This year is the 20th anniversary of the Conference for Open Source Coders, Users & Promoters (COSCUP), which is one of the biggest open source events in Taiwan. This is also the 7th consecutive year that Wikidata Taiwan has co-hosted a conference track at COSCUP with our long-time partner OpenStreetMap Taiwan.
First inception in 2006, COSCUP is an annual conference organized by Taiwan’s open-source communities. Its aim is to provide a platform, a space for members of the open-source community to connect with each other and expand our horizons beyond individuals. Since 2020, the conference has embraced the no-registration model and remains open to everyone free of charge; anyone can hop in and out of any conference track they wish to participate in, with no need to register in advance. In recent years, COSCUP has also expanded by incorporating auxiliary activities like childcare, massage, hacking corner, flash talks, etc.
This year, Wikidata Taiwan invited old and new friends, and most importantly, we also invited our friend from Wikimedia Deutschland to celebrate together at this special milestone, sharing our stories with everyone.
Highlights from the Wikidata & OpenStreetMap Track
Our joint track was full of energy, as contributors shared not only their technical know-how but also the stories behind their projects. From mapping remote areas to structuring local cultural data, each talk showed how open data continues to bridge global knowledge with local stories.
What stood out most was the mix of familiar faces and first-time speakers. Seasoned contributors offered reflections on long-term challenges like data quality and sustainability, while newcomers brought fresh experiments, playful uses of Wikidata, creative mapping efforts, and unexpected mash-ups; balancing between experience and new ideas is what keeps this collaboration lively after so many years.
Beyond the Event and Ahead
As always, the most memorable moments often happened outside the conference room; between sessions, people gathered around laptops, sharing meals and stories, making connections with new friends, or simply catching up with old friends. The event was a reminder of what open-source really means, and how much we have grown as a community that values not profit, but human connection.
With more and more cross-community projects popping up, more ways to share and interact with knowledge thanks to the emerging AI tools, the community, and COSCUP, will continue to grow in the foreseeable future.
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