The State of the Map 2026 in Paris
Walid: hello and welcome to a new episode of the Projets Libres podcast, LinuxFr.org’s podcast about free software, digital commons and open data. And it’s the last point, open data, that will interest us today, since we’re going to test a new format to present an upcoming event, the State of the Map 2026. We’re going to talk to you about it with my guest of the day, Benoît Peyon, who is an administrator of the OSM France association and also on the organizing committee of State of the Map 2026. Benoît, welcome to the podcast.
Benoît: Hello Walid, thank you for the invitation.
Introducing the State Of The MAP (SOTM)
Walid: For those who haven’t listened to the previous episodes we did on the podcast about OpenStreetMap, I refer you to the OpenStreetMap introductory episode, the episode of season 3 episode 6, which was released in December 2024, and also the episode on the OpenStreetMap federation of professionals, season 4 episode 14. Right away, let’s start by presenting what the State of the Map is, how long has it existed?
Benoît: The State of the Map is the annual conference of OpenStreetMap contributor, it is an event that has existed since 2007, so very soon after the start of the project in 2005. It is held annually almost every year, with rare exceptions, each time in a different country. It has since been declined in local versions. There is the State of the Map France , which takes place every year, except today, and also more local, regional conferences at the South American level, at the European level, since last year. So, more local variations exist.
Who is the audience of SOTM?
Walid: In these State of the Map conferences, who can participate? Who is the audience?
Benoît: Everyone is invited to participate in the State of the Map. In practice, we have three profiles that emerge: volunteer contributors, who do this in their free time, who participate in the project, professionals, who, by virtue of their profession, contribute or use OpenStreetMap data, and come to look for information on how to work better with this data, and then a third profile which are academics, either because they use OpenStreetMap data for their research work, or because they are directly interested in the OpenStreetMap community as a research topic.
SOTM Side Events
Walid: Does the fact that there are so many people in the same place also give rise to side events, meetings? Are there other things going on around the State of the Map?
Benoît: Yes, absolutely. In the official program, we have conferences, classic conferences in amphitheaters and workshops that are more oriented on the practical aspects of using tools, for example. And then, in this program, we have spaces that are, I’m going to say, open for meetings of specific projects. So, it can be more or less organized projects, such as humanitarian mapping, or thematic projects, particularly around minoritized people, whether they are gender minorities or sexual orientations.
And then, we have free sessions which are basically reserved rooms available where we can spontaneously organize sessions. We put them on a whiteboard the day before and say, “I’m going to propose a subject on such and such a theme, Vienna who is interested in the subject.” And then, of course, beyond these somewhat organized aspects, there is everything that happens informally during coffee breaks, during evenings, which allow for a lot of meetings and exchanges that are generally very fruitful and enriching.
Where and when is SOTM 2026 taking place?
Walid: And so, where and when is this 2026 edition taking place?
Benoît: So, for the first time, this edition will take place in France, in Paris, more precisely in Champs-sur-Marne, in a place called the Cité Descartes. It’s really a very suitable name for a State of the Map. And the Cité Descartes is a campus that brings together three schools that are partners of the event. First of all, the IGN school called Géodata Paris, but also the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and the Gustave Eiffel University, which are the three schools that are hosting us for the event.
[Note: The event will take place from August 27 to 30, 2026].
Accessibility by public transport
Walid: For people who are not in a car, do you know how to get to the event? Is there public transport that goes there?
Benoît: Yes, the place is quite accessible by public transport. We are directly on line A of the RER which goes between the heart of Paris and in particular the TGV station of Marne-la-Vallée which serves Disneyland for example.
Number of participants
Walid: Do you have an idea of roughly how many people will come?
Benoît: We are expecting around 550 people. It’s a big gauge for a SOTM, but we hope to attract as many people. Registrations are still open at the reception. We are waiting for you.
Where does the audience come from?
Walid: Where do these people come from?
Benoît: We don’t have official statistics on where people come from. We have the tradition of having a map of the world in the event hall where people put a small pin to indicate where they come from. So there you have it, it allows you to have an overview. Overall, on a SOTM that is organized in France, we will have a good part of the French public, an essentially European part, and then people who will come from a little further away, from Africa, Asia, the United States. It’s still a global event, but we’ll probably have people who are relatively close for transport issues.
The language of the conferences
Walid: So all the conferences are in English?
