It took us 2 years, and 22 days but it’s now “complete.” 😉

Well, at least, all the published tasks has been completely reviewed, resulting in 39,129 mapped schools out of the 39,966 tasks. An additional 837 tasks has also been reviewed but was deemed unverifiable, or needed further information.

The school dataset was informally released to the OSM-PH community in 2013 but languished in the pipeline because of a murky data license until official permission to use it with OpenStreetMap was obtained in 2016. Even with that out of the way, it still needed tons of work before it was ready for use.

In October 2019, the cleaned-up dataset was made into a MapRoulette challenge, as a practical mapping exercise for MapAmore’s mentoring program for NSTP volunteer students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ campus in San Juan City.

However, a few months after we started, the coronavirus pandemic ensued, and we were unable to pursue the mentoring program, or face-to-face mapathons. Thankfully, a wider OSM community took up the slack.

School data in OSM

At the end of 2018, there were 16,445 Philippine schools in the OSM database. Today it has grown 284%, at 46,638 schools, and most are mapped as polygons, with additional attributes added, thanks to information provided by the Department of Education.

You can download the Philippine school dataset using this Overpass query.

So, how was it?

Apart from the obvious, that is mapping the schools themselves, the effort positively impacted OpenStreetMap in the country, and has substantially improved the fundamental quality of the local OSM database (e.g. routing for navigation, place names, and schools, of course). The schools became effective proxies of previously un-mapped settlements in the Philippines. Many contributors has added other features, including remote sitios (hamlets) and purok (zones), local parks, gyms – even flagpoles! – while working on their respective OSMaPaaralan tasks.

OSM in the Philippines now has the most comprehensive open dataset for schools, with more accurate geographic locations verified through up-to-date aerial imagery. Most school buildings, as well as surrounding highways has been mapped, too.

We have learned that direct engagements through mapathons is a fun and fast way of completing a large number of tasks, and investing in quality training is paramount to ensuring quality output.

We also observed that using RapId instead of regular iD allowed us to maximize our investments in training, and tap the power of artificial intelligence detection of road networks.

It also goes to say that “deadlines” won’t always work. In the beginning, I projected the project’s completion within 12 months, with regular mapathons from our NSTP mentoring program, and the contributions of the general community, but the corona virus way-laid those plans.

In the end, the Pareto Principle (aka the “80/20 rule”) held true: a smaller group of people contribute the most number of features. In our case, from the pool of 1,577 usernames who’ve added at least one Philippine school in OSM, a handful of contributors were responsible for 79.74% of total schools added.

All contributions, of course, are valuable. This understanding is important if you’re embarking in any similar effort, to learn why these mappers are motivated (altruism, personal goals, ideologies, etc.) and how to effectively work with them.

Thank you!!

Our warmest thanks to everyone who mapped a school in the Philippines – and those people and orgs external to OSM who supported (venue hosts, snack donors, Internet service support, your kind words) us ! 😍

Just for fun, here’s a wordcloud of usernames who has mapped at least one school in the country:

radikal ang mag-mah̶a̶l̶pa

* Auto-magically generated using wordclouds.com using weighted usernames based on OSM data count of schools contributed. A high-res version of this image is available here.

What’s next?

We’re excited with what’s possible with the data:

• Next year, we’re having a national general elections, and apps could leverage this dataset in assisting (new) voters to find their respective polling precincts.
  • the feedback could be useful for adding missing, or mislocated schools, too
• It would be easier for local authorities to update their disaster preparedness plans, since schools in our country are often designated or utilized as a shelter during emergencies.
• There are still over 4,000 unpublished tasks (because of issues with their provided geographic locations – missing, invalid, or improbable) and we are planning to make these available soon. Perhaps, as a monthly project to tackle at the province level.
• We’ve requested Education department to release additional datasets for schools created after 2012, and informed them of the improved version available in OSM.
• Or, somebody from the local community might come up with a different project altogether!

MapComplete is a simple editor for OpenStreetMap, with the goal of making it easy for anyone to contribute by focusing on specific themes. This is especially helpful for short mapping activities, where we couldn’t spend too much time on the editing tool itself, but would like to get the mapping going. Recently, Pieter posted a diary entry to celebrate the 500th MapComplete contributor to OpenStreetMap.

