Microgrant Proposal
Individual/Group Details
Project Title
OpenStreetMap Stats Generator : OSMSG
Project Overview
OSMSG is an open-source project currently maintained by the local developer community at OSGeo Nepal. This command-line software enables the monitoring of specific hashtags, areas, and generation of user reports related to targeted campaigns. Unlike existing alternatives, OSMSG provides user-level group contribution insights, which are essential for coordinating field mapping and remote mapping efforts in groups, as well as generating reports. In many cases, mappers also receive rewards for their contributions.
Historically, the Missing Maps Leaderboard fulfilled this gap, but its discontinuation led to the development of OSMSG. This project utilizes the osmium library to process and accumulate statistics from changeset files and changefiles, aggregating data at the user level. It can be deployed as a bot to continuously track progress or integrated with a database to visualize a leaderboard similar to the Missing Maps Leaderboard. The software's flexibility allows it to be easily adapted for specific projects or regions, making it portable and simple to host.
Although OSMSG was initially developed some time ago, it has not received sufficient maintenance due to funding constraints. Our goal is to revamp this project, bring it back to life, and create a platform similar to the Missing Maps Leaderboard that local communities can adopt. We aim to enable individual hashtag-level projects to be tracked and reports to be generated easily, with a focus on regional scalability and deployment. Initially, we will prioritize the needs of our community in Nepal, with the long-term vision of allowing any community to generate reports based on their input. By doing so, we hope to provide a valuable tool for local communities to coordinate their mapping efforts and recognize the contributions of individual mappers.
About You
OSGeo Nepal is a vibrant open-source geospatial developer community based in Nepal, with over 150 members, including both students and professionals. Our community actively contributes to and utilizes OpenStreetMap, and includes experienced open-source developers who have worked professionally on OSM-related tools. This combination of regular users and skilled developers makes us well-positioned to lead and sustain this project effectively & Funding grants like this will provide us motivation and financial means to maintain such projects.
Objectives and Impact
What problems the project will address:
The OSMSG project aims to address the lack of a user-level contribution tracking and reporting tool for OpenStreetMap (OSM) contributions, particularly for regional communities. The discontinuation of the Missing Maps Leaderboard has left a gap in the ability to track and recognize individual mappers' contributions, making it challenging for communities to coordinate their efforts and acknowledge the work of their members. ohsomeNow stats tried to fill this gap but donot provide user-level contribution for projects. This project will provide a solution to this problem by developing a scalable and deployable tool that can generate user statistics and reports for OSM contributions.
How it will benefit the regional and/or global community:
The OSMSG project will benefit the regional community in Nepal, where it will be initially deployed, by providing a platform for tracking and recognizing individual mappers' contributions. This will enable the community to better coordinate their mapping efforts, identify areas that need improvement, and reward outstanding contributors. In the long term, the project's scalability and deployability will allow other regional communities to adopt the tool, benefiting the global OSM community by providing a standardized way of tracking and recognizing contributions. This will foster a sense of community, encourage participation, and improve the overall quality of OSM data.
Why this project is innovative, valuable, and has potential for impact:
Personally I don't consider this project as an innovative project but more of very valuable to the people who coordinate the mapping projects time to time and has potential for the real use cases , it will make our life easier ! There are still means and methods to achieve what this tool will be able to but with complex environment and scripting which we don't need, we just want a simple tool or a dashboard that takes our project and gives us the user level contributions details !
How it aligns with the OpenStreetMap mission and goals:
The OSMSG project aligns with the OpenStreetMap mission to create a free editable map of the world by providing a tool that supports the growth and development of the OSM community. The project also aligns with the OSM goal of being a collaborative and inclusive community by providing a platform for regional communities to take ownership of their mapping efforts and recognize the contributions of their members.
The expected long-term impact of the grant:
The expected long-term impact of the grant is that the OSMSG project will become a widely adopted tool for tracking and recognizing OSM contributions, used by regional communities around the world.
