Editing offline, a better way to cope with the inaccessibility to a quality internet: SGA-Youth Mappers experiencing Java OpenstreetMap (JOSM) editor
Mapping on OpenStreetMap (OSM) can be very difficult when you do not have access to a good internet connection. Since the creation of our chapter, the members have learned to map on OSM with ID editor. Editing with ID requires you to have good internet speed and enough data to view and manipulate satellite images on Openstreetmap.
In Sierra Leone, the Internet infrastructure has a poor quality and Student's Geographical Association (SGA) - Youth mappers have encountered difficulties in carrying out mapping activities.
That is why Texas Tech University and USAID have supported a training on editing with JOSM on OSM. On August 26, 2017 we received training on how to edit offline on OSM with the JOSM editor. Altogether, fifteen students from the SGA Youth Mappers chapter at Fouray Bay College and one student from Njala University attended the Africell American corner to learn how to map on OSM with JOSM. We were four girls and twelve boys to discover JOSM for the first time.
After a day of training members of the SGA Youth Mappers chapter have learned to configure JOSM and to map offline. The Youth Mppers now know how to save an OSM layer and how to upload it to OpenStreetMap. Finally, they learned how to visualize the OSM data on QGIS.
With this new skill, we are ready for more commitment to contribute to mapping our country and supporting humanitarian mapping projects wherever need arises.
Tino Raphael Toupane has a master degree in geography. He is a consultant in GIS and Remote sensing. He is the founder of Geosynapse Guinée, an NGO working to promote the use of open data and open sources to build decision support tools. He is the actual lead of OSM Guinea. Tino is also working to establish and build capacities for YouthMappers chapters in Guinea and Sierra Leone.