Celebrating OSM’s 13th anniversary back in 2017 with a mapathon along with the local fire department (with hot coffee and fresh bread)

The #HailHydrant mapping started as a quick MapContrib project in 2017, while visiting a city in southern Philippines, and dropping by some local fire department to chat about OSM.

Chatting about OSM with local firemen, over coffee.

Since MapContrib has grown long in the tooth, and after discovering the joys of #CycloFix, I was inspired to revive it after a participant from last year’s Pista ng Mapa conference posted one of the stickers they received from the organizers:

A #HailHydrant sticker from the 2020 Pista ng Mapa conference

Creating a theme is not as straight-forward as creating a MapContrib project, but Pieter and the other folks in the MapComplete Telegram channel are helpful and supportive, and today the HailHydrant theme is now one of selectable themes you can choose.

Give #HailHydrant a try: https://mapcomplete.osm.be/hailhydrant, and feel free share it with folks who are new to OpenStreetMap and are keen to map hydrants, extinguishers, fire stations or ambulance stations.

Remember, there are many other themes to try that might tickle your interest, or start creating your own: https://mapcomplete.osm.be

For feedback, or concerns about MapComplete or the themes, you can file a ticket here.

Many places around the world right now are experiencing community lock downs to help mitigate the spread of CoVid-19. Non-essential travel is restricted or banned, including even exercising outdoors.

That’s our new normal here in the Philippines, especially those villages, towns, and cities in Luzon under “community quarantine”, or the more restrictive “enhanced community quarantine”, in other words we are staying at home as much as possible, and most us are online doing many other things, trying to keep our minds of from worrying.

In fact, I recently enrolled to an online language course, to brush up on my Nihonggo, which I took up many years ago, but never really got to use except, for my perfect “Wakarimasen” replies. 😉

Last week, the OSM community in the Philippines kicked of a re-formatted MapaTime initiative. In our previous normal, MapaTime events are mapathon sessions held in venues where people physically gather to contribute, learn, map, exchange ideas about specific themes, or initiatives. It’s a term we use, instead of the jargon “mapathon” which many people may not understand, based on feedback we received from past sessions.

This initiative is referred to as “WeMap”, a portmanteau of “Wednesdays MapaTime” , where we plan to organize sessions every Wednesday night, hoping to reach out to online volunteers who are keen to contribute to positive efforts, with tangible outcomes during the lock down.

The “pilot episode”

Last week, the MapaGaling campaign by the Ministry of Mapping was featured, where participants were taught how to contribute to OSM using MapContrib, and mapping local healthcare facilities that they know of: hospitals, clinics, doctors, pharmacies, etc. MapContrib is perfect for new mappers, with a very friendly and almost intuitive interface.

Most of the participants were from the capital region,but we had a sprinkling of participants from elsewhere, and this showed up in the edits that occurred during that period, when we encourage participants to map the favorite neighborhoods they’re familiar with.

There’s a genuine interest for healthcare-related efforts, and that was made apparent by the ~77 volunteers who attended that night:

What’s next?

This coming Wednesday, together #WeMap for the MAPampanga campaign of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team in the Philippines, to map infrastructure essential to disaster preparedness and response in the province.

For your convenience, we recommend using a computer with a mouse, to maximize your potential for learning the iD editor during the webinar.

Together #WeMap for Pampanga this Wednesday, 1st April, 19:30 (UTC+8).

We’re keen to hear from fellow contributors – new and old, while we map together during the session. Details about the session is available here: is.gd/dox14p

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I hope you continue to look after yourself, and look out for one another. Take care and stay safe.

Last Saturday, we gathered together OSM enthusiasts and humanitarian volunteers for Open Data Day with MapaTime! in SLU Baguio event - the first mapathon event hosted by Saint Louis University, and their very first Open Data Day Celebration. We are pleasantly surprised with the turnout of 30 plus participants, apart from SLU’s own students, we have guests from the University of Baguio next door, and 3 participants from Divine Word College of Vigan, and traveled 130 kilomters for 7-hours just to MapaTime! We even have representatives from a local NGO involved in disaster preparedness and response.

Arch. Tabangin of the SLU School fo Engineering and Architecture welcomes everyone to the GIS & Simulation Lab.

