🧭 The Story Behind UrbanMapper Community¶
UrbanMapper began as a research-driven project at New York University, with early design and development supported by the university and the OSCUR program. We are grateful for that foundation and the research environment that made UrbanMapper possible.
UrbanMapper Community continues that work as a community-led fork. Our goal is to keep the project welcoming, maintainable, and transparent—while staying aligned with upstream innovations.
Why a Community Fork?¶
We are committed to being kind and truthful in how we describe this transition. The motivation comes from practical experience:
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Response times sometimes took longer than expected. On occasion, community questions waited up to four months. We understand that busy seasons happen and appreciate the effort that goes into maintaining a research project. Still, a community fork helps reduce waiting and encourages more distributed support.
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The roadmap was not public or consistently visible. For an open-source community, clarity about direction matters. UrbanMapper Community commits to a public roadmap that anyone can follow and contribute to.
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We want to stay aligned with upstream while extending it. We will keep an upstream sync and merge changes that align with the community fork, while building additional features in the open.
Moving Forward Together¶
We welcome collaborators, contributors, and feedback. If you want to shape the future of UrbanMapper Community, please visit the Community Hub or open a discussion on GitHub.