News
Crossing Boundaries by Tracing Buildings: Mapping Kathmandu from New York City"
Throughout the day you could hear the simple question - 'Is that a building?' -- followed by conversations about shadows, and people, and the construction of a city that seemed so far away from our own.
Comprehensive Report on Mali Activation
Early this year, HOT was activated in Mali. Pierre Beland took the lead on this activation, and produced for OCHA this excellent report. Recommended...
State Department Launches Imagery to the Crowd
The State Department Humanitarian Information Unit has launched Imagery to the Crowd![inline:Screen-Shot-2013-04-24-at-2.24.34-PM.png]This is important formal recognition of the partnership we've built over the past couple years. The premise is simple enough. HOT needs current aerial imagery to create up to date maps following a disaster event. The US government acquires that kind of imagery from commercial providers. Sharing the imagery with the OSM community means better maps for responders.
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.
Starting OSM in Cap-Haitien (Haiti)
Ten days that I am back in Haiti to start a new HOT project with USAID in the northern departments of the island with a mixed crew of hotties and Haitian mappers. Over the next three months, we will train 60 Youths from the communities and map with them as much of this region and eventually build there a strong OSM local group rooted in the University of Limonade.
LearnOSM Origin and Relaunch
Today we are excited to announce the relaunch of LearnOSM in conjunction with the MapBox team.LearnOSM was originally envisioned by Jeff Haack, it came out of necessity from HOT's work in Indonesia. There are many training materials for OpenStreetMap, but few that have been designed in a clear way for beginners. Often instructions are buried in a wiki or assume someone already has some indepth technical knowledge.
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...
Tax-Exempt in the United States at Last!
Background
HOT has been incorporated as a non-profit in Washington D.C. since August, 2010. The paperwork was originally done with a simple need in mind, that we wanted to continue to assist with the collection of data and use of OpenStreetMap in Haiti. Since this initial incorporation we have expanded our field work to include 8 countries in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. We have also responded remotely to many kinds of disasters around the world. This week we reached another administrative milestone as a young non-profit incorporated in the United States.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.
Faces of HOT: Emir Hartato, one of HOT´s Indonesian team leaders
Emir Hartato,22, has been working on the HOT Indonesian team since June 2011. During his senior year at the University of Indonesia, Emir (along with Vasanthi) joined HOT as an intern. Kate Chapman, Jeff Haack, Vasanthi Harygono and Emir were the initial four to teach OSM under HOT. He has traveled extensively throughout Indonesia teaching OpenStreetMap to government workers, NGOs and other humanitarian organizations. [inline:emr.jpg]Emir lives in the rainy city of Bogor (outside Jakarta) and enjoys taking elaborate photos. Here is what he has to say about his work with HOT so far:How did you get involved with HOT/OSM?
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.
