Kerala/Grants/HOTBoosterGrant2023/Proposal/Travel Grants for FOSSMEET 2024 - Athul
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Your project
FOSS Meet hosted National Institute of Technology, Calicut is one of the largest events related to FOSS in Kerala. FOSS activists from different parts of India will join this meetup and share their knowledge and thoughts related Free and Open Source Software, Open Data etc.
Describe the local challenge your project is addressing
In this section please describe in detail the challenge that your project addresses. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Attracting new contributors to OSM faces challenges such as limited awareness among potential participants. Motivating individuals to contribute can be difficult due to the lack of immediate benefits or support. Also, through personalized guidance and hands-on assistance, mentors can empower individuals to overcome challenges, build confidence, and effectively contribute to projects like OpenStreetMap.
Describe your project
In this section, please provide specific details about your mapping objectives. This should include: how you will contribute to help solve the local challenge you are addressing, what you aim to achieve with funding, what volume of mapping you plan to complete and how, and the number individuals are you aiming to include in mapping activities. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
FOSS Meet serves as a platform where enthusiasts of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) and new students come together. Our aim is to gather community contributors of OpenStreetMap at FOSS Meet, with the objective of attracting more students to contribute to OpenStreetMap and familiarizing them with its usage and the tools that can be used for OSM contributions. By actively involving the participants, we hope to inspire a new wave of contributors who are passionate about leveraging open data for positive change.
Describe your sustainability plan
In this section please describe how your activities will continue post-funding. If you are applying for funding to purchase equipment, explain who will store/use the equipment you purchase, and if you have long term sustainability plans for your community's development. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Regular Meetings: Establish a schedule for regular meetups. Consistency helps build a sense of community and ensures ongoing engagement among contributors.
Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: Document the meetup session, including presentations, workshop materials, and key takeaways, and make them accessible to the broader community. This promotes knowledge sharing and enables those who couldn't attend to benefit from the insights and discussions. Inform them about more tools and platforms available for organized mapping events.
Collaborate with Partners: Collaborate with NIT Calicut and other educational institutions, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations that share an interest in open mapping and data initiatives. Collaborative efforts can provide access to resources, venues, expertise, and funding opportunities.
Conduct more Programmes: Initiate thoughts on open mapping and open data among the participants and community and thus by encouraging them to conduct more mapping parties and open data events.
Sustainibilty : Make sure that the community is still engaged in the activities and continuously interact with them to keep them active.
What are your community-defined project goals, and how do you define project success?
Please explain you project goals. This can include: setting goals such as "we will train X number of new mappers", "we will register as a legal entity", or "the data will be used by X", and why these goals are important to your community such as "we intent to be legally registered so that we can receive more grant funding in the future", "we intend to engage X number of women in mapping activities so that we can empower local women" or "we want to build a partnership with X so that our data will be used and trusted". We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Attendance and Participation: Assessing the number of attendees and their level of engagement during the meetup activities, such as workshops, discussions, and collaborative mapping sessions.
New Contributors: Tracking the number of new individuals who join the OSM community or start contributing to mapping projects as a result of attending the meetup.
Community Feedback: Gathering feedback from participants to understand their satisfaction levels, areas of improvement, and suggestions for future meetups.
Mapping Contributions: Monitoring the quantity and quality of mapping contributions made by participants during or after the meetup, such as the number of edits, additions, or improvements to OSM data.
Skill Development: Assessing the extent to which participants acquire new mapping skills, tools, or knowledge through the meetup activities.
Long-Term Impact: Considering the broader impact of the meetup on the OSM community, such as sustained increases in contributor engagement, ongoing collaborations, or positive changes in mapping coverage and quality.
List the tools you intend to use during your project and why
Please describe which tools you plan to use to collect, update, clean, or store you data and why. For example: "we plan to use HOT's Tasking Manager to coordinate volunteers" or "we will upload our data to X platform because..." We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Introduce Openstreetmap ID for mapping for beginners and JOSM for somewhat experts in mapping. Use of posters and flyers that help new participants and students to attract to openstreetmap.
Please give examples of how you will use share your stories with others. This can include: how you will publicise your news, where you will collect media content, how you will use social media channels, and if you will reach out beyond your immediate network to share your stories. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words. Through blog posts, posting in Social media like X, Mastodon etc.
Posting in OSM Kerala telegram group.
Partnerships
Successful applications will demonstrate one or more partnerships with a local data user. Priority will be given to applications for which the data has been requested by a partnering organisation, or where the partner organisation has expressed interest in collecting the data for a specific use or intervention. Example partners include local non-government organisations (NGOs), community based organisations (CBOs), local governments, companies, universities, schools, and other academic institutions.
