Nicolas Chavent and Séverin Menard
Who benefits from the mapathons: between (over)communication and (over)attribution, critical feedback on the inflation of a form of action oversold in the field of humanitarian action and development aid. Really for the benefit of OSM?
It would be possible to multiply the subtitles for this "Mapathon, mapathon, mapathon!" talk which questions the almost mandatory use taken by this form of collective OSM contribution for humanitarian and development aid stakeholders in the southern territories. "Mapathons in the "south" for what?", "A mapathon does not make a summer", or "Who benefits from mapathons?"... This presentation will aim to open a discussion about the inflation of one specific OSM contribution, to identify the diversity of its practices, the logics of communication, attribution, the quality issues of the data produced, and list the necessary conditions for a mapathon to actually benefit the OSM project in the southern countries and not harming its database. Like in Milano's Bird of Feather sessions last year, this talk will be collectively built with African mappers involved for many years in these activities and ideally co-facilitated by those from Western Africa successful in getting visas and traveling to Heidelberg. This talk is meant to introduce a Bird of Feather session opened to anyone active or interested in this topic and how it impacts the OSM dynamics in the hard environment of the countries of the Global South and especially southern countries of Africa.