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What Local Chapters have been up to and how you can become one!

Our contributors and communities are the main drivers of the OpenStreetMap project. OSM Foundation recognizes country-level or region-level legal entities, the Local Chapters, to represent mappers and OSM data when dealing with local government, business, and media.

Currently, we have 18 Local Chapters:

(https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/openstreetmap-foundation-local-chapters_920305#2/39.9/42.5)

Join as a Local Chapter!

We have recently improved the pages to become a local chapter! One major change is that the Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) will process and review applications, then will recommend to the Board.

For more information and timeline, visit:

Why join as a Local Chapter?

OSMF highly values community and their contribution to the map. They serve as ambassadors in their national / regional areas promoting generation, improvement and use of OSM data and tools that fit their needs.

With this, Local Chapters have the power to:

  • Officially use the name and trademark of OSM
  • Represent the Foundation in interactions with governments and companies
  • Have a seat in the OSMF Advisory Board (to ensure local community ideas and opinions in OSM direction are heard)

Applying as a Local Chapter is free - we welcome you!

Highlights: Local Chapters

We ask Local Chapters to share Annual Reports for the last 1-2 years to ensure continued work in pursuit of our shared goals, and an opportunity to share their amazing work with OSM and other mappy communities. Recent and past reports are uploaded here and below are some highlights with links to Local Chapters reports:

OSM Italy (through Wikimedia Italy)

​​​​The OSM community in Italy with Wikimedia Italy had been busy hosting making State of the Map 2022 a success! Relive the moment through this video: [State of the Map: meet the volunteers behind OpenStreetMap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkul0q-9wvc)

OSM Slovakia

​​​​We empower users of [freemap.sk](https://freemap.sk) to upload and view photos. Our photo gallery contains almost 300 000 photos, including more than 10 000 photos of hiking and cycling guideposts.

OSM UK

​​​​As a group, we continued to share the word about OpenStreetMap and UK mappers. This ranged from mapping waste and recycling centres during the CodeTheCity hack weekends, to Andy Mabbett presenting to the Data Management Association and the British Computing Society. The latter is an example of where having an official organisation provides a route for companies or groups to ask for assistance.

OSM Czech

​​​​Greeter tool - in 2021, we developed and published greeter-osm tool, that is used to send welcome message to first time contributor in specific area. In 2021 we sent several hundreds welcome messages and we continue since then (github.com/osmcz/greeter-osm).

OSM US

​​​​OSM US recently organized the 11th State of the Map US in June 2023 in Richmond, Virginia. Check out the [videos in the Youtube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCXr9orM-U8&list=PLqjPa29lMiE3tyAbcczNlbCXK0ws8qwj0) and [photos in Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/photos/openstreetmapus/sets/72177720309114604)!

OSM Japan

OSM Japan hosted State of the Map Japan 2022 in Kakogawa and online with the theme: "Restart" following the COVID19 pandemic. It was organized by 12 volunteers and attended by 140 participants with 15 student scholars volunteers. Check out the [videos in the Youtube.](https://www.youtube.com/@sotmjp)

OSM France

The year 2021-2022 was the occasion for OSM France to be integrated into the plenary council of
the CNIG (National Council for Geolocated Information). The activity of the CNIG is growing
following the appointment of its new president last year.
This entry of the association is excellent news. It recognises the work of the entire community in the
service of the OSM project and it officially marks the importance of the project in the geographic
information landscape.

OSGeo Oceania

OSGeo Oceania organized FOSS4G SotM Oceania 2022 with Pacific Islands GIS and Remote Sensing User Conference in Fiji in December 2022, you can [view the presentation here](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1sxsK0KLcSI3mjFpCtcXxLl60Np0Qwpao). This year, the annual regional conference is happening in Aukland - find out more in the [official conference website](https://2023.foss4g-oceania.org/).

FOSSGIS Germany

FOSSGIS Conference 2023 happened in March 2023 in Berlin. Participated by about 500 participants, FOSSGIS Konferenz addresses local users and businesses to meet, learn about new development & collaborate on local chapter activities in their own language.

OSM Iceland

OSM Iceland has met with the National Land Survey of Iceland who has been tasked with creating a free and open road dataset. Until now the OSM road data has been the de facto road network used in work both by governmental and non-governmental organizations. A [presentation made in 2020](https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/8/8f/OSM_Iceland_introduction_during_20200521_OSMF_board_meeting.pdf) for the OSMF board is available at the OSMF website.

OSM Switzerland

In January 2023, Geomob podcast featured an active Swiss mapper, Simon, who happens to be the the current president of the Swiss OpenStreetMap association. [Tune in](https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-164) to hear about his motivation for the project, and his perspective on the OpenStreetMap community and its future.

OSM Belgium

​OSM Belgium has been busy organizing State of the Map Europe 2023 that will happen in Antwerp. It hopes to bring together the brightest and most active members of the OpenStreetMap mapping and developing community for a detailed exchange of results and ideas that support the continued success of the various initiatives by strengthening the ongoing projects and collaboration. More information [in the website](https://stateofthemap.eu/).

OSM DRC

At the end of 2022, OSM DRC started crowdmapping projects of main waterways using a national open data reference to identify missing ones and manually digitize them, 2 provinces (Lualaba and Haut-Katanga) out of 26 are being finalized now but we want to achieve a national coverage. [See their presentation](https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/a/a0/OSM_DRC_presentation_during_2023-07_OSMF_board_meeting.pdf) during the OSMF Community Spotlight session in July 2023.

OSM Ireland

OSM Ireland Buildings Microgrant Project concluded in 2022 - with 200,000 buildings mapped with growth in the community as a result of frequent online community meetings and goodies. See the (full report in the wiki.](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Microgrants/Microgrants_2020/Proposal/OSM_Ireland_Buildings/Report)

OSM Austria

​​OSM Austria continues to spread the knowledge of OpenStreetMap in the country. They participated in [Maker Faire](https://makerfaire.com/) Vienna 2023, the trade fair for global makers and inventors, and looking forward to participate in Maker Faire Salzburg in November this year.

Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova

​​Fostering Community Engagement in Albania: OSM Kosovo played an integral role in establishing and organizing the OpenStreetMap Albania community. Their efforts were focused on fostering a vibrant mapping community, promoting the use of open-source mapping tools, and facilitating collaboration among various stakeholders.

Stowarzyszenie OpenStreetMap Polska

​​OSM Poland has been developing the [OpenAEDMap project](https://aed.openstreetmap.org.pl), which has reached more than 5,600  locations of the AED devices - this is possible thanks to community activism and a campaign among local government entities.

If you and you're community is interested to be a Local Chapter, please check the FAQs page or reach out to LCCWG via email local@osmfoundation.org.

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