We started the program with a short background on Open Data, and the value it brings to the community, local governments, NGOs, researchers, and for humanitarian action, especially disaster preparedness. Thereafter, introduced the community’s OSMaPaaralan public school validation project and how said efforts can improve the quality of open data and OpenStreetMap, plus the practical value of mapping them accurately.

We set the minimum goal of mapping all available schools tasks in Baguio City, which the volunteers successfully completed within the activity, plus more:

Most of the users are new to OpenStreetMap, so they were introduced to RapiD, but technical issues with the network impelled us to switch to standard iD instead. During the workshop, I was pleased to make the acquaintance of several active contributors in the region, whom I found through the Active OSM Contributors layer of disaster.ninja.

All-in-all, together with another Open Data Day event happening in Manila, 250 kilometers away, and led by OSM-PH community enthusiasts we managed to map over 250 schools, typically equivalent to a month’s worth of edits.

We are very grateful to Professor Donna Tabangin of the SLU School of Engineering and Architecture, for making all the necessary local arrangements, and hosting us in their GIS & Simulation Lab. Thank you, too, to Mr. RIc Saturay of the Philippine Science High School Cordillera Campus, for linking us up.

Thank you for the PHancit OSMph!

Not only did we map schools, added roads, and improved the maps of their favorite neighbourhoods, MapaTime! sa SLU Baguio also contributed to the Hinelaban Foundation for the re-forestation efforts in Mt. Kitanglad, Bukindon

We even got to demo and collect sample street-level imagery for Mapillary, which some participants thought are relevant for projects they hope to undertake soon.

A “formal” group photo for remembrance.

Also, we made sure everyone knows about the Pista ng Mapa conference we’re hatching.

Agyamanak dika, Baguio!

We’re calling on OpenStreetMap, open data, and mapping enthusiasts in Baguio City to join us this Saturday, 7th March at Saint Louis University, to Celebrate Open Data Day, and to showcase the power of regular citizens doing extra-ordinary things.

Check out the poster below, for details.

Please save your free spot, and RSVP at: https://ti.to/mapatime/slu-osmapaaralan

See you there!

Last Thursday, on the first day of August, the inaugural Pista ng Mapa conference officially welcomed participants to the wide and green spaces of Foundation University in Dumaguete, Philippines. It was two-and-a-half days of mappiness for the 166 participants who gathered to celebrate Open data (especially, geodata) and Free software with local mapping communities in the Visayas region.

It was awesome to see the enthusiastic number we’re able to gather, but it was more pleasing to note their diversity. We didn’t ask for our participants’ gender in our registration, but this group photo shows that no particular gender group eclipsed the other.

2019 Pista ng Mapa group photo. © 2019. Neyzielle Ronnicque Cadiz.

If you’ve ever been to a Filipino festival, then you may have some idea how it’s like: noisy, tummy-filling, plenty of good stuff to be had, and a great time to party with old and new friends.

Everyone had a great fest. There were plenty of opportunities to learn from each other and to sample a good number of technologies, applications, and software, and yet, many still groaned about the conference not being long enough: there was not enough time to digest all of the new ideas they were getting before they’re already off for the next workshop. Between that, we’d have folks already asking when the next Pista is going to happen.

While the conference focused on local initiatives and concerns, friends from Indonesia, Singapore, and Canada gave the gathering an international flavor.

By the numbers

• 166 participants
• 34 presentations (Keynote: 2, Plenary sessions: 8, Workshops: 15, Lightning talks: 9)
• 3 Tapok-tapok (breakout) sessions
• 28 volunteers
• 7 sponsors
• 1 official social event, plus a few unofficial ones
• 3 drone flights (check them out on OpenAerialMap)
• 4 mapathons (the largest had 63 participants )
• 91 fire stations added in the Central Visayas region
• 1 local community field work
• Countless possibilities!

New community-initiative - Tabang-AI

Adityo of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team leading a mapathon using MapWithAI tools. © 2019. Emmanuel Sambale.

One of the mapathons hosted during the conference was led by HOTOSM, and ably demonstrated the potentials of AI-assisted mapping for enhancing the abilities of new contributors, while they are learning to interpret imagery, as well as improve the quality of their contributions. Experienced mappers can also benefit from the AI boost.

