Friends,
as we head into the end of year holiday season it is a normal time to look back and take stock. 2020 has been an eventful year for all of us; the global spread of the corona virus and the resulting impact on all aspects of our lives is something none of us will soon forget. So quickly many of the realities of our day to day life have been called into question, normal ways of life have had to adapt radically. It has been a turbulent time.
It is with this in mind that I am delighted to announce that despite all of the ups and downs of the past year, we are nevertheless able to once again continue with one of our key traditions here at OpenCage; our annual donation to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team is an organization that coordinates volunteer mapping. Building on top of OpenStreetMap, their work serves two purposes: improving humanitarian response and encouraging community-led development. This year HOT celebrates 10 years, and in that time the project has expanded significantly on all dimensions. We’re proud that we could help play a small part in this great story.
There are many simple ways you can also 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.
Just as in years past I’d like to extend our deep gratitude to our loyal customers who make all of this possible. Congratulations and thanks to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team community for all of their efforts and best wishes for 2021 for all of us,
Ed (freyfogle)
One postscript, I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Tyler Radford, HOT’s Executive Director, for the Geomob podcast. You can listen to the episode here.