Thank you for your patience! :)

For this year’s Pista Ng Mapa (PnM), or Festival of Maps, Geoladies PH with the Ministry of Mapping (MoM) led a workshop on co-creating a Code of Conduct (CoC) for OpenStreetMap Philippines (OSM PH).

The Workshop aimed to gather and engage local community members of OSM and/or other open geospatial communities in the Philippines in co-creating a safe space for learning and collaborating, and the OSM PH CoC.

Background/Why form CoC?

Geoladies PH advocates for community diversity, collaborative participation, and affirmative spaces especially for women and under-represented communities in OSM and the local geospatial community/field. To achieve this, we believe that we should have a strong and enforceable guidelines or Code of Conduct in place; and we noticed that OSM PH or the local mapping community doesn’t have one yet. We were inspired by the MoM’s Code of Conduct and Kindness #Caretography and PnM’s Code of Conduct, as well as the works of GeochicasOSM, specifically @mapeadora’s talk/workshop at State of the Map 2018.

Initially, we applied for a 2-day or 2-sessions workshop, but there were lots of amazing talks and workshops. We were accepted for a 1-day workshop and were able to conduct Session 1; thank you Pista Ng Mapa for the opportunity!

Session 1 (during Pista Ng Mapa 2020): Building an inclusive/collaborative space for the OSM PH Community

In this session, we brainstormed on how to have a safe space for learning and collaboration in the OSM PH local community, either it be online or physical, through a participatory workshop using Miro and/or Google forms.

The Program was divided in three (3) parts:

A. 7 minute pre-recorded talk/presentation from Leigh (Feminist 101) and Hannah (Caretography)

B. 20 minutes interactive workshop via Miro with Cham

(Amazing Miro board created by Cham!)

A google form of the Workshop is available for those who wish to be anonymous/had difficulties in accessing the Miro board, and/or those who want to give additional inputs after the workshop.

(Numbers 1-2 quick are warm up questions)

1. Maligayang pagdating (Warm welcome!) - We asked the participants to introduce themselves by uploading a photo/drawing their picture, write their aliases/name, and to greet fellow participants. Participants made their own tourist pass.

2. Taga-saan ka? (Where are you from?) - Participants were asked to drop pins of their location. One participant dropped a pin in the ocean, and one even drew their country (outside of the Philippines) :D

3. Brgy. Paborito (Barangay Favorite) - We asked the participates to think of their favorite place/space; what emotions do they associate with it; and why is it their favorite? Participants filled up a ‘boarding pass’ sharing their favorite place, why it is their favorite, and added an emoji relating to how they feel about it. Some of our favorites are our college universities, and the natural beaches and mountains of the country!

4. Publico Park (Public Park) - Now, think of a (public) place/space where people gather together to collaborate and learn. What do you think are the characteristics of that (public) place that makes it conducive for learning/collaboration? Participants filled up a thought bubble sharing a public place they like, its characteristics, and images/screenshots of the place. Most of the answers are (still) parks and spaces in our college universities; some answered were cafes and a restobar. ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

5. Virtual Place - Situate that place/space into a virtual space, what characteristics should it have? Participants filled up a postcard/s to share how they wish a virtual community for collaboration and learning should be. Read the postcards, heart-warming :)

6. Lego building - What do you think we must do, we shall start/stop to do to create a space for learning and collaboration? Participants wrote down action points we can do to build a space that is safe and conducive for learning and collaboration on the Lego pieces. We asked the to complete the sentences: I will __, We should start __, We should stop __.

C. Synthesis and discussion with MapmakerDavid

Because of overtime, we needed to wrap up quickly. MapmakerDavid gave a brief but meaningful discussion on why we need a Code of Conduct, and to shift our attention from expertise to community.

Non-verbatim: Basically I would like to propose, especially for those who get used to the system of toxic masculine culture in the Philippines, to decenter cartographic privilege. It means that we need to shift our attention from expertise to community; and for us to focus not just on the technical aspects of mapping, but see mapping as both social and technical. I believe that and the literature/researchers backs it… our knowledge and experiences are not just defined by what is in the wiki or the GIS layers… and this means that we need to improve our way of relating to each other, and we can do that by highlighting and foregrounding our interests, the power that we try to promote, desires, and purpose why we do this…Open the space for everyone to contribute, for everyone to have control over multiple sources and process..

He goes on to share this slide and highlighted that Filipinos, unlike other nationals who are more task-oriented, focus first on good relationships and team dynamics. “Out of that good relationships are high quality maps.”

“Our islands and who we are… are part of a web of relationships… it takes good relationships to navigate a great ocean.”

Next steps / Session 2: CoC drafting/commenting (with inputs from Session 1)

Session 2 or the crafting of the OSM PH CoC which encompasses all online channels and activities relating to OSM PH, is still in process. The outputs from Session 1 will be inputs for the OSM PH CoC.

If you wish to be updated, send feedback and get involved in drafting the CoC for OSM PH, please subscribe to the talk-ph mailing list. We will update and share through the mailing list and other OSM PH channels once the CoC draft is available.

We chose to use the talk-ph mailing list channel since not everyone is on the OSM LoCos telegram chat, and because e-mail is the most used channel for communication.

Other topics and questions that we want to consult with the OSM PH community are: - What should be the consequences of violating the OSM PH CoC? - How do we approve the CoC? - How do we ensure that it is enforced? (One thing that comes to mind is to have an open feedback mechanism/form for members to express criticisms or report violation which should be managed by a committed group of people) - And many more…

With the CoC at place for OSM PH, we hope to abolish patriarchy and/or “rock stars” in our local geospatial community. It’s about time to create and ensure safe and inclusive space for collaboration in the OSM landscape.

PS. Here’s another Miro board (Wall of Places) made by Cham! We used this board as practice to have participants explore Miro and familiarize themselves with the board before the workshop proper :)

My entry… lol