This ties well with the OSMph goal to reach out to the countryside, and grow enthusiasts and users, as well as help local stakeholders develop their baseline data.

Details and updates about this initiative may be found in the Tabang-AI repository.

Trivia: Tabang-AI is a word play on tábangay, a Cebuano word for helping each other or collaboration.

Daghang salamat kaayo!

Cebuano is the lingua franca in our host city, Dumaguete, and “Daghang salamat kaayo” means “thank you very much”.

Special thanks goes out to all of our 28 volunteers from the local OpenStreetMap, OSGeo/FOSS4G, and map-py communities, the organizing team, 7 sponsors, and everyone who contributed by supporting our volunteers by the sidelines.

Photos and Workshop Videos

Pictures from the conference were taken by the awesome Documentation Team of Foundation University. We will be updating this post, as soon as the stills and videos are available. Find some on social media with the #PistaNgMapa hashtag!

Meanwhile, below is a short clip of some of the conference highlights:

A copy is also available on YouTube.

Pista ng Mapa 2020!

Are you keen to support the next Pista ng Mapa? We already received some expressions of interest, and received many calls to run another Pista ng Mapa conference next year, to serve the countryside.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, drop us an email.

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Updates

We will be updating this post for links to the conference decks and materials that will be made available to the participants and the public.

The Philippines is known for our thousands of colorful, loud, and fun fiestas (festivals) we celebrate yearly. Our Fiestas can be religious, cultural, or both and are marked by religious activities, parades, cultural rituals, trade fairs, exhibits, concerts, pageants and various games and contests. There’s always one thing, or another, reason to celebrate.

The reality of that of the Philippine open mapping community is that many (if not most) of the community activities happen in the capital region, Metro Manila. It is not that we don’t have contributors but outside of our metropolis, they are less organized and thinly spread out across our 7,641 islands.

In 2016, when advocates from the local OpenStreetMap and FOSS4G community organized the State of the Map Asia conference in Manila, many of us were inspired in organizing a similar, major event but with a more local flavor, targeting local enthusiasts and participants.

Finally, in January this year, we’ve gathered enough map-py friends who committed to organizing a one-day conference and delivering workshops, as long as we can find a suitable venue. We didn’t have any specific place in mind, but we’re pretty sure it won’t be anywhere in Manila.

What started as a dreamy conversation between friends who committed to facilitating a few topics to fit a small, one-day conference back in January, has expanded to three days, with three workshop tracks, and more volunteers jumping in to lead or facilitate workshops and panels. Whew!

We are pleased to announce the first Pista ng Mapa conference in the Visayas, in the city of gentle people, Dumaguete:

“Pista ng Mapa” (English: Festival of Maps) is envisioned to celebrate the success of open data and maps in the country, especially in the fields of community development, transport, and humanitarian action. It aims to encourage diverse participation and stimulate the growth of vibrant hyper-local contributors’ communities outside the capital region by providing free access to talks, technical workshops, and panel discussions.

We are excited to work with Foundation University, one of Dumaguete City’s pioneer in private education and leader in I.T., who will be hosting the three-day event this August. The free workshops are open to the public, and made possible by our generous sponsors: Kaart Group, Mapbox, HIVOS, Mapillary, Grab, and UAV4GEO.

We know that there’s already a growing number of contributors from this region, and I hope that this would be an opportunity to finally meet many of you in real life, as well as learn from each other. We have workshops topics that include sessions that don’t expect any previous OpenStreetMap or GIS experience, and therefore newcomers are very welcome indeed.

We can accommodate more people during the plenary talks and panel sessions, but our hands-on workshops are limited by the computer laboratory facilities.

Hurry, and reserve for your free slot from our event registration site!

The LRT2 light-rail line that runs from Recto to Santolan in Marikina allows riders to bring their folding bikes (only in the last coach, and only up to 4 folded bikes per train)

Yesterday’s Marikina City Mapping Party is the first field mapping activity organized by MapaTime! - and our first activity for the 2019. Also, the last the local OpenStreetMap community organized such an activity was back in 2016. This time, we also encouraged people to bring their bikes (or skateboards, and kick scooters)

The early Sunday ride was pleasant, and the coaches barely full

And because I missed the earlier train, I was late for the 06:30 breakfast briefing. Our early birds: Gillian, Ruby, Rap - all first timers, we’re already asking in the Telegram channel about where everyone is. They got Mapillary schwags (tees, phone holders) for coming in early!

