Founded in 2016, PoliMappers is a student volunteer group at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. Its mission is to promote open-geoscience and FOSS through mapping activities, as the first European chapter of YouthMappers, combining education, community-building and real-world mapping contributions. As the group celebrates 10 years as an evolving entity within the open global ecosystem, this presentation explores the challenges involved in empowering a long-term, sustainable student community and the decade-long journey in academia and civic society, featuring voices and contributions from current members, alumni, and collaborators.

The challenge of fostering a long-term sustainable student community

As a volunteer group rooted in an academic setting, PoliMappers faced the challenge of member turnover and continuity inherent in student organisations, where people come and go each year. Keeping momentum while training new members in both geospatial tools and collaborative practices requires structured and continuous outreach, supported by proper training and communication strategies.

The integration of open-source geospatial tools into university curricula

FOSS and collaborative mapping are often under-recognised within formal engineering and architecture programs. Making the case for their value, both technically and socially, remains an ongoing effort, especially when compared to proprietary workflows still prevalent in industry and education. This talk will highlight our initiatives that contributed to establishing a solid presence within geospatial-related courses in our university, through both traditional as well as innovative-teaching curriculum.

The quality challenge of volunteer contributions

Contributions to platforms like OpenStreetMap rely on volunteering, especially humanitarian and specialised mapping, requiring training and coordination, which can be hard to scale when resources are largely student-driven. Drawing on our experience, we will share insights from cross-faculty mapping activities, from campus to city scale.

Developing a diverse network for a valuable community impact

By partnering with local and international communities, PoliMappers has demonstrated how student initiatives can have a real impact beyond campus, connecting to global mapping efforts and advocacy for open geodata, aligning with principles of FOSS: technology as a shared, social resource, not a proprietary product.

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Broad engagement and collaboration

PoliMappers has organised numerous events ranging from local field mapping, remote mapathons, educational workshops, and international campaigns. These activities not only strengthened skills but also helped grow an active and diverse community of contributors, involving partners from humanitarian organisations, academic units, local projects, and schools. This show that student-led FOSS initiatives can reach multiple domains from global development to urban planning and small-scale decisions.

Legacy and future growth

Ten years on, the group stands as an example of how FOSS4G and participatory mapping can be embedded into both education and community practice, inspiring similar initiatives around Europe and reinforcing the idea that open mapping is a social activity. Entering the next decade, the key challenges remain connecting open practices with broader institutional support and translating volunteer energy into lasting impact, by finding new synergies and inspirations with similar groups from all over the world.