Hello and thank you for reading why I’m interested in continuing my service on the OpenStreetMap U.S. board for one more term!

This organization, under the excellent leadership of Maggie Cawley, has been making great strides in supporting our community and open geospatial data. I have been involved in a number of these efforts and would love to have one more appointment to follow through on these projects and help steer OSM U.S. on its path.

Specifically, I’ve been leading the Trails Working Group, a collaboration of OSM mappers, data users and land managers, towards building a better system for trail data that protects our environment and keeps people safe and informed. The Trails Stewardship Initiative is a project I’m passionate about. I am excited to see where it leads OSM U.S. in cooperating with entities that use our data. I am also highly interested in academic connections, such as the opportunity we had to work with data science students at the University of Virginia to help build a tool that will identify where the map is underrepresented. I am also part of the TeachOSM Education Working Group, which is focused on building materials that help teachers bring OSM to their students. OpenHistoricalMap is another space where I see immense growth potential for connections to students given all the data that can be created on that platform.

In last year’s election cycle, I mentioned the following priorities for building connections in the OSM U.S. community and they still hold true:

1. Education Connections – expanding the awareness of OSM among students as something to which they can contribute as well as use as a data source
2. Community Connections – encouraging local groups to engage in OSM to help address their community needs
3. Professional Connections – opening communication with government entities to create symbiotic relationships with OSM

I work at a university library in Denver, Colorado as the resident geospatial data scientist. I also teach as adjunct lecture for our Geography and Environmental Sciences department. In these positions, I have the opportunity to share the wonder of geospatial data that is OSM with the students and faculty with whom I work. My academic position allows me to facilitate access to the OpenStreetMap community, helping students from diverse backgrounds be empowered with open data. My position on the board has allowed me to build connections and structures on the other end of the spectrum of people in the OSM universe and I would like to keep being that glue.

Feel free to explore my earlier position statements to get a sense of who I am. I am happy to answer any questions people may have! I am @fritz on the osmus slack.

I hope to serve the OSM U.S. community well for one more term if I’m reelected.

Cheers, Diane