Breakfast briefing on OpenStreetMap and FieldPapers

As soon as we had enough people, I gave a short introduction to OpenStreetMap and guidelines on how (easy it is) to use FieldPapers. We then had breakfast, and gave the stragglers a few more minutes.

FieldPapers Atlas of the area of interest

All-in-all, we had 14 people who showed up. Some were students (the youngest participant is a university froshie), a number of people work for government agencies who are interested in utilizing OSM, and three others who are from the private sector, checking out how OSM might be used in their business.

The team who dubbed themselves as “Walkerz” were assigned to work on grids along two major roads using FieldPapers.

Team Walkerz photos. © 2019. Arnalie Vicario.

Meanwhile, the cyclists, “Team Padyak” divided the surrounding areas into 4 large quadrants and collected street-level imagery using Smartphones + Mapillary or Action Cameras.

A very brief briefing for Team Padyak

(Disclosure: Actually, that’s “all cyclists except for one” - I went home, excited to upload the collection, only to find a memory card with three useless photos :roll_eyes: As penance for my sins, I woke up early today and went around my city to fill-in the street-level photo blanks. :biking_man: )

Team Padyak - the cycling team collected photos using Mapillary (and some Walkerz photo-bombing us. :rofl:

And off we went to our own assignments. Later, we met up in another location for lunch, and shared about individual experiences, including tips about how they went about their assignments.

Bunny and Ruby, sharing experiences and showing some of the photos they collected on their Mapillary app.

And we continued our conversations over lunch, discussed future plans, and generally had fun for this month’s MapaTime!

The following group photo was taken after the field work, and everyone still looks fresh !

I hope everyone else enjoyed the activity - I know I did! Looking forward to meeting you all again in our next MapaTime! session.

… or maybe just Nemo then. ;)

Road data are essential for most maps, whether they’re used for tourism, navigation, or business - but especially critical in emergency response. Our project goal is to validate and map the road network that connect settlements and residential areas for the country, and make this open data available to all through OpenStreetMap.

Together with contributors from the local community, including the enthusiastic volunteers of the PUPSJ CWTS++ program, we’ve completed or made head-way in some regions in the recent past.

Utilzing the ImproveOSM tools, contributors were able to validate, identify, and map, the potential missing roads in the countyr some months back, with technical and logistical support from Kaart.

The Philippines, compared to neighboring countries visualized from ImproveOSM’s iD editor.

We’ve recently updated our GIS analysis of available data, and refreshed our Philippine tasks :

• Luzon
• Visayas
• Mindanao

We’re also introducing a new validation approach for spotting potential missing roads and make them easier for beginners and experienced mappers alike, regardless whether they’re using iD or JOSM. >

With this, we hope to continue improving local open map data, working along-side contributors from various local communities.

On average, Philippine road data increase is usually < 2%. Between July and October, we contributed to bumping this up by 3%

Start mapping the missing roads of your favorite neighborhood, or your home town - or surprise yourself by allowing the tasking manager to pick a task for you randomly. Head over to the HOT Tasking Manager, or use this short link to jump to our project: https://pygy.co/PHroads

P.S. Last screenie is from the awesome Map Metrics tool of the ImproveOSM project: https://metrics.improveosm.org/

I participate in the PUPCWTS++ initiative as a mentor for volunteers undertaking their National Service Training Program, collaborating with a the San Juan campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

One of our program objectives is to provide the participants with a better appreciation for spatial data, and the same time, provide them with digital mapping skills, by contributing to other open data projects. We also would like to impart the value of volunteerism in them, and what it takes to become (digital) humanitarians.

Back in June, before we started, this is how the Philippines looked like with ImproveOSM:

And today, this is how the country looks, compared to the rest of southeast Asia:

Apart from missing roads, they also work on mapping communities in many parts of the Philippines, especially around Lake Sebu in Mindanao, as well as mapping their own neighborhoods in Metro Manila, where they live, using a variety of open tools: FieldPapers, JOSM, and capturing street-level imagery usng Mapillary or OpenStreetCam.

They also hone their skills by working on other tasks, like a number of road network improvement we have in Kaart, and contributed to recent disaster response tasks in Laos, India, Japan, and various projects in Africa.

