On Thursday, 08 December 2022, we met in Nachbarschaftstreff Berg am Laim, which also was the study area for the mapping today. To create a warm welcome, we served Christmas pastries and provided drinks. 

Hector Ochoa Ortiz gave a short introduction to the topic:

• What is mapping?
  Mapping means updating data and contributing to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) data set. 
• What is OpenStreetMap?
  OSM is the "Wikipedia of maps" but actually not a map itself. It is a project that contributes and distributes free geographic data for the world. It offers editable and queryable geographic database of the whole world. As it is open source, everyone can contribute to it. 
• Why should someone contribute to OSM?
  Geographical data is needed for many cases. The data by public entities is not always complete and commercial providers do not give out data for free. OSM is the biggest and most popular crowdsourcing publisher of (free) geographical data. As many people over the whole world contribute to OSM, the dataset is big and close-meshed. 
• How can you be sure that the data in OSM is correct?
  As mentioned above, many people contribute to OSM. Chances are good that the uploaded data will be checked and, if necessary, adjusted by several people who want to use the data. Furthermore, when uploading the data, one can choose whether the data should be checked by another user. 

Afterwards, Dr.-Ing. David Duran presented the project for which the geographical data from Berg am Laim is used. MGeM (Mobility Equity in Metropolitan Regions) investigates where and which mobility inequities exist and which points should be addressed. Subsequently, the participants started to map within small groups. In 1 hour (time-restricted due to weather and sunset) the participants came back to the meeting room. After a fast analysis, it became clear that group C had won the most and thus deserved the prize of the day (chocolate Father Christmas). After the award ceremony, everyone cleaned up the room together and headed to a Christmas market to end the evening in a cosy atmosphere. 

We want to thank all attendees for their participation. Additionally, we want to thank the team behind MAGs Nachbarschaftstreff in Westerhamerstraße 13, Berg am Laim in Munich. The facilities provided were perfect. 

We are looking forward to the next Mapping Party.

You want to organise a mapping party but you don't have the right premises or the communication reach? Contact us: openLAB Urban Mobility.