Call for communities and experts to take part in Open Street Mapping of Galway

The Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway is hosting a workshop on Saturday, August 31st for community groups, environmentalists, science researchers, geographers, planners and students to learn about and participate in Open Street Mapping, a free, editable map of the whole world that is being built by volunteers.

Organised by Ireland’s OpenStreetMap (OSM) community, the free event is open to all interested individuals and groups and will commence from 11 am at the Insight Centre of Data Analytics in the IDA Dangan Business Park.

Insight’s Dr Lukasz Porwol says, “This event is taking place as part of our centre’s citizen science schedule and it will provide a wonderful opportunity for both experts and novices to exchange ideas and experiences on this very important grassroots global initiative.”

All over the world, there are restrictions on the availability or the use of map information. OSM aims to remedy this by generating a free, editable map of the world. To date, four million people have come together to contribute data to OSM. These volunteers collect data using manual surveys, GPS devices, aerial photography, and other free sources. This crowdsourced data is then made available under the Open Database License.

Porwol says, “OpenStreetMap contributors have diverse interests and work at differing scales. Some people map their locality, while others work on themes such as public transport, the built environment, graveyards, tree cover, beaches, churches, sports grounds, greenways, energy infrastructures and many other things.”

OSM Ireland is affiliated to the worldwide volunteer movement. The purpose of the Galway chapter is to promote contributions of mapped data and re-use of the data, both locally and globally.

The Galway event is the latest in a series of OSM activities being held in Ireland’s cities and towns over the coming months.

Anybody who is interested in contributing or in learning more should register as soon as possible on Eventbrite at https://bit.ly/31SFBkM