As event partner of the annual international gathering of the OpenStreetMap (OSM), the UP Diliman (UPD) Department of Geography (DGeog) hosted the 2025 State of the Map (SotM) Conference (2025 SotM) for three consecutive days in UPD.
In an email to UPDate Online, DGeog Chair Kristian Karlo Saguin wrote that the OSM is “a global, volunteer-driven network of people who collaboratively create and maintain a free, editable map of the world.” He adds that the OSM is “an instrumental force in facilitating geographic learning through contemporary forms of mapping that use open-source tools.”
According to the organizers, the 2025 SotM gathered OSM contributors, developers, academia, humanitarian organizations, and community groups, and is the first SotM “hosted in the Southeast Asian region.” It was attended by nearly 300 participants from around the world, primarily from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
For Saguin, the event served as a “significant platform for geospatial innovation, collaborative mapping, and open data advocacy.”
In his message to the participants at the conference opening, UP Resilience Institute Executive Director Alfredo Mahar Francisco Lagmay expressed his gratitude to the OSM community for its efforts.
He particularly mentioned that during the critical days of super typhoon Haiyan (Philippine Name Yolanda) in 2013, “it was OSM that provided a lifeline.”
“Those maps helped save lives. That event changed the way we think about data in this country,” Lagmay said.
Lagmay reminded the participants that maps “are not just tools for navigation or records of geography. In the context of disasters, they are instruments of survival. In the context of development, they are pathways to inclusivity and equity. And in the context of communities like OSM, they are symbols of solidarity.”
He charged everyone to ensure that every road traced, every building outlined, every hazard mapped contributes “to a world that is more resilient, more equitable, and more prepared for the challenges ahead.”
The three-day conference had more than 50 presentations, including spontaneous, self-organized sessions, lightning talks, and a plenary presentation of the 15th anniversary of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.
The 2025 SotM was held from Oct. 3 to 5 at the UPD Asian Center GT-Toyota Auditorium with breakout parallel sessions at the Industrial Engineering/Mechanical Engineering building.
