My Introduction to OSM at Unique Mappers Network Author: Victory114 | Date: 21st April 2026 | Location: Unique Mappers Network, UNIPORT Mall, Port-Hacourt, Nigeria Language: English

Setting The Scene.

I was introduced to Unique Mappers Network (UMT) by my mentor; an Environmental Consultant, CEO, lecturer, and Engineer, Engr. Andrew John. He informed me about a call for applications that had been advertised on LinkedIn on the 26 February 2026. With only three days to apply, I seized the opportunity with much excitement. It was a chance to utilise and build on my knowledge and skills in GIS. I submitted my application and was delighted when UMT accepted me. I was then invited to visit the headquarters in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, for an interview and induction.

Arriving At UMT.

I arrived at UMT headquarters for the first time filled with excitement and curiosity. The National Coordinator, Dr Victor, interviewed me and gave me a thorough induction on what to expect during my time with the organisation. I was later added to the organisation’s group chat and had the opportunity to ask questions and learn about UMT’s excellent achievements, including their international engagements in Paris and Romania, OSM conference and State of the Map. I was impressed by Dr Victor’s depth of knowledge and experience in GIS, training, and event coordination. From that first conversation, I felt assured of the quality of guidance that would be available to me throughout my internship.

How I Found Unique Mappers Network.

Before arriving, I had already read about the organisation, how it was founded in 2017, its mission of humanitarian action and community development through mapping, and its growing list of achievements and international participation. I already had some knowledge of environmental monitoring and GIS from my first and second years at Nottingham Trent university, and I am looking forward to my final year, where I will be taking a module on Remote Sensing. This internship with UMT was a perfect opportunity to share my skills in environmental monitoring and GIS while learning new things and building practical experience in an organisation dedicated to humanitarian mapping. It would also help me prepare actively for my remote-sensing module.

What UMT Do: In My Own Words.

Unique Mappers Network is a non-governmental organisation driven by youth empowerment, community development, humanitarian action, and mentorship all through mapping. Its mission is global, leveraging OpenStreetMap (OSM) as a tool to empower young people and enlighten communities and institutions about the power of mapping. The skills developed at UMT can be applied across humanitarian work, technology, research, consulting, urban planning, remote sensing, oil and gas industry, natural-resources management, and much more.

My First Day What Actually Happened.

Activities and Sessions On 31 March 2026, I was received by the team with warmth and given a few exciting tasks to carry out. First, I was asked to give a presentation on an internship proposal for my 6 months with the organisation. The feedback I received was constructive and insightful, helping me understand how to make the most of my time at UMT. I was then introduced to the HOT certification courses on Introduction to Open Mapping and Introduction to OpenStreetMap. I also received a tutorial on how to map on OSM, which added to my existing experience with QGIS. Learning how to contribute practically to the very OSM data I had been using in my QGIS projects was genuinely mind-blowing. I was also taught how to publish an OSM diary entry and given tasks to publish on OSM and share my HOT certificates on LinkedIn. There were so many exciting opportunities to learn and grow from day one. The tools and platforms I was introduced to included OSM, the iD Editor, JOSM, the Tasking Manager, and the HOT course platform.

People I Met.

I met Grace, a talented and experienced team member who is also a super mapper with excellent experience in using drones for mapping. Grace gave me valuable feedback on my proposal and shared her own mapping journey with me.

What I Learned on Day One.

I learned many new things, but the single most important realisation was this: it is individuals, people like me who contribute to the OSM map I had been using in QGIS all along. Understanding that I could be part of building that dataset was a powerful moment. Giving the proposal presentation was nerve-wracking, challenging, and exciting all at once but I did it anyway. I am glad I pushed through, because the constructive feedback I received was invaluable.

Reflecting on What This Means to Me.

At the end of my first day, I felt that I had a great deal to look forward to. The energy of the team, the depth of knowledge available, and the sheer variety of tools and skills on offer all left a lasting impression. Contributing to open mapping in Nigeria means something personal to me. It connects my academic studies in Environmental cience with real-world impact helping communities become visible on the map and supporting humanitarian responses where they are needed most. I am most looking forward to deepening my skills in OSM mapping, earning my HOT certifications, and contributing meaningfully to projects that make a difference.

