As Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines the OpenStreetMap community was already adding new details to the map to help first responders. In the map below, all the brightly highlighted features—buildings in yellow, roads in red, and other shapes in blue—have been added or corrected on the map in just the past 5 days.
The progress of thevolunteers tracing satellite imagery of the affected areas is amazing, and this data is already helping Red Cross disaster workers deliver vital supplies.
The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) provides several ways to get involved with the worldwide volunteer effort. If you already know the basics of tracing you can dive right in with the tasking manager. Many cities with active OSM communities are organizing group sessions, often with tutorials for beginners. If you’re in the DC area, come to the session on Saturday!