As part of the Open Data Day 2022 small grants program, the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) supported 14 events. YouthMappers from Tanzania received a small grant under the Open mapping category to host an open data event.
Category: Open mapping
Here are some highlights of the Open mapping events supported by Open Data Day 2022.
- YouthMappers (Tanzania)
YouthMappers Tanzania co-organised the Mapathon with SMCoSE Youthmappers and Geospatial technology and Environment on 18 June 2022 to improve preparedness for and response capabilities to urban floods among local communities in the Morogoro Municipality and Ifakara Town Council, Tanzania. The mapathon not only contributed to opening data but also increased the knowledge of students, researchers, and stakeholders on why open data is so important for development purposes.
The following are the outlined activities that were delivered at the mapathon:
- Turning open data into action and growth engine
Participants were trained on data quality, a key requirement for quality mapping. They were also trained on the need to promote inclusiveness in data-driven community-centered programs supporting local sustainable developments. This presentation was delivered by Mr. Gideon George Sway, coordinator of Geospatial Technology and Environment (GeoTE).
- Creating youth careers and innovation by working with open data
This session aimed at highlighting opportunities for youth, especially in universities. As a global network of students, scholars, educators, and researchers, YouthMappers creates opportunities to build mapping skills, and to connect and share experiences among the chapters. Mr. Erick Tamba Mnyali, regional ambassador of YouthMappers delivered the session. Youths were excited to know about the opportunities and were moved to join and become active members of YouthMappers chapters.
- Demonstration of how open data has been used to address and solve floods in the Morogoro region
This session’s target was to share previous projects conducted by SMCoSE YouthMappers in the fight against flood challenges in Morogoro Municipality. It was presented by a representative from Global water partnership who was once a YouthMappers chapter lead: Mr. Frank Anderson. The session gave insights and background of the project, current phase, and future scope of the project.
- Mapathon
Most of the event was spent on this key session where participants contributed to open data in flood-vulnerable communities. To enhance data quality during this co-joint mapathon, attendees were trained on different editors used for mapping. Both ID Editor, Rapid ID editor, and JSOM were presented to attendees. Over 7 hours were spent by the participants tracing ground features, specifically buildings and roads from satellite imagery in Morogoro Municipal and Ifakara Town Council. The participants were able to map 80% percent of the priority areas and managed to contribute with over 2500 buildings and 1500 kilometres of roads.
80 participants attended the mapathon. Female participants showed improvement. 10 women contributed more than 200 edits to the projects. Throughout the mapathon there were enlightening talks on how data generated can be used to solve community challenges.
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Open Data Day is an annual celebration of open data all over the world, where we gather to reach out to new people and build new solutions to issues in our communities using open data.
For the 2022 edition of Open Data Day, Open Knowledge Foundation supported 14 events with small grants. Please find the details of all grant winners here.
