[OSM-talk] Scholarship program to State of the Map 2011

[Coast, Hurricane]

The State of the Map Committee is excited to announce a program to cover full travel and accommodations costs for mappers to attend State of the Map 2011 in Denver, Colorado (United States). We’re seeking nominations from the community for potential mappers.

We are seeking people from places where costs would prohibit attendance, developing countries, and places that are “interesting” geopolitically. The ideal candidates for funding are from countries with a small OSM community, perhaps just a few mappers in total. They have made a significant start at mapping their city, either through imagery or with their own GPS, and are directly familiar with the process of OSM. They may have started communicating among themselves, and made plans and scoped out the process for their local district. But, the community is nowhere near critical mass, and they need the inspiration and support to take OSM to the next level.

We need to act fast! State of the Map is just over 3 and a half months away, tickets and visas need to be arranged. In order to allow enough time for all the arrangements, the nomination period will be short, and ending at Sunday, June 25th. The number of scholarships rewarded will be based on the success of fund-raising. From the nominations received, we’ll review and invite scholars in late June.

Please send your nominations to scholarship at stateofthemap.org. For each nomination, include the mappers name, OSM user name, email address, location, and a paragraph or two on why they’d be great to have at SOTM. Self nominations are accepted.

Please forward this message to other relevant local OSM and mapping lists and social media!

As for regions, here are a few regions that seem to fit the bill, but nominations are not limited to these places at all.

  *   Eastern and Southern Europe: Belarus, Kosovo, Bulgaria
  *   Arab States: Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan
  *   Asia: Nepal, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Indonesia
  *   Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala
  *   Africa: Liberia, Ivory Coast, Swaziland

Sponsor-a-Mapper

In previous years there has been a scholarship program to help mappers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend get to State of the Map. This year we are announces an “Sponsor-A-Mapper” program. There are plenty of deserving individuals from all of the world that can’t afford to attend SotM. To help them be able to come join the community in person in Denver why don’t you consider paying to cover a portion of the cost of their ticket?

We are attempting to raise an average of $2,500 USD per mapper in order to be sure to cover their costs. This will vary slightly by transportation costs depending from where the select scholarships are traveling.

The more money we raise the more mappers we can sponsor!

To Sponsor-a-Mapper please email scholarship at stateofthemap.org

Thank you!
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