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!