Foundation/Local Chapters/United States/Virtual Mappy Hours

The OpenStreetMap US Mappy Hours are virtual hangouts for the U.S. community. User:mvexel started the Mappy Hours in 2013 and continues to host them alongside other participants from OpenStreetMap US. After a hiatus, the Mappy Hours were reintroduced in 2019.

What are the Mappy Hours about?

The Mappy Hours are casual gatherings and a space to meet new people. We often have a presentation and an OSM-related topic of discussion. Conversations tend to be about things like:

• Mapping and Tagging
• Imports
• Local groups and local events
• The OSM US organization
• What's happening in the rest of the world
• Anything you want to discuss!

Schedule

Virtual Mappy Hours are planned on a regular (mostly monthly) basis. Registration is required to receive virtual meeting links. Please sign up using the linked forms for each event. Thank you for your participation! Want to hear about all upcoming Mappy Hours and other virtual events from OSM US by email? Sign up on this form.

Upcoming Events:

There are no more Mappy Hours scheduled for 2024, check back in 2025!

Holding an event for your local community? Please reach out if you would like any support.

Mappy Hour - Suggestions for Future Events

Have an idea or want to present? Share it here!

• demo/workshop on Athena queries on Amazon data. Presenter - Jennings Anderson

How to join

All are welcome to join and participate in virtual Mappy Hours. Advanced registration is now required to reduce the chance of hacking. All join information will be included in the registration confirmation email. Mappy Hours and other virtual OpenStreetMap US events are typically hosted on Zoom.

Please let us know any topics you'd like to discuss during a future Mappy Hour. Thanks!

Presentations

We welcome 5 to 15 minute presentations about any OSM related topic! If you are interested in presenting during a Mappy Hour, please complete this form, or get in touch with User:mvexel or User:MaggieMaps.

Any recorded past presentations can be found on the OpenStreetMap US YouTube channel.

2024 Presentations

• Wednesday, November 13 - Pre-Geoweek Mappy Hour: OSM in Education & the TeachOSM Sandbox. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, September 18 - North Carolina Emergency Management Pilot: Gary Thompson, Deputy Hazard Mitigation Chief, will share information about the program. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, February 21 - OpenHistoricalMap: There's a lot of new happenings in the home of old mapping. No recording available.

2023 Presentations

• Wednesday, August 30 - Identifying Gaps in OSM for Disaster Resilience with UVA Data Science. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, May 17 - Building and Growing an Open Source Community: Lessons from OSM Americana. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, March 29 - OSMCha: Join us this month to hear from Wille Marcel about OSMCha: a validation tool for OpenStreetMap. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, March 15 - GeoLadies: Join us for our upcoming GeoLadies meetup bringing together women+ in the OpenStreetMap US community. No recording available.

2022 Presentations

• Wednesday, January 26 - Mobility & Accessibility: Join us to hear from the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology about their ongoing initiatives leveraging OpenStreetMap. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, February 21 - Mapping Rural America: This month, join us for a round table discussion on the how to improve OSM data across Rural America. (No recording available.)
• Wednesday, March 23 - The Built Environment: Curious how ML-generated building datasets are created? Join us to hear from Melanie Laverdiere of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on how they developed building structure datasets for the United States using deep learning and AI. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, April 27 - Parks & Greenspaces: How can local mappers support urban conservation efforts? Veronica Nixon will join us to share how the PHXGeo Meetup group is working to create a detailed saguaro map for Papago Park in Phoenix and possible applications of the map. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, May 25 - Sustainable Transportation: Zhi Keng He from BetaNYC will join us to share mapping & open data efforts in New York City about bike infrastructure, the rise of e-bikes and scooters, street safely improvements, and more. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, June 22 - Mapping Coastal America: Join us for a community discussion on how to improve map data for Coastal America. (No recording available.)
• Wednesday, July 20 - Outdoor Recreation: This month's theme is Outdoor Recreation! Join us to hear from community members leading recreation mapping activities across the US. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, August 31 - Data Science: A special Mappy Hour focusing on understanding OpenStreetMap through the lens of data science. Graduate students from the University of Virginia Data Science Program will present their capstone work analyzing OpenStreetMap data in the US to determine which zip codes may be under-mapped to promote informed mapping. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, September 28 - Open Imagery (for Disaster Preparedness): Join us this month to learn more about the mapping pipeline using open imagery from DK Benjamin (OpenAerialMap, OpenDroneMap, HOT). View the recording here.
• Wednesday, October 26 - Healthy Communities - Join us to hear Jing-Huei Huang and Aaron Hipp from NC State University discuss the ground truthing and use of OSM playspace data in Colorado to understand and improve play equity. This data was mapped earlier this year by the OpenStreetMap US community in support of KABOOM! and the Colorado Health Foundation. View the recording here.

