Governance in OpenStreetMap communities is a pivotal but often underexplored aspect that significantly influences their growth and long-term sustainability. This panel aims to shed light on the crucial role of governance within OpenStreetMap communities and initiate a thought-provoking discussion about its potential impact on community direction and resilience.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) communities are vibrant and collaborative ecosystems where contributors, enthusiasts, and organizations come together to map the world. While the focus often centers on mapping data and technical contributions, the importance of governance in ensuring efficient decision-making and equitable representation is equally crucial. This panel discussion seeks to elevate the significance of governance in OpenStreetMap communities and foster a deeper understanding of how it shapes their trajectory.

Key points of discussions
1. What does it mean to open mapping communities?
2. How does it affect direction and sustainability, success and failures of the community?
3. What are the challenges / limitations / reservations in building or formalizing governance in open communities?
4. Potential to get clearer idea on what is expected in governance for OSMF local chapters

The goal of this project has been to provide updated Geospatial information about the aftermath of Cyclone Ana through analysis of key infrastructure affected in Chikwawa and Salima districts.

Cyclone Ana left the already vulnerable population to economic, health and sanitation risk to the aftershocks of disasters related to climate change.
Most information generated about the scale of the Cyclone has not been visualized fully using Geospatial data
The information that the government and stakeholders have is mainly focusing on the attribute data leaving out spatial aspect.
In that regard, there was a gap on up to date map data that can be used for decision making.
This project is specifically filling that gap.
The project focuses on two main aspects as follows:

To Generate up to date spatial data about the areas that have been hit hard by Cyclone Ana
To Collect household flood incidents, damaged infrastructure (roads, bridges, schools, health facilities, water and sanitation facilities, land resources, and hydro-generators).

GeOsm is a Free and Open Geospatial Knowledge Infrastructure operating on a global scale aiming to bring together, on a single platform , free geographic information of each country and pursue the objective of empowering local communities and unlocking their potential. On the one hand by ensuring a knowledge/visualization of existing data and on the other hand by allowing spatial dialogue between stakeholders around the territory through a located social network.
HOT and GeoSM Family signed a Memorandum of Understanding in November 2022 in which both parties, having understood the need to improve location data for decision-making, intend to work together to support both the WNAH Hub and GeoSM Family's missions, particularly with the aim of ensuring up-to-date, high-quality geospatial data, visualization and digital community building and engagement through online tools and development initiatives. Today, GeoSM Family wishes to work in collaboration with key national and international partners in Africa and beyond to execute activities through formal agreements. These activities will include, but are not limited to, community building, open and participatory mapping, software development, data cleansing and uploading to OSM, training local partners in GeOSM, organizing webinars, user testing, workshops, mapathons and more.

The aim of this session is to present the new version of geosm, train communities in its use, receive feedback and formalize partnership agreements between geOsm Family and local communities attending SOTM Africa.