20/07/2025
The story of BHOOT—originally known as Bangladesh Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Operations Team—is a powerful testament to the spirit of community-driven innovation and humanitarian volunteerism. It was conceived not in a boardroom or under the guidance of a structured organization, but by a passionate group of digital humanitarians who believed that open maps could save lives.
In the absence of structural funding or institutional mandates, a group of highly active contributors within the OSM Bangladesh (OSMBD) community banded together in 2015 to form what would later become known globally as BHOOT. Their ambition was bold yet simple: make the OSMBD community more vibrant, visible, and globally connected—while putting Bangladesh on the map, quite literally, through open, crowd-sourced geospatial data.
Over the years, BHOOT played a foundational role in building not just the mapping infrastructure but also the human infrastructure for open geospatial action in the country. Their grassroots movement went on to influence policy, humanitarian practice, and digital inclusion.
In 2025, with support from the Bangladesh Open Innovation Lab (BOIL), BHOOT is reviving itself again with a broadened vision to meet the evolving needs of humanitarian, development, and anticipatory action frameworks. This new avatar of BHOOT expands its focus beyond mapping to include open technologies, open data, digital commons, and civic tech — positioning itself as a national hub and regional contributor for digital resilience and local innovation in South Asia.
