State of the Map Latam is the annual conference for all map creators and OpenStreetMap users in Latin America. This year, the State of the Map Latam 2026 conference will take place in Mexico City.
The purpose of this Latin American event is to foster dialogue and discussion about the progress, opportunities, and challenges for the OSM community in Latin America and the Caribbean. Since we live in an interconnected world, we are also eager to provide opportunities to learn from global perspectives and encourage exchange that transcends our borders.
Thematic Tracks:
Presentations must fall into one of the following thematic areas, showing a clear relationship with OpenStreetMap:
- OSM Fundamentals
- Community
- Mapping and Cartography
- Software Tools
- OSM Tags and Data Model
- Usage Experiences
- Interaction of Public Institutions and the Private Sector
- Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion
The thematic areas are only guides to group the received works and organize the event’s program. Don’t worry if you are undecided about which area to associate your work with; select the most appropriate one. Accepted proposals may be reorganized into another thematic area. The thematic areas are explained in more detail below.
OSM Fundamentals:
A space to share knowledge between people with more experience in OSM and those who are new. Topics can range from basic mapping aspects, introduction to software tools for data capture, editing, or visualization, using APIs like Overpass, among other topics. When submitting your proposal, indicate the level of prior knowledge required from the session participants.
Community:
How do we organize ourselves? We expect presentations on lessons learned from working in mapping communities, i.e., with other mappers. As well as reflections on the local, national, or regional community, and their interrelation with the global community. Also proposals on community governance mechanisms.
Mapping and Cartography:
This topic covers cartography, surveying, data collection; tips and reflections on OSM editors or new editor features; reflections on automated mapping, organized editing, imports, and AI use. Possible topics include participatory, social, and collaborative cartography, as well as data visualization. All your ideas on how to create a beautiful, fun, quirky, and out-of-this-world map! The topic also offers a space to present your artistic and creative projects that use OSM data or themes to create clothing, jewelry, 3D printed objects, engravings, visualizations, computer or mobile games, virtual worlds, augmented reality, flyers, postcards, etc.
Software Tools:
Ideal for application developers who contribute to and make use of OSM data: data capture, OSM editors, tile servers (vector), geocoding, routing, navigation, editor layer indexes; tips and tricks with new PostGIS features or new features of other tools and applications. Presentations on the use of AI with OSM data are also accepted in this area.
OSM Tags and Data Model:
Analysis of OSM data quality; reflections on how to improve the data model; or discussion on how OSM data is accessed through the API; in general, technical aspects of OSM and its data fit into this area. Critical conversations about tags that are relevant to our mapping realities.
Usage Experiences:
How are we using OSM in the region? Some examples include cases of: risk management, mapping in favelas (marginalized urban populations), the Amazon and forests, in governments, public transport, humanitarian response, climate change, migrations, and the scientific context, among others, as well as OSM as an educational tool in classrooms. You can present citizen projects that use OSM data to understand and manage their environment.
Interaction of Public Institutions and the Private Sector:
Works that analyze how public institutions and private companies use, integrate, or produce data based on OpenStreetMap (OSM) in their activities, and discuss the use of OSM as infrastructure and a source of geospatial data in public policies, territorial planning, digital services, logistics, mobility, environmental management, and technological application development. Works addressing data integration processes, interoperability, information quality, innovation in OSM-based services, and institutional strategies for using open geospatial data in the public and private sectors are also expected.
Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion:
Works that discuss gender, diversity, and inclusion based on the use of geospatial data and the OpenStreetMap (OSM) platform, and analyze how open mapping can help make territorial inequalities visible, support public policies, and strengthen initiatives aimed at social equity. Studies addressing gender issues, anti-racist relations, inclusion of people with disabilities, as well as the representation and valorization of indigenous peoples and quilombola communities, using OSM data in analyses, applications, or geographic information production processes are encouraged. Works that explore the use of OSM to map accessibility, essential services, traditional territories, care and safety spaces, as well as initiatives that promote social inclusion and territorial justice through the use of open geospatial data are also expected.
Types of Proposals:
You can submit three types of proposals to the call for presentations:
- Talks (20-minute presentation, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A): Note: The Program committee may suggest regrouping thematically related talks into panels, seeking to delve deeper collectively into topics of interest.
- Workshops (2 hours): session in which attendees actively participate. Topics can be advanced or aimed at mappers with little experience. Please indicate if there are special technological or spatial needs required to conduct the workshop. The exact duration of the workshop must be indicated.
- Discussion Panel (90 minutes): The panel session can group several short presentations on a related topic or favor a discussion around different working approaches on a subject. The proposal must indicate the panelists and their profiles. The coordinator must ensure that the participating panelists have registered with the same information.
Evaluation:
When evaluating proposals, we will apply the following criteria:
- Direct relationship with OSM. Proposals whose central theme is OSM will be evaluated more favorably than those referring to geospatial information systems in a generic way.
- Emphasis will be placed on OSM usage experiences that demonstrate greater impact or transformative results.
- Methodological quality and clarity of the proposal: Clarity in presenting objectives, methodology, and expected or obtained results, as well as the technical consistency of the proposal, will be evaluated. Works that present well-defined methods, appropriate use of OSM data, and structured analyses will be scored higher.
- Relevance and potential for replicability: Proposals that present applications or methodologies that can be replicated in other geographic or institutional contexts, helping to expand OSM use and strengthen the open geospatial data ecosystem, will be valued.
- The submitted works will be integrated into a proceedings publication with a DOI on Zenodo.
Submission Guidelines:
Authors can submit their proposals (in English, Spanish, or Portuguese) using the State of the Map Latam 2026 Pretalx submission system. The submission deadline is May 20, 2026.
Proposals must have a maximum of 500 words. These limits will be strictly applied for a fair and balanced review process.
Received proposals will be evaluated by the community program committee. Accepted proposals will be presented at the event and published as a collection with a distinct Digital Object Identifier (DOI) on Zenodo, an open-access online repository. The community program committee will seek publication opportunities for the best contributions, in short article format, in a journal or other media.
Calendar and Deadlines:
- April 20: Call for proposals published.
- May 20: Deadline for submitting talk, workshop, and panel proposals.
- July 15: Announcement of accepted talks, workshops, and panels.
- August 28: First announcement of the complete SotM Latam 2026 program.
- October 27 – 29: State of the Map Latam 2026.
Registration:
To submit a proposal within the Community Call, use this link.
If you are also interested in submitting a proposal within the Academic Call, you can find more information at this link.
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