Geomob

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

OpenStreetMap is well known by the geospatial community, but does the average person use it? To help answer this question this week Ed welcomes Roman Tsisyk to the podcast. Roman, a co-founder of Organic Maps, the most widely used consumer-facing, OSM-based mapping service. In their discussion, Ed and Roman explain the differences users experience with Google Maps vs OSM and discuss how the two can work together. Organic Maps is a privacy-focused, open-source fork of Maps.me app. The offline feature makes it particularly convenient for travellers, hikers, and cyclists. Listen as Roman explains how he and his team use the power of community to keep evolving their maps, and why having "regular people" contribute to mapping is so important.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Steven and Ed discuss Florian Ledermann's geospatial Mastodon list before looking back on the recent Geomob events in Tel Aviv and London. Have a great summer everyone.  

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This week tune in to hear what it’s like to volunteer at MapAction. Steven chats with an old friend: Ant Scott. MapAction is "the bridge which enables geospatial experts and professionals to contribute their services to helps with global humanitarian needs" - a non-profit that partners with organisations all over the world to help prepare and respond to humanitarian emergencies. In this episode Steven dives deep into the day to day of MapAction activities. Ant explains the response process step-by-step with anecdotes from his own experiences. Join in for this enlightening chat and shout out to the amazing volunteers.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This week Ed chats with the winner of the best speaker prize at the April 2023 Geomob Finland. Juha Koponen is the COO of CollectiveCrunch. To put it simply, CollectiveCrunch counts and analyzes the trees in the forest using remote sensing. Juha and his team combine the latest tech in geospatial including earth observation, machine learning, and AI, to assess forestry needs quickly and accurately. Tackling problems like forest density and bark beetles activity, CollectiveCrunch is able to monitor what goes on in the forest without always needing to travel long distances and measure manually. Listen in as Ed and Juha deep dive into the mechanics of machine learning and AI specifically for forestry and learn about the benefits of this technology for other applications.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Joining Ed for an interesting chat this week is Dr. Merve Keskin, a geomatics engineer and cartographer who works for the National Land Survey of Finland and the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute. Merve studies how people use maps with a focus on eye tracking. With the rise of mobile maps and mapping apps there is an assumption that getting around is simpler, but is it? Do the navigation tools affect our spatial cognition positively or negatively?  Merve explains in detail what you can learn by studying how people use maps and gives some advice to cartographers who want to create maps that people will actually use. Tune in for this informative conversation.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

A catch up episodes with our hosts Ed and Steven.  Ed recounts the second Geomob Berlin (summary thread). Steven is already on the ground in Tel Aviv where Ed will soon join him for the June 20th GeomobTLV. In other news OpenCage is again mentoring an OpenStreetMap Google Summer of Code project, while Mappery once again grapples with the technical snafu of publishing to Twitter.  Finally the discussion turns to Lyft's recent announcement that they will begin relying on OpenStreetMap for their maps.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This week we spotlight an exciting event: London Data Week. This city wide festival will take place from 3rd to the 9th of July and is meant to bring London’s thriving data community together. It’s also a chance to brainstorm ideas on how to bring useful data to the general public. Joining Steven is Jen Ding of the Alan Turing Institute (and winner of the SplashMap best speaker prize at our April 2023 London event). Jen explains the aims of the week and gives Steven a preview of what to expect. Whether you’re into cycling, comedy, or AI, London Data Week has it all. This community led event aims to encourage people to actively participate in data collection themselves. Events by Citi Maps, Geomob London on the evening of July 5th, and Statisticians for Society are just some highlights of the festival, tune in to find out what else is in store and how you can participate.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Joining Ed this week is co-founder and CEO of Radar, Nick Patrick. Radar is a New York based company that aims to be the go to all-in-one location infrastructure provider. Over the past years they have worked with many consumer brands to create innovative geospatial experiences, and the company is now working on the next generation of foreground/product-centric geofencing use cases, like "in-store mode" for retailers or order ahead arrival detection for restaurants. A lot has changed over the past 15 years, while privacy and permissions have become more difficult to obtain, location accuracy has vastly improved. Radar is at the forefront of working with consumer brands to bring modern geospatial interactions to life. Tune in to hear Ed and Nick chat about the challenges of working with geocoding, the development of open source maps, and geofences.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This week Steven chats with two member of the team responsible for FOSS4G 2023, which will be held in Prizren, Kosovo from June 26th to July 2nd. Steven shares his own FOSS4G experience with Besfort Guri and Gresa Neziri ahead of their first ever FOSS4G in Kosovo. The hosts hope to spotlight Kosovo and bring attention to their local geospatial organisations, but they have also assembled an international team to ensure there is a wide range of topics and experts in attendance. The three chat about the logistics of organising this event, and share which speakers they are looking forward to the most. The conference will only be available in person this year, but there is still time to register to join. Tune in to find out how to get involved.

Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.