Benoît: Usually, the SOTM World conferences are exclusively in English. Here, for the first time, we managed to have a series of conferences that will be in French. There will be no way to have the entire conference in French, but a part of it. And unfortunately, this year we didn’t manage to set up a translation, whether simultaneous or not, of the conferences. So, we hope that we will succeed in doing so for future events. But we will have at least one part that will be accessible in French.
Where to track SOTM online?
Walid: For people who can’t come, but still want to attend. Do you broadcast on PeerTube or YouTube? How does it work?
Benoît: We have two systems for broadcasting. The first one is on registration, which is called Venueless, which is a system that allows you to interact with participants during the conference and with the speakers. So this first interaction system allows you to attend the conferences live.
We will also have a live PeerTube stream on the PeerTube of OpenStreetMap France. And beyond the screenings, we will also have a 360° camera broadcast of the atmosphere of the site and in particular of the evening. Beyond the live, the live, we will also have everything that happens will be recorded and will then be rebroadcast on PeerTube and on YouTube of the international association. And these videos will be subtitled, of course.
The highlights of the 2026 edition
Walid: Very good. You know, if there are any defining moments, things that are going to be… Who won’t be missed in this edition and about which you can already give us some clues?
Benoît: So, the program is already completely online, so everyone can go and see what will interest them in the program. For me, one of the highlights will be the opening session which will be dedicated to Panoramax, so the solution for photomapping territories, which captures 360 images of the streets.
It is a joint project, at least one that was born in partnership between OpenStreetMap France and the IGN, which is one of the sponsors and hosts of the event. And so, it makes particular sense to present this project which is taking on an exceptional scale as part of this event. And then, to spoil a little, there should be on the occasion of this opening the presentation of the launch of the Panoramax foundation which will become an independent project of its original parents, namely OpenStreetMap France and the IGN.
The organization of SOTM 2026
Walid: I think we’ll talk about Panoramax again in the coming months. Finally, is there a word about the organization? How many people work in the organization of State of the Map, this 2026 edition?
Benoît: There are now about fifteen of us participating and we are divided between the usual committee of the foundation, that is to say a completely international committee that follows the organization from one year to the next. So, these are people who are in Germany, in the Philippines, on the other side of the Earth.
And then, the other part is the local group which invests a lot in this with a distribution of roles between some who manage the program and then others who manage the logistics, the animations, the relations with the others, etc., the search for sponsors. Everyone is taking their part in the game of asynchronous organization with people all over the world, which is particularly interesting to advance this project. And we should be able to do that and offer a very nice event.
Final Words
Walid: Very good. We’re already at the end. I’ll leave you with a final word. Do you want to send a message to podcast listeners who would be aroused to be interested in State of the Map?
Benoît: If you’re already interested in the OpenStreetMap project, of course. Come to the event, it’s going to be very nice. If you want to have an overview of what the State of the Map is, I invite you to find the videos of past editions, which can be found either on the SOTM world website, namely stateofthemap.org which gives links to all the editions, to the sites of all the previous editions and in particular the broadcasts that may have taken place.
Especially for France, we have all the recordings that have been made in previous years that are available on the association’s PeerTube so peertube.openstreetmap.fr you will be able to find everything that has already been published. This is where what will be recorded this year will be published.
And then the other thing I invite you to do, all of you, is to join the community of contributors, whether through local groups, we now have about fifteen, twenty local groups that meet more or less periodically across France. And if you don’t have a local group near you, join us on the forum where the community gathers and will have the great pleasure of welcoming you for your OpenStreetMap debut.
Walid: Perfect. Thank you so much for coming to present State of the Map 2026. For the listeners, of course, I encourage you to watch past lectures as well. For me, it’s also a pretty inexhaustible source of ideas, so it’s great.
And then, don’t hesitate to tell us also in the comments, in the social networks, that you can find in the show notes of the episode or in the footer of the site, if you like this short format. And if so, we will do others at other events to announce them. That’s it. Listen, see you soon. Thank you Benoît and see you next time. Nice to have you on the podcast.
Episode production
- Remote recording on July 8, 2026
- Basis: Walid Nouh
- Editing: Walid Nouh
This interview has been automatically translated from the original language into English.
Use of AI
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Production:
- Noise reduction in Audacity via OpenVino and the DeepNetFilter2 and DeepNetFilter3 models
- Transcript: whisper-medium
- Transcription Improvement: Kimi K2.6
Publication:
- English translation of social media posts: locally with Jan and Mistral-Small-3.2-24B-Instruct
- Thumbnail: Claude Design
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