A year I was just starting as a volunteer for the CWTS++ program, from answering a question to being accepted in the program. I did not even realize that there is something beyond this before I thought the benefit of it was just the technical of mapping. Surprisingly, I did not even expect what would be coming as I went through with it and imagine representing it to other people.

So I am one of those people that got lucky and been awarded a travel grant to “Pista ng Mapa” a national conference in Dumaguete, Negros. So everything is sponsored and I am thankful for that because I get to experience something new again, this includes air travel and no parental supervision outside of Manila.

One of the workshops that I went to is Data Storytelling with Open Contracting Data. I just had a feeling that’s why I choose this workshop and I can’t to the other workshop ‘cause I already have experience in OpenStreetMap and it was only the introduction of it. So I challenge myself by force and went to the Data Storytelling, even though I don’t have a clear idea of the whole workshop rather than creating a story with the given data. The speakers were journalists and data scientists which amused me about their topic and the talk itself, even though I can’t intake everything they’re talking about. I was grouped with other people which had a lot of experienced specially with politics, academe, and volunteering. They taught me how to filter a whole of data set which was around a thousand plus items, you have to sort it, tally it, analyze and make an interpretation out of all the gathered data to create your own story. Sadly the time was not enough to create the whole data story but it was fun learning at a different level.

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This is the last day of my internship with Kaart and I could say that obviously I had learned a lot of things including different techniques and logic tracing on how to deal with an image based from my mentors. In just one month I had improve my overall skills in mapping specially on tackling roads , I had familiarise different tags and error validation. Since I was had a poor skill in road mapping and tagging as well, this internship taught me to be more conscious with what I do specially with the accuracy and quality of my work. By now I am more confident on my work since I have the knowledge and the capability to thoroughly analyse things. Even thought at first I had trouble absorbing lessons that was given to us and even though the application of what I had newly knew was hard to apply in my recent work thus making my work inaccurate. Also the workshops that happened like the introduction of Leaflet and Mapbox. This workshops made me knowledgeable about the field of mapping is much more broader than mapping itself, the possibilities and what skills will be needed in this field.

I am looking forward to be working on mapping even if its not an internship anymore and just for humanitarian purposes. I would like to thank my mentors, co-interns, directors and the organisation of Kaart for giving me the opportunity to map for them this summer.

This is the third week of my internship at my school. This week we are still focus on road connectivity, besides from that we were introduce on the basics of Geo-coding. And by now I am aware that I am still developing my mapping skills in terms of accuracy due to the fact that some of my work were invalidated. So my level of aligning something specially on road and being conscious on the whole imagery is improving, somehow. I am also aware on how to fix certain errors/warnings that are complex rather than ignoring it.

So basically this week, my efficiency in mapping is improving. Looking back at my previous work a lot and realising that my work back then was on the status of poor. Now I am able to offset properly I think and more dedicated on mapping not just the primary problems of what is presented but taking the time to see the details of a image and the logic of the place that I am mapping.

By next week, I hope that my knowledge in mapping expands more.

This week I mainly focus on what I did last week.The difference is that last week was about relearning the basics of the technicality on what we were about to do for the whole month. At this time using JOSM was quite familiar to me now. I now learned how to map imagery that will not just focus on the roads and buildings but the whole image as a whole also considering the details, accuracy and artistic side of mapping. Fixing some errors was easy now since I already know how to fix the problems and been tackling different errors most of the time. Some errors are difficult since I am thought yet and I am not in that level of solving such as boundary errors.

I was also though on how to design a interactive 3D map. Designing was fun and I was inclined to it. I am still learning and exploring on how to specially the codes of a map. We are still continuing an activity on road connection, still improving how to map an image at a professional level and validating my co-interns to learn what common or new mistakes had happen. I also notice not all mappers have the same logic and ability as one is, so one has a different technique on doing a task and has a specific skill set or strength in mapping, Our director even introduce us on the shallow part of the geo-mapping field and how it is part of IT field.

For me mapping is another opportunity in what I may take in the future as a professional. Since the mapping industry in the Philippines is somehow they say ‘low’ . I would consider it then as a in demand job in the country. Being a mapper and an IT student has its mutual relation to each other which will somehow beneficial to me in being a professional soon.

Its has been more than a month since I had my last CWTS++ meeting at school and I can barely recall the few basics that I know in mapping. Since it was the first week and in tradition as a student I usually forget the lessons that had been taught to me by my director.

