# edukasyon.ph https://portal.edukasyon.ph/ ### Context > Hi, Sir Maning! Thanks for connecting! Just to give a brief background about our company, Edukasyon.ph is the largest online youth platform in the Philippines empowering millions of students aged 13 to 23 to make self-aware education decisions that lead to a fulfilling career and life. Part of our initiative in helping students be equipped for their future is to provide them with opportunities for upskilling. We found out that one of the best ways to find these opportunities is through joining a community - grow one's network and get recommendations. We are now connecting with different communities, specifically started with IT first, since that's relevant to our field. We wanted to learn 5 things about your group: ### Responses > • What is the main objective of the group? Our main goal is to build a free and open geospatial (mapping) data for the country through the [OpenStreetMap](https://osm.org) project that anyone can use without technical and legal restrictions. OpenStreetMap Philippines is an informal volunteer group that promotes the use of OSM in various sectors such as disaster risk resilinece, local governance, humanitarian response and for general purpose use of maps. > • What activities does your group conduct? (ex. meetups, hackathon) Usual location (city)? We organize trainings, meetups and mapping workshops. This is largely dependent on an individual person's intitiative to organize. Due to covid19 we moved these event to an online platform. > • Can students interested to learn in your group be allowed to join and participate in these activities? Yes! Anyone can participate in OSM. Some university instructors have integrated OSM in their course curricula ( i.e UP Diliman Geography, PUP San Juan CWTS through #MapaTime project). Anyone can join our online channels if thay have questions regarding the project. > • Does your group have regular sponsors or an IT vendor partner? Hope you could name a few. No, we had sponsors in the past for specific events like the State of the Map Asia hosted in 2016, and last year's Pista ng Mapa in Dumaguete. We had commitments for sponsors for this year's Pista ng Mapa, but the Covid19 waylaid our plans. Some institutions hosts their own OSM events which our group participates. However, no direct funds goes to our group. Previous sponsors/institutions that supported us are the following: - mapbox.com, mapillary.com, kaartgroup.com, - OpenStreetMap Japan, ThinkingMachine.es - Philippine Red Cross > • How can Edukasyon help the community? OSM is an open community and we need more volunteers to build the best free and open map of the country. By participating in OSM, students can: - learn the value of open data, - understand concepts of spatial thinking, - learn to build tools and applications related to open geospatial data, - potential for employment related to open mapping.