Project Geospatial

Brandon Liu discusses the shift of Protomaps from open core to open source, highlighting the challenges and trends in open source projects, particularly in web mapping. He explores the dynamics between open source software and software as a service (SaaS), emphasizing the advantages of SaaS in terms of adoption, digital rights management (DRM), and price discrimination. Liu delves into the dilemma of building a SaaS product using open source software and addresses the sustainability of open source projects. Protomaps, an open-source map of the world and a vector tiling system, aims to create a sustainable open ecosystem for web maps, addressing underserved use cases.

Highlights:

🔄 Open Source Trends: Discussion on the evolving trend of open source projects in web mapping, including re-licensing and shifts in business models.

💼 SaaS Advantages: Exploring the benefits of Software as a Service, focusing on adoption, DRM, and price discrimination.

🛠 Protomaps Purpose: Introduction to Protomaps as an open-source map and vector tiling system, emphasizing its goal of creating a sustainable open ecosystem.

💡 Sustainability Challenge: Addressing the challenge of making open source software development competitive and sustainable, especially for niche use cases.

🌐 Underserved Use Cases: Identifying use cases not well-supported by existing map technology, such as offline use, customization, and self-hosting challenges.

🚀 Protomaps Model: Highlighting Protomaps' approach to sustainability, its independence, and efforts to provide an easy-to-deploy solution.

🔄 Shifting Paradigm: Discussing the toll story principle and the market difference in deploying Protomaps compared to complex self-hosted solutions.

#Tags: #OpenSource #SaaS #WebMapping #Protomaps #SoftwareDevelopment #DRM #PriceDiscrimination #Sustainability #TechTrends #MapTechnology #VectorTiling

FOSS4G NA 2023 speaker, Michael Terner, addresses the question of making money with FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) technology. He outlines three viable business models: the Red Hat model (service and support fees), integration of FOSS4G into larger solutions, and open-sourcing technology with a premium model. Terner emphasizes the evolving hybrid landscape where open source and proprietary technologies coexist, highlighting the importance of supporting and giving back to the FOSS4G community.

Highlights:

💼 Business Models:

Red Hat Model: Service and support fees for free software.

Integrated Solutions: Incorporating FOSS4G into larger proprietary solutions.

Open Sourcing with Premium Model: Offering free base products and charging for advanced features.

🔄 Hybrid Landscape:

Future trend is a hybrid environment with a mix of open source and proprietary technologies.

Examples include Google's use of open source tools in unexpected places.

🌐 Community Support:

Importance of giving back to the FOSS4G community.

Contributions can include code, documentation, time, or financial support.

Hybrid implementations signify a coexistence of open source and commercial technologies.

👍 Conclusion:

Making money with FOSS4G is acceptable and sustainable.

Various business models coexist, and the hybrid approach is gaining prominence.

Encourages support for FOSS4G communities through contributions and adherence to licenses.

Video Tags:

#FOSS4G #OpenSource #BusinessModels #TechnologyIntegration #CommunitySupport #HybridImplementation #GeospatialTechnology #RedHatModel #PremiumModel #GoogleAPIs #CommercialTechnology #CommunityInvolvement #Innovation #FutureTrends #TechBusiness

Danielle Stollak and Kyle Heisey discuss investing $1 million in the open ecosystem at FOSS4G NA 2023. They highlight two key programs at Cesium: the Cesium Certified Developer Program and the Cesium Ecosystem Grants. Cesium, an open platform for 3D geospatial applications, has a broad impact on industries like renewable energy and industrial simulation. The Certified Developer Program recognizes expertise, with 63 certified developers globally. The Ecosystem Grants program, initiated with a $1 million fund, supports projects contributing to 3D geospatial advancements.

Highlights

💼 Cesium introduces programs: Certified Developer and Ecosystem Grants.

🌐 Cesium is a foundational platform for 3D geospatial applications since 2011.

🏆 Cesium Certified Developer Program recognizes and empowers experienced developers.

💰 Cesium Ecosystem Grants, a $1 million fund, supports projects advancing 3D geospatial.

🌍 Impact areas include renewable energy and industrial simulation.

📈 Certified Developer Program boasts 63 organizations globally after a year.

🌱 Ecosystem Grants contribute to the growth and innovation of the open ecosystem.

#FOSS4G #OpenEcosystem #Cesium #3DGeospatial #CertifiedDeveloper #EcosystemGrants #OpenSource #Innovation #GeospatialTechnology #CommunityBuilding #DeveloperRecognition #OpenStandards

Summary:

Building FilmDrop, an open-source platform for Earth observation, involved overcoming challenges and learning key principles. The journey included a shift from a small company mindset to growing a business, with open source as part of the strategy.

