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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I have a craze for adding addresses to OSM. Unfortunately, in Delhi it is ridiculously hard to find a place with addresses properly displayed on the front. If you come across a house with no nameplate on it, you can be almost sure to not guess the correct house number.

This irks me a lot. So, I have decided to look for guide maps made by the locals while travelling around the city, and use those to map the neighbourhoods. I have got some nice pictures, which I have uploaded to my commons profile.

Here’s one I recently clicked. The amount of detail really supplements my survey a lot.

This diary entry is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

⚠🚧 Work in Progress 🚧

🏗 Last Updated: 28 May 2025

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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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Hello everyone!

I’m Ayush Dhar Dubey, a 2nd-year undergraduate student at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, pursuing my major in Civil Engineering. While my academic roots lie mostly in reinforced concrete and structural design…software development and open-source have become equally foundational to how I think about solving real-world problems.

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been selected for Google Summer of Code 2025 as a student developer with OpenStreetMap (OSM). My project, under the mentorship of Lonvia and Tordanik, is titled “Modernize the 3D Model Repository (3DMR)”.

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What is 3DMR and Why Does it Matter?

The 3D Model Repository (3DMR) is an online platform that allows contributors to upload openly licensed 3D models and link them to OpenStreetMap features. Tools like OSM2World can then render realistic 3D views of real-world locations using this data.

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Want to learn how to map buildings after a disaster? Learn about the BAR/HHI Methodology, applied to mapping with OpenStreetMap and JOSM

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On May 19, 2025, we successfully held the workshop Post-disaster mapping with OpenStreetMap and JOSM, in Brazilian Portuguese, promoted by the company IVIDES DATA and the group of young Brazilian mappers, YouthMappers UFRJ, and given by Séverin Ménard, from Les Libres Géographes.

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Leia em Português

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Recommendations and demonstration videos are also available in the guidelines section of the Mayotte’s projects on the HOTOSM-TM.

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Today, Monday 19th May 2025, Made me one week at my IT, And so far i can say it has been great for me, Topping the chart, mapping over Thousands of building just in one week. Yes i sign up for this, that’s why I’m here to lead and take the topflight. Saying about today, I got the opportunity to teach and lecture one of my new IT College on what OpenStreetMap Is, His name is Alex though, And it was fun throughout the whole process. For fact, i know a lot is gonna come my way through this program, which I’m waiting for it and ready for success!!!

So today i learned what is mapping and how to map and i mapped some building. it was a beautiful experience and i really enjoyed it. i met a guy called fortune he taught me almost everything i learned about mapping he is and easygoing guy, i still met a lot of fun people that will make learning easy. When i started i first learned what is mapping the site used for mapping which was later introduced as OSM US tasking manager. after that i created my account did my first mapping under the supervision of fortune and when he checked what i did and approved it i continued with some project he gave me and i finished 2 mapped task.

An open, cross cutting feature request for streetcomplete, everydoor, organicmaps and anyone else who targets mobile data capture.

• Ask for location detection (yup), device activity sensors (maybe not already asked for)
• If I am detected in the same place and that place has a shop=* or amenity=* for 5-15 minutes
• Activity detected is “still” or similar (I put my phone down, or walked around a shop)
• Can I please get a nuanced prompt at some point either then or within a few hours?
• And limit current notifications to 1

Particularly for cafes, restaurants, pubs, etc.

Why: Google maps does this for reviews, to great effect. Ask me, while I am at a restaurant, with a physical menu “Is the cuisine vegetarian?” Or “what’s the website?” (Often printed on menus) Ask me, while I am a cafe, “is there outdoor seating?”

The problem this solves is often I don’t know when a favourite place is missing data. I go there all of the time, why wouldn’t it be mapped?

Give me a “no thanks” option so if I don’t want the intrusion I can opt out easily. But if I hit “yes please, nudge me”…

Following various discussions and requests over the previous years, I’ve adapted parsing of the machine-readable osmc:symbol tag in waymarkedtrails for route symbols to cover more use cases. The new implementation comes a bit closer to what is specified on the wiki website, most notably now supporting a second foreground, but also extending the list of supported backgrounds. This posts gives a bit of background on the changes.

Supported syntax

The official specification of the osmc:symbol tag always had the issue that it largely relies on guessing the function of its parts from their content. A part called red_bar? Must be a foreground description because there is no “bar” background and the content looks to be too long to be a text description, too. This is a viable way of describing something but not very robust against typos and it makes it very hard to extend the value set. waymarkedtrails has therefore implemented a subset of the specification that could be parsed in a way that the function is determined from the position of the parts. This subset was essentially: waycolor[:background[:foreground[:text[:textcolor]]]] Unfortunately this approach made it impossible to support the second foreground when it popped up on the wiki page and that has left users confused ever since.

User mueschel has recently re-analised the format and came to the conclusion that we can still keep the positional approach when sticking to the following combinations of part descriptions:

waycolor:background waycolor:background:foreground waycolor:background:foreground:foreground2 waycolor:background:foreground:text:textcolor waycolor:background:foreground:foreground2:text:textcolor

The one officially allowed variant that isn’t covered is waycolor:background:text:textcolor. Luckily this variant isn’t really used in practice with very minor exceptions. And it can easily be made compliant by adding an empty foreground: waycolor:background::text:textcolor.

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Hello fellow mappers, I’m Ezekiel Kiariro, a passionate GIS and remote sensing expert based in Tanzania, and I’m truly honored to be nominated as a 2025 Voting Member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). I’ve been mapping since 2020, and what began as curiosity quickly turned into a calling. Today, I serve as the GIS & Open Mapping Manager at GeoTE Tanzania, where I lead and support various community-based mapping initiatives across the country. I’m excited to share a bit more about myself, what HOT means to me, and how I hope to contribute as a voting member.

What Does HOT Mean to Me?

To me, HOT is a movement that embodies equity, collaboration, and action. It’s about creating open, accessible geospatial data to solve real-life problems, especially in vulnerable and underserved areas. HOT represents a community where people from different backgrounds use open mapping as a tool for change, resilience, and empowerment.

How I Got Involved in HOT and Mapping

My journey started through Youth Mappers and university training sessions in Tanzania. Inspired by the potential of OpenStreetMap to support humanitarian response and planning, I became an active mapper, trainer, and later a national organizer. Since then, I’ve:

• Organized local and national mapathons and Open Data Day events
• Supported field data collection using OSM-based tools
• Co-led the GeoTE-Tanzania Field Training Program, a five-week initiative to integrate OSM into university curricula
• Mentored young mappers and helped local communities map their own spaces, such as informal settlements and health risks From mapping roads and buildings in disaster-prone areas to leading sessions on NDVI and land cover classification using OSM-integrated datasets, I’ve seen how open mapping directly contributes to decision-making, planning, and community resilience.

Why I Want to Be a Voting Member

Being a voting member gives me the chance to:

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