Looking Ahead.

This is just the beginning of my journey with Unique Mappers Network, and I cannot wait to see where it leads. If you want to support open mapping in Nigeria or connect with a vibrant community of young mappers, check out Unique Mappers Network you won’t regret it.

UniqueMappersNetwork #UniqueMappersTeam #NTU #UniqueMappersIntern2026

All that’s left is things like power poles, fire hydrants. But every building has a shape now. Every thing that has an address is now on the map.

I know in a month or so I will have to go back and adjust 2nd at Windfeldt as a new sidewalk is being put in. It’s about 2/3 complete.

I started the mapping process on November 18. So five months to map my home.

Yesterday marks the start of my Open Street Map contributions. Pikmin enthusiast. But more importantly, a food, culture and cuisine person.

Hello, I’m Aidan Kaita Saka from Tanzania 🇹🇿. An active youth mapper dedicated to improving maps for my community. I enjoy contributing roads, buildings, places, and useful local information to help people navigate better. Proud to support OpenStreetMap and community development.

Regarding Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam, BC, Canada: Nothing along Lougheed between Sage Place and Schoolhouse is accessible to foot traffic, but much of it claims to be, despite the significant danger. Lougheed appears to be editable in many sections, and I don’t know how to change the entire strip easily. Can someone help? Thank you!

Translations into the following languages have been added:

Because sometimes you want to see less rather than more, I created this. Its the information from the existing layer of the SVE01 schema, together with railway stations, places and water as needed for context.

(text translated from my original entry in french using Chatgpt)

This is Way: Richmond (1489761671) and you will notice that I mapped this neighbourhood. The place is small, historic and central. Youll find an interesting combination of buildings. For example, Parktowns Blue Plaques.

Hello, i have an irrational fear of technology. Because i hate OSMwiki. i hate how things related to public transit is inconsistent. i hate how iD editor is inconsistent in giving necessary tags for PTv2. i don’t like stop positions. i don’t like iD editor not having an auto sort for relation members. i don’t like weird tagging schemes. i don’t like the OSM wiki having multiple different tags for very similar things without the wiki explaining them in terms of how the things that are being talked in OSMwiki is implemented in your country. i don’t like how convoluted it is for adding bus routes. harumph.

in another news, pt_assistant plugin for josm is a godsend. thank you kind stranger for this gift to humanity.

also, even if i added PTv2 compliant perfect bus routes, OSMand is still not able to properly show bus information on itself.

harumph.

please, someone save OSM and me.

Acquiring knowledge on mapping of electrical power grids: my participation in the MapYourGrid virtual meeting

I had the opportunity to solely lead Nepal’s first Inclusive Mapping Week 2025 at Kathmandu University. What started as an idea became a week-long initiative bringing together over 400 participants to learn, map, and collaborate.

Hello everyone,

I would like to request the addition of a missing village to OpenStreetMap. The village is called Goranka Mazn, located in the Akre District, Sawsana Subdistrict, Duhok Governorate, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Basic information:

🏘️ Village name: Goranka Mazn

🗺️ District: Akre

🏞️ Subdistrict: Sawsana

🏴 Governorate: Duhok – Kurdistan Region, Iraq

🧾 Postal Code: 24005

🛣️ Main connecting road: Goranka Mazn Road

📍 Nearby village: benatah

This village is recognized by local government maps, but it is still missing from OpenStreetMap. We kindly ask for it to be added so that the area can be better represented for residents, navigation, and future development.

Location: Goranka Mazn, Akre Central Subdistrict, Akre District, Nineveh Governorate, 24005, Iraq

Sometimes, we set out to solve one problem and arrive at a bunch of even greater discoveries along the way. This story starts with my curiosity about whether you can get a “GPS” track log underground - like in a tunnel or underground car park.

In the second week (14th–19th February), we faced OSMMalawi. With no strategy to balance academics and mapping, I grew lazy. To overcome this, I wrote a sticky-note reminder on my laptop to push myself to map at least five tasks daily during breaks. By the end of the week, my contributions increased, and on 20th February, we celebrated another win, rising to 3rd place overall.

