At OpenStreetMap related conferences, I always look forward to the technical talks so that I can learn and improve my mapping skills. Equally important are the community building talks, this gives me great perspective on how mapping communities are nurtured around the world especially for countries whom I share the local context and culture.

For a crowdsourcing online community like us, however, community stories are often relegated as side tracks or lightning talks in a smaller room. If we truly believe that the strength of OSM is the community, these stories should be front and center in our interactions especially during conferences.

This is what we tried to do within our own community events. Here are two events I helped co-organized that is aimed at increasing the audience listening to our community stories.

State of the [country] talks are plenary sessions in the State of the Map Asia in 2016.

We decided that all country status reports at SoTM-Asia in 2016 will be reported to the plenary. This ensures that everyone hear and learn how each country are building their own community.

Srividya sharing the State of Map in India during the SotM-Asia 2016 plenary (Quezon City, Philippines).

Pista ng Mapa 2019’s closing plenary session was led by Geoladies PH volunteers.

We made sure that our first Pista ng Mapa conference recognizes the efforts and stories of our women mappers and advocates. The final session at the end of the conference were spearheaded by women showcasing different women perspective in mapping. No other session was running at the same time.

Jen leading the Geoladies-PH plenary at Pista ng Mapa 2019 (Dumaguete City, Philippines, 2016).

We love to listen to your stories. Our second Pista ng Mapa this November will be online and free to everyone for a consecutive series of Friday sessions on November 13, 20, and 27, 2020.

If you have stories or maps/posters to share, grab the “speaker view” this November.

Photos/Artwork by: Mapbox, Leigh Lunas and PistaNgMapa 2020 Marketing team