From the 28th to the 30th of November 2025, the OSM Africa community will come together for the exciting State of the Map Africa 2025 conference. This event aims to bring together OpenStreetMap enthusiasts from Africa and beyond to explore the transformative power of open mapping in the region.

As open-source and collaborative platforms continue to evolve, this year’s conference will highlight how open mapping has been and continues to be a powerful tool for connecting communities and fostering collaboration across various sectors in Africa. Open mapping empowers communities to address local needs, from improving infrastructure and services to responding to emergencies, including natural disasters. Ultimately, it drives positive, sustainable change.

This conference provides an opportunity for mappers, community leaders, developers, and others to share ideas, experiences, and knowledge, expand their networks, and generate new ideas to grow OSM across the continent. We invite members of the OpenStreetMap community, as well as OSM data users, to share your mapping projects, experiences, and insights at the individual, community, or institutional level. Whether you’re a beginner mapper, OSM data user, or a community leader, we want to hear from you!

With this year’s theme, "Mapping the Future: Connecting Communities & Fostering Collaboration," we are eager to learn from you about:

1. How is Mapping helping connect communities in Africa in humanitarian crisis?
2. Mapping projects that highlight how open mapping can drive positive change for local communities
3. Engaging with local communities to ensure open mapping tools reflect their needs and priorities.
4. How OSM data is used in different contexts and how it is changing/influencing the workflows
5. Leveraging open mapping tools for long-term resilience and sustainable development in underserved regions
6. Case studies on the impact of real-time mapping data in improving emergency responses and decision-making

Tracks

Cartography and data visualization
We welcome all submissions that demonstrate the use of OpenStreetMap data and platforms, tools, and software like QGIS, GRASSGIS, Blender, R, etc., to produce and share compelling maps and visualizations used to identify areas of needs, show extent of the problem, plan service delivery, and monitor progress over time.

Mapping Technologies
There are several ways that one can contribute to OSM and edit the map! In this track, we would like to hear how you are using existing and new tools, mobile applications, and platforms for data collection, editing, and validation. This also includes testing experience, pros and cons of each, why use one tool over another, specific mapping experiences worth sharing, etc.

Data analysis
This track is about research, projects, and scientific work done to assess OpenStreetMap data quality, contribution patterns, and usage.

Community
This track is focused on presentations about open communities and networks in open mapping and the general geospatial space. From local and regional OSM communities, YouthMappers chapters, OSGeo chapters to other group networks, we would like to hear about your community activities, sustainability plans, mentorship programmes and initiatives to improve community growth, diversity, and inclusion.

Innovation track
Have you built web-based solutions using OSM? We would like to hear your process for designing and developing web applications, portals, and story maps using the OpenStreetMap API, different libraries, and third-party platforms. We would love to see people with ideas on what the future looks like in terms of innovation around OSM and open mapping.

Scientific computing
This track is dedicated to individuals and/or organizations who would like to share their use cases on mapping or integrating map data with artificial intelligence, machine learning, reality technology (AR/VR/MR), etc.

Note If you have an interesting submission and it doesn't fit into the above category, don't worry, you can select the one that you feel resonates more with your talk and it won’t affect the selection process.

Submission Types

Talks
This session is primarily dedicated to sharing your work with the OSM community in a presentation manner, whether it is related to mapping, research, application development or other/specific fields.
•Talks: Are usually 15- 20 minutes long with an additional 5 minutes for Q&A.
•Lighting Talks: Are quick 5-minute talks with additional 2 minutes for Q&A.

Workshop
Workshops will be an hour to two hours long depending on the nature and number of accepted submissions. The presenter will facilitate hand-on sessions that demonstrate technical concepts to allow attendees to follow the demonstration easily. This can include simple and introductory sessions on getting started with OSM and more technical ones showing mapping-specific tutorials, geospatial package development, image classification, AI/ML applications in mapping. The submission can include a specific target of participants, and some sessions won't be ideal for beginners.

Panel/Roundtable discussion
Panels and roundtables will be an hour long, providing a valuable forum for a diverse range of stakeholders to share best practices, explore the opportunities and challenges in open mapping. Participants might include community leaders, local organizations, development practitioners, government officials and academics, among others.

