My Pista ng Mapa 2019 Experience

I don’t know where to start in my Pista ng Mapa 2019 experience because everything was amazing and unforgettable, but I’ll start from the very beginning of my journey.

I was invited to Pista ng Mapa 2019 by my mentor. At that time, we just finished our CWTS++ session from our school. Us volunteers and with my mentor were just having our lunch and discussion from the session. At the end of the discussion, he mentioned to us that we should apply a scholarship for Pista ng Mapa 2019. I was interested about the conference and the experience that I will be gaining. As I got home, I applied for a scholarship to Pista ng Mapa 2019. (Spoiler Alert) At that moment, I didn’t know that my application will be accepted. Days went passed by, and shortly I received an email. But at that time I didn’t check on my email, so I wasn’t notified. A day after the email was sent, I was notified by my peer that we were both shortlisted in the scholarship. I was shocked and hoping to get the scholarship. Fast forward through time and I was in tears of joy because I was accepted.

2 weeks before the conference, I was nervous and excited at the same time. As I prepare myself for the conference, I practiced my public speaking skills and I prepared my knowledge to be shared in Dumaguete.

Days went passed by and fast forward to my first flight experience. I consider this experience as one of the memorable, because it is a starting point for my adulthood experience. As I arrived in the airport, it is time for me and my peer to travel through air for the first time. Fast forward to Dumaguete, landing was bumpy and finally we have landed safely.

Now here’s another memorable experience, when we were going to our accommodation. Long story short, we got lost but we found the location safely like after 30 minutes of finding it with some help online. I’ll consider it as a part of my being a mapper experience.

After all the flight and getting lost, I have finally arrived at Dumaguete. After an hour, I went to Foundation University with my fellow travel grantees. As I arrived in the venue, I felt the warm welcoming to us. Upon the registration, I greeted everyone with a smile. There were a lot of workshops to choose from the conference. I was already familiar with the other workshops so that was an advantage for me to try the others.

Day 1 of Pista ng Mapa 2019

• The Pista ng Mapa 2019 started with a warm welcoming to all attendees and proceeded with remarks and different talks. Later on, we had our break and proceeded with the workshops after.

• My first workshop for the event was “Data Storytelling with Open Contracting Data”. It was about bringing together journalists, open data enthusiasts, storytellers, mappers, and visual artist to learn, be inspired, and to come up with their own version of data stories on public procurement. It was worth joining this workshop because it expanded my knowledge in analyzing, critically thinking, and in research. It left me with learnings to use.

• My second workshop was “Geo* Data Science with Python”. It’s about a hands-on introduction to the commonly used tools for implementing geo data science workflows with Python. This workshop was intended for intermediate users, but I still enjoyed the content of the workshop because it shows how broad Python can be used. After the workshop, I had some chat with the professors and students of Foundation University. I consider our chat as a session because I gained more knowledge about the university and its similarity to ours.

• My third workshop for the event is “OpenStreetMap Mapathon”. It’s about mapping pedestrian infrastructures with Pic4Review. I am already familiar with the workshop but I still enjoyed learning more of its content. It’s a win-win situation because I learned something again and I helped assist the validations.

Day 2 of Pista ng Mapa 2019

• The second day of Pista ng Mapa 2019 was more exciting because I consider it as the climax of the event. I’ll start the second day with my lightning talk, all the travel grantees is required to present a lightning talk. My lightning talk is about my CWTS++ program in my university Polytechnic University of the Philippines (San Juan Branch). The lightning talks presented by different groups were interesting and informational.

• I consider this workshop as the most interesting one which is “DIY imagery collection for mapping”. This workshop is about learning to use high resolution imagery collected from off-the-shelf UAV devices for mapping in OpenStreetMap. The instructors taught us the inside and the outside of a drone. They also taught us the rules and regulations of CAAP in using drones and how to become a drone pilot. We went outside to collect images with the drones. It was a new experience and a whole new level. After the imagery collection, we created an available imagery and uploaded it.

• The last workshop that I’ve entered is “Datamining OpenStreetMap with Overpass Turbo”. This workshop is about a hands-on-course on web-based geo data mining. I am already familiar with the workshop content, so I just helped my fellow peers understand Datamining with Overpass Turbo. Overall they learned how to use the platform.

• Day 2 ends with “Geo-ladies Plenary Session”. Members of the Geo-ladies show how they navigate daily life society and the world. They also showed their interest and job. One of the members showed how she maps the ocean using sound waves.

Day 3 of Pista ng Mapa 2019

• Day 3 of Pista ng Mapa 2019 was all about field mapping in the streets near Foundation University. We collected data by using collecting street-level imagery or using the standard field paper. My group was set in B3 which contained a long street and some small streets. We collected a lot of data including names of the shops, school, and some buildings. Some of the areas are not yet mapped, so after collecting data from the field work, my group fully completed our area.

After the field work, Pista ng Mapa 2019 is officially done. The last thing to do is to enjoy the last remaining hours in Dumaguete.

I say good bye to Dumaguete as my plane officially takes off to Manila.

Remarks

Thank you to the organizers for making “Pista ng Mapa 2019” a wonderful experience. Thank you to the instructors and speakers for leaving me knowledge that I can use in my field of interest. Thank you Pista ng Mapa 2019 for the unforgettable and knowledgeable experience that I’ve gained. Finally, thank you to my mentors and the OSM community for letting me have the chance to participate and experience Pista ng Mapa 2019.

Photos

• Here’s me presenting my lightning talk about CWTS++ (Credits to Neyzielle)

• Here’s me and all the participants in Day 1 of Pista ng Mapa 2019

• Here’s me and all the participants ready in field work

• Here’s “DIY imagery collection for mapping” my favorite workshop of Pista ng Mapa 2019