Last week Porifrio and I, as members of the OpenStreetMap Nicaragua community, traveled to Bilwi, Puerto Cabezas, the capital of the Autonomous Region of the Northern Caribbean Coast. The trip was made possible with the support of UNICEF Nicaragua, which we highly appreciate. We were in Bilwi for four days to present the OpenStreetMap Nicaragua initiative and build alliances with interested groups and institutions.

Besides smaller presentations and meetings, we had three very successful workshops with around a hundred attendees. Most people came from the two local universities (URACCAN and BICU), the local Free Software Community, Bilwi and a social and ecological start-up called KAIKS. All together we extensively mapped Bilwi within only a few days:

This is a great example of the power of community and open technologies when they become available to everybody. And this is just the beginning. Having geographic data available then empowers people to improve their lives and to visualize and perceive their environment in a more constructive and creative way. The very motivated Free Software Community in Bilwi immediately organized a follow-up event.

• More photos can be found on Flickr.
• You can find a Spanish version of this report on the community blog.