My reflection about SotM Africa 2023 held in Yaoundé, Cameroon which focused on the theme “Open Mapping as a support tool for local development in Africa”. The State of the Map Africa (SotM Africa) is a bi-annual regional conference that celebrates the culture of open mapping, open data, GIS and its impact across Africa. It was a great opportunity for mappers, GIS & Open Mapping enthusiasts, data users, and other stakeholders in the OpenStreetMap community to come together, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects.

• Presentations and workshops: The variety of presentations on topics related to OpenStreetMap, and GIS such as Field mapping techniques, data analysis, and community building. I learned about new tools, methods, and techniques, and also gained insights into the challenges and opportunities facing OpenStreetMap in Africa and how we can collaborate together to develop and solve Open Mapping & Data challenges in Africa.

• Networking: The conference offered a great opportunity to meet with other people from other part of Africa & world, who are passionate about OpenStreetMap. I was opportune to make new friends, (the Likes of Kennedy, Yves Emmanuel, Charles, Emmanuel, Janet, and the OSM Cameroon team), established professional connections, or found collaborators for future projects

• Cultural and social Night experiences: The conference was also a chance for me to experience the Cameroonian culture especially during the social night event seeing different culture, dancing steps etc., I enjoyed the hospitality offered, local food, music, and dance, and learned more about the history and traditions of Cameroon.

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My reflection on the SotM Nigeria 2023 conference, lots of experience gained, meeting new people, learning new skills and sharing knowledge about OpenStreetMap, Open source data, local community inclusion and a lot more about the geospatial industry in Nigeria and the globe were incredible and amazing. regardless of challenges pose we overcame and conference was a success.

Lesson Learnt: The SotM 2023 has triggered my passion for OpenStreetMap volunteerism, local community inclusion & development and humanitarian response to open mapping, it has connected me to geospatial experts from different location of Nigeria and across, indeed it was privilege to meet with Mentors geospatial industry, each bit of conversation was an opportunity for learning, inspiring and collaboration for me.

Knowledge Gained: the knowledge gain was really mind – blowing. presentation made by different participants, were absolutely inspiring, well-tailored. With the likes Prof. Joseph Oloukoi, (AfriGist), Maron Mikel (OSM foundation), Letwin Pondo (SciStarter), Geoffrey Ketaregga (HOT Community project Lead) and others presenters has deepened the knowledge of open mapping and local community inclusion.

Challenge pose: Inadequate fund to support the conference was the major challenge of SotM 2023 conference, which has disbalance the logistical planning and other arrangement but I saw resilience, commitment, tirelessness of the Local organizing committee towards the success of the conference.

Future Hope SotM 2024: I look forward to SotM 2024 regardless of financial constraints posed at SotM 2023, that will not underscore relevant of open mapping and geospatial infrastructure in Nigeria. I believe in collaborative efforts of all individuals, as I was fortunate to witness the commitment and tireless effort of the organizing team, I look forward to SotM 2024, were we all work, meet and share knowledge and the trending happening of Open source and geospatial field.

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My appreciation goes to the national coordinator and Team mentor, Mr. Sunday N. Victor for showing up to welcome and up board the new team leaders of LionMappersTeam Nsukka campus. we look forward to your community volunteerism, contribution, and impact.

cheers.

Attending the inaugural SotM Nigeria was a memorable experience, From the beginning of the trip (South Eastern Nigeria) which took about 6 hours journey to the conference venue (Port Harcourt) was incredible and successful. The conference gathered people around the globe to explore and share their mind blowing topics, exhibition, research work and experience around OSM, GIS, open data, humanitarian and disaster response at the first ever SotM conference in Nigeria, I was opportune to be part of selected presenters. I shared a paper on the “GEOSPATIAL MAPPING AND ANALYSIS OF HEALTHCARE FACILITIES IN NSUKKA URBAN USING GIS TECHNIQUES”. The conference hosted over 150 virtual participants and over 40 onsite participants who came to share their divers’ experiences on GIS, OSM, Humanitarian response and disaster mapping etc. The conference gave me the opportunity to meet, connect, collaborate and network with participants from U.S, London, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Lagos, Oyo, Enugu, Port Harcourt and other part of the world, and it exposes me to different application of OSM data and tools that will enhance my research works. indeed, it was another adventure and opportunity for me. I must appreciate the sincere work of HOT global, HOT unsummit, WNH, LOC members and the Unique Mappers team for offering a travel grant to attend the SotM conference. My gratitude also goes to the national coordinator Mr. Victor Sunday for Leading, guiding, and chairing this awesome work and to the LOC port Harcourt team you guys are wonderful.

