Minds Behind Maps

Luke Fischer is the Co-Founder & CEO of SkyFi, a company that we'll describe in a few ways in this episode, but boils down to an Earth Observation marketplace. We talk about Luke's 20 year time in the military before getting into startups, why Luke is bullish on their approach and many more

Sponsor: SatCamp
SatCamp is a different kind of conference, from October 1st to October 3rd 2024, in Boulder Colorado

About

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• SkyFi

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy

• Gabe -unit economics- Dominocielo
• Bill Perkins
• Die with Zero
• Silicon Valley No Revenue
• Book & Podcast recommendations
  • Freedom’s Forge (Affiliate Link)
  • BigDeal by Codie Sanchez

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro
(00:50) - Sponsor: SatCamp
(02:41) - Luke describes himself
(04:21) - Getting into the satellite image industry
(07:13) - Risks starting a company
(10:16) - Don't start a marketplace
(18:22) - Racing to get customers
(23:08) - What is the Product in all of this?
(25:00) - What is the product that SkyFi needs to build today?
(28:17) - Who is this for?
(33:08) - Biggest pain points
(37:44) - The market's view of Earth Observation businesses
(45:00) - Pivoting from the military
(51:28) - Hiring
(59:12) - Raising big, early
(01:02:08) - Predicting the industry in 2.5 years
(01:09:05) - Consumer market?
(01:14:24) - Health & family
(01:26:05) - Community while all Remote
(01:30:25) - Book & Podcast Recommendation
(01:33:09) - Support the podcast on Patreon

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Ben Strong is the Science & Machine Learning Lead at Earth Genome, an NGO working on the intersection of data, science & digital design. Most recently they've been working on Earth Index, an application built on top of Earth embeddings from foundation models. This conversation is the "so what" of Earth foundational model

Sponsor: OpenCage

Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API
Geomob

About

• LinkedIn

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Ben’s blogpost on NDA sequencing for the Earth
• Earth Genome
• Earth Index
• Book & Podcast recommendation
  • Demo Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Affiliate Link)
  • Risky Business

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro
(00:46) - Sponsor: OpenCage
(02:12) - Ben introduces himself
(03:28) - "DNA sequencing" for Earth
(13:37) - Not building another Foundation Model
(18:06) - Earth embeddings: So what?
(21:49) - What does locally finetuned mean?
(25:48) - Invite only for now: Why?
(29:31) - Journalistic applications
(31:59) - Yet another tool for finding images?
(35:09) - Deciding what to work on
(38:35) - Designing for simplicity
(44:14) - So, why hasn't Google made this?
(51:18) - Funding
(59:54) - Book & podcast Recommendations

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
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• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
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Ib Green led the development of 3D visualisation tools like for example Uber’s deck.gl and is now working at Foursquare, after having started Unfolded, which Foursquare acquired. During this conversation we touch on how browser based visualisations are changing

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About

• LinkedIn

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Kepler.gl
• Deck.gl
• Foursquare
• Kyle Barron
• Peak Math

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro 

(00:41) - Support the podcast on Patreon 

(01:43) - Ib describes himself 

(02:33) - How lb got to where he is today 

(07:47) - Uber's need for visualization tools 

(15:11) - Why do companies build open source tools? 

(17:46) - Open source to open governance 

(23:41) - Starting a company 

(26:31) - How Unfolded generates revenue 

(28:28) - Nerding out on browser based visualization tech 

(35:11) - Client side rendering challenges 

(39:27) - Competing against the smartphone 

(41:38) - Looking ahead 

(47:43) - Book & Podcast recommendations 

(50:24) - Support the podcast on Patreon

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Bruno Sanchez is the Executive Director of the Clay Foundation, which just released their v1 of a “Foundational Model of Earth”. We talk about what that means, building open source & non profits and can’t help but draw parallels to the not-so-open anymore OpenAI. Previously Bruno was the Program Director of the Microsoft Planetary Computer

Sponsor: OpenCage

Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API
Geomob

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Clay
  • Github repo
  • Website
• My previous interview with Bruno
• Book & Podcast recommendation
  • A Thousand Brains by Jeff Hawkins (Affiliate Link)
  • Bad Therapy by Abigael Shrier (Affiliate Link)

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro

(01:59) - Sponsor: OpenCage

(03:39) - What is a Foundational Model?

(08:45) - Foundational Task

(11:00) - Embeddings, and why they matter

(13:49) - Comparing to compression algorithms

(16:57) - What do embeddings enable?

(19:50) - Finding the Relationship between data

(24:16) - Implementation of monitoring all the data - I believe this is where you're going with the question

(25:44) - Implementation details

(27:52) - Validating a foundational model

(33:49) - Earth is a "limited problem"

(42:47) - Funding as a non-profit

(47:53) - Raising enough philanthropic funding

(53:02) - A Litmus test for open projects

(56:26) - Future predictions

(58:01) - Transparency/privacy

(01:00:53) - Commercial data

(01:03:36) - Openstreetmap

(01:05:49) - Updating foundational models

(01:12:17) - Clay model v2?

