Podcast Interview: What is OpenStreetMap?

In this episode, we explore the world of OpenStreetMap (OSM) and the global volunteer community behind one of the world's most widely used open mapping projects.

We're joined by Héctor Ochoa Ortiz, who is an OpenStreetMap Board Director & Deputy Secretary, and Dr Barend Köbben, cartography specialist, from ITC.

In this extended conversation, Héctor explains how millions of contributors collaborate to build and maintain a living map, navigate disagreements, and balance local knowledge with emerging AI-assisted mapping tools.

From the ethics of mapping sensitive locations to the relationship between volunteers and commercial users, this is a wide-ranging conversation that examines the technical, social, and governance challenges shaping OSM today and in the future.

Click here to watch the video version of this podcast.