It is a delight to tell you that our young volunteers work on most of these tasks using their own time, outside the classroom setting. Our classroom sessions are dedicated to learning new skills or techniques, and to discuss issues encountered, or to exchange feedback.

I thought of adding a group photo, but realized that we never had taken the time to pose for a good group picture. :D)

If you see a #pupsjcwts hashtag in a changeset comment, it would be if you could leave them some constructive feedback.

Cheers,

It’s been almost a week since I got back from Davao, but I’ve yet to write anything down about the OpenStreetMap activities we had there. So, here’s a quick round-up:

“Open Source Mapping” with Tambayan Center

“Is the Bermuda Triangle for real?”

This is the most interesting question I got from this workshop!

This mapping project was in the pipeline since the middle of 2017 when Tambayan Center sent me a query over email, and it just happened that I was also in Davao at that time. I dropped-by (and, of course, mapped ) their office to get their feet wet about OSM, and maps in general, and listen to details of what they’re trying to do. Tambayan Center is a long-standing NGO operating in Davao and working mostly with concerns and rights of young people, and their communities.

Breaking ~~bread~~ ice cream and chips with the Tambayan Center team during my last visit

It was fun working along-side Jen, and engage a younger set of volunteers (ages: 11-18) with a fresh style. She’s a passionate mother, and advocates for womens’ rights in various ways, apart from working with geo-stuff.

Tambayan Center workshop activities: Editing, Field work, Community validation, Fun

Expect a more detailed write-up soon. Right, Jen? I’m looking forward to seeing that. I hope you do, too.

Mapping with OpenStreetMap x Ateneo de Davao University

Mr. Glenn Depra of Ateneo de Davao University organized a workshop for faculty members of the university, with their Social Research Training and Development Office hosting the affair. This was originally intended as a workshop that would be made open to the public, but due to last minute hitches, we decided to defer offering it for another time.

The workshop included a general coverage of available (Free software), editing tools, data collection , and how to make use of OSM data, including Q&A segments for specific concerns.

Some of the participants were also from a group people Maning Sambale met during a mapping party back in 2009. They are surprised to find out that many of major map features added on OSM stems back from that mapping party made almost 9 years ago.

The Ateneo community is enthusiastic about helping promote OpenStreetMap (and Open data) not just for their academic pursuits, but also to engage other communities and organizations in Davao.

Instant meet-up with a local mapper

With my luggage in tow, coming in late from another meeting, and off to another afterwards.

Whenever I’m tramping about, I try to connect with local mappers, and chat about maps, open data, and free software. Of course, this often leads to (hours of) talking about so many other things. It’s good meeting you, Alex, and I hope we’d see you in another workshop soon.

Yesterday, a unit of the Social Welfare Department organized and hosted MapaBabae - an OpenStreetMap workshop for Women, with Women - in their central office in Quezon City, to mark Women’s Month, and to introduce OSM as a tool for mapping, and to promote the value of diversity and inclusiveness in any community.

Kudos to the organizers for a refreshing take of mapa-thons, and the interesting discussion about language, empowerment, the potentials of open data in their work.

Jen, draws inspiration from the local Geo Ladies first (and only?) meet-up from 2014

As with other mapping activities, they also learned and edited maps of their communities. However, I found the discussions, and questions, more interesting.

A notable query was: “what’s the tag for baby feeding rooms?” I did a quick search, and to my surprise (and dismay), there’s no accepted convention. And yet, a proposal for baby_care was made in 2015.

I wish to see (and hope to support) more outreach activities to encourage diverse participation, and with more people organizing thematic mapping activities, to help map the communities they live in, work with, or simply because they love to map. The challenge of gender and language (and even the use of “mapa-thon”) as a possible discouragement to mapping was eye-opening.

Helping change the ratio. 17:24

There are a few more photos here.

Happy to see folks from various communities coming together to celebrate ODD with us.

Last Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Open Data Day 2018 in PUP San Juan, with several volunteers from OpenStreetMap Philippines and the local FOSS4G chapter facilitating the parallel workshop sessions we ran.

