This is a guest blog post from Dale Kunce and Robert Banick from the American Red Cross.
We can’t tell you how excited we are to be hosting the Sprint Day for this year’s State of the Map US conference.
The American Red Cross is a huge fan and user of OpenStreetMap. The International Services Department relies on OpenStreetMap data and maps every day in our program and disaster response work. We also actively contribute to OpenStreetMap in the regions and cities we are most focused on. In response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines we, alongside the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, worked with thousands of volunteer mappers to update OpenStreetMap data in the Philippines to support our relief teams and all humanitarian workers responding on the ground. We’re replicating this now with the ongoing Ebola outbreak in Guinea.
At the Sprint Day, we’re excited to talk with and collaborate with others interested in improving OpenStreetMap for disaster response and broadly just to have a better map. We want everyone with an idea on how to improve OpenStreetMap - the data, the infrastructure, documentation, editors, and so on - to come ready to discuss it and get down to work. And if you don’t have an idea, just come ready to help!
Here’s a look at just a few of the projects we’ll be working on. Got an idea? Email it to mele@openstreetmap.us or just come ready to dive in.
- Improving OpenStreetMap for disaster response
- Survey DC - get out, map local streets, and add data to OpenStreetMap. New contributors welcome.
- Aerial kite mapping - Public Lab will lead this aerial-to-OpenStreetMap workshop with a few fun demos.
RSVP for the Sprint Day here. While the event is free, we ask you to RSVP so we can order the proper amounts of caffeine and lunch.
The Sprint Day will take place at the Red Cross’ historic National Headquarters on 17th Street NW.
