State of the Map Japan 2018 was held in Tokyo, Japan. Local conference was the 4th time. This year conference gain 4 companies sponsored and 1 company backing.

This year’s theme is “barrier-free of knowledge”. OpenStreetMap is a database that records “facts” on the earth in the type of features. It’s a signpost for acquiring new knowledge by the collected facts. It was a conference to think about the map necessary for exploring new knowledge. The map we make is necessary to obtain various knowledge equally, and it’s the power to remove the barrier.
The venue was a hall attached to the library and it became a place where collaboration between knowledge accumulated by humanity and knowledge recorded by mappers.

It was fabulous timetable, became one session room increased more than past conference, and two keynotes.

There were many sessions and LTs that included last year’s international conference experience, mapping experience, mapping method proposal, academic accuracy analysis and technical sessions.

The unconference entrying at the event day was also a success. - crafter(right) with winner(left) of the struggle(of course peaceful ways) of hand drawing cap -

I was able to feel the spread of diversity at the meeting. That is to say not only how to related with OSM but also about Gender.

I continued to the conference held last year at SotM Aizuwakamatsu and was also involved in the operation as an organizing committee this time. This is a tough job, but there are also great pleasures. Let’s extend your joy by participating in the local communities conference organizing. There, you should be able to meet various people and new technologies.

Let’s meet at the next meeting.

These images in my flickr account.