We mark Women in History month with a beginners’ workshop led by the P̶o̶w̶e̶r̶p̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶G̶i̶r̶l̶s̶ awesome ladies of the OpenStreetMap volunteer community 😹: > > B̶u̶t̶t̶e̶r̶c̶u̶p̶ Jen (left), B̶u̶b̶b̶l̶e̶s̶ Feye (middle), and B̶l̶o̶s̶s̶o̶m̶ Gellie (right). Photo © 2018. Feye Andal.

For intermediate users, we offered a session on Geopandas, and another for Adjusting Imagery Offsets and alignments: > RK (left) during the Geopandas session, and Rally on Imagery Offsets

Meanwhile, the unconference session included a couple of lightning talks, and several impromptu ones that made the discussions more lively and interesting: > Marx facilitating the open discussion on Open Data and DRR unconference. > (P.S. Don’t mind that object on the floor)

We had students, NGO workers and volunteers, academics, developers, and GIS specialists. We had a good mix of community enthusiasts, private sector representatives, and some civil servants.

We have a number of participants who traveled quite a ways to participate.

Aaron from the Peace Corps is working with the local government of Carigara in Leyte, and he’s been supporting the municipal DRRM office in their effort to comprehensively map their town. He travelled a few days ahead of a scheduled trip to Manila, to join the activity.

Pierre showcases their activities in the YouthMappers chapter of the FEU Insititute of Technology.

Martin is flying out of the country that same evening but decided to “drop-by” and participate in the event. His work on LIDAR and his experience with open data, contributed a lot during the unconference discussions.

Ayoo did an impromptu demonstration of WebSafe, as a response to a question from an unconference participant. He used to work with Project NOAH, as a developer of Websafe.

There are many others who selflessly shared their time with us. We’re grateful you came over. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.

A special shout-out goes to the crew of volunteers from the university who provided general assistance throughout the event:

More photos from the event are now online.

The Free Software and Open Data advocates of Manila is going to celebrate international Open Data Day 2018 on March 3, Saturday with an afternoon of Open Mapping workshops in San Juan Campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philppines, in Metro Manila.

The event is open to everyone, with parallel activities available, depending on your experience and interest:

• [Workshop] Introduction to Open Mapping with OpenStreetMap
• [Workshop] Intermediate+ Mapping on JOSM
• [Unconference] Open (geo)Data for Disaster Preparedness and Resiliency.

In the beginner’s workshop, a computer laboratory will be available for your use. Limited seats are available.

In the intermediate workshop, participants are required to bring their own laptops, with JOSM already installed. This workshop is intended for participants with some JOSM experience.

No computers are necessary for the unconference. Just bring some enthusiasm, and an open mind.

Registration is free. Just head over here to get your free ticket: https://ti.to/mapamore/odd2018

Refreshments and swags are to be given away, for registered participants.

The areas surrounding Mayon volcano is still in Alert Level 4, which means an imminent hazardous eruption is expected.

https://tasks.hotosm.org/project/4037

We’d like to share the progress of the hard-working humanitarian volunteers who has already mapped 91% of Mayon’s Extended Danger Zone 0. Last week, volunteers also completely mapped Mayon’s Permanent Danger Zone 1. We’d like to especially acknowledge the big mapping boost we got from the DevSeed data team from Peru.

The southern section of the EDZ, considered as high priority because of the settlements within, are now 100% complete, and validated.

For interested parties, the data from OpenStreetMap may be extracted immediately using the HOT Export Tool, and this export 2 in particular, which conveniently provides data in ESRI shape file, as routable maps for Garmin devices, and for offline use with smartphone apps (OsmAnd, and Maps.Me) This export may be re-run, to refresh the extract. It may also be cloned, and customized for your own needs.

Thank you for doing your best.

Very active mapping activity around Mayon, in the last several days.

We are grateful for the help extended by very dedicated mappers all around the globe, for helping map the Permanent Danger Zone around Mayon. This has been 100% validated today.

Mt. Mayon is still a looming threat for many towns and small settlements in its vicinity, and we have an on-going mapping project to map the Extended Danger Zone. And because of the positive response from the community, we’re now halfway done, and would welcome extra helping us to make this complete as soon as possible.

Kudos to Maning Sambale for initiating this activity, to make available Free and Open geodata to local governments and humanitarian organizations for their disaster management planning, and response.

Thank you.

