After my doctoral work on OSM at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/16956/1_Budhathoki_Nama.pdf), I have been actively working to advance the OSM movement in Nepal and the region. Nepal desperately needs an open map as there are no other reliable and publicly accessible sources of good map data. For this purpose, I founded a non-profit company named Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL)–www.kathmandulivinglabs.org–at the end of 2013. I have been investing all my effort in expanding and deepening mapping work in Nepal and the region through KLL.

While many people focus on the product (i.e. open map data) in OSM, I am equally fascinated by the process (participation, engagement, collective action, etc). I spend most of my time in more strategic work: sensitizing, training, and helping people to understand the value of open mapping as a key infrastructure for humanitarian response and development work.