#hotosm

Here's the deal, third world nations don't have satellites so their maps suck on ice.

The solution: Google uses their satellites, and we make maps with their images.

STEP 1: Get an account for Google's open source software, OSM

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/51.500/-0.100

STEP 2: Look up a tutorial on how to draw shapses with OSM

STEP 3: Go to Humanitarian Openstreetmaps Team.org (hotosm.org)

STEP 4: Pick a project

http://tasks.hotosm.org/?sort_by=priority&direction=asc&search=missing+maps

STEP 5: Go to the Contribute tab

STEP 6: Zoom in on the map and pick a blue square(yellow and green have already been done by someone else)

STEP 7: Click "Start Mapping"

STEP 8: Choose to edit with "iD editor" (from the drop down list)

STEP 9: Click the "Edit with iD Editor" button. This will open a new tab

STEP 10: Outline the buildings and save them as "buildings".

STEP 11: Go back to the HOT OSM page and click the green button to mark task as "Finished"

Friends at Inveneo are putting volunteer-created OSM maps of the Philippines onto these Nexus tablets. They do thousands of them at a time; they get the tablets from corporate donations. The tablets go to relief workers in the area.

The tablets are loaded with the latest edition of OpenStreetMap for the region. 

You can see how much the mapping was enhanced. 

A lot of the work was coordinated using the HOT tasking manager, which anyone can use and start mapping in minutes. All you do is trace imagery. It's quite easy, especially now that you can use the iD editor. 

The map comparison shows the kind of map that the volunteers can make almost overnight during periods of heavy mapping. (Map comparison image via @rbanick.)

Great to see the work of the HOT volunteers going into wide circulation, when I noticed them working on these tablets, and learned what they were for, I was sure that they would have the HOT maps, which are some of the best up-to-date information for the area as usual.