Grant Amount Requested (In EUR)
Budget Breakdown
| Item |
Description |
Amount (EUR) |
| Developer Time |
140 hours @ 20 EUR/hour (approx. 8 months give or take) |
2800 |
| Computational Resources |
Hosting, APIs, tools, etc. |
400 |
| Travel |
Conference budget (1 event) |
400 |
| Outreach & Communication |
Community Engagement & Outreach (Meetups, Events, etc.) |
200 |
| Miscellaneous |
Other relevant costs (contingency fund) |
200 |
| Total |
|
4000 |
Other Funding Sources:
We do not anticipate using other funding sources for this project. However, we do expect to receive pro bono contributions from the OSGeo Nepal community, including volunteer work and expertise.
Pro Bono Work:
We estimate that the community will contribute approximately 20-25% of the total developer time, which would be valued at 600-750 EUR. This pro bono contribution will help us to stretch our budget and achieve our project goals.
Why Funding is Essential:
Funding is essential for the success of this project because it will allow us to fund a developer to work on the project part-time (possible full time for few months), ensuring that we can deliver a high-quality product within the desired timeframe. The funding will also cover the costs of computational resources, travel, and outreach, which are necessary for the project's success. Without funding, we would have to rely solely on volunteer work, which would slow down the project's progress and does not seem to provide enough motivation in the past. With the requested funding of 4000 EUR, we are confident that we can deliver a successful project that meets the needs of the OSGeo Nepal community, OSM Nepal and contributes to the growth of the OpenStreetMap ecosystem.
Implementation Plan
Timeline
So, assuming we start the project at the beginning of 2026, We're looking at a timeline of around 12 months for this project. We'll need about 2 months to kick off, 8 months to complete the development, and 2 months to evaluate the project. Depending on when we receive the funding project can be started. If we get the funding right away, we can start working on the project immediately
Our key milestones will be the production release of the software, which we're aiming to use for at least 2 local chapters of OSM, including OSM Nepal. We'll be sharing our progress on GitHub and discussing it at our monthly community meetups, so everyone can see how we're doing and give us feedback.
One thing we're dependent on is funding for a dedicated developer, so we need to finalize that before we can move ahead.
Community Engagement
We'll be sharing our plans and progress with the community through our monthly meetups and GitHub updates. We want to get input and feedback from the community, so we'll be discussing the project regularly and encouraging everyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas.
SLA, Maintenance, and Sustainability
For us, service standards mean making sure the stats we're producing are accurate and reliable. We'll be validating them against other individual tools to ensure they're correct.
In terms of ongoing maintenance, we'll need to cover the costs of hosting, maintenance, and bug fixing, as well as the cost of developers and cloud services.
To ensure long-term sustainability, we want to keep our community motivated and engaged. We think volunteering, community meetups, and the occasional physical meetup will be enough to keep everyone excited and involved. It's all about building a community that's passionate about the project and willing to contribute their time and energy to make it succeed. We will further be collaborating with organizations & communities like Youthmappers KU , GESAN , GES and OSM Nepal as we are jointly working towards the similar goal
Evaluation and Success Metrics
We'll be evaluating the success of the project by looking at measurable metrics like following :
No of users : Targeting 200 + (PyPI Unique Downloads could be one way to track this )
No of OSM Local Chapters involved : At least 3
No of trainings conducted : 3
No of conferences : 1
Risks
We've got a couple of risks to consider here. First, we're relying on the planet changeset changefiles and fileservers, which are pretty reliable, but you never know when they might go down. It's a low risk, but still something to keep in mind.
The bigger risk is data quality. We need to make sure the stats we're producing are accurate and reliable, and that's not always easy. We need to validate the stats, figure out how to measure them, and document everything properly. The thing is, people have different ways of understanding what constitutes a map contribution, and that can get tricky. For example, some people might consider deleting data as part of their contribution if they're validating it, but others might just be deleting existing structures and creating new ones to inflate their numbers. We need to be mindful of how we're relaying that information in a transparent way, so that project managers can get a clear understanding of what users are actually doing in their projects.
I think that's about it, though. We've got a good handle on the risks, and we can mitigate them with some careful planning and documentation.
Conflict of Interest
Neither I nor OSGeo Nepal have any known conflicts of interest with the OpenStreetMap Foundation to the best of our knowledge.
Transparency
- Disclose any financial interests, relationships, or affiliations with OSMF or its members that may influence the proposal's judgment.
