Hi everyone,

I’m Paula Villar, from Paraguay with a degree in architecture from the National University of Asunción. I completed my final graduation project as an internship at the Research, Development, and Innovation Center (CIDi) of FADA-UNA, where I participated in open mapping projects, territorial analysis, and the production of geospatial data. I also served as president of YouthMappers UNA (2022–2025), promoting student engagement in collaborative mapping activities.

What does HOT mean to me? HOT represents a community that brings open mapping and geospatial data closer to the people who need them to make informed decisions about their territories. Through projects like Atlas Urbano Paraguay (AUPy) and YouthMappers activities, I’ve seen how collaborative tools and open data help make underrepresented urban and rural realities visible.

I particularly value the spirit of collective work and the opportunity to contribute from different disciplines while learning and sharing with people from diverse backgrounds. Beyond technology, HOT provides a network of support and learning that strengthens territorial management, planning, and responses to local challenges.

How did I get involved in HOT? My introduction to HOT came through my involvement with YouthMappers UNA, where I led mapping activities with students from various fields. That experience, along with my graduation project at CIDi, allowed me to contribute to initiatives like AUPy and other efforts within the YouthMappers network, where open mapping played a central role.

During the internship, I engaged in the production of cartography and territorial analysis for municipalities in both national and cross-border contexts (with Brazil), applying open mapping methodologies and free and open source tools. I coordinated field-mapping campaigns, ran mapping workshops and urban characterizations, and integrated data on buildings, vegetation, and bodies of water.

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Hello HOT Membership.

I’m Priscovia Ng’ambi, a passionate OSM Mapper from Zambia, Southern Africa. I’m more than honored to be shortlisted as a 2025 voting member. As a core founder of Local Knowledge Mappers, I serve as Head of Communications and actively contribute to OpenStreetMap as a validator, trainer, and mapper. I also lead the communication for Local knowledge Mappers, a very active open mapping organization in Zambia.

How did you become involved in HOT?

My journey with HOT began in 2020 as a YouthMappers , and at the same time a friend invited me to a mapathon. The very first HOT event I joined, sparked my interest in continue doing my Mapping on TaskManager, it also opened doors to a community that shares my passion for using geospatial technology to drive positive change.

Since then, I have been actively involved in various HOT projects such as disaster Mapping across the global and other events. I’m excited about the opportunity to contribute to the organization’s growth and impact indirectly and directly through mapping.

Coud you tell us about your involvement in HOT, Mapping and/ or Humanitarian response?

As a core founder of Local Knowledge Mappers, I have been very active in promoting OpenStreetMap and geospatial technology in my community. I’ve contributed to various mapping projects, validated data, and trained others on mapping techniques. Through HOT, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with diverse individuals and organizations, working together to create maps that support humanitarian response and sustainable development this is by contributing to mapping on TaskManager, then later on edits created are downloaded to create maps amidst of COVID-19, wars, earthquakes, cyclone etc.

What does HOT mean to you?

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Hello, I have completed work in the stilon area of Wilson. I have already moved on and made significant progress in improving Teton Pines, both the golf course and residential areas. I will provide another update once I complete work in this area!

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El Gran Apagón

Many people around the world will have heard about the serious power outage that Spain and Portugal had a few weeks ago, as the power grid for almost the whole of the two countries failed for the best part of the day. I know, first world problems for those who live in countries where electricity network failures (or even availability) are still a regular feature of daily life. But the event was still a useful wake-up call on just how dependent we have become on that network for so much of our daily activity, not least because the outage also left people with very limited or non-existent mobile phone and internet coverage.

The blackout happened in the middle of the day when a large part of the adult population was at work, getting home for those whose journey depends on electrified train or underground Metro services turned into a problem for so many. With bus transport and other road transport services overwhelmed by demand the only solution for a lot of people will have been a perhaps unfamiliar walk through a large city like Madrid or Barcelona. And then we get back to the collapse in the mobile telephone network, those mapping services that so many instinctively use for navigation were suddenly just as unavailable as anything else dependent on the internet.

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NOTE: I am in the DeFlock discord server. If you see any issues on Flock cameras or similar, or would like a second set of eyes in the Greater Gadsden area, ping me (I’m <@997714796537450597>) in the server, or contact me on any of my available platforms on my profile.

I have added: 1. osm.org/changeset/166784827 2. osm.org/changeset/164790735 3. osm.org/changeset/163818346 4. osm.org/changeset/159052678 So far.

I have noticed someone whether it be human or bot modifying and taking ownership of my points. If this has been noticed, please alert me immediately.