The discussion could explore different themes but not limited to the following:
• Connecting communities and fostering collaboration in low-resource settings
This could highlight innovative strategies for building and maintaining collaborative networks despite limited resources, such as peer-led mentorship, community-based leadership, shared infrastructure, and strategic partnerships. It may also examine barriers like digital divides, burnout, or uneven access to training, while discussing how more resilient, interconnected ecosystems can be nurtured through inclusive, community-driven approaches that go beyond reliance on external support

•Mapping for Humanitarian Response and lessons from the Frontlines
This will bring together mappers, humanitarian workers, and community responders to share real-world experiences of using open mapping for rapid disaster response, coordination, and recovery. This could explore how open maps have been used in recent humanitarian emergencies/responses, the role of local mappers and communities in crisis response, and the coordination challenges between global actors and grassroots efforts. It will also touch on tools and data preparedness, ethical considerations in mapping vulnerable populations, and the long-term role of mapping in rebuilding and resilience.

•Open mapping and Open Tools for Climate Resilience
Discussions may focus on how open tools like OpenStreetMap, drones, and remote sensing are supporting climate adaptation strategies, such as flood mapping, urban heat monitoring, and food security planning. The discussion may also touch on the role of participatory mapping in climate justice, data accessibility challenges, and the importance of centring Indigenous and local knowledge in climate resilience efforts.

•Financing Open Mapping Initiatives
The dialogue can be about different models for financing open mapping work, including grants, institutional partnerships, community fundraising, and social enterprise approaches. The session might also dive into barriers to accessing funding, strategies for building financial sustainability, and how funders can better support inclusive, locally driven mapping efforts. Real stories from both funders and grassroots mappers will shed light on what works—and what needs to change

•Collaboration Between Government, Academia, and Civil Society
This can examine the successful models of collaboration, from national open data strategies to university-led mapping projects and community-driven campaigns supported by local authorities. It may also address power dynamics, data governance, trust-building, and how to sustain partnerships beyond short-term projects. Participants will reflect on what it takes to move from coordination to true co-creation.

Note For the panel/roundtable discussion, we want submissions to reflect relevant expertise in selected themes and also unique perspectives that you will bring to the discussion. Submissions should be focused on just one [1] theme from those listed above.

Other session types
Other session types include:
•Bird of a feather sessions (BoFs)
•Poster presentations
•Drone mapping sessions

Submission Details

Recording and Material
The SotM Africa team plans to record all sessions during the event. In case of online participation, pre- recording is a requirement.

Registration of speakers
To participate at the 2025 State of the Map Africa conference, all speakers and attendees will be required to register for the conference. More details will be announced soon.

Review Guidelines
Below are the guidelines and processes that will be used in reviewing your submission.

The role of reviewers is to ensure the quality of the content presented at State of the Map Africa.

Conflict of interest

In the event of any conflict of interest, the reviewer will immediately signal to the programs committee and commit to withdraw from reviewing. A replacement will also be issued quickly.

Criteria for review:
We shall evaluate the submitted proposal based on the following criteria:

1. The proposal topic and content are innovative and timely.
2. he proposal clearly aligns with at least the theme and goals of the conference i.e has OSM component
3. The proposed presentations have approaches, concepts, and strategies that can be implemented across disciplines.
4. The proposal is concise, clear, well organized, and addresses current issues and development in the open mapping community.
5. The proposal has clear learning outcomes for attendees.

Timelines and Deadlines

•Call for proposal 1st, May, 2025
•Deadline for call 24th June 2025
•Review of submissions: 30th June - 16th July, 2025
•Notification of speakers: July 19th, 2025
•Confirmation of speakers: 25th July, 2025
•State of the Map Africa 28th -30th November, 2025

How to contact us
You can direct all communications to us through program@stateofthemap.africa

Call for Abstracts: Academic Track

This year, the State of the Map Africa conference 2025, will feature the second edition of the Academic Track - a full day of sessions dedicated to academic research about, and with, OpenStreetMap. The goal of the Track is to showcase the research and innovation of scientific investigations into OpenStreetMap and beyond as a pathway to exploring OSM GISciences in Africa. The SotM Africa Academic Track also aims at networking members of the OpenStreetMap community and the academic community in Africa through an open collaboration and exchange of ideas to drive OpenStreetMap project and open map data for research and geoinformation in Africa.