The third week (21st–26th February), the mapping match was against KabUyouth Mappers from Uganda. Bing imagery was unclear, but I adapted by using Google Earth references & comparing different imageries. My changesets piled up, promoting me from beginner to intermediate mapper. . We maintained the 3rd position but our captain organized a google meeting with Kingsley (one of the tournament organizers), who taught us valuable skills in both iD editor and JOSM.

By the fourth and fifth weeks (28th February–12th March), mapping had become part of my routine—even appearing in my dreams! Funny!!, am I right?

Despite some abrupt technical issues with OpenStreetMap login, we pushed through, won the game against YouthMappers Mukuba, and advanced to the next stage. By the end, we’re proudly ranked 4th among the top 10 contributing teams out of approx. 80 countries.

Thank you for reading my diary—I hope my journey inspires someone out there. Let’s map the world together! #SpatialMappers #AfricaMapCup2026. Cheers to all participants in this tournament, and please wish my team & I good for it’s still on going.

Every day at around 4 pm (unless there’s IRL business that I have to attend to), I log in to https://osmbc.openstreetmap.de/
to edit this week’s edition of WeeklyOSM.

I remember when my captain and I searched for willing mappers in our community to register for the tournament, which required at least 20 participants per team. One colleague discouraged me, saying it was highly impossible for us to be among the winners. However, that didn’t stop me from learning JOSM and joining the tournament.

In the first match week (7th–12th February), my team faced Carto Afrique of Kenya. The transition from iD editor to JOSM was amazing—tasks that once took over an hour now took only 30–40 minutes, giving me time to complete more. JOSM’s validation tool saved us from penalties by detecting errors before uploading.

On 13th February, the results were announced: my team won against Carto Afrique! That victory gave us our first point, lifted our spirits, and placed us 5th among the top 10 contributing teams. Yet, as my semester began, I feared balancing mapping with academics, sports, and assignments which would be tough, making the experience even more intense. ……..thank you to those that are reading my dairy. comment your review and lets share our experiences.

Ive been creating and serving web-based maps such as this one for some time. Thats based on raster tiles, and an osm2pgsql database is used to store the data that the tiles are created from, on demand as a request to view a tile is made.

The Beginning – Discovering JOSM..

I never imagined my mapping journey would reach this point in time. I would like to share with you my experience, which carried both doubts and excitement for my team and me—the thrill of learning Java OpenStreetMap (JOSM) and climbing the staircases that led to building victories in the Africa Map Cup 2026 Tournament. My name is Alvin Andrew Barugahara, also known as AlvinB (OSM name), a student from a mapping community in Uganda called Spatial Mappers at Ndejje University. I had always heard of JOSM and its simplicity in mapping OSM tasks. Back then, I was just a beginner mapper using iD editor, which was the default platform. It wasn’t bad, but it required constant internet access and had a small working window with few shortcuts, making mapping slow. My captain, Aikiriza Justus (OSM name), had a vision of teaching us how to use JOSM and become “advanced mappers.” He guided and pushed us beyond our limits through various Google meetings, preparing us for the Africa Map Cup 2026, which began on 7th February 2026. “Stay tuned for the next part of my Africa Map Cup journey…”

Solar Farms

Looking into getting a gist for where there are solar farm setups both on land and in water (lakes , ponds ) etc

Below I will outline improvements for data interoperability regarding Wilderness Study Areas in the United States: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_study_area

A few days ago, I asked the community about converting general GIS polygons into OSM multipolygon relations. I’ve searched online but havent found a workflow that fits my needs.

I’m planning to update and expand the administrative boundaries for Bali in OSM. I’ve already prepared the multipolygons for admin_level 5, 6, and 7 using single shared ways for efficiency. By leveraging Google Sheets, I’ve also compiled a comprehensive list of Wikidata, Wikipedia links, and multilingual names to better serve Bali’s international profile.

However, the conflation process is proving to be a challenge. The existing data is quite a “nightmare” to clean up; many roads and waterways are currently shared with administrative relations, and landuse or natural features are glued to the boundaries. Time to start untangling!

Mapping administrative boundaries in Indonesia can tricky especially when dealing with overlapping names. Here is my simplified workflow for preparing this data:

1. Data Sourcing

First, download the official spatial data from Peta Rupa Bumi by Badan Informasi Geospasial. This serves as the primary geometry source.

