OpenStreetMap: Making and Taking Crowdsourced Geographic Data

Join the ASU Library Map and Geospatial Hub for a one-hour live demonstration (or follow-along workshop) exploring OpenStreetMap (OSM) — a global, community-driven mapping platform that provides free and openly licensed geographic data to anyone.
This session is a direct follow-up to a previous ASU Library event called Mapping Neurodiversity: An Introduction to OpenStreetMap (February 24, 2026), by ASU Social Sciences Librarian Tim Feller. While the earlier event introduces the community impact and societal goals of OpenStreetMap, this workshop focuses on practical skills: how to make (contribute) data and how to take (extract) and use OSM data in your own projects.
The majority of the session will then be devoted to hands-on work in QGIS, a free and open-source desktop GIS platform. Participants will learn multiple methods for querying and downloading OSM data — including tools and plugins that streamline data extraction for mapping, spatial analysis, and research applications.
This workshop is designed for ASU students, faculty, and staff from all across disciplines — whether you're in geography, urban planning, environmental studies, public health, digital humanities, or simply curious about how open geospatial data works. No prior OSM editing experience is required. Basic familiarity with GIS concepts is helpful but not necessary.
For those wishing to follow along please come prepared to this demonstration with both a free Open Street Map (OSM) account created. Please also come with an instance of QGIS installed.
Come ready to explore how you can both contribute to and benefit from one of the world’s most important open geographic datasets.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Map and Geospatial Hub, ASU Library