It all started with a dream. A dreamer from Nepal once dreamt of visiting some foreign country and attending an international conference. After years of his contribution and devotion to open data and mapping, he finally gets the call for State of the Map, Italy but unfortunately, he couldn’t make his way to Firenze, Italy because he only received partial funding. He consoled himself that his time will come-may be not today but someday. Eventually, there was a call for sponsorship by Open Mapping Hub, Asia Pacific(OMHAP). The dreamer then waives new dream of fitting himself in for the STATE OF THE MAP 2022 Conference happening in Legazpi, Philippines.

“If you want something you never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.” As the statement says, the boy was totally indulged in finding ways to attend the conference and was ready to give everything this time. He chose to digitize the projects launched by OMHAP. And he was willing to do something he had never done before. He usually mapped 2,000 buildings in a day when he wants to map more. But this time he mapped more than 8,000 buildings in a day which he had never done before. While looking back, he still doesn’t believe he had mapped 8k+ buildings but the stats do not lie. A week later, he received a confirmation that he is going to attend STATE OF THE MAP ASIA 2022 Conference. And also his two presentations were selected to present in the conference. He couldn’t believe this. His happiness knew no bounds and he can’t wait to share this with his family. And this happy, indefatigable guy was none other than Mr. Rabi Shrestha- sorry @frozenrabi- this is how OSM community knows me.

Everything was all set up and we already had tickets to fly on 21th Nov 2022. Although conference starts on 22, we had to miss first day of conference as Nepal Election 2022 was there on 20th. 9 of us including Regional Director Dr. Nama sir, two brothers from tech team (Hel & Aadesh, KLL), Hackathon winners(Prakash, Ashim, Nirman, and Pawan) and OMAPH Scholars(myself and Gaurav) were flying all together. It was my first flight and first journey so far from home. Although i didn’t want more rituals during farewell from family; my family, relatives, and well-wishers from village bid a farewell to me even when i was travelling for only a week. If this is not love, i don’t know what is. Everybody dropped me to airport. Gaurav and I was travelling together. We met everyone at the airport and it was great to see all probably for the first time. We took group photo with Nepal flag and shared it everywhere, some influencial news portals Link 1, Link 2 made news as well. After an hour later, we flew from Kathmandu and the transit was on Bangkok and Manilla. My first flight, window seat, amazing view of himalayan range..i was enjoying every second.. We reached Legazpi on 22rd Nov on midday. Someone coming from himalayas who used to wear five layers of cloths to prevent cold had to rely on thin t-shirt only after we landed there. It was real indeed a moment of pleasure to see everyone at Legazpi and we went to Caragashwa to see Mt. Mayon closely. We also had ATV ride which was the best moment. And from 23rd, we attended PistangMapa/SOTM. We attended workshop and session “Moving toward OSM data usage” by Nirab Pudasaini, Nirman Khadka, Asim Bhadra, Prakash Ghimire, Pawan Bista. It was about transport management system and the Hackathon winners had completed their prototype. And the other event that i was eagerly waiting to attend was Tasking Manager: Needs Assessment - Ramya Ragupathy, Aadesh, Hel. After using HOT Tasking manager(TM) for more than 3 years, I feel it needed to be upgraded. And the purpose of workshop was also to prepare roadmap for upgrading the TM. I had raised many issues that need to be improved from mapper, validator and administrator perspective. Ramya and tech team thanked me for all those feedbacks. And on evening we went for social night. I made many friends from different country and we enjoyed a lot. That’s what social night are for, right?

And from the 24th of Nov, 2022, STATE OF THE MAP 2022 begun and on the first day we had our presentation titled “Mapping Communities POI Using Mapillary and OSM” with my friend Gaurav Parajuli. It was my first international conference and my first presentation in the conference. I felt blessed to present our project in such a great platform with large number of audience. On the same night, we had cultural night where we enjoyed and shared various cultural dress, dances and amazing performance. And on every night, we used to had very fruitful discussion about strengthening OSM communities with brothers (Nirab, Hel, Aadesh), sister Sanjana and Gaurav.

On 25th Nov, we had two sessions. One presentation on ” Mapping Hiti (Water Spouts) and Street naming In OSM: Lalitpur Metropolitan City” with Gaurav and other session as panelist of “Voice of YouthMappers” with Feye Andal and Gaurav. Both of the session went pretty well. It feels so energetic and overwhelming to represent the old, cultural and existing water management system of Nepal that have been in use since centuries, map them on OSM and present it on the greatest platform. And it was really motivating and exciting to hear Voice of fellow youthmappers. They reminded me of myself back in University days as a proud and curious Youthmapper. The community working group session by Arnalie and Sponsorship program opportunities by Can was other spectacular event of the day. Besides, we also had very interactive discussion with members from Asia about where the next SOTM will be held.

Other interesting presentations were:

• OSM Foundation OpenStreetMap Foundation? What’s That? Eugene Villar

• Lesson learn from land-use mapping in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia Anjar Akrimullah

• Using Drones DRONEBIRDs ARE GO!!! Taichi Furuhashi

The conference was neatly wrapped up. The closing video was worth it. I still remember and listen to the background song “Una Una Kaya Kaya”. This conference taught me a lot which i will use to build young minds, advocate open data, and support on various mapping activities in my countries. Since I step in OSM back in 2019, there’s no downfall, every moment was way up in the path of progress. Similarly for someone living in the land of highest peak of world and hitting the rock bottom(mean sea level) for conference, it may seems downfall but is it? No way! Since I flew from Kathmandu, as the plane ascended I was constantly learning, exploring and receiving valuable insights and fruitful discussions, which will be very useful for longer run in my career. So there’s no point in talking about downfall. I will be forever grateful and thankful for Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific for granting me this opportunity. Besides, I am thankful to organizing committee, Dr. Nama sir, Mikko, Nirab dai, Melai, Harry, Can, Honey, Dinar, Arnalie, Russ, Feye and sir Michael for their support and constant encouragement. A sweet remembrance to everyone from Bicol University, volunteers, presentors and new friends Saba, Safiya and sir Anuradha and everyone. “There’s something genuine about the connections formed in OSM and grassroot geospatial communities, and these tend to transcend boundaries.”- Carrol Chan quoted it perfectly and I felt what it meant when we had to depart.

My takeaway message to every new beginner mappers: If you quit now, you’ll end up right back where you first began. And when you first began, you were desperate to be where you are right now. So keep pushing and keep going. It is the way. Trust me, the journey is addictive and beautiful.

For more photo gallery please click here

Regards, Rabi Shrestha -Geomatics Engineer