2. Extracting Place Nodes

Since the source data is in polygon format, I use QGIS to extract the centroids (points). These points are essential for creating the place=* tags that represent the center of each administrative area.

3. The Importance of Kemendagri Codes

The polygons include Kemendagri reference codes. These are vital for:

• 
  Conflation: Ensuring data matches across different sets.
  
• 
  Identification: Many villages (admin_level 7 or 8) share the same name. The code helps distinguish them within a Regency or Province.

4. Enriching Metadata

Using spreadsheet tools and conflation techniques, I cross-reference the data to add:

• 
  wikidata and wikipedia tags.
  
• 
  Multilingual names (name:en, etc.).

5. Geometry Processing

To follow OSM best practices, I convert the polygons into independent ways (polylines).

• 
  This allows adjacent areas to share a single boundary line via a multipolygon relation.
  
• 
  Once converted, I export the result as a .geojson file.

6. Final Tagging

Finally, I use the previously extracted place nodes to quickly copy and paste the relevant tags into the new multipolygon relations in my OSM editor.

🗺️ Entry 1 — Setting up JOSM & Plugins

Mapping Banjë, Albania

I started mapping the Banjë region in Albania by setting up my editing environment in JOSM.

⚙️ Setup

I configured JOSM with a set of plugins to support structured mapping and validation:

• utilsplugin2 – general productivity tools
• reltoolbox – relation and multipolygon editing
• waydownloader – working with connected geometries
• merge-overlap – cleaning overlapping features
• Relation Validation Plugin – checking data consistency
• FastDraw – faster geometry digitizing

I also explored additional plugins like contour-related tools for terrain-based mapping.

🗺️ Mapping Context

The focus area is Banjë (central Albania) — a landscape with: - Complex terrain (valleys, rivers, slopes)
- Mixed land use (forests, agriculture, settlements)
- Incomplete or inconsistent OSM coverage

🌱 Initial Observations

• Landuse classification is often fragmented or overlapping
• Boundaries between forest, farmland, and settlements are not always clear
• Many features require clean multipolygon structures
• Validation tools already highlight conflicts in relations

🎯 Next Steps

• Clean and structure landuse polygons (forest, farmland, residential)
• Resolve relation conflicts and validation errors
• Improve consistency of tagging using presets
• Start refining settlement structures and road connectivity

OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

Gashamo Hawd Somali Ethiopia is the city of Hawd Zone Somali Regional State of Ethiopia.

Gashamo Hawd Somali Ethiopia is the city of Hawd Zone Somali Regional State of Ethiopia.

So, Ive been using Altilunium LocationPad for several of my personal projects until now. But recently, I encountered several problems.

I was recently reading Demographic deposit, dividend and debt by Sonalde Desai. Following the Standard Operating Procedure, I looked up this Sonalde person and turns out she is a researcher at a research institute in Delhi called National Council of …

UrbanEye3D 2.0 has been released!

I just published a hacky but effective tool to fix wrong tag values. This lead to some 50 edits only this morning.

Ive been working on Strado, a free tool that scores every neighborhood across 50 European cities using data from OpenStreetMap. I wanted to share the project with the OSM community since its built entirely on your work.

Following up on https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/lhirlimann/diary/404921, I discovered today that newer/better aerial imagery for some parts of Mongolia were available, hence doing me doing some edits.

As reported on the Irish OpenStreetMap website, we recently finished mapping all the buildings in Co. Down. Due to my goal to get high up in the UK statistics (I made it to #1), I apparently mapped 3,283 tasks, if Im reading the statistics right.

Welcome to The #questionable-edits OSM Iceberg!

I really love JOSM, and the more I use it, the more I discover that it offers some very useful features that some of you may not be aware of ! Even if some are less useful, simply knowing they exist opens up the possibility that you might find them u…

The Hub, Edinburgh rendered with Beakerboys OSM Building Viewer https://beakerboy.github.io/OSMBuilding/index.html?id=42997989

Back home with Mom for the weekend, when I picked her up after church, I was advised by everyone that taking the back exit from the church parking lot. What back exit? It wasnt on OSM or GM.

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