OpenStreetMap represents a revolutionary change in community mapping – I’m running for the OSM US board to broaden that revolution. Here are a few ways that I think I can do that:

I live in Lexington, Kentucky. Like a lot of places that are not major population centers, it’s not well mapped or well represented in the database beyond the standard TIGER data. There is tremendous room for growth in rural areas and I would work specifically to encourage mappers and mapping in underrepresented areas.

I am an organizer for Public Lab, a nominated and community elected position of leadership. With Public Lab, I help develop the types of tools that the OpenStreetMap community can use to capture their own aerial imagery for tracing. Collaborating with other open source mapping groups could expand the reach of OSM in ways we haven’t even considered yet.

As a graduate student in Geography with ambitions of going into teaching, I’m interested in seeing OpenStreetMap make it’s way into the classroom. There is already an OpenStreetMap curriculum, I would be an advocate for expanding that curriculum and encouraging its adoption across educational levels.

OpenStreetMap has accomplished some amazing things and it’s going to continue to do some really amazing things. I would love to be involved in shaping the future of OpenStreetMap and would greatly appreciate your vote!