Civic Contributions

Data sources

There are three Open Data sources we contribute to

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the world's largest collaborative mapping project, often called the "Wikipedia of maps." Our contributions to OSM help ensure that Houston and surrounding areas have accurate, up-to-date geographic information that benefits everyone.

Our OSM Activities:

• Regular mapping parties to survey and update local areas
• Adding local businesses and points of interest
• Training new community members on OSM editing tools

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is the world's largest encyclopedia, and we contribute to articles related to Houston, Texas history, technology, and other topics of community interest.

Our Wikipedia Activities:

• Creating and improving articles about Houston history and landmarks
• Adding citations and references to improve article quality

Wikidata

Wikidata is the structured data backbone that powers Wikipedia and many other projects. We contribute structured data about Houston organizations, places, and notable figures.

Our Wikidata Activities:

• Linking local entities to national and international databases
• Improving data quality and consistency
• Creating tools to help other contributors work with Wikidata

Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons hosts millions of freely usable media files. We contribute photographs and other media files that document Houston's culture, architecture, and community life.

Houston Specific Contributions

• Focus on City of Houston, and Harris County public spaces, parks, and community centers In the 2025 Houston Hackathon we digitized all Houston-area community centers, including those organized by HCP1, HCP2, HCP3, HCPL4, HPL, HCPL, and HPARD.
• Houston Parks and Recreation Department, and all of their parks especially Hermann Park and Willow Waterhole
• All the venues that we meet at and utilize
• The Houston Hackathon and all individual yearly instances.
• Adding structured data about Houston organizations and institutions

How We Organize Our Civic Work

Training and Workshops

We regularly host training sessions to help community members get started with these platforms:

• OSM Editing Workshops: Learn to use JOSM, iD editor, and mobile mapping apps
• Wikipedia Editing: Understanding Wikipedia policies, sourcing, and best practices
• Wikidata Fundamentals: Working with structured data and SPARQL queries
• Media Contribution: Photography best practices and Commons uploading

Tools and Resources

We maintain and contribute to various tools that make civic contribution easier:

• opendatasync the tool that this site makes use of to pull down this data for static site generation.
• rrule-calc the tool used by this site to generate dates based on recurring events.