Thanks for hosting this year’s SotM conference 2022. Thank you very much Akor, Daniel Enechojo GIS Analyst and Tech +2348141954990 Email: danielakor714@gmail.com

              MY GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS) JOURNEY

I am AKOR DANIEL ENECHOJO, an under graduate student of Geography Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka, a volunteer at humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOTOSM), a member of the YouthMappers, Unique Mapper Network (UMN) and Lion Mappers Team(LMT) Nsukka Chapter. Due to my quest and passion for GIS and it application after my first and second semester GIS courses which I took at my undergraduate course modules, in the year 2020, I enrolled for a GIS training with Mr. Malachi Eze a GIS Expert and I also applied for GIS online courses which sharpen my knowledge of GIS and gave me an in-depth understanding of geospatial application into diverse field. June 2021, I came in contact with Mr. Anointing a GIS expert who introduce me to some tool of GIS, OSM and geospatial analysis during my Industrial Training (internship) at the Nigerian Meteorological Agency Yola –Airport, I undertook some visual training with him (Mr. Anointing) during the training he recommended a visual seminar which I attended, Theme “World Youth Day”, it was so amazing, an eye opening workshop that led me to know about “Unique Mapper Network”, at the cause of the workshop I introduce myself and my interest to join the Unique Mapper Network which I was guided by Mr. Victor N. Sunday ( Team Coordinator) on how to join the team. Due to my passion for OSM, after the workshop I opted for Unique Mapper Network, am happy to be part of the member of organization.

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On 11 December 2012 LionMapperTeam Nsukka, in collaboration with UniqueMapperNetwork Nigeria, hosted a webinar on Volunteerism and Membership, Talking about Volunteerism a person who works for an organization without been paid for it, because they want to do it. A volunteer is someone who offers to do a particular task or job without been forced to do it. A volunteer Member is a person who is or has been designated by the governing board of an organization and who is faithfully and actually performing volunteer service in that organization. example of a Volunteer Member@ UniqueMapperNetwork, LionMapperTeam, YouthMapperNetwork etc. THE BENEFIT OF VOLUNTEERISM can never be overemphasis it opens opportunities, it Connect you to friends and experts, Create networking, Resume and CV advantage, improve professionalism and develop skills(Soft and Hard skills) expose individual to different skills, give one the advantage of presenting at different summit, workshop, training and seminar.

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Today been 27 November 2021, I lead a talk with a team of Lion Mapper Nsukka, Nigeria. on the discuss of OpenStreetMap and HOT Tasking Manager as a tool for free open data mapping and it is free user approach for individual and organizations. OSM and HOT came into existence as an open data source due to lack of data availability about a location, on how to solve environmental issue was a challenge in the 80s. Created in 2004 by Steve Coast in the UK, who initially focus on mapping United Kingdom to help in free and widely distribution of data for everyone to use. OSM is a community owned and supported by OpenStreetMap foundation located in England and Wales. OSM provides geographic data with over 2 million users across the world. OSM and HOT Tasking Manager is open for volunteerism, were Mappers and individual can team up to contribute to open data mapping of their community by providing information about an unknown location via mapping (Mapathon) to be known. Volunteers here in OSM and HOT Tasking Manager help to contribute in open data mapping about disaster management and response of a location, were in turn aid disaster response team and organization to have access to that particular location. Data is save in OSM and HOT Tasking Manager database for future use by Government, NGOs and private organization who are thrilled and concern about the human and natural environment in response to any disaster or environmental challenge about a place which require a location based information.