In this episode we introduce new co-host Alastair Graham, who wil take the lead on all things Earth Observation here on the Geomob podcast! Long-time geospatial podcast listeners will of course recognize Alastair from the Scene From Above podcast which he co-hosted for several years. We are delighted to add his experience and insights to the show. …

Recent Geomob Berlin speaker and avid cyclist Dave Whittingham discusses his project Kreuzungen, a service that allows users to upload their GPX tracks and find out which rivers they have crossed. The project started as a fun idea and has now gained popularity amongst Strava users. Dave highlights the importance of open data and open-source tools i…

Shoaib Burq, the founder of GeoBase, discusses his background in geospatial and the development of GeoBase, a geospatial backend as a service. GeoBase aims to provide developers with a powerful and easy-to-use platform for building geospatial applications. The product handles data storage, querying, and other backend services, allowing developers t…

Phil Cooper, an expert in remote sensing and geospatial data, joins the show to discuss Amazon's cloud services and their impact on the space and satellite sector. He explains the launch of Amazon Location Services, which offers mapping and geospatial capabilities tailored for B2B use cases. Phil also highlights the increasing importance of remote …

Today's conversation is wide-ranging - taking us through the British electoral system, the distortion of electoral maps, the