Highlights:

🌐 FilmDrop is an open-source geospatial data lake solution supporting commercial satellite operators, the United Nations, and maintaining petabytes of data in AWS.

💡 Lessons Learned: Building what customers need, adapting code for different customer needs, and making strategic decisions about forking or enhancing existing codebases.

🔄 Adaptation Challenge: Recognizing that customers differed from NASA's needs, requiring a decision to fork or enhance existing codebases.

💰 Business Investment: Investing $1.5 million in FilmDrop development underscored the importance of having a business plan for open-source projects.

🌱 Open Source and Business: Emphasizing that open-source development without a business plan is a donation, and businesses need a clear justification for open-sourcing work.

Video Tags:

#FOSS4G #OpenSource #EarthObservation #GeospatialData #BusinessStrategy #FilmDrop #CodebaseAdaptation #CommunityStandards #SoftwareDevelopment #CommercialSpace

Todd Barr discusses building a FOSS4G forward product strategy and ecosystem, emphasizing the challenges of product management in the geospatial industry. He highlights the importance of influencing diverse stakeholders, employing positive-sum strategies, and fostering a growth mindset for successful product development.

Highlights:

🌐 Todd Barr explores the $1.7 trillion geospatial ecosystem and its significance in the insurance industry.

🚀 Emphasizes the distinction between project management and product management, stressing the need for influence and coalition-building.

💼 Shares insights on co-elevation, a non-authoritative leadership approach, and the importance of authenticity and transparency.

📈 Narrates personal experiences of navigating stakeholder dynamics, overcoming skepticism, and prioritizing client satisfaction.

🎯 Discusses personas of various stakeholders, including management, consulting services, and sales, addressing their desires, pain points, and influences.

#FOSS4G #ProductStrategy #GeospatialEcosystem #Influence #PositiveSum #CoElevation #StakeholderManagement #Authenticity #Transparency #ClientSatisfaction #SalesStrategy

Aaron Meyers discusses the geolocated energy information platform for electric utility customer outages, covering 140 million utility customers, representing 93% of the US population. The talk explores the platform's evolution, trade-off analysis, and the adoption of an open-source solution with Docker, Java, Python, and GeoServer. The development includes creating a unique data set for visualizing outages consistently and analyzing utility behaviors within and across counties. The speaker highlights the release of a historic outage data archive, spanning November 2014 to December 2022, supporting open science and addressing energy justice questions.

Highlights

🗺️ Geolocated energy information platform for electric utility outages.

🔄 Transitioned to an open-source solution for better user customization.

📊 Developed a unique data set for consistent visualization of outages.

🌐 Analyzing utility behaviors within and across counties.

🗄️ Released a historic outage data archive from 2014 to 2022.

🌍 Addressing energy justice questions through pattern analysis.

📆 Main presentation at the FOS4G conference and data availability for specific requests.

#FEDGEODAY #EnergyPlatform #OpenSource #DataVisualization #UtilityOutages #GeoServer #EnergyJustice #ConferenceTalk #DataArchive #OpenScience #GISApplications

NASA's data democratization efforts through the Power project have facilitated the use of satellite and modeling data in decision-making for renewable energy, buildings, sustainable infrastructure, and agroclimatology. The project serves two primary data sets: global surface solar radiation and global surface meteorology, spanning over four decades. Users, such as Joe, Jill, Joshua, Margaret, and Ben, leverage this data for decisions related to cost savings, drone operations, technology implementation, research interventions, and optimal configurations. Overcoming barriers like data accessibility, domain knowledge, and data quality characterization, the project aims to make data available to everyone. The recent modernization has significantly increased data uptake, with 7 million monthly requests and a threefold growth in the last five years.

Highlights

🌐 NASA's Power project empowers global communities with satellite data for decision-making in renewable energy, buildings, infrastructure, and agroclimatology.

📊 Two main data sets, spanning four decades, focus on global surface solar radiation and meteorology, aiding diverse user needs.

🚀 Users like Joe, Jill, Joshua, Margaret, and Ben employ data for decisions ranging from cost savings to optimal configurations.

🌍 Overcoming accessibility barriers, the project promotes data democratization by characterizing data quality and providing domain knowledge.

🔄 Recent modernization has led to a threefold increase in data uptake, with 7 million monthly requests, showcasing the project's impact.

