Friends,

we’ve entered the end of year holiday season, a time to take stock and reflect on our accomplishments. We’ve accomplished a lot and have been fortunate to win and keep the trust of many customers from around the world. Thank you!

As such, I’m pleased to share that we’re once again in a position able to continue supporting the great work of the the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) via a donation.

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap team is an organization that helps coordinate volunteer mapping of crisis regions around the world. Their work focuses on improving the maps in regions hit by disasters but also on creating the digital geo-infrastructure in places with chronic problems. They build on top of and contribute to OpenStreetMap. One of the key HOT strategies is encouraging the development of strong local mapping communities. Just like last year, their 20019 fundraising campaign is focused on raising funding for microgrants to fund six different local communities. Specifically the funding will support groups of mappers in Bolivia, Iraq, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Peru, and the Philippines.

Here is a little video the HOT team has prepared about their efforts:

There are many ways to get involved in supporting HOT: financially at donate.hotosm.org, as a mapper, and/or by helping develop the software used by the mappers. We encourage you to join in, in whatever way you can.

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The last few years has seen an absolute explosion of OSM activity and local communities around the world, in no small part due to the efforts of HOT. We’re delighted to play a small part in supporting that. Thank you to our customers for putting us into a position that makes it possible for us to do so.

Many thanks to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team community for all of their efforts and best wishes for a great 2020,

Ed (freyfogle)