Philippines/Events/Pista Ng Mapa
Pista ng Mapa
Pista ng Mapa (Filipino for Festival of Maps) is an outreach activity envisioned to become a regular event outside Metro Manila, to generate public interest, and promote the use of open geodata and free software, gather enthusiasts and users (community, government, academe, corporate, etc.) in the public and private sector, and grow local communities outside of the capital region.
Rationale
Metro Manila has been hosting numerous geo/mappy-related events but the rest of the Philippines has never had any significant conferences in the last several years, except for workshops intended for smaller communities through project-based initiatives of various organizations.
Through various sessions (presentations, workshops, and hands-on activities) attendees of the conference can understand how the local open mapping communities work together for the common good, while acquiring new technical digital skills and techniques, and getting acquainted with national and regional contacts to help expand their reach and networks.
Open Data is a global movement to make the information and representations of our world much more shared and accessible. Often the focus is on the release of data held by government for use by all citizens. OpenStreetMap take it further by allowing anyone to contribute to Open Data.
The data created from these activities are not limited for use in disaster preparedness and response, but also for other efforts: humanitarian aid, community development missions, conservation, cultural projects, academic research, local development, and many other purposes - this is possible by the free and open license that governs the data created on OpenStreetMap.
Organizers
The event is co-organized by map-py advocates communities in Metro Manila belonging to
- OpenStreetMap
- OsGeo/FOSS4G
- other map-py/GIS/geo channels and communities
Many of the core volunteers has led, organized, or volunteered for other conferences in the past. The largest conference so far, was the annual State of the Map Asia conference in 2016 at UP Diliman, Quezon City hosted by the local OpenStreetMap community with the OsGeo community in Diliman, which drew in 186 participants and representatives from 21 countries, 15 of which are from Asia.
Conferences
2022
The local conference is held in Legazpi City, Albay, Philippines and is tied up with the annual State of the Map Asia 2022, from 21 to 25 November 2022. The 2022 conference webpage can be accessed at https://pistangmapa.org/2022/.
2021
The national conference is still going online, and is scheduled for 13, 16, and 20 November 2021. The 2021 conference webpage can be accessed at https://pistangmapa.org/2021/.
2020
The national conference is going online, and is re-scheduled for November 2020. The original conference was planned for May 2020 in Cebu City in Central Visayas, Philippines but did not pan out because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 2020 conference webpage is https://ti.to/pnm/2020
2019
The inaugural conference is planned for August in Dumaguete City in Central Visayas, Philippines and hosted by the Foundation University, a progressive local university known for their strong advocacy for community action, the tight integration of information technology in their curriculum program, and modern facilities.
The 2019 conference website is https://pistangmapa.github.io/2020/ .
Website
The current onference website is https://pistangmapa.github.io/2020/ .