With my State of the Map Working Group - communications hat 👒 , one thing that really put a smile on my face is checking the stats of scholarships given! 😍

Quick stats re scholars from the OSMF SotM WG & Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team #HOTOpenSummit Travel Grant Programs:

• 💻 10 online scholars
• ✈ 50 in-person scholars
• 🌍 🌎 🌏 from 27 countries
• 💛 💜 24 women : 36 men
• 1️⃣ 80% attended their first #StateoftheMap conference!
• plus 29 🎟 were given for free!

I cannot express enough how amazing it feels to see this stats. As someone who got exposed more to OpenStreetMap community after attending her first global SotM conference six years ago (my diary here), this gave me much hope and encouragement that we’re building an inclusive map and community 🗺 🤝

It is one of the best-est part of SotM - having new people and faces attending the conference. That means we’re growing, that means we get to bring SotM to new regions and closer to #OpenStreetMap contributors who hasn’t participated ever; that means they get to experience the global community spirit of the best map; that means they get to learn new things, listen to and share their story ; that means we build not only mappers, but also event organizers, trainers, community builders and connectors! ✊ 💫

We have lots of OSM Contributors in Asia and SouthEast Asia region who hasn’t been to a global SotM, and I couldnt be more happier and excited to host you in our home 🇵🇭 for #SotM2025 ;) [Watch the teaser video here!]

Special shoutout to this year’s heart and sweat to run the Travel Grant Programs for SotM2024: Dorothea, Lorenzo Stucchi, Geoffrey Kateregga, Walter Mayeku, James Magige, Kshitij Raj Sharma, and 🍻 to the previous #SotM scholarship teams, the regional/country #SotM travel grant teams, and sponsoring orgs. Know that your impact changes lives… more that you can ever imagine. 🔥

And for the scholars, my challenge to you is… with the new power (knowledge, experience, connections, etc) that you now hold, how will you use / grow it? 🙂 ⚡

PS. Some of the scholars have already shared their reflections and takeaways via writeup/social media post/video, you can check them in the osm wiki: osm.wiki/State_of_the_Map_2024#Write-ups