#NASA #DataDemocratization #RenewableEnergy #DecisionMaking #SatelliteData #PowerProject #DataAccessibility #Modernization #GlobalCommunities #TechnologyImplementation #DataQuality

Todd Bacastow presents updates on SpaceNet, a collaboration focused on open-source machine learning for geospatial applications. SpaceNet 8, concluded in August 2022, addressed flooded buildings and roads using pre and post-event imagery, introducing attribution of features. The challenge saw a 1.5x improvement over the baseline, employing techniques like data preprocessing, ensemble neural networks, and rules-based postprocessing. SpaceNet 9, launching in winter, aims to enhance pre-processing techniques, focusing on aligning tie points for optical imagery and SAR data to improve downstream analytics for object identification.

Highlights

🛰️ SpaceNet 8 successfully identified flooded buildings and roads with a 1.5x improvement over the baseline.

🌐 SpaceNet, a collaboration founded in 2016, accelerates open-source machine learning for geospatial applications.

🚀 SpaceNet 9, launching in winter, focuses on advancing pre-processing techniques for optical imagery and SAR data.

🏗️ SpaceNet's four pillars include providing labeled training datasets, running prize challenges, open-sourcing winning algorithms, and publishing evaluation metrics.

🌍 SpaceNet aims to improve data wrangling capabilities, particularly in disaster response scenarios, using computer vision for multisource data alignment.

🏆 Prize challenges contribute to innovation, with winning algorithms and datasets available to the community, fostering continuous improvement.

📈 SpaceNet's evolution spans foundational mapping challenges, progressing from building footprints to more complex tasks like identifying flooded areas.

#SpaceNet #Geospatial #MachineLearning #ComputerVision #DataWrangling #DisasterResponse #PrizeChallenges #SpaceNet8 #SpaceNet9 #OpenSource #SARData #OpticalImagery #TiePoints

Panel: Authoritative Data in the Age of AI

Moderator | Maggie Cawley

Panelist | Dr. Michael Tischler

Panelist | Dr. Will Mortenson

Panelist | Dr. Carter Christopher

Summary

This panel discussion, titled "FEDGEODAY 2023 | Panel: Authoritative Data in the Age of AI," explores the concept of authoritative data in the context of AI. Maggie Cawley, Executive Director of OpenStreetMap US, serves as the moderator. The speakers include Dr. Carter Christopher, Will Mortenson and Mike Tischler. They discuss their agencies' perspectives on authoritativeness, emphasizing fitness for use, trustworthiness, and the evolving definitions of authoritative data

Highlights

🌐 The panel, led by Maggie Cawley

🗺️ Will Mortenson, Deputy Director at NGA, emphasizes the importance of data meeting mission needs, acknowledging that authoritative data can still be incorrect.

🌍 Mike Tischler from the US Geological Survey discusses the definition of authoritativeness, referencing the UN's Council of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management and the evolving separation between official and authoritative data.

🧠 Dr. Carter Christopher from Oak Ridge National Laboratory highlights the responsibility of agencies to communicate data sources, especially when incorporating citizen science and volunteer geographic information.

Video Tags

#FEDGEODAY2023 #AuthoritativeData #AIinGeospatial #OpenStreetMap #GeospatialScience #NationalGeospatialProgram #DataQuality #FitForUse #DataCommunication #USGeologicalSurvey #NGA #OakRidgeNationalLaboratory #DataSources #AIModels #GeospatialIntelligence #DataAccuracy #CitizenScience

Panel: FOSS4G In Federal Agencies 2023

Moderator: Aaron Kelley

Panelist: Amanda Bright

Panelist: Emily Vratarich

Panelist: Nathan Frantz

Panelist: Stephen Mather

FEDGEODAY2023 panel discusses FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) in federal agencies. Panelists include representatives from NGA, Census Bureau, and Open Drone Map, sharing insights on open source geospatial tools.

🌐 Diverse panel: NGA, Census Bureau, and military representatives discuss FOSS4G in federal agencies, offering varied perspectives.

📚 Open Source Benefits: Tac product Center emphasizes open source for access, standardization, and integration across military software products.

🗺 Census Bureau's GUPS: Open source flexibility crucial for modifying software to support participant programs, providing free GIS solutions to partners.

💻 NGA's Approach: Open source allows low-risk experimentation, custom solutions, and community sharing, reducing dependence on proprietary software.

🔄 Continuous Delivery Challenge: NGA faces challenges with GPLv3 license in CI/CD pipelines, exploring government-specific licenses for efficient releases.

Video Tags

#FOSS4G #Geospatial #OpenSource #NGA #CensusBureau #Innovation #GovernmentTech #GIS #MilitarySoftware #OpenDroneMap #GPLv3 #DecisionMaking #DataIntegration