It has been a great experience attending the SotM Asia 2019 Conference as one of the scholars in Dhaka, Bangladesh this October where I met many intelligent and sharp international colleagues, experienced how everyone is relating themselves with OpenStreetMap. My journey started with OpenStreetMap 4yrs before and it was introduced by one of the enthusiastic mappers i.e Saikat Maiti. I would like to congratulate the organizing committee for arranging such a wonderful event. Kudos to Sawan Shariar from the administrative bench for such a supportive man. I fully enjoyed the 2 days of the event with so many interesting presentations and talks. On the first day workshops of “Map with AI” by Dr. David Yang were very informative. Lightning talks by Ashish Abraham Joseph showed the best use of open data, tools and technologies in the field of execution and its result and story of Chitmahals was something new and it gave me a different view to see the enclaves and exclaves. On second day talk of “GeoDASH: An Open Geo-Spatial Data Sharing Platform in Bangladesh” was very useful and insightful by Mr.Sk. Towhidur Rahaman. I also met wonderful people all around the world and from my home country as well. Besides that, Food at the conference was delicious and the way it was served on tables also deserves appreciation.

As a part of the community, I raised my concern there regarding “Gender Equality” because I truly believe when there is no gender balance, we are missing one perspective of a crowd. Addressing and overcoming gender gaps is probably the most powerful tool to strive for the realization of rights for all members of the community. Feel free to reach me if you have any thoughts or ideas on this issue. I also believe while talking about data, tools, technologies we all should mind the use of “One-time Plastic bottles” and we can move to paper water bottles or any other alternatives.

Happy Mapping!