Mikel Maron
On April 18 our group had the opportunity to meet with and interview Mikel Maron. We were really lucky to get the chance to speak with him, as he has been involved with OSM for a long time and is a boardmember of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and a former boardmember of the OSM Foundation. With a background as a developer, Mikel got involved with OSM primarily for its humanitarian possibilities. Mikel co-founded and worked on the Map Kibera project [insert this link http://www.mapkibera.org/], an effort to have local people map the Kibera Slum in Nairobi in 2009.
In 2010, Mikel and Erica Hagan founded the GroundTruth Initiative, an organization dedicated to helping communities further their goals with open data and tools. We met with Mikel at the GroundTruth Initiative's work space in the OpenGov Hub [http://opengovhub.org/], a shared workspace of like-minded and similarly goaled individuals and organizations. Given Mikel's background, much of our interview centered around humanitarian mapping, as well as user-generated, open geodata more generally.
Thanks so much for taking time to meet with us, Mikel!
Ian Villeda
On April 11 our group had the amazing opportunity to travel to the Mapbox headquarters on 14th Street, in Washington, D.C., to interview Ian. The headquarters are located in a cool converted garage, in the busy and hip U Street cooridor. Mapbox uses the flat structure popularized by other tech companies, like GitHub - it was cool to see the office layout!
Ian, Cartographer at Mapbox, walked us through the OSM editing tools and vector tiles, automated detection bots, and the coding work that he does at Mapbox. He stressed that the community is what makes OSM work, as an open source technology. The strength of the community was evidenced in Ian's passion for what he does and by others that we met on site.
Ian, thanks for taking the time to speak with us! We learned a lot and had a great time.
Humanitarian OSM Team ("HOT")
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, otherwise known as "HOT," has helped to provide relief aid, in partnership with humanitarian agencies such as the Red Cross and World Bank.
Recently, HOT used data to map the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa. The OSM map of road linkages and towns, overlaid with victim data helped explain the rapid spread of the disease.
Coined "digital humanitarianism" teams like HOT are providing up to date information for on-the-ground crews, all in one place. The coolest part about working in OSM is that anyone can access the information.
Check out this Wired UK article for more information on this use of OSM in emergency response.
On this page, we will provide updates on what we are learning & working on, through various blog posts.
Check back often for new material!
Our Blog
OSM Editathon at Mapbox
On April 25, I went to the OpenStreetMap Editathon at Mapbox to get some hands on experience with mapping and observe the OSM community in DC directly. This marked my second visit to the re-configured from a garage Mapbox office, as thegroup interviewed cartography Ian a couple weeks before. Mapbox reconfigured the old garage space to work tables that make a great set-up for the editors. We have learned in our research of OSM that the community lacks some diversity, and I noticed right off the bat that the majority of folks there were white men. However, while it was not an overly chatty environment, folks behaved in a very welcoming matter.
To edit OSM, I used the easy to use web-based iD editor that Mapbox helped develop. Prior to the Editathon, I completed the built in tutorial to the editor. Throughout our research, we've heard that OSM contributors frequently feel motivated by developed the knowledge base of their local communities. It was funny to feel this myself, when I immediately went to my apartment building to start mapping. After that, I spent some time exploring the OSM details for GeorgetownUniversity and making some enhancements to the map around campus.
--Mara