State of the Map 2011 Sneak Peek #1
Curious about the talk tracks this year? Look for feature sneak peeks here, for what’s to come in September!
#1 OSM in Japan before and after the tsunami
OpenStreetMap has been an invaluable resource in aiding the responses to humanitarian disasters.
For example, since the Haiti earthquake of 2010, OpenStreetMap has been recognised widely for its contributions to the response. OSM members formed a special task force to map areas of critical need and locations of resources, all of which were important in the response to the disaster.
When disaster struck in Japan this year, OSM again played a critical role. In Japan, OpenStreetMap had grown steadily throughout 2010, and the community had ambitious plans for 2011. An OpenStreetMap Foundation Japan had been established over Christmas 2010, and the project received a large donation of vector data. Then, soon after the announcement of the data donation, Japan was hit by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that killed thousands of people and devastated wide areas of the Pacific coast of eastern Japan.
At State of the Map 2011 Daniel Kasti of the OpenStreetMap Foundation Japan will discuss how the earthquake changed the situation for OpenStreetMap in Japan, how priorities and plans shifted from one day to the next, and how the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and local Japanese communities were on hand to help. Daniel will outline how, in a short time, volunteers from various projects and communities helped to set up the infrastructure to collect, organise and distribute existing data sources and to improve the coverage & quality of the local OpenStreetMap data. Furthermore he will describe the challenges and unique characteristics of mapping in Japan, and how localized information and software is a crucial factor in the success of OpenStreetMap.
This talk is just one of the many presentations at State of the Map 2011 in Denver, Colo., USA, that will illuminate the unique, vital and fascinating ways that OSM data is used around the world. Come join us Sept. 9-11, 2011 at the Auraria Campus of the University of Colorado to hear these presentations and meet some of the people from around the world volunteering their time and efforts for these amazing projects and for OSM in general.
