Florence becomes the world capital of ‘OpenStreetMap’, the ‘Wikipedia of maps’: from 19 to 21 August, at the University of Florence’, over 400 people including volunteers, researchers and students from all over the world will gather to collect and share online open geospatial data, reusable by everyone for any purpose.
It will also take stock of how to develop a mapping community and how to map an area where there is no active community. Among the examples, in Taiwan ‘OpenStreetMap’ and ‘Wikidata’ data on rivers and villages are linked together, while in Togo, volunteers map infrastructures of social utility. Maps are also tools for reporting hundreds of cases of gender-based violence, as happened in Tanzania.
“We are really happy that State of the Map is finally back in attendance after two years online – commented Iolanda Pensa, president of Wikimedia Italia, which represents OpenStreetMap in Italy -. Above all because the concept of community, at the base of all collaborative projects, it is important because it favors the production from below and the sharing of data and tools useful to all. This type of meetings, which gather experiences and people from all over the world, are always an opportunity to give birth to new ideas, to find the thrust , the energy and creativity to produce something new together, available to all. The mappers of ‘OpenStreetMap’ show us every day how open geospatial data can be extremely useful to the community: enhancing little-known places, ensuring emergency services or economic development, making places and therefore knowledge accessible in general “.
Source: Ansa
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