Fatmirësisht gjatë 2016ës komuniteti shipfolës i kontribuesve në OpenStreetMap u rrit ndjeshëm dhe vazhdon të rritet çdo ditë. Një progres i tillë ka nevojë dhe për infrastrukturën e nevojshme për vendimarrje, koordinim si dhe bashkëveprim të kontribuesve. Deri tani ky komunikim bëhej pjesërisht nëpërmjet listës së postës elektronike (mailing list) të Open Labs hackerspace ku janë të angazhuar dhe disa anëtare aktiv të hackerspace-it. Tashmë të gjithë kontribuesit e OpenStreetMap, anëtarë ose jo të Open Labs, mund të përdorin infrastrukturën e ofruar nga OSM për të komunikuar dhe diskutuar rreth çësthjeve të komunitetit duke vizituar lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-al. Mendoj që ky është një progres i rëndësishëm për zhvillimin e mëtejshëm të komunitetit tonë në Shqipëri dhe në çdo vend ku ka kontribues Shqipfolës.

Following the positive outcome of the last map-a-thon organized from members of our hackerspace in Tirana, we are already planning the next event where the growing community in Albania will focus on editing OpenStreetMap in Tirana. In addition we will work on the organization of our presence at Software Freedom Kosova Conference in Prishtina in a couple of weeks, where the community will be present with an info booth. By the way if you are at SFK feel free to join my presentation about Wiki Loves Maps, a project very close to my heart. Before starting the map-a-thon we will also talk about Mapillary and its ambassador program.

There is also a Facebook event available here. Join us if you are a new or old contributor. See you at the hackerspace.

Wiki Loves Maps is a project that aims to improve the quality of geoinformation of articles in SQ Wikipedia and to articles in Wikipedia in other languages related somehow to Albania. The project started when some members of Open Labs Hackerspace (located in Tirana) reearched and found out that there are a few articles in Albanian language Wikipedia with coordinates. Secondary goals of the project are also (a) the increase of skills for existing Wikipedia and OSM editors through the improvement of content and (b) cross-involvement of the OpenStreetMap community in Albania with the Wikipedia community.

Personally I consider Wiki Loves Maps very important for the local Wikipedia community since there are not much articles will coordinates at the moment related to point of interest of different cities in Albania. Articles with geoinformation and coordinates get also displayed in mobile applications such as OSMand, which are widely used from tourists worldwide. As part of the project we are planning a number of edit-a-thons inside and outside our hackerspace in Tirana. You can find all the details of the project and ways to get involved here (Albanian article).

OSCAL (Open Source Conference Albania) is the first annual conference in Albania organized to promote software freedom, open source software, free culture and open knowledge, a global movement that originally started more than 25 years ago. The third edition of the conference will take place at 14 May 2016 & 15 May 2016 in Tirana and will gather free once again libre open source technology users, developers, academics, governmental agencies and people who share the idea that software should be free and open for the local community and governments to develop and customize to its needs; that knowledge is a communal property and free and open to everyone.

Members of the OSM community in Albania will host an info-booth and everyone is more than welcome to join the team with the ultimate goal of promoting OpenStreetMap to new contributors. This is the first participation of OSM in a main tech conference and we are planning to have the best possible presence. If you want to join the community at the info booth please apply here. If you are planning to host a workshop or a presentation apply at oscal.openlabs.cc/oscal-2016-call-for-proposals

All the details of the event can be found at oscal.openlabs.cc or send an email at oscal at openlabs dot cc. See you at #OSCAL2016

At Open Labs we wanted to kick off the local OpenStreetMap community in Albania since the first year of [our hackerspace in Tirana] (http://openlabs.cc). For many unknown reasons (aka lack of time) and different this did not happen until [Open Source Conference Albania 2015] (http://oscal.openlabs.cc/2015/meet-the-winners-of-oscal2015-competitions/), where we organized a competition for the best OSM editor of a specific area in Tirana. This was followed by meetups in September and November inside and outside our hackerspace. After the first baby steps I strongly believe that 2016 will be even more intensive and hopefully more OSM contributors will join us. If you want to be part of the community ping us at our [mailing list] (http://openlabs.cc/tools/mailing-list/). Have a look at some of the OpenStreetMap meetups at Open Labs Hackerspace in Albania

Here is for an OSM-er 2016!

Hi everybody,

I’m a newcomer enthusiast focused mainly in editing in Tirana (Albania) and Elbasan (Albania). It seems like there is a greater need for projects like OSM in Albania since foreigners that visit the country, but also locals find it hard to find directions to move around cities.

I really hope to make the first steps for the OMS community in Albania in order to grow the project even more.

Cheers,