KATHMANDU, Sept 24: ‘State of the Map Asia 2017’ conference began on Saturday at the Park Village Hotel and Resort, Budhanilkantha. 

The event’s inaugural session featured distinguished speakers from Nepal, including Vice-chair of National Planning Commission, Dr Swarnim Wagle, and Members of Legislature Parliament, Gagan Thapa and Gangalal Tuladhar. 

‘State of the Map Asia 2017’ is an annual regional conference of Open Street Map (OSM) organized by OSM communities in Asia. This year’s conference is the third edition that has brought about 200 Open Mapping enthusiasts from Asia and beyond. 

The first day of the conference organized workshops, map data integrity, interactive visualization Mapbox and Youth Mappers session, among others. 

The event has become a platform to share knowledge and experience among mappers, expand their network and generate ideas to expand the map coverage in Asian continent. This year, the theme of the conference is ‘From creation to use of OSM data.”

Nepal has been significantly mapped in Open Street Map in the last five years, and OSM has been heavily used by citizens, as well as humanitarian and development sectors. The event aims to contribute to OSM and use it in different ways to realize its full potential. The conference will foster partnership and start new avenues in expanding and using the free as well as open digital infrastructure in the civic and professional lives. 

Open Street Map was used heavily in the aftermath of Nepal Earthquake 2015 to bridge information gap between quake victims and aid relief agencies with help from international OSM communities. This is also an opportunity to collectively acknowledge the contributions of those mappers in the aftermath of the quake from all over the world. It can also be used to inform how OSM is being used in disaster management and overall development in Nepal. 

The two-day event is being organized by Kathmandu Living Labs and OSM Nepal. The conference will continue till Sunday.