Mt. Mayon ash plume. Photo credits: unknown.

Mayon, the Philippines most active volcano, with 48 historical eruptions is restive. Over the weekend, tremors, lava fountaining, and lava collapse events has been noted. Government volcanologists report that “relatively high level of unrest as magma is at the crater and hazardous eruption is possible within weeks or even days.”

The authorities has prohibited the public from entering the 6 kilometer-radius Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ), and the 7-km Extended Danger Zone (EDZ) on the southern flanks “due to the danger of rockfalls, landslides and sudden explosions or dome collapse that may generate hazardous volcanic flows.”

Yesterday morning, we appealed for help to map the 6-kilometer Permanent Danger Zone of Mayon, and the community responded quickly. Today, it’s been 100% mapped, 57% validated (and still on-going). Thank you! The names of the generous mappers may be found in the project dashboard.

Mayon Permanent Danger Zone (PDZ): 100% mapped. 57% validated.

Today, a new project to map the 7-kilometer Extended Danger Zone (EDZ) around Mayon has been published: https://tasks.hotosm.org/project/4037 and we are again appealing for some of your precious time, and valued mapping skills, to map the EDZ. Most especially the priority tasks in the southern quadrant, where there are a number of villages and settlements.

https://tasks.hotosm.org/project/4037

Again, this is preemptive mapping activity to assist local government agencies and aid organizations to support future damage assessment. We call on the digital humanitarian community for their assistance for this project.

On-going humanitarian mapping around Mt. Mayon, Albay, Philippines

This morning, barely 12 hours ago, the OpenStreetMap volunteers from the Philippines set up a task to map an area threatened by the restive Mt. Mayon.

And the global community of digital humanitarians quickly responded: > >48% mapped. 7% validated.

We’re not done yet, but we wish to acknowledge everyone who quickly responded to our call. Thank you, folks. You’re awesome - and you know it. ;)

If you have some minutes to spare, we still have a little over half to complete: https://tasks.hotosm.org/project/4027

Last week, we shared a a tasking project to update missing highways in Metro Manila 0 in the local mailing list. We’ve also published a few more tasks to cover adjacent provinces:

• Rizal
• Bulacan
• Cavite
• Laguna
• Pampanga
• Batangas
• Quezon

The data is not perfect, and you may even encounter false positives, but it’s pretty good with pointing out a good number of missing roads in essential areas that local mappers have yet to digitize.

These are all part of the on-going initiatives by Kaart, to make awesome data for PH, and help grow local mapping communities.

If you’re keen on improving the map of your home town or province, and they’re not on this list yet, please let me know so I can put them up sooner rather than later, and we can work together in filling-in gaps in your favorite neighborhoods.

How about a mapa-thon soon? I’m planning to organize one, primarily to work on these tasks, and for the community to meet each other, and maybe welcome new ones. Would you folks have any suggestions, or is your org interested in collaborating? Let me know.

See all the Missing Highways tasks in PH. Do email me for any concern, or other questions, about these tasks.

Earlier today, we (belatedly) celebrated Geoweek 2017 with students from the University of San Carlos of Talamban, Cebu. Many thanks to Ms. Rose Lapad (Cebuano Studies Center) and Ms. Lalia Labajo (Chairperson, Department of Anthropology, Sociology and History) for accommodating the mini workshop to introduce OpenStreetMap to their students.

We were able to do basic editing with iD, work with the Tasking Manager, and capture a few Mapillary imagery of the campus, plus the usual Q&As for beginners. >Group photo of participants of the Geoweek micro-workshop. © 2017, Debra Ouano. >

Also, as a short, half-hour mapping exercise, we digitized the features of a remote settlement near the Abuno river, in the city’s outskirts, > Screen-grab from the Tasking Manager managed by Mapbox >

Screen-grab of the AOI from the JOSM editor

Digital humanitarians at work. Results of remote mapping a remote neighborhood in Cebu

A few early ones, joined the Mapillary imagery collection demo session. > Participants from the optional, Mapillary session. (ɔ) 2017, Erwin Olario >

A group-fie. (ɔ) 2017, Erwin Olario

Mapillary screen-grab, showing imagery collected in University of San Carlos, Talamban Cebu

Thank you Carolinians! I hope to see more mapping activities in your neighborhoods soon.