This week I mainly use JOSM which I oftenly utilise as an instrument for mapping for areas. I mostly used ID for roads because JOSM was like an unfamiliar territory to me .It was really technical as for me even until now the lessons still has not sink in properly. I learn a lot of things which includes roads that are logically near/ around a house or community. Also had been introduce to a few new plug-ins, tools, layers. Even the mapping techniques on how to approach a image was new and requires analysing the imagery. And I basically learned how to create/edit a line on somehow exactly in the middle of the road from the imagery and I had encounter new errors that are not in my capability of solving alone.

By now I am expecting myself to have like an intermediate level after this internship or something related to a higher level. I had learn that accuracy must be consistent in obtaining trust in one’s work , by that your body of work reflects you as a mapper.

Interview

I had ask a Barangay Chairman about the situtation of our area specifically baragay 875, zone 96. The area is in the southern part of Santa Ana, Manila. I had a conversation with her about the disaster plan of our area. My questions were about what is the current situation of the barangay in terms of prevention and preparedness when a certain disaster occur like fire,flooding and earthquakes.

She answered that the status of the barangay is moderately capable of handling a disaster with such programs taking place like the cleaning of canals that will reduce the risk of high flooding in the lower parts of the area. Santa Ana Manila is also known as an area where fire is rarely to happen but there are nearby fire stations near the major roads. Also our area is close to the fire stations of Makati which might help in case of fire. When an earthquake happens the barangay is quite not prepared in what to do and the nearest open area is at the nearby school which has an open field in the centre of it. That school may accommodate people whether people are temporary displaced. She also added that the coordination of other barangays helps in making the area be prepared since our barangay does not have the facilities yet, the unity between others areas with their resources might help.

Awareness

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January 26,2019: Today in our CWTS++ program is that we had some activities that we did like first we were mapping missing roads in Luzon at the Philippines which we are continuing to map in hot.taskosm.com using ID editor or JOSM to edit. Then we reviewed the previous homework that was assigned to us that needed to find evacuation sites (covered courts, hospitals and town halls) in the city of San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines. After locating those evacuation sites in every barangay we needed to know the population in those barangay then input that data in the map that we created. In case of a disaster occurred this data that we are making will help the people specifically the barangays of San Juan City will be able to know if those evacuation sites are capable of accommodating their barangay population. We were using overpass and umap to know the accurate information we needed and to input what we gathered.

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Mapping my neighborhood was quite easy, most of it was residential houses and businesses along the main road. But knowing each details was different. I have noticed that my neighborhood’s historic architecture was preserved in some houses like the Batungbacal ancestral house and establishments. Since Santa Ana was the only district in Manila which was spared from the bombing of World War 2. And most of the buildings were preserved, maintained and even business establishments adapt the architecture of the neighborhood so that it would blend. I have learned that this feature in my neighborhood is rich with culture that is preserved well in time and blessed that we still have it. And with observation you can see through the details of what may be seems to be new.

August 9,2018: We had a regular meeting in our CWTS++ program of MapAmore in Polytechnic University of the Philippines, San Juan branch which was headed by our director Mr. Erwin Olario. Our mapping program is more than a month now and we discussed the progress we had made in mapping specifically in the numbers of edits is around 6500 which includes 4199 buildings and covered 716 kilometers of roads. We validated almost all the missing roads in the Philippines and a few parts in Malaysia Laos, South Africa ,Russia, Canada and Cambodia. Even though the PUPSJ CWTS++ is just beginning its mapping program shows that its students/volunteers can contribute to the aspect of mapping whether in an emergency or not.

The first topic we had for today was about other Open Street Map Editors which was reported by our classmate Joshua Madridondo. The editors he shared was Potlatch 2, Merkaartor, Vespucci, StreetCompete, OsmAnd, Quantum GIS and ArcGIS. The editors stated has some pros and cons, like for Potlatch 2 it was easy to use which was good for beginners, displays the GPS traces in difference layers but requires a flash plug-in in the browser. While Merkaartor has unique features, intuitive user interface and binaries for Windows and other platforms. But it has a slow development and a small data base.

After that our director started to discuss the common issues and techniques about mapping.

•When you are in a task and the area you are mapping is not whole, then logically you would still map the entire area even though its other haft is in another task.

• In making roads you would like to copy the geometry of the road when you are mapping so that it would follow what it looks like, so creating addition nods are necessary. Additional you must connect roads in an entire area rather than creating a single line or incomplete ones. Indicate whether they are intersecting. Do not create another line on top of an existing road unless needed. Connect roads if necessary.

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