None
Disclaimer
Grammarly was used to correct grammar and rephrase the sentences . All technical content, community context, goals, and vision reflect the actual work, priorities, and direction of OSGeo Nepal and the OSMSG project. The final content has been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the OSGeo Nepal Working Group.
Microgrant Proposal
Individual/Group Details
Project Title
OpenStreetMap Stats Generator : OSMSG
Project Overview
OSMSG is an open-source project currently maintained by the local developer community at OSGeo Nepal. This command-line software enables the monitoring of specific hashtags, areas, and generation of user reports related to targeted campaigns. Unlike existing alternatives, OSMSG provides user-level group contribution insights, which are essential for coordinating field mapping and remote mapping efforts in groups, as well as generating reports. In many cases, mappers also receive rewards for their contributions.
Historically, the Missing Maps Leaderboard fulfilled this gap, but its discontinuation led to the development of OSMSG. This project utilizes the osmium library to process and accumulate statistics from changeset files and changefiles, aggregating data at the user level. It can be deployed as a bot to continuously track progress or integrated with a database to visualize a leaderboard similar to the Missing Maps Leaderboard. The software's flexibility allows it to be easily adapted for specific projects or regions, making it portable and simple to host.
Although OSMSG was initially developed some time ago, it has not received sufficient maintenance due to funding constraints. Our goal is to revamp this project, bring it back to life, and create a platform similar to the Missing Maps Leaderboard that local communities can adopt. We aim to enable individual hashtag-level projects to be tracked and reports to be generated easily, with a focus on regional scalability and deployment. Initially, we will prioritize the needs of our community in Nepal, with the long-term vision of allowing any community to generate reports based on their input. By doing so, we hope to provide a valuable tool for local communities to coordinate their mapping efforts and recognize the contributions of individual mappers.
About You
OSGeo Nepal is a vibrant open-source geospatial developer community based in Nepal, with over 150 members, including both students and professionals. Our community actively contributes to and utilizes OpenStreetMap, and includes experienced open-source developers who have worked professionally on OSM-related tools. This combination of regular users and skilled developers makes us well-positioned to lead and sustain this project effectively & Funding grants like this will provide us motivation and financial means to maintain such projects.
Objectives and Impact
What problems the project will address:
The OSMSG project aims to address the lack of a user-level contribution tracking and reporting tool for OpenStreetMap (OSM) contributions, particularly for regional communities. The discontinuation of the Missing Maps Leaderboard has left a gap in the ability to track and recognize individual mappers' contributions, making it challenging for communities to coordinate their efforts and acknowledge the work of their members. ohsomeNow stats tried to fill this gap but donot provide user-level contribution for projects. This project will provide a solution to this problem by developing a scalable and deployable tool that can generate user statistics and reports for OSM contributions.
How it will benefit the regional and/or global community:
The OSMSG project will benefit the regional community in Nepal, where it will be initially deployed, by providing a platform for tracking and recognizing individual mappers' contributions. This will enable the community to better coordinate their mapping efforts, identify areas that need improvement, and reward outstanding contributors. In the long term, the project's scalability and deployability will allow other regional communities to adopt the tool, benefiting the global OSM community by providing a standardized way of tracking and recognizing contributions. This will foster a sense of community, encourage participation, and improve the overall quality of OSM data.
Why this project is innovative, valuable, and has potential for impact:
Personally I don't consider this project as an innovative project but more of very valuable to the people who coordinate the mapping projects time to time and has potential for the real use cases , it will make our life easier ! There are still means and methods to achieve what this tool will be able to but with complex environment and scripting which we don't need, we just want a simple tool or a dashboard that takes our project and gives us the user level contributions details !
How it aligns with the OpenStreetMap mission and goals:
The OSMSG project aligns with the OpenStreetMap mission to create a free editable map of the world by providing a tool that supports the growth and development of the OSM community. The project also aligns with the OSM goal of being a collaborative and inclusive community by providing a platform for regional communities to take ownership of their mapping efforts and recognize the contributions of their members.
The expected long-term impact of the grant:
The expected long-term impact of the grant is that the OSMSG project will become a widely adopted tool for tracking and recognizing OSM contributions, used by regional communities around the world.