On April 26 and 27, I had the opportunity to share my experiences with YouthMappers Universitas Negeri Jakarta (UNJ) about how to contribute to the Mapillary platform.

for your information, mapilary is very helpful for open mapping activities such as openstreetmap, especially for validating road data because in reality open mappers must use all open sources and mapilary is one of the platforms for that.

in this activity i have provided information and simple techniques on how to collect street level imagery on narrow streets of jakarta using motorbikes and smartphones. YM UNJ has plans to create open mapping activities on openstreetmap and also mapilary.

This Mapillary activity is very helpful for other mappers to map areas that are still not perfectly mapped and do not have street level imagery data for validation.

more info check to this link MapilaryTraining

Recently, someone asked me to create a custom MapCSS style for JOSM that visually indicates how “fresh” OSM objects are—essentially, a way to distinguish recently updated or created objects from older ones at a glance.

Digging into the JOSM MapCSS implementation, especially the eval expression support, I realized this was very doable.

The Basic Idea

The approach is pretty straightforward. Each OSM object has a timestamp field (typically stored as a Unix timestamp). By comparing this timestamp to a reference timestamp (say, representing the current year—2025 in this case), we can calculate how “old” an object is.

So I hardcoded a reference timestamp for 2025, subtracted the OSM timestamp from it, and divided the result by the number of seconds in a year (ignoring leap years for simplicity). This gives us a rough “age” of the object in years.

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I’ve recently been taking on more tagging for wheelchair accessibility in my neighbourhood. It’s been one of those “you don’t see it until you think to look for it” kinds of things. I’m not disabled myself, so I never thought to consider the heights of steps (until I tripped on them.) Now that I look for them, I must freak out other people around me as they see me stare at my foot to see whether a step is ankle high or not.

There were a couple things I came to think about while mapping that I could not seem to find answers for in the wiki. A lot of the time, I just answer the question with the framework of “I’ve seen places do these things, so I will treat them as the standard and anything that falls under that bar is limited or not accessible.” I would be curious for others thoughts on them.

• Do establishments need powered doors to be accessible?

Here in Regina (and a lot of Canada, these were extremely common back in Ontario), doors have buttons that you can press to swing the door open mechanically. They have a wheelchair icon on them most of the time, so they are clearly marked as an accessibility feature.

While common, they are not ubiquitous. In my mapping practice, if a place does not have at least one powered door, I label it as limited wheelchair accessibility at maximum. My logic is that even if a door could be physically be opened manually by a patron in a wheelchair (as in, they can open the door and have enough space on the platform outside to maneuver while doing it – I have seen places where the platform is elevated and small enough that you would fall off trying to do so), they shouldn’t have to do that while the option of powered doors exists.

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Successful Open Field Mapping Activity Led by YouthMappers at Eastern University, Bangladesh President Noman Bin Hossain.

On May 16, 2025, YouthMappers at Eastern University, Bangladesh successfully conducted an Open Field Mapping activity using Mapillary, a platform for crowdsourced street-level imagery. The initiative took place in Ashulia Model Town, Savar, and was led by our club president, Noman Bin Hossain.

This field event focused on capturing and uploading street-level imagery to support the enhancement of geospatial dataand promote accessibility of real-world visuals for map editing, disaster response, urban planning, and community development.

📍 Location: Road 6, Block B, Ashulia Model Town, Khagan, Birulia, Savar, Dhaka 📅 Date: May 16, 2025 🛠️ Tool Used: Mapillary 🔗 Captured Imagery: Mapillary

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Introduction

Hi everyone! I’m Archit Rathod, a Computer Science Master’s student at the University of Illinois Chicago and a passionate open-source contributor. My interests lie at the intersection of geospatial technologies, backend systems, and applied machine learning. Over the years, I’ve built full-stack web platforms, worked on real-time traffic modeling, and contributed to research in social networks and AI ethics.

This summer, I’m thrilled to be a Google Summer of Code 2025 contributor with OpenStreetMap, where I’ll be building a system to make navigation smarter and safer through real-time road closure data. I’m deeply grateful to the OSM community and my mentors for this opportunity, and I’m excited to learn, collaborate, and give back.

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Project Description: Temporary Road Closures Database and API

OpenStreetMap provides excellent static map data, but temporary road closures, like construction, accidents, or local events, are often missing or delayed. This project addresses that gap.

I’m developing a centralized platform for real-time road closures. Key features include:

• A geospatial database using PostgreSQL/PostGIS for efficient closure storage and queries.
• A RESTful API using FastAPI, with outputs in OpenLR format for location referencing.
• A web-based UI for users to submit and view closures on a live map.
• A prototype integration with OsmAnd, showcasing how routing can dynamically adapt to avoid closed roads.

