The Dawn Of OSM Caribbean
- Caitlin Milne
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Acknowledgement: This post was delayed in publication and may contain outdated information. We appreciate your understanding.
In July 2023, representatives from various open-source mapping and disaster response agencies convened in Barbados for the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)’s Latin American & Caribbean (LAC) Hub’s Caribbean OSM Community, Partnership, and Programming Event.
This conference created a space for representatives to share their community’s mission, activities, and plans. Attendees discussed issues afflicting the region and brainstormed possible solutions, future projects, funding opportunities, and collaborations. The issues were summarized into five categories: Training, Operational, Funding, Stakeholder Engagement, and Technology. Two examples of the many discussed projects includeCSOD’s Capstone Project, and GISSTT’S Women-Centred Disaster Resilience in Small Island Developing States Programme.
The countries in attendance were Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Montserrat, and Trinidad & Tobago.
The organizations present included: Youth Emergency Action Committees St Lucia & Dominica, OSM Saint Lucia, GIS Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean School of Data (CSOD), YouthMappers, the Government of Montserrat, LRR Geospatial Consultancy, HOT, and the Lands and Surveys Department of Barbados.
The itinerary included training workshops, brainstorming sessions, and resource sharing. Some of the discussed topics included HOT Impact Areas, how to fly a drone, an introduction to some useful open-source applications, project proposals, and conceptualising OSM Caribbean.
The conference culminated in the formation of the  OpenStreetMap Caribbean Chapter  on Wednesday, 5th July 2023. To date, the community has 34 registered members, and it grows steadily every month. The organisation strives to support open-source mapping endeavours in the region through training, funding, and volunteerism.
As a course facilitator at the Caribbean School of Data and the YouthMappers Regional Ambassador for the Caribbean, I was fortunate to attend this conference and be a part of the history we made over the course of those two days. It was an honour to meet and befriend all the brilliant minds that gathered. They inspire me to be a better mapper, and I look forward to all we will achieve together. To date, open-source mapping is little known in our region, which is unfortunate because open-source mapping gives communities the power to put themselves on the map—literally and figuratively. However, we are stronger together, and I know our OSM Caribbean Chapter will support many communities to uplift themselves.
Interested in learning more? Check out this article published on HOT’s site here.
About the Author
Caitlin Milne is a Trinbagonian Geographer who studied at the University of West Indies Mona Campus. A 2023 YouthMappers Leadership Fellow, she and her fellow colleague Rodane Samuels worked together to reinstate the dormant YouthMappers chapter at their university and became president and vice president of the UWI Mona YouthMappers chapter for the period in 2023. She is presently an Open Mapping Facilitator at the Caribbean School of Data for their Introduction to Open Geospatial Data Course. Caitlin got her love for Geography growing up in the Caribbean, the daughter of two farmers, the family spent weekends on the farmland, and public holidays by the ocean. Through her association with Project Discovery, a Bajan based Caribbean NGO, her interest in the importance of Regionalism was rooted. This was further nurtured through her experience studying in Jamaica. Caitlin is passionate about geography, mapping, farming, ecotourism, sustainability, ecosystem restoration, and community outreach. She desires to share the amazing opportunities the YouthMappers Community has to offer with the rest of the Caribbean by encouraging and supporting youth throughout the region to map their communities for a better future. Caitlin is excited to embark on this journey in partnership with other ambassadors across the region and across the world.