(01:13:43) - Dataset to embedding size comparison

(01:14:41) - Model v2 - continued

(01:16:45) - Difference working at a non-profit vs a corp

(01:20:27) - Book & Podcast recommendation

(01:24:01) - Support the podcast on Patreon!

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Dr Fred Calef III has the unofficial title of "Keeper of Maps" at NASA JPL, he's the Lead Mapping Specialist for most of JPL's Mars Rover missions, most recently that being Perseverance & Curiosity. But to land -and navigate- a rover, one needs maps, and Fred makes them.

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Support the podcast on Patreon

About Fred

• Twitter
• Mastodon

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• VICAR Github repo (Video Image Communication & Retrieval)
• Mars 2020 Rover: Terrain Relative Navigation
• Airy-o crater
• 7 Minutes to Mars
• MMGIS (Multi Planet Geospatial Information System)
  • Github Repo
  • Mars Rover Location Map

Book recommendations

• Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (Affiliate Link)
• The Martian by Andy Weird (Affiliate Link)

Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction

(00:48) - Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap

(02:23) - How would you describe yourself?

(03:18) - Keeper of the Maps

(05:04) - What it takes to map Mars

(10:21) - Deciding where to put (0,0)

(12:33) - Current accuracy of Mars mapping

(14:01) - 150m / pixel: How do you find anything?

(18:14) - Rover cameras on the ground

(22:39) - Creating detailed maps for the Rover's automation

(26:07) - How would we be navigating on Mars if we send people there?

(31:20) - Comparing to the early days of car navigation

(34:15) - Using a compass on Mars

(36:13) - Mapping tools

(48:54) - Has every image of Mars been seen by at least 1 person?

(53:37) - Mars doesn't change that much

(56:45) - More strange difference between Mars & Earth

(01:00:53) - Mapping other celestial bodies

(01:05:04) - Missions or mapping projects that Fred is looking forward to

(01:06:10) - Book/podcast recommendation

(01:10:06) - One last question: Mars time

(01:13:19) - Support the podcast on Patreon

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Sponsor: OpenCage

Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API
Geomob

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• GeoLayers
• geolayers.app
• Johnny Harris
  • Markus’s cameo in a recent video
• Search Party
• Felt
• Procreate dreams
• Jason Boone’s episode
• Podcast recommendation: Syntax.fm

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro
(02:26) - Sponsor: OpenCage
(03:52) - Markus Describes himself
(04:29) - GEOlayers in simple terms
(05:50) - From Motion Designer, to Map Animation Developer
(07:51) - The team behind GEOlayers
(08:20) - How does a Motion Designer turn into software engineer?
(10:45) - Tricky nature of Map Animation
(13:10) - OpenStreetMap
(14:57) - Markus before and after diving into GIS
(17:01) - Map projections
(20:01) - Business Model & Funding
(24:08) - Self Funding
(26:38) - Being your own user
(27:37) - GEOLayers used on Youtube
(30:23) - Working with creator, example of Johnny Harris
(32:20) - Paid Support
(33:33) - Focusing ones time on what you enjoy doing
(35:11) - Making a web app
(42:35) - Subscription models
(46:34) - Expectations in modern software business models
(49:22) - High tech barrier to entry
(55:01) - Inspiration from 2 other projects
(01:05:32) - The future of GEOLayers
(01:07:21) - Local vs Web based software
(01:16:13) - Marketing & Social Media
(01:20:50) - Book/podcast recommendation
(01:23:18) - Support the podcast on Patreon

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Volodymyr Agafonkin is the creator of Leaflet, an open-source JS mapping library started in 2008 that is used pretty much everywhere on the Internet today. We end up nerding out on what makes building simple open source software & rendering maps online tricky but also so endlessly interesting. Volodymyr lives in Ukraine, a country shaken by a war for the past few years, which we also talk about.

Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap

Try out Kermap's monthly mosaic viewer Nimbo for yourself

Support the podcast on Patreon

About Volodymyr

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Website

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Leaflet
• Mapbox blogpost on adaptive map projections
• CloudMade
• How Simplicity Will Save GIS
• Books & Podcasts
  • The Storyteller by Dave Grohl (Affiliate Link)
  • My Effin’ Life by Geddy Lee (Affiliate Link)
  • Reply All podcast
  • Search Engine podcast
  • Heavyweight podcast

Timestamps

(00:00) - Intro
(01:50) - Sponsor: Nimbo
(03:26) - Volodymyr Describes Himself
(04:22) - The story behind Leaflet
(13:31) - Cloudmade Backstory
(16:42) - From closed software to open source
(23:43) - Maintaining high quality code
(27:56) - Cloudmade today
(31:21) - Leaflet, funding, sustainable
(35:09) - Raster vs Vector maps
(41:34) - Map projections
(46:36) - Current main challenges to mapping
(50:52) - Future of Leaflet
(51:54) - Leaflet and Ukraine
(01:05:39) - Book & Podcast recommendation
(01:09:35) - Support the podcast on Patreon