2021 Events & Presentations:

• Wednesday, December 15 - Willem Lee Stockton
• Wednesday, October 27 - we heard from the team behind OpenHistoricalMap
• Wednesday, September 22 - OpenStreetMap US hosted a public discussion on the role of OSM trails data in protecting our national parks and helping to keep tourists on safe, well-maintained paths, with Keri Nelson, Backcountry Coordinator at the National Park Service Southeast Utah Group, presenting use cases. View the recording of the presentation here.
• Wednesday, September 8 - Mappy Hour: Food Access: Hear from Alex Hill on the Detroit Food Map project and mapping food access. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, August 18 - Mappy Hour: Back-to-School with guest speakers Harrison Cole on mapping Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), and Thomas Baumann on mapping for Safe Routes to School. View the recording here.
• Wednesday, July 14, 2021 - Mappy Hour: Parks & Recreation with guest speakers Elliott Plack on mapping Patapsco Valley State Park and Colleen Coyne from Kaboom on the importance of mapping playgrounds. View the recording here.
• Wednesday June 16, 2021 - Mappy Hour: Disaster Response and Resilience with guest speakers Nicole Martinelli (Resiliency Maps) & Russell Deffner (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team). View the recording here.
• Thursday May 20, 2021 - Mapping USA - Mappy Hour Social Event Kickoff
• Wednesday May 12, 2021 - Mappy Hour: Biking and Walking with guest speakers Dean Allemang, Lena Nguyen, & Daniel Solow on related mapping projects. View the recording here.
• Wednesday April 28, 2021 - Mappy Hour: Natural Environment. We heard from Brian Sperlongano on river tagging in OpenStreetMap. View the recording here!
• Wednesday April 14,2021 - Mappy Hour: Education. The TeachOSM steering committee and American Geographical Society shared how OSM has been introduced in classrooms across the country. View the recording here.
• Wednesday March 24, 2021 - Mappy Hour featuring lightning talk presentations by Bond Harper on mapping art in OSM, Jess Beutler on the Women Remembered project, and Valerie Anderson about a number of conservation-related mapping initiatives in Florida. View the recording here.
• Monday, March 8, 2021 - International Women's Day - Ladies Night Mappy Hour bringing together the women in OpenStreetMap. This event welcomes anyone who perceives herself as a woman. Expect to meet like-minded women from the OpenStreetMap community, connect, network, and converse on ways we can engage and empower more women through OSM.
• Wednesday, February 24, 2021 ~ Theme: A Celebration of Black History Month. Join us for a presentation about the Mapping Segregation project with Mara Cherkasky of PrologueDC.
• Wednesday February 10, 2021 - "Exploring Coordinate Precision with xkcd comic 2170" with guest Patrick McGranaghan. View the recording here.
• Wednesday January 13, 2021 - Theme: Winter Mapping. Lightning talk: "Surveying the Ouray Ice Park" with guest Sam Ley. View the recording here.

2020 Presentations:

• Wednesday December 16, 2020, Mappy Hour - with guest Diane Fritz - Using OSM as a database with Overpass turbo View the recording here.
• Wednesday November 18, 2020 OpenStreetMap GeoWeek Mappy Hour
• Thursday October 29, 2020. OpenStreetMap US: Connect 2020 - Mappy Hour Social Event Kickoff
• Wednesday October 14, 2020. Mappy Hour - YouthMappers: 5 years of building a worldwide student mapping network with guest Chad Blevins. View the recording here.
• Wednesday September 23, 2020. Mappy Hour - JOSM Tips & Tricks with guests Alan Bragg & Wade Crump. View the recording here.
• Wednesday September 9, 2020. Mappy Hour with guest Eugene Chong - Tracking UN Sustainable Development Goals with OpenStreetMap: What Can OpenStreetMap Tell Us About Open Space and Transit Access in American Cities? View the recording here.
• Wednesday August 19, 2020. Mappy Hour with guest Ian Dees - Imports are Awesome Hard Work. View the recording here
• Wednesday August 5, 2020. Mappy Hour with guest Martijn van Exel - MapRoulette. View the recording here.
• Wednesday July 22, 2020. Mappy Hour: Diversity in OSM Part 2
• Wednesday July 8, 2020. Mappy Hour with guest Richard Welty, OpenHistoricalMap. Discussion around historical mapping.
• Friday July 3, 2020, NY Mapathon Part 2: Mapping houses in the Town of Hempstead with guest Daniel Solow from MappingLI
• Wednesday June 24, 2020, Mappy Hour - Topic: Diversity. Lightning talks: Anson Parker, Location Privilege - the ups and downs of GPS tracking in office buildings; Maggie Cawley, GeoChicas
• Tuesday June 9, 2020, Mappy Hour with a presentation from Brian DeRocher, Community organizing with Microcosm
• Friday June 5, 2020, NY Mapathon Part 1: Mapping houses in the town of Hempstead, NY with Daniel Solow
• Wednesday May 13, 2020, Mappy Hour with a presentation from Margaret Spyker, Imports
• Thursday April 30, 2020, Mapathon w/ MaptimeBmore - Mapping POIs in response to COVID-19
• Wednesday April 29, 2020, Steven Johnson, TeachOSM. Discussion around OpenStreetMap in education.
• Wednesday April 15, 2020, Erika Nunez, MapGive: U.S. Department of State's public diplomacy initiative for open mapping
• Thursday April 9, 2020, Miles Campbell, OSM and Accessibility: In times of crisis, publicly available information for pedestrian access, especially for those with disabilities, can be invaluable
• Wednesday April 8, 2020 8pm ET, Virtual Validation Mappy Hour hosted by Missing Maps.
• Wednesday April 1, 2020 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT Maggie Cawley & Jennings Anderson, OpenStreetMap US Community Survey Results
• Wednesday March 18, 2020 8:30pm ET

• Alan Bragg, Using JOSM Map Paint Styles to highlight address points (April 24 2019)
• Geoff Maas, Open Data in Minnesota (May 22 2019)