We expect empirical, methodological, conceptual, or literature-review-based contributions addressing any scientific aspect related to OpenStreetMap, in particular, but not limited to, the following:

• Extrinsic or intrinsic quality assessment of OpenStreetMap data
• Analysis of contribution patterns in OpenStreetMap
• Generation of new and scientifically valuable datasets from OpenStreetMap
• Assessments of data import procedures and their impacts on data and community
• Integration between OpenStreetMap and other data sources (authoritative, user-generated, or otherwise valuable to OpenStreetMap)
• Analysis/comparison of available software for scientific purposes related to OpenStreetMap
• Novel approaches to facilitate or improve data collection and/or data quality in OpenStreetMap (e.g. through gamification or citizen science approaches)
• Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning from, and with OpenStreetMap (e.g. AI-assisted mapping)
• Open research problems in OpenStreetMap and challenges for the scientific community
• Cultural, political, and organisational aspects of data production and usage practices in OpenStreetMap
• Studies using OpenStreetMap data in scientific domains
• Reviews of any scientific aspect connected to OpenStreetMap
• OpenStreetMap education-Teachers in schools
• Cyber Cartography and OpenStreetMap and Lots more

In an effort to trigger a sustainable interaction and collaboration between the academic and the more general OpenStreetMap communities, authors are invited to particularly highlight the practical implications or impacts of their research on the OpenStreetMap community at large.

Submission Guidelines

Authors are invited to submit extended abstracts using the State of the Map 2025 Pretalx submission system. Deadline for submission is 24th June 2025
Abstracts should be between 800 and 1200 words. These limits will be strictly enforced for a fair and balanced review process.
Abstracts must be scientifically rigorous, and the content should be logically structured as follows (without the need to include subsections): introduction/background, where the problem addressed is introduced; main aim or purpose of the study; brief description of the methodology and findings achieved; final discussion highlighting the scientific contribution of the study and its practical benefits/implications.

In the evaluation of proposals, the scientific committee will pay attention to the reproducibility of the research (where this is applicable). Reproducibility is ensured when the research makes all artefacts (input data, computational steps, methods and code) openly available to obtain consistent results. When available, the code shall be released under an open-source licence.

Abstracts are to be submitted online in plain-text format (no images or figures).
Abstracts will be evaluated by the scientific committee. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to deliver an oral presentation during the Academic Track sessions at the conference or to present a poster (in case a poster session will be organised). Selected abstracts will be published as a collection, each with a distinct Digital Object Identifier (DOI) in Zenodo, an open access online repository.

The scientific committee may seek to further disseminate the contributions to this conference by investigating the organisation of a special issue in a relevant, open access, scientific journal. In such a case, authors of the selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper to this special issue. Successful submissions may benefit from partial or full waiver of publication fees.

Code Of Conduct

State of the Map Africa (SotM Africa) is dedicated to providing a positive conference experience for all attendees, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, age, religion, or national and ethnic origin. We encourage respectful and considerate interactions between attendees and do not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form. We see the use of offensive language, sexual advancement and erotic imagery as inappropriate for any conference and networking. Conference participants violating these standards may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference (without a refund) at the discretion of the conference organizers. Our anti-harassment policy can be found here.

Timeline and Deadlines

Call for Extended Abstract: 1st, May 2025
Deadline for Submission of Extended Abstract: 24th June 2025
Review of submissions: 30th June - 16th July 2025
Notification of speakers and submission of full papers: July 19th, 2025
Confirmation of speakers: 25th July 2025
State of the Map Africa: 28th -30th November 2025

NOTE Once abstracts have been accepted. Authors will receive an email to submit a full paper.

Submit your presentation
Please submit your presentation proposal to our submission form.

How to contact us
You can direct all communications to us through academic@stateofthemap.africa

You can enter proposals until 2025-06-25 12:59 (Africa/Dar_es_Salaam), 1 month, 2 weeks from now.