. According to Nepal Risk Reduction Consortium Secretariat, a mega-earthquake—which could occur at any time—is estimated to kill more than 100,000 in the Kathmandu Valley alone, injuring another 300,000 and displacing up to 1 million.
A return to Chad three months after the set up of the EUROSHA mapping team
I just landed in Ndjamena (Chad) for HOT. I am joining again the team of mappers of the EUROSHA Chad project that I helped setting up their activities in N’Djamena and Goré last fall (October/ November – see blog post) in close coordination with ACRA and France Volontaires, HOT’s partners on this project. This is an interesting time for the EUROSHA project
The Openstreetmap_Senegal (OSM_SN) community is expanding to the region of Casamance in Senegal
Suite aux derniers évènements articulants les communautés OSM naissantes à Dakar, Thies, Saint-Louis et Rufisque, la semaine passée fut l’occasion d’un évènement majeur pour...
Syria Activation
Following a request from UN OCHA and SNAP, HOT is activating a remote mapping project in Syria to support humanitarian groups working within the current crisis. This post is intended to introduce the project and to appeal for help from volunteers. HOT has limited experience in working within the Arabic speaking world and we are hopeful that this activation will allow us to broaden our skills base in this area.
OpenStreetMap Usage in Jakarta Flood Response
Days of rain in Jakarta and surrounding areas have caused massive flooding in the region. Today (Friday) the flooding has eased somewhat but thousands of people remain displaced and 11 people have died. A state of emergency has been called until January 27th for Indonesia's capital city.
Animating the OSM Senegal Community
In Dakar, back from Saint-Louis where I have been mostly working animating the OSM SN community in this town harnessing on our partnerships with BantaLabs and University Gaston Berger and reaching out to new partners from NGOs and Governements. Prior getting into details about those intense and rich days for the OSM Project Senegal and its community, I'd like to take a look back at the past weeks since the end of the HOT set up mission of this program by Mid December.
At BarCamp Thies
I spent a week in Dakar preparing with some active mappers of the OSM SN community the attendance of the Thies BarCamp organized by the Senegalese OpenSource movement.
Back to Senegal, Further Creating a Mapping Community
Augustin and I conducted HOT’s third deployment HOT to Senegal 24 November to 15 December, 2012. The main objective: set-up Augustin Doury for five months of volunteering to grow the OSM SN community and to improve the maps of the area. This initiative has been possible with the funding of Fondation de France (FDF) and our partnership with OpenStreetMap France.
