( Event description from the OpenStreetMap wiki )

Join us at the 2014 London HOT Congo Mapathon! The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team are working with MSF to map DR Congo. At this event you can get involved in contributing to OpenStreetMap, creating maps which will help this aid organisation with their life-saving work in the region.

Who should be there?

If you'd like to help people in Congo, using only your laptop, the internet, and a new skill, this event is for you. It's open to anyone. Just bring a laptop

If you're an experienced OpenStreetMapper, we need you! Come along to help teach people the skills.

If you're involved in humanitarian aid, come along to share your experiences and meet the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.

How do maps save lives?

Indirectly! But in a very real way.

At this event you'll have the opportunity to meet people from organisations like MSF (Medecins Sans Frontier, or "doctors without borders"). They are delivering emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, healthcare exclusion and natural or man-made disasters. They save lives very directly, but (as they will explain) they face logistical and organisational challenges for which maps can help. They also operate in regions where detailed maps are not available. MSF are active in the DR Congo delivering vaccination programmes, and have a very current need for detailed maps of the region.

The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team are working to deliver maps to service the specific needs of MSF and other such aid organisations. But they are also promoting the use of OpenStreetMap as a mapping platform, to ensure that detailed maps of the developing world created by volunteers, remain usable, updatable, and free. At this event H.O.T. is inviting you to learn more, and to join their army of mapping volunteers.

Schedule

The event can be fairly free-form, with people diving in and getting started with mapping, with hopefully a good mix of new folks, and experienced OpenStreetMappers to teach them. Anyone interested in other activities such as software development for OpenStreetMap, is welcome to do that at the event too. But we will also do some presentations:

10:30 - Arrive11:00 - Intro to OpenStreetMap11:15 - Talk about MSF and Congo mapping work.11:30 - Demonstration of basic mapping11:45 - Everyone get mapping!13:00 - Lunch will probably be provided (seeking funding for this)14:30 - Demo of "field papers" data input18:00 - Everyone to the pub!