The goal is to have a fully working, open-source prototype by the end of the summer that enables OSM apps to respond to temporary disruptions, making navigation more reliable for everyone.

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Weekly Progress Report

Coming Soon….

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Contact Me

Feel free to reach out — I’d love to connect!

• 📍 Location: Chicago, IL, USA
• 📧 Email: architrathod77@gmail.com
• 🌐 Portfolio: archit-rathod.vercel.app
• 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/archit-rathod
• 💻 GitHub: github.com/Archit1706

While editing the next edition of WeeklyOSM, I stumbled upon a fascinating case study that caught my full attention.

A certain team, responding to a certain request, set out to display a mobile device’s geolocation on a map—completely offline, without any network access.

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Their initial approach? Crawling OpenStreetMap tile images one by one and storing them locally.

It didn’t take long before they hit a wall: the data size exploded, and keeping the tiles up-to-date turned into a maintenance nightmare. Sensibly, they scrapped that plan.

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Next, they evaluated two open-source tools: tileserver-gl (JavaScript) and mbtileserver (Go).

In the end, they opted for mbtileserver, citing Go’s “security” over JavaScript. I still don’t fully grasp that reasoning (somehow, it involves a decision between verifying their own source code and verifying the entire JavaScript interpreter), and I even asked them in the comments section. But for now, let’s accept that as a given and move on.

After choosing mbtileserver, they needed MBTiles files to serve. Eventually, they discovered tilemaker, a tool that converts .osm.pbf files into .mbtiles.

They successfully tested it on a small area. Encouraged, they moved on to larger datasets. Then came the pain.

“…half an hour passes, and we experience a computer freeze as all the RAM runs out.”

Their machine couldn’t handle the memory load. So they requested a beefy VM—256 GB of RAM—and tried again. Still no luck.

That’s when they discovered tilemaker’s --store option, which dumps intermediate stages to disk instead of holding everything in RAM. That tweak made it work.

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Creating an offline, custom OSM map has been my white whale for years. So I decided to replicate their setup on my own desktop.

I began with installing mbtileserver. That’s when I hit this cryptic error:

cc1.exe: sorry, unimplemented: 64-bit mode not compiled in

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Quick Overview/Summary

It’s been a year since my last diary entry on this, and I haven’t done too much (I don’t think) in that timeframe. The GIF below should give a good idea of the progress made. Unfortunately, a couple of the changes made in the bottom left corner haven’t been rendered yet.

What’s changed?

I’m still pushing through and adding buildings, or adjusting existing ones. There does seem to be someone else working here every now and then, as I had some of my changes deleted/modified (although I’m not sure of the reason, as the changeset description is not great).

More recently, I have been trying to add in more landuse=* as there is next to none currently. This is still a challenge, though, as so much has changed in 7 years that you’d need an on-the-ground survey or a local to confirm if certain buildings are shops or not.

Plan Going Forward

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Following mobilization of volunteers and OSm newbies at Benue State University to kick-start a new chapter and team of Unique Mappers to drive Map Nigeria Mapathon project and the Makurdi on going project .We had a training for newbies. More than 20 newbies has been mobilized and signed up to OSM. These include William Hundu, the Team Coordinator, Lucas, Glory,Shater ,Jacob an others After the virtual meeting ,I hope to travel to Makurdi for in-person training and MOU with the University and Unique Mappers Network,Nigeria

Also .we are planning for stakeholders workshop for data use cases

So much data can be added, it’s very cool

I want to try to add a lot of QLD Translink services.

Hello fellow mappers.

My name is Ayame Otsuki, and I am honored to be nominated as a 2025 voting member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

I’m based in Japan, and I’ve been engaging in mapping activities as a member of NPO Crisis Mappers Japan since 2015, and I set up a youth team within this community.This February, I gave a presentation about “20years Journey of OpenStreetMap” at State of the Map Japan. Sorry for it’s Japanese

I currently work as a data scientist and analyst at a Japanese telecom company.

What does HOT mean to me?

To me, HOT is a community of people who believe in the power of open data and try to provide humanitarian support across borders. HOT is the one that taught me that a single computer can help some people all over the world.

How did I become involved in HOT?

I first became involved with HOT when I participated in a crisis mapping activity for the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which was organized by Professor Taichi Furuhashi at university. I got to engage in mapping activities since then, and developed an efficient tool (BCr.map) for drawing buildings (rectangles) as my university graduation research project in 2019.

