Hello OSM World,

I have written to my diary once before, complaining to you about the new geospatial data law passed in Turkey in early 2020, which had potential effects and implications regarding OpenStreetMap as well. We are still uncertain on how the law will affect open geospatial mapping in Turkey since it is still not in full effect after two years with numerous uncertainties in practice. Anyway, the reason why I’m taking on writing is different and is both in a personal and an international level.

It’s exciting times for me in my OpenStreetMap journey. An interest next to my academic research, and a side quest compared to my day job in 2012 has slowly and steadily became the centerpiece of my life and I’m transitioning into a working setting where I’ll be able to dedicate my time entirely on OpenStreetMap development. And I am very lucky now to be a part of one of the most active and enthusiastic teams, Open Mapping Hub Asia-Pacific, supported by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team as the OpenStreetMap Trainer for the region.

Kicking off this week following 2022’s first Map and Chat Hour, on February 28, Monday 09:00 UTC and on March 2, Wednesday 06:00 UTC I am starting conducting the Asia-Pacific OSM Help Desk on a weekly basis. At the Help Desk sessions, we invite OSM contributors to have more targeted discussions about their OSM learning journeys and to provide a discussion space to tackle more specific issues they cannot ask during other events or group training sessions they had attended.

Unless explicitly specified, I will be online at the designated time slots to:

• Troubleshoot any issues the contributors might have following mapathons & trainings,
• Suggest a learning path of tools & resources to ones who are interested in particular aspects of the OSM/open mapping ecosystem,
• Identify the needs of individuals and communities for upcoming focused trainings and workshops (TBA).

At the end of each week, I am planning to share a new diary entry which will summarize the discussion topics and their solutions for that week.

I don’t claim to know everything regarding OpenStreetMap; I am still learning new things and stumbling across amazing tools and methods as I dig deeper. But I am willing to support you on your pain points and roadblocks on your OpenStreetMap journey if I am familiar and experienced on that subject. If not, I will be more than happy to learn that with you, trying to find the right places to look at together.

So feel free to book an appointment from this link for the Asia-Pacific OSM Help Desk sessions every Monday (09:00 UTC) and Wednesday (06:00 UTC). I will share the meeting link for the first upcoming session based on your selected day on Fridays. Please remember that you will receive invitation to only one session, and you will need to book a new appointment through the same link if you want to attend another session with newer questions. Thank you for your understanding on that. I will also make sure to check if there are new appointment requests on Monday and Wednesday mornings to avoid any inconvenience.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Please stay tuned for my weekly updates. And maybe follow the exciting stuff going on at the Hub via Twitter and Facebook.