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Qiusheng Wu is an Associate Professor in Geography, an active open source contributor behind projects like geemap, leafmap or segment-geospatial also sharing tutorials on his popular Youtube channel. Qiusheng has a desire to teach, share and lower the barrier to entry to geospatial, all things I'm always curious to talk more about

Sponsor: OpenCage
Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API
Geomob

About Qiusheng

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Kaggle
• Google Earth Engine
• Qiusheng’s Youtube channel
• Qiusheng’s Github
• Book & Podcast recommendation
  • Geospatial Data Analytics on AWS (Affiliate Link)
  • Mapscaping

Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction 
(00:35) - Sponsor: OpenCage 
(02:01) - How would you describe yourself 
(03:47) - Developing Open Source Software 
(06:46) - Lowering the barrier to entry 
(10:39) - Quisheng's story 
(18:39) - Getting Involved in open source 
(22:16) - Google Earth Engine 
(25:48) - Skepticism around closed platforms 
(32:31) - Teaching Skepticism 
(34:16) - Is open source free lunch? 
(36:51) - Why create tutorials? 
(41:35) - Video over any other format 
(45:42) - Pushing students to market their projects 
(48:52) - Teaching in multiple languages 
(53:18) - YouTube analytics 
(55:35) - Book/Podcast Recommendation

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Ryan Abernathey is a Climate Scientist, open-source software developer and the CEO & co-founder of Earthmover, a company trying to simplify how scientific computing is done. Ryan also co-founded the Pangeo project in 2016, one of the major efforts to build better tools for scientific computing today.

Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap

Try out Kermap's monthly mosaic viewer Nimbo for yourself

About Ryan

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Github

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Pangeo
  • Xarray
  • Zarr
• Earthmover
• ERA5
• Books & Podcast recommendation
  • Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore (Affiliate Link)
  • The Data Stack Show

Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction

(00:45) - Sponsor: Nimbo by Kermap

(02:20) - Ryan describes himself

(03:11) - From Oceanography to data infrastructure

(06:11) - Building an Company around Open Source

(13:33) - Product

(16:28) - The current Earth Observation data stack

(20:39) - Issues with today's approaches

(30:30) - Zarr

(33:30) - Friction with new technology

(38:23) - Climate science vs geospatial

(44:48) - Different sciences make different assumptions

(47:17) - Modeling Level of Details

(59:50) - Book & Podcast recommendations

(01:05:37) - Support the podcast on Patreon!

• Support the podcast on Patreon
• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work

Gilberto Camara was the director of INPE, Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research from 2005 to 2012, working there 35y in total and leading the use of satellite imagery to fight deforestation in Brazil, leading to what Nature declared “One of the biggest environmental wins of the 2000s”

Sponsor: OpenCage

 Use OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API
 Geomob

About Gilberto

• Twitter
• Blog

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Landsat 1
• MODIS
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s current president
• My interview with USGS’s former Director Barbara Ryan
• 1992 Rio declaration (particularly Article 10)
• BBC ‘Yes Minister’
• Nature article on Brazil deforestation initiatives
• Books & Podcast recommendations
  • The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi (Affiliate Link)
  • The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age by Manuel Castells (Affiliate Link)
  • Robin Cole’s satellite-image-deep-learning
  • Code & Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig (Affiliate Link)
  • Techno-Feudalism by Yanis Varoufakis (Affiliate Link)

Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction
(01:14) - Sponsor: OpenCage
(02:40) - Gilberto describes himself
(04:14) - Deforestation wasn't always a priority: Brazil in the 80s
(07:50) - INPE (Brazil's National Institute for Space Research)
(11:13) - Landsat
(23:15) - Forest Land doesn't have monetary value
(24:14) - Mapping Deforestation Doesn't Magically Solve Everything
(28:35) - Incentives
(38:06) - Open Data was the only way
(38:51) - Not everyone likes open data
(42:11) - The first real-time deforestation alert system
(46:43) - From data to actual enforcement
(55:15) - Avoiding False Positive Deforestation Alerts
(01:00:48) - Misunderstood Accuracy in Remote Sensing
(01:07:52) - The roles of current geospatial tools
(01:15:43) - Brazil made Landsat images openly available before the US
(01:20:31) - Getting Things Done
(01:33:51) - Private remote sensing companies
(01:49:50) - The right tool & the right data
(01:53:32) - Monetary motivations behind commercial GIS
(02:02:29) - The source(s) of innovation
(02:07:28) - Book/podcast recommendation
(02:12:56) - Opening just a tiny little last topic
(02:17:41) - Support my work on Patreon

Support the podcast on Patreon

• My video on an introduction to satellite images
• Website
• My Twitter
• Podcast Twitter
• Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter
• Edited by Peter Xiong
• Find more of his work