OSM Awards 2025

Since 2022, Eric Theise has been using OpenStreetMap data with an evolving collection of open source software to create videos, performances, and works on paper. He's given ~40 North American and European performances of "A Synesthete's Atlas", during which he manipulates projected maps in collaboration with improvising musicians as a form of expanded cinema.

Throughout February 2024 his 10 minute map animation, "If, as it advanced, the countermap's counter twirled the map around and down, spiraling out from Salesforce Tower to Bolinas as unwaveringly as the boléro (If Map #5)", looped atop the eight story high display that crowns San Francisco's Salesforce Tower. Created using MapLibre GL JS, Protomaps, open-stage-control, and his own code, the project was presented at State of the Maps EU (?ód?) & US (Salt Lake City).
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Martijn is the creator of MapRoulette, the microtasking manager helping the community to improve the quality of OpenStreetMap data, and also to run other innovative mapping projects. Its been interesting to see the development of the platform over the years! He also keeps creating and released another platform this year - Meet Your Mappers to help people to connect with fellow contributors.
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The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) has developed fAIr, an innovative, open-source AI-assisted mapping platform that fundamentally creates a new perspective on the humanitarian mapping workflow.

fAIr uses machine learning to automatically detect map features like buildings and roads. It shifts the volunteer's role from tedious manual tracing to the higher-value work of validating and refining AI-generated data. This "human-in-the-loop" technique has been shown to nearly double a mapper's efficiency, which is critical during urgent disaster response.

Its core innovation is empowering local communities to train their own AI models. This community-driven approach reduces the bias of generic global models and ensures the resulting map data is more accurate and relevant to the local context. By merging AI efficiency with human validation, fAIr represents a groundbreaking new service for the OpenStreetMap ecosystem.
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Great tool to visualize waterways, doing QA and pulling out data in length of waterways
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In the past year, Amanda updated Waterwaymap.org with a new setting to group ways by flow direction, a feature highlighting terminal nodes of waterways, and a global database of rivers and streams.
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Development of the KartaCam 2 specifically designed for mapping for OpenStreetMap. Making all their 360 imagery freely available on their platform KartaView.
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For this tireless work on Protomaps and PMTiles, a now fully open source project that makes it trivial and cheap to host map tiles. Besides this technical innovation what is most impressive about the project is the challenge of making a living, marketing, expanding and improving a non-commercial project that aims to make it as cheap and easy as possible to host tiles.
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With their work HeiGIT bridges the gap between fundamental research in geoinformatics and practical applications by developing innovative tools and methods. In almost all of their work OpenStreetMap is central. Summing up some of the great tools they developed over the years: openrouteservice, ohsome Dashboard, MapSwipe, and Sketchmap Tool.
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i love better osm so much..
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For his very good work in making Better Osm
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Mercy led the development and deployment of an open-source deep learning framework for Urban Heat Island (UHI) detection, integrating OpenStreetMap data with remote sensing and AI for climate resilience in the Global South. Through his leadership with the Map Nigeria Team, he organized open community mapping campaigns in cities like Lagos and Abidjan, empowering local volunteers to map buildings, roads, and vegetation that directly supported urban climate adaptation strategies. The resulting data was combined with satellite imagery and processed using a custom-built U-Net model, enabling policymakers to identify urban heat hotspots and implement targeted interventions.

Mercy’s work exemplifies the transformative power of open mapping combined with frontier technology to address climate justice and urban inequality.
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Mercy led the development and deployment of an open-source deep learning framework for Urban Heat Island (UHI) detection, integrating OpenStreetMap data with remote sensing and AI for climate resilience in the Global South. Through his leadership with the Map Nigeria Team, he organized open community mapping campaigns in cities like Lagos and Abidjan, empowering local volunteers to map buildings, roads, and vegetation that directly supported urban climate adaptation strategies. The resulting data was combined with satellite imagery and processed using a custom-built U-Net model, enabling policymakers to identify urban heat hotspots and implement targeted interventions.

Mercy’s work exemplifies the transformative power of open mapping combined with frontier technology to address climate justice and urban inequality.
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TrickyFoxy add plugin to osm main paige to deal like osmcha
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