Grant Amount Requested (In EUR)
Budget Breakdown
Other Funding Sources:
We do not anticipate using other funding sources for this project. However, we do expect to receive pro bono contributions from the OSGeo Nepal community, including volunteer work and expertise.
Pro Bono Work:
We estimate that the community will contribute approximately 20-25% of the total developer time, which would be valued at 600-750 EUR. This pro bono contribution will help us to stretch our budget and achieve our project goals.
Why Funding is Essential:
Funding is essential for the success of this project because it will allow us to fund a developer to work on the project part-time (possible full time for few months), ensuring that we can deliver a high-quality product within the desired timeframe. The funding will also cover the costs of computational resources, travel, and outreach, which are necessary for the project's success. Without funding, we would have to rely solely on volunteer work, which would slow down the project's progress and does not seem to provide enough motivation in the past. With the requested funding of 4000 EUR, we are confident that we can deliver a successful project that meets the needs of the OSGeo Nepal community, OSM Nepal and contributes to the growth of the OpenStreetMap ecosystem.
Implementation Plan
Timeline
So, assuming we start the project at the beginning of 2026, We're looking at a timeline of around 12 months for this project. We'll need about 2 months to kick off, 8 months to complete the development, and 2 months to evaluate the project. Depending on when we receive the funding project can be started. If we get the funding right away, we can start working on the project immediately
Our key milestones will be the production release of the software, which we're aiming to use for at least 2 local chapters of OSM, including OSM Nepal. We'll be sharing our progress on GitHub and discussing it at our monthly community meetups, so everyone can see how we're doing and give us feedback.
One thing we're dependent on is funding for a dedicated developer, so we need to finalize that before we can move ahead.
Community Engagement
We'll be sharing our plans and progress with the community through our monthly meetups and GitHub updates. We want to get input and feedback from the community, so we'll be discussing the project regularly and encouraging everyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas.
SLA, Maintenance, and Sustainability
For us, service standards mean making sure the stats we're producing are accurate and reliable. We'll be validating them against other individual tools to ensure they're correct.
In terms of ongoing maintenance, we'll need to cover the costs of hosting, maintenance, and bug fixing, as well as the cost of developers and cloud services.
To ensure long-term sustainability, we want to keep our community motivated and engaged. We think volunteering, community meetups, and the occasional physical meetup will be enough to keep everyone excited and involved. It's all about building a community that's passionate about the project and willing to contribute their time and energy to make it succeed. We will further be collaborating with organizations & communities like Youthmappers KU , GESAN , GES and OSM Nepal as we are jointly working towards the similar goal
Evaluation and Success Metrics
We'll be evaluating the success of the project by looking at measurable metrics like following :
No of users : Targeting 200 + (PyPI Unique Downloads could be one way to track this )
No of OSM Local Chapters involved : At least 3
No of trainings conducted : 3
No of conferences : 1
Risks
We've got a couple of risks to consider here. First, we're relying on the planet changeset changefiles and fileservers, which are pretty reliable, but you never know when they might go down. It's a low risk, but still something to keep in mind.
The bigger risk is data quality. We need to make sure the stats we're producing are accurate and reliable, and that's not always easy. We need to validate the stats, figure out how to measure them, and document everything properly. The thing is, people have different ways of understanding what constitutes a map contribution, and that can get tricky. For example, some people might consider deleting data as part of their contribution if they're validating it, but others might just be deleting existing structures and creating new ones to inflate their numbers. We need to be mindful of how we're relaying that information in a transparent way, so that project managers can get a clear understanding of what users are actually doing in their projects.
I think that's about it, though. We've got a good handle on the risks, and we can mitigate them with some careful planning and documentation.
Conflict of Interest
Neither I nor OSGeo Nepal have any known conflicts of interest with the OpenStreetMap Foundation to the best of our knowledge.
Transparency
None
Disclaimer
Grammarly was used to correct grammar and rephrase the sentences . All technical content, community context, goals, and vision reflect the actual work, priorities, and direction of OSGeo Nepal and the OSMSG project. The final content has been thoroughly reviewed and approved by the OSGeo Nepal Working Group.