This month we meet Bojan from Serbia, a graduate student with a major in Biotech. He joined the Community in June, shortly after the app was first launched in Belgrade. Bojan saw a chance to improve the information of his city. Since then, he has risen through the ranks of the Community at a rapid pace. “From my initial involvement I was hooked on mapping and since then I have contributed much more. My ideas are always being implemented, actually a lot more than I could have expected.”
Bojan joined the Community with the desire to add information for Belgrade, he added, “I simply wanted the railway network to be present. From that point on, I’ve continued to improve different things; since Belgrade has a public transit system that is still in a state of development – there is a constant need to update information on the app.” In addition to being one of the Guardians of Belgrade, Bojan mapped Valjevo, his hometown. “I think it’s natural to be a local-patriot, to use opportunities to contribute and do something not just for you but for everyone living in your area.” Growing up in Valjevo gave Bojan all of the information he needed to map this town. “I was able to do something super useful for my local community; because even though the public transit system is simple, getting informed about it was far from that. There was no single source for information. Now, it’s possible to easily access everything you need.”
Bojan is wonderfully proactive and is happy to take charge of his entire country’s Community. He tells us how he particularly enjoyed cooperating with other Community members, for example, the tenacious Lazar in Nis, “we discussed various issues vividly, and ultimately developed a program that saves much time while entering large timetable datasets. It has already been successfully used elsewhere. It is something we are especially proud of.”
Bojan communicates with many people in the Serbian Community and he notes that, “the interactions between the members make it an excellent experience. It drives everyone to feel like collaborating.” In addition to Lazar in Nis, Bojan has built a strong connection with many members of the Belgradian Community, including Bogdan, whom he plans to go for a drink with soon.* Bojan and other members of the Belgradian Community, such as Nikola, together decided to create a Community Facebook group to exchange ideas, socialize and spread information. They plan for the group to become a nationwide group, making the Serbian Community overall even stronger.
Bojan says that he considers himself a citizen of the world, having already traveled and studied in many different countries. This quality beams out to us daily, just now Bojan has finished translating the Community Editor tool into Serbian for his entire country. He states that, “I’ve learned that helping others is the best one can do, and there’s a lot of small things you get in return that will make your general everyday life sheerly beautiful.” Bojan radiates this positive energy and to him, we say thank you very much for playing such an active role in inspiring and advising all of us.