News — 16 December, 2024

Staff Spotlight Series: Mar Marín Villagrana

Each quarter, we’re featuring one of our all-star staff members. Staff featured in this Spotlight Series have been peer-nominated for their superb performance and values-driven work.

What first attracted you to work at HOT?

I first came across OpenStreetMap and HOT during the Code for All Summit in 2023, where the team delivered an inspiring lightning talk and workshop around field mapping and fAIr. As the summit host, I had the chance to see their work up close, and it instantly resonated with me. At the time, I was deeply immersed in the open data and knowledge space through my work with the Code for All Network and as a wrangler at Mozilla Festival, so the idea of leveraging open mapping to create tangible impact felt like a perfect match.

Later in the year, I had another opportunity to engage with this incredible work of OSM communities during a workshop at the Creative Commons Summit in Mexico City. That experience solidified my admiration for the mission and the transformative power of open mapping, and I knew I wanted to be part of it.

Tell us a bit about how your career/personal journey led you to HOT

I studied International Relations with a specialization in Peace and Conflict Studies, and I’ve been passionate about using communication and storytelling as tools for driving meaningful change. This passion has guided me through diverse opportunities, from working at the United Nations Population Fund to leading communications and advocacy for civil society at a cybersecurity enterprise, and organizing regional and global community events with the Code for All Network and Mozilla Festival.

Over the years, I’ve deliberately shaped my personal and professional journey around creating social impact through communication and Empowerment and Participation Technologies. My work often intersects with open knowledge, collaboration, and digital campaigns that amplify underrepresented voices and local narratives.

HOT’s mission to enhance communities through open mapping strongly aligns with my belief in the transformative power of collective action and technology. Learning about HOT’s work through colleagues I deeply respect inspired me to explore how my skills in communication, strategic partnerships, and capacity-building could support their efforts to build a more equitable world through open mapping.

Who/what are some of your biggest inspirations within HOT and/or wider OSM community?

Everyone in the HOT and OSM community is a huge inspiration to me! That said, I have to give special credit to Céline Jacquin, Juan Melo, and Tim deWinter from the Open Mapping Hub in Latin America and the Caribbean. They not only mentored and drove me to learn how to map but have also inspired me to share this knowledge with my local community through social impact mapping projects. Within the broader OSM community, I’m a big fan of Andrés Gómez Casanova (AngocA, as known in the OSM ecosystem). His kindness and humility in sharing his extensive knowledge about open mapping have been truly inspiring and motivating for me.

What is your current role at HOT, and how has it evolved?

I currently serve as the Senior Communications Manager for the Open Mapping Hub in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this role, I’ve been leading communication strategies to raise awareness of HOT’s initiatives across the region. My focus is on crafting and overseeing the comms strategies for our projects and activities, ensuring the implementation of dynamic formats, including transmedia storytelling, to maximize engagement and outreach across various platforms.

A key highlight of my role has been participating in community activities. With the support of my team, I developed and implemented the Humanitarian Mapping Laboratory, an initiative where I collaborated with colleagues to design and guide a cohort of around 50 individuals in the region. This program equipped participants with citizen science and open mapping skills and tools to enhance emergency mapping responses across the region.

Additionally, I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer with local organizations and the government of Querétaro, Mexico, on mapping cyclist infrastructure. This project provided firsthand insight into the transformative potential of open data and mapping for documenting critical infrastructure and shaping more informed, effective public policies. It further strengthened my conviction in the power of open mapping to drive meaningful change.

What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on here?

Everything I’ve worked on has been fascinating, but lately, I’ve been particularly immersed in overseeing the communication strategy and dissemination for the Mapping for Climate-Ready Cities in Latin America. I had the opportunity to engage with the six local governments that were part of the cohort, designed in collaboration with the Open Government Partnership (OGP), focusing on public engagement, data collection, and systemic changes to create strong networks around the data in these cities. It was fascinating to see all the incredible pilot projects the governments delivered, and I had the opportunity to participate in the temporary shelter mappings in Quintana Roo during Hurricane Alberto.

To sum it up, I had the chance to moderate a conversation with the participants in the Open Americas panel in Brasilia alongside OGP, the local government of Maipu, Chile and the Inter-American Development Bank to chat about how using open data and participatory technologies help address natural disasters, promote resilience in cities, and collaboratively tackle the challenges that climate change brings to the Americas with sustainable and open tools.

What fulfills you most about your role?

Witnessing firsthand the power of maps to tell compelling stories about people and places, uncovering patterns of ideas and issues across space and time. What inspires me even more, thanks to Céline and Tim for introducing me to this world, is the potential of citizen-generated data to tap into the local knowledge and expertise of individuals within their communities. I love crafting stories and creating diverse formats that help audiences discover how this participatory approach not only addresses societal challenges but also empowers communities to actively engage in solving the issues they face. Ultimately, the way we craft these stories provides a richer, more nuanced understanding of people and their realities, making this work deeply meaningful and rewarding.

Where are some of your bucket list travel locations?

I would love to go to Guatemala, Portugal and Kenya—definitely destinations I’m aiming to visit in 2025. I can’t wait to explore these amazing places and also map on the ground if possible!

What’s a personal goal of yours that you’re currently working on?

I’m currently working on deepening the integration of open mapping tools into community-led initiatives in my city. Since learning about open mapping, I’ve been organizing workshops with local organizations, academia, and the local government to use Mapillary and OpenStreetMap (OSM) for documenting cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure in my city. These efforts aim to enhance participants to contribute to more accessible and sustainable urban planning.

Also, as a volunteer for the Mexican Wikimedia Chapter, I’ve been exploring the connection between OSM and Wikidata. Whenever I encounter a point of interest that relates to an item in Wikidata, I link them so that people can access more detailed information or locate it directly in OSM. This ongoing effort combines both my passion for OSM and Wikimedia.