Why do I want to be a voting member?

I would like to be more actively involved in HOT community by becoming a voting member. And also, I want to serve a statistical and objective perspective in HOT’s strategy and governance as a data analysis expert.

My involvement in HOT, mapping, and/or humanitarian response:

I’ve been engaging in mapping activities by using HOT’s tool for 10 years and expand the Crisis Mappers Japan community. I’m also a drone pilot of a Japanese disaster drone rescue team and taught how to operate a drone to local kids.

My most important responsibility as a voting member:

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Hi Everyone!

My name is Anqi Xu and I’m currently based in Vancouver Canada:) I am a geocoding (and open source) newbie and I’m super honoured to be working on the Transliteration of Search Results project this summer and am really excited to hone my coding skills and learn more about OpenStreetMap! The link to my proposal can be found here. Feedback is welcome (and much appreciated)!

A bit about me; I’m going to graduate (hopefully) from UBC Engineering Physics later this month. I’ve done a variety of internships in many different industries, including quantitative finance, particle physics research, and semiconductor manufacturing! I’m a big believer in lifelong learning, and I really enjoy board games, crosswords, and silly logic games! I’m also a big fan of travelling and visiting new places, and have recently started to document some of that on Youtube.

Thanks for having me and I’m looking forward to meeting everyon!

So today I get to talk other mappers. and I get to know how they map the challenges the have like; 1. Unavailability of internet connection 2. lack of Devices or tools for mapping etc. After the challenges we get to talk about solutions where we find a solution about getting a router and recharging it so the mappers in a particular area can come together and use it for mapping. And we still Provide systems for those without system to use for mapping till they get their own. I really learned alot from their experiences then by the end of this week i will be able to use JOSM cause we are suppose to be taught by a more experienced mapper. I really enjoy mapping and i still plan to meet mappers around the world so we can share our ideas together

Nisreen Mahmoud, 2025 HOT Voting Member Nominee

Hello fellow mappers, My name is Nisreen Mahmoud, and I am a GIS and remote sensing expert. I am originally from Sudan, and I currently reside in Egypt. I currently serve as the Supervisor of Surveying, GIS, and Remote Sensing Group in the Khartoum Reconstruction Initiative (KRI). In addition to my supervisory role, I also lead OSM Sudan. Previously, I served as the East African zone coordinator for African Women in GIS (AWiGIS) in 2023. Today, I’m also a proud mentee in the Women+ in Geospatial Mentorship Programme, where I continue growing my leadership and technical outreach abilities. I am passionate about creating spaces where emerging mappers, especially women, African mappers, and those from conflict-affected areas, are able to feel seen, heard, and empowered to lead. I am honored to have been nominated as a 2025 Voting Member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). As someone whose life and work are deeply rooted in both humanitarian response and geospatial science, this opportunity feels especially meaningful. I am pleased to introduce myself and articulate my aspirations to contribute to HOT’s mission.

What Does HOT Mean to Me? HOT represents the fusion of community, technology, and humanitarian action. It’s a space where open data becomes a lifeline—used to empower communities, support climate resilience, and respond to crises. For me, HOT is about building bridges between people and tools, between local knowledge and global support.

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So, I got invited to speak at a certain OSM community’s monthly online talk.

Nice, right?

Well, there’s just one problem: I have absolutely no idea what to talk about.

Sure, I could present one of my recent OSM-related programming projects, or share updates on what I’ve been mapping over the past few weeks. Maybe even talk about my personal hopes and dreams for the OpenStreetMap movement—or write a more reflective essay on the movement’s progress and future.

The deadline is still a ways off, so while I mull over the best topic, I figured I’d start with something simple. Something fresh. Something that literally popped into my head minutes before writing this post.

It all starts with a very basic question:

“Who is the most active mapper in city X?”

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Why This Question Matters

If answered properly, this question could open the door to a whole series of follow-ups:

• Are they local, organic contributors—not affiliated with a distant organized mapping group but actual residents who have lived in the city for a long time?
• What does their OSM diary look like?
• What have they been mapping lately?
• Are they part of a local mapping group?
• Have they initiated any projects in the past—or are they running one now?
• Can we collaborate with them? Reach out?

Active mappers are often the “local ambassadors” of OSM. They can be our primary point of contact for a specific area—people who know the region inside out. They might even offer local tips, points of interest, or become a valuable reference for others mapping or traveling to the same area. Sometimes, these mappers even maintain detailed wiki pages for their city—outlining points of interest, transit routes, historical context, recent updates, or even personal anecdotes.

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Meet Your Mappers

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