By Juliana Hernández Díaz 

Transdisciplinary Profesional 
Microgrant Lead  
Head of Communications 
OpenStreetMap Foundation Colombia  
FOSMCo 
 
 
Every year has its own difficulties and progresses, 2018 was an important year for the 
Colombian OpenStreetMap Foundation [FOSMCo] because we had the support of the HOT 
Microgrant. HOT gave us a focus that we lacked so far: the importance of communicating our 
achievements in a consolidated way. Also, HOT financed us for a project with social and 
community objectives in Chaparral (Tolima-Colombia). ​For 12 years the Colombian 
OpenStreetMap community has been working voluntarily, ​In the last 3 years we have made it 
through the formalized figure of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and its Humanitarian 
Mapping Unit. But we’ve been not that good communicating our achievements with the 
national and international community. ​ ​Work with the HOT team in this process show to 
FOSMCo team a path to measure and communicate the achievements in a consolidated 
way.Now we are thinking how to continue and propose similar tools with more integration 
features that allow us to have these figures in data, using formats such as JSON to make 
periodic data visualizations and have consolidated numbers that are also an important asset 
for our work and for OpenStreetMap community in general.   
 
 
 
 

 
     
By law, all municipalities should have a Territorial Arrangement Plan. (POT) and contained in 
this an ​updated Risk Management Plan.​ In this case, the municipality of Chaparral didn't have 
it, this means that in case of an environmental tragedy, for example, they would not have tools 
for attending people, or information for humanitarian organisms, etc. However, without a map, 
it is not possible to create such a plan. The area around Amoyá River and other places have 
been at risk with each rainy season and planning to avoid problems have been reactive 
instead of proactive. Without sufficient information, maps cannot be updated regularly. 
Unfortunately, the municipality of Chaparral is far from unique in this regard, because almost 
every municipality in the country has similar problems when it comes to the availability of 
cartography and Territorial Arrangement Plans. 
 
 
Our biggest challenge working 
with the local Chaparral 
administration was to advocate 
for the importance of Open 
Software and Open Tools with 
the OSM ecosystem because 
there are perceptions that these 
tools are unreliable especially for 
technicians, that private software 
is safer and more reliable and 
Open Software only means free 
of charge. We worked intensely 
this year on this path. 
 
When we breached the barriers of learned helplessness and began to do our fieldwork and 
workshops, the tools and advantages speak for themselves.  
With technology like field papers, OSMAnd, JOSM, QGIS and flights with drones to generate 
ortofotogrametry, the attendees from institutions, local administrations, involved adolescents, 
and other civilians quickly got a first glance of the results that can be achieved. This 
perception of the potential of these technologies changes the hearts and minds about how to 
solve the problems at hand. It is exactly this aspect that makes these types of projects 
worthwhile. This process of community empowerment, the transformation in their own 
perception of their capacity to impact their reality, is the most valuable reward for us. 
For the work in Chaparral we implemented our own methodologies which allowed us to map:  
 
48.109 Total Edits, 41.140 Building, and 1.463Km Roads, 30 people trained and consolidated 
map product to continue the management process to continue improving the Risk 
Management Plan. These numbers are the result of mapping in zones with a high probability 
of natural disaster in Chaparral but we were able to achieve more during the year. 
 
The most important example, the Hidroituango Dam emergency, allowed us to test the 
network of contacts made during this microgrant project in a crisis environment. The 
International Red Cross network helped us to activate the MapSwipe platform with the HOT 
team support and since Chaparral has a high probability of threat but nothing happened in 
2018, the Hidroituango dam process was an important test this year.  
 
In total our numbers are 
● 73.219 Buildings 
● 3.114 Km Roads 
● 91.268 OSM Total Editings 
● trained people 
 
Working with the tasking manager gives us updated statistics, allows us to produce metrics. 
We keep track of all the organizations we’ve work(ed) with and we update their Risk 
Management Plans, reports, and projections for projects that advance with the data we’ve 
collected, academic master theses, and letters validating the use of data with companies such 
as EPM. We monitor platforms that use the data collected by the FOSMCo, and invite them to 
credit OpenStreetMap. 
 
 
  
 
How we did it? To explain the process and methodology to the people involved we create 
specialized material for presentation. 
 

 
 
 
 
The key approach which we used, was 
focused on the cost-benefit comparison 
versus the use of proprietary software, 
encouraging investment in community 
creation and local empowerment and in 
autonomy as the best resources against 
the ineffectiveness of state institutions. Now the key challenge is to provide sustainability to 
these established communities. We feel it is necessary to strengthen them through direct 
payments for their work in the first instance, generating fidelization and promoting the 
attendance to events. Since we have little practice with this, it would be very helpful to learn 
about the experiences of other institutions in other parts of the world in supporting this type 
of process in order to start doing this well. 
 
 
For encouraging young people to engage with OSM and open source 
tools we develop gamification methodologies which are available at the 
community service for downloading and appropriation. These 
methodologies have gained us a 95% satisfaction rate in our workshops 
and young people feel really empowered and autonomous. 
 
 
 

 
 
LINK 1 To gamification material[ Passport ] 
LINK 2 To gamification material[ Stickers ] 
 
 
We have several success stories. The most important one, without doubt, is our presence in 
the crisis rooms of national emergencies with the Humanitarian Mapping Unit [UMH]. The 
OpenStreetMap Foundation has acquired a position of authority in Colombia with actualized, 
up-to-date maps because the official institution in charge of maps in the country is completely 
outdated and is unable to update its cartographic information any time soon.   
 
This year, we began to work in the frontier with Panamá in the migratory crisis that is 
impacting the country and zones of influence in the Chocó department. 
 
Thank you so much to HOT Team for your support! We feel we can achieve more if we can 
look forward and create broader partnerships.