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Antwerp, Belgium

Call for Participation

Submit your presentation

Whether you're new to OSM or an experienced contributor, we want to hear from you. Submit your session proposal today and share your mapping or technical expertise, discuss OpenStreetMap or related topics.

We especially encourage local and regional mappers to participate.

Who should propose a session? You!

Whether you're a seasoned speaker or a first-time proposer, we welcome your ideas. Share your expertise, lead a workshop or dive deep into OpenStreetMap-related discussions. State of the Map Europe is a platform where all voices are valued.

Grab this opportunity, contribute to an inspiring and collaborative conference and take the stages at State of the Map Europe 2023.

We would love to see your submission for one or more of these topics:
  • OpenStreetMap
  • Community and Foundation
  • Mapping
  • Cartography
  • Software Development
  • Data Analysis & Data Model
  • User Experiences
  • anything else OSM related

Submission Types

Talk (20 minutes)

Classic talk of about 20 minutes for the talk itself followed by a question and answer session. This is the preferred submission type.

Extended Talk (40 minutes)

An extended talk with 40 minutes for the talk and 15 minutes for questions. These are for topics you want to explore in more depth. You should outline why your talk deserves more time.

Workshop (60–90 minutes)

Workshops are sessions in which the participants are actively involved, for example by following some steps on their own devices. We welcome workshops that cover basic beginners’s topics as well as innovative technologies.

Please communicate any requirements for participants in order to attend your proposed workshop regarding technical equipment. Please ensure that your participants shouldn’t be told to create an account at a business platform or a platform with user tracking. Or if so communicate that in an exposed way in your submission and provide guest accounts for your participants.

Panel Discussion (60-90 minutes)

Panels are for hot or controversial discussions around OSM community, mapping and data. Topics may cover for example diversity, legal questions or the future of the database. You should outline the format on how you intend to organise the discussion and make sure to invite the key players for the discussion. We welcome panels that include the audience. A designated moderator is therefore strongly recommended.

Other

Your submission does not fit into any of these submission types? Please get in touch with the programme committee via email (contact@stateofthemap.eu) before the end of the call for participation.

Other session types

We plan to provide space for other session types which cannot be submitted in advance. Details will be announced before the conference.

Lightning Talk

Lightning talks will be short 5 minute talks. There will be some spaces for last-minute in-person talks. This will be announced separately.

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions are informal, spontaneous discussion rounds centered around a specific topic. It is not possible to submit a BoF session in advance.

Free Spaces

We will provide free spaces for working groups, local chapters, local groups, user groups for chitchat and more.

Rating Criteria

In rating submissions, we will apply the following criteria:
  • OSM as the subject: A submission where OSM is the main subject or an important ingredient will be rated higher than one that is more generic (e.g. a general talk about GIS software).
  • Preference of “open”: A submission about open data and open source software will be preferred over one that deals with proprietary data or proprietary software and closed platforms.
  • Preference of innovation: A submission about something new, or something not discussed at previous conferences, will be preferred over one that discusses more widely known issues (exception: OSM Basics).
  • We are hoping for talks from a multitude of speakers and hence we would prefer accepting a talk from a “new” speaker over accepting a second talk from someone who has already an accepted talk.
  • We will also try to avoid accepting too many talks from members of the same organisation.
  • We prefer talks from members of underrepresented groups.
  • We value transparency. We prefer submissions that disclose affiliations and sponsors of their work.
Sometimes we will make some changes or have suggestions:
  • We might ask if several speakers can merge their talks.
  • We might also ask if a change of format would be possible (for example we might suggest the lightning talk format instead of a regular talk when we find it is not enough content for a complete talk, but an interesting subject).

Language

The conference language of State of the Map is English. All presentations shall be held in English. It is an important aspect of the conference that participants can interact with the speakers for questions and discussions. Non-English speaking participants are welcome to meet in the Birds of a Feather sessions.

Publication

Video recordings and slides of the lectures will be published under the Creative Commons Attribution International 3.0 or later (CC BY 3.0+) license.

Tickets

State of the Map is a non-commercial event where neither the organisers nor the speakers are being paid. Speakers have to get a conference ticket just like everyone else. Details will be announced later.

Programme Committee

Your submissions will be reviewed by a programme committee consisting of OpenStreetMap community members from various parts of the world:
  • Severin Menard
  • Christine Karch
  • Tomas Kasparek
  • Ilya Zverev
  • Sidorela Uku
  • Seppe Santens
  • Julien Minet
  • Lorenzo Stucchi
  • Stefan Keller
  • Manfred Stock
The programme committee is aware of possible conflict of interest situations. We try to balance that in the composition of the committee. Nevertheless, we have imposed some rules upon ourselves to handle conflict of interest situations:
  • We do not rate submissions from our workmates, clients or relatives.
  • We act carefully and are aware about possible conflicts (especially the situation of horse trading). We act particularly carefully in cases associated to a sponsor.
  • We communicate to other Programme Committee members when we are in a conflict of interest situation.
  • We report any outside attempt of influencing their decisions.

We hope this detailed “Call for participation” helps to increase the transparency of our programme selection process. Questions are welcome. You can reach us at the following email address: contact@stateofthemap.eu.

Timeline & Deadlines

  • July 26: Call for Proposals Opens
  • August 24: Deadline for submissions
  • August 28: Deadline extended
  • September 21: Speakers notified of final decision
  • October 4: Program Announced
  • November 10-12: State of the Map Europe 2023