2021 HOT Data Quality Internship Program - a self study

I applied for the 2021 HOT Data Quality Internship. I was already deeply involved in the world in the world of OpenStreetMap and humanitarian mapping, and was ready to take the next steps to learn more about validating open map data and other humanitarian tech tools. I didn’t get into the program, however, a few months later the team put out a YouTube playlist, which was very exciting. I thought it would be fun and informative to undertake a “self study”, where I went through the content on my own, taking notes on what I learned. You can find my notes here.

What is the HOT Data Quality Internship? #

Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s (HOT) Data Quality Internship was a twelve week training and professional development program, allowing 25 participants to become deeply involved within the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and community, while gaining transferable geospatial skills. The program ran on an annual basis between 2020 and 2022.

What I learned during my self study #

As I had been in the OpenStreetMap world for several years before this self study, the material was not completely foreign to me.

I was already well versed in mapping using the HOT Tasking Manager and the JOSM mapping editor.

My favorite discoveries during the self study were KeepRight, OSMose, OSM Inspector, and Disaster Ninja, all tools that can help mappers improve on existing OSM data and inform on which areas of the world might have data gaps.

If you are interested in learning about ways that you can contribute to OpenStreetMap via a wide variety of tools, I would highly suggest this self study! And if you have any questions, please reach out. I love talking about mapping and all things OpenStreetMap and humanitarian tools. 😊