Flashback

Two years ago, I visited Timor-Leste with the support of the Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific to introduce OSM and Open Mapping Tools to communities and humanitarian organizations in Timor-Leste. One of the outcomes of this activity was the formation of the OSM TL community, which continues to grow to this day.

Nowadays

Through the support of the Open Mapping Guru program initiated by OMH Asia Pacific, G-SIG, in collaboration with OSM TL and World Vision Timor-Leste, has conducted a capacity-building activity related to the use of Ushahidi. I am very pleased to have been deployed as a Guru to facilitate this training, marking my first in-person training as one of the OM Gurus.

Reality

The two-day training went smoothly, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the Open Mapping and OSM community improvement in Timor-Leste. We discussed many things, especially with Maun Ponsyano. He explained many things related to the challenges and future efforts to develop the Open Mapping and OSM community in Timor-Leste. The Ushahidi training is just one step in preparing the community’s capacity to face future challenges, enabling the use of open mapping tools to achieve humanitarian and sustainable development goals.

Process

In the two days, participants absorbed information well regarding the use of Ushahidi as one of the open mapping tools. Together with the participants, as an OM Guru, I didn’t just deliver material in a one-way direction; instead, I encouraged participants to discuss and simulate the process of preparing a project that would utilize Ushahidi. From the beginning, participants were directed to think about a project that would deploy Ushahidi. In the end, participants presented their projects and received feedback from other participants and OM Gurus for future improvements.

HavingFun

We also didn’t forget to engage all participants and OM Gurus in fun games, icebreakers, and quick challenges to boost participants’ spirits amidst the simulation process of creating Ushahidi projects. One of the most exciting moments for participants was the quick challenge session, where each group out of the four had to compete to add amenities and buildings to OpenStreetMap. Ten amenities and more than 100 buildings were mapped during this very short session.

FollowUp

The next step is how the OSM TL community will maximize the use of Ushahidi to support humanitarian, environmental, and other sectors in Timor-Leste. However, as an OM Guru, I will always provide support, especially in terms of updating if there are any changes or updates to the material I provide.

FinalWords

Thanks to OMH Asia Pacific, OM Guru Program, World Vision Timor Leste, G-SIG, OSM TL, and the Ushahidi Team!