Describe who will use your data
It is important that the data you generate during the project is useful, and that it will be used to advance humanitarian and/or development challenges locally. In this section, please include: if the data you will be collecting has been requested by a partnering organisation, if there is an established formal relationship with the partnering organisation, if there is an existing MoU between you and the partnering organisation, and how long have you been working with the partnering organisation. If your organisation or community is going to be the data user, please describe how you will use the data, and how it ties in with your organisation's work. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
Public usage of data and sharing are core principles of both citizen science and OpenStreetMap initiatives, reflecting a commitment to openness, collaboration, and democratization of geographic information. These efforts contribute to a more informed and engaged society by empowering individuals and organizations to access, use, and contribute to a wealth of spatial data resources.
Describe any other partnerships and collaborations you plan to mobilise or establish for the purpose of the project
In this section, please describe any additional partners you might be working with. If there are no additional partners (beyond the data user) this must be stated here. We recommend your response be a minimum of 200 words and a maximum of 400 words.
We are planning to seek help from student communities from various educational institutions by networking with the delegates participating in the FOSS Meet. We are also asking help from the interested students from NIT Calicut for improving the data in Opensteetmap.
Expansion
Successful applications will show how communities intend to grow community engagement. This includes a practical approach to how many new mappers you aim to recruit and how they will be involved in community activities. Priority will be given to communities that also include a plan for ongoing engagement beyond the grant period. If this is not relevant to your project, please explain why.
Project plan and budget
Priority will be given to applications that collaborate with other OSM communities in the region. This can be country-specific or regional and can include collaboration with Youth Mappers Chapters, or members of the HOT community to help with training, validation (as examples). For support in sourcing collaborators, email microgrants@hotosm.org.
Budget breakdown
Give your budget breakdown here. If you would like to present your budget in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here
- Travel, To and fro (4 Persons) - 5000
- Registration fee - 4200
- Stay, 3 days (4 Persons) - 2400
- Food, (4 Persons) - 3000
- Print outs, flyers - 400
Participants
Report
FOSSMeet 24, held at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, is an annual event dedicated to Free and Open Source software, organized by FOSSCell, NIT Calicut. This year's event took place in the Aryabhatta Auditorium from March 22nd to March 24th, 2024. Participants included students, professionals, and members of various communities interested in Free and Open Source software and Open data.
On the evening of March 23rd, 2024, a Birds of Feather (BoF) session was convened at 9 PM, drawing a crowd of approximately 30 to 40 individuals. Athul R T, Mujeeb Rahman, Anish Sheela, Jothish Babu, Manoj K Mohan, and Jaisen Nedumpala led discussions on diverse aspects and use cases of Open Mapping, sharing their experiences with OpenStreetMap.
During the session:
- Manoj K Mohan highlighted that one of the earliest OpenStreetMap mapping events in Kerala coincided with FOSSMeet.
- Jothish Babu introduced various tools developed using OpenStreetMap data, such as Sit in Shade.
- Athul R T presented the Open Data Kerala portal, offering access to administrative and common facilities data at the Panchayath level.
- Mujeeb Rahman introduced ID and JOSM for Openstreetmap mapping.
- Anish Sheela and Jaisen Nedumpala shared their mapping experiences and reflected on the evolution of OpenStreetMap.
The discussions then shifted towards strategies for engaging college students with OpenStreetMap, proposing potential programs to enhance the current map quality. Participants evaluated the current map of NIT Calicut, identifying areas for improvement and encouraging organizers to initiate a mapping project on campus. Additionally, attendees were motivated to contribute to mapping efforts at their respective colleges.
Outcome
Inspired from the Birds of Feather talks, Advaith Chandran from Muthoot Institute of Technology initiated a discussion to map his college and the discussion was continued in the OSM Kerala Telegram group. As a result of this, an Introduction to Openstreetmap session was conducted in Muthoot Institute of Technology on April 9 2024.
Project plan
Give your project plan here. If you would like to present your project plan in a tabular format, you can use this tool to convert your spreadsheet into a wikitable and paste the code below here
Declaration
By submitting this form to OpenStreetMap Kerala Team, you certify the information contained in this application is correct, and that if you are awarded a grant, you will use it only for the purposes described above. You will provide written documentation and receipts for all of your expenses to Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team to demonstrate this. You understand that the decisions made by the Booster Grant facilitation committee are final. Athul R T (OSM Id: athulvis1)
Endorsements
Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!