On Oct 1st, anandisaac and I conducted an introductory session on OpenStreetMap as a part of a free software camp at Trichy. The participants were a mix of school students, college students from multiple disciplines and teachers.

For the participants, maps primarily meant paper maps used in Geography and History classes or Google Maps used for navigation.

We introduced OSM as an editable map to which everybody could contribute and how its data can be used by all. We showed them some projects based on OSM including the Chennai flood map and the Managua transport map by MapaNica. After showing such examples of how the map data has been used in interesting ways, the participants were given a small activity. They were split into teams and each team had to come up with an idea as to how they would use OSM data. Simply put, we asked them, “What kind of map would you build using OSM data?”. The ideas they came up with were both fun and innovative! Listed below are some of them.

• A map of Trichy to indicate where policemen are likely to check for driver’s license, speed limit, helmet, etc so that users can choose an alternate route avoiding cops.
• A map to highlight all the signals in the city so that emergency services like ambulance can use the map to plan the best/fastest route without signals.
• A map of forests indicating areas of animal movement. This could be used when humans need to go into a forest they may not be familiar with.
• A map of all the bus stops in Trichy with details of bus routes and timing.
• A map to find the nearest recharge (mobile talktime/data) shop.
• A map of all car & two wheeler service centres.

The activity kindled the curiosity of the participants to understand how they could use OSM. Some of the ideas brought out unique use cases. Though a few ideas may seem wild, the exercise drove home the point that they could use OSM in various ways. It encouraged them to think about map as a tool for their daily needs (beyond navigation) and how OSM powers them to be more than just a user of the map.

One of the teachers present in the audience was even curious to know if the map could be used to track students who do not attend classes regularly. Maybe she mistook OSM for the Marauder’s Map.