Geomob

Ed and Steven catch up following the first Geomob Berlin. Listen in as Ed recalls the most interesting parts of GeomobBER and announces dates for the upcoming Helsinki, London, and Tel Aviv events. Then the discussion turns to what’s new with OpenCage and Mappery. There is new pricing at OpenCage, and an important reminder for anyone using OpenCage: they cannot, never have, and never will provide mobile phone location tracking. Tune in to find out how Ed’s Mastodon post about his strange ordeal went viral.

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

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’re going back to the early days of OpenStreetMap for a moment this week as Ed chats with Mikel Maron - his oldest OSM colleague. Mikel introduced Ed to OSM back in 2006 and has since gone on to many OSM accomplishments. He is currently the longest serving OpenStreetMap Foundation board member. Ed and Mikel reminisce about their journey with OSM, discuss the current state of OSM, and how passion affects progress. Find out what it’s like on the inside of the OSMF board and how things really work. Can communication improve at OSM? How will Overture change the landscape? Listen in to hear as this OSM pioneer weighs in. Plus, find out about Mikel's new job and the role geospatial tech plays in climate and environmental problem solutions, and how you can collaborate.

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

In this week’s episode Ed finds out what the future holds for GeoHipster. Taking over from Mike Dolbow, Randal Hale has become the new CEO of GeoHipster, your source of what’s hip in all things geo. If you haven’t heard about GeoHipster before you’re missing out. Over 10 years of interviews, calendars, and cool maps, later Randal is still consistently updating the exact definition of "hip" but fans will be happy to hear there are no major changes under the new leadership. Listen in to find out how you and your geopatial idea can be featured

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

Nick Bearman and Kevin Williams, two of the organisers of the recent FOSS4G:UK 2022, join Steven to reflect on how the event went. For the first time the event was held in a unique hybrid format, with many different venues across the UK. The goal was to capture the benefits of in-person networking and experience, while also reducing the need to travel and, via online streaming, allowing participation from everywhere. Overall the experiment was deemed a great success, with over 300 people attending in-person across the nine venues (many more than previous in-person events), but there are of course lessons learned for future events. Finally, Nick and Kevin share plans for OSGeo:UK in 2023.

Thank you to all the organisers of FOSS4G:UK!

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 Loraine Rutt and for this one you’ll want to find a screen because her work is very visual. Marrying art and cartography through her pottery and sculpture, Loraine makes beautiful art with a message. Through thematic maps, journey vases, and social geography sculptures she has been able to create art that encourages conversations about climate change, poverty, and earth’s place in the universe. Her work is beautiful and fascinating, especially for map lovers. Loraine explains how her work begun, what inspires her, and talks about what it’s like to get the stamp of approval of her globes from an astronaut! Enjoy the episode, but then be sure you visit Loraine's website to see this amazing body of work

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

With Geomob’s first event of 2023 under their belts, Steven and Ed connect to discuss plans for 2023 and the latest hot topic in the community: Overture Maps. Many questions still unanswered after the announcement earlier this month, including how the members will manage to collaborate and how will Google react? Listen in as Ed and Steven debate and make their predictions about the future of OpenStreetMap. Do you want to join in the discussion? Come to a Geomob event! This year, even more cities will be hosting Geomob, including Berlin, Helsinki, and Lisbon, so there are even more chances to connect with the community!

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 one of the most active long-time members of the OpenStreetMap community: Simon Poole. Simon has contributed to OSM in many ways over the years: as a mapper, as developer of one of the most popular editors, as a local organizer of the Swiss OSM community, as a leading member of the Legal working group, and as Chair of the OpenStreetMap Foundation board. He is the perfect person to weigh in on the health of the project, particularly in the context of the latest open mapping news about the start of the Overture Maps Foundation. Ed and Simon discuss the challenges OSM faces and the difficulties of moving forward in a massive global collaborative project. Tune in to hear Simon’s perspective on how to improve communication and push progress along. Spoiler Alert: it starts with taking a step back to truly understand the issues

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

Shortly before Christmas the Overture Maps Foundation was announced, a collaboration between tech giants Amazon Web Services, Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom to "create reliable, easy-to-use, and interoperable open map data". The geospatial world exploded with speculation about what this might mean for OpenStreetMap and for players like Google and Apple. Is Overture a threat, an opportunity, both, or something else entirely?

Our guest today is Marc Prioleau, geospatial industry veteran (having worked at deCarta, Cloudmade, Mapbox, Uber, and as a consultant for many others) and currently Meta's head of business development for Mapping and Location, to discuss exactly what Overture Maps hopes to be, why it was formed, and its intended place in the geospatial ecosystem. This is the first time one of the members of the OMF consortium has spoken publicly about the initiative.

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

We kick off 2023 with fellow podcaster Maxime Lenormand, a geospatial data scientist and the man behind Minds Behind Maps. Steven chats with Max about his geospatial podcast which focuses on the people who create maps. The unique thing about Minds Behind Maps is the long format. If the idea of listening to a three hour long podcast seems daunting, you’re not the only one, but Steven, a self-declared long-form sceptic, was quickly convinced it’s worthwhile. Tune in to find out how the project began and which big names in the mapping community he’s spoken with so far.

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