Nama Raj Budhathoki
StaffVoting MemberRegional Director - Asia-Pacific Hub
Bio
Nama joins HOT as the inaugural Regional Director of the Open Mapping Hub – Asia Pacific. In this role, he will lead our team in Asia to help nurture, support, and amplify open mapping works in about 25 countries in the region. Nama brings a unique blend of experience from government, non-profit, academia, and start-ups to his new role.
Nama founded and developed Kathmandu Living Labs (KLL) as one of the exemplary institutions working in the areas of OSM, open data, and civic tech. Some of the works he successfully led at KLL have been covered in major news outlets, e.g. The New York Times, BBC, MyRepublica, GovInsider, theguardian, Setopati, Nepali Times. He was recognized with ‘one of the 50 most impactful social innovators award’ in 2018 in Mumbai. Before founding KLL, Nama led the World Bank’s Open Cities project in Nepal.
Nama earned his doctorate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a focus on OpenStreetMap. Following the doctoral degree, he worked at McGill University as a postdoctoral research fellow and then at Niti Foundation as the Director of Programs. Nama has authored over a dozen journal papers and book chapters. He has co-edited a book titled ‘Youth community Inquiry: New Media for Community and Personal Growth. He also worked for the government of Nepal for about five years as an Information Technology officer before joining the doctoral program.
Posts
OpenStreetMap on the Ground: Update from Kathmandu
I reported the HOT Community on OpenStreetMap work in Nepal in the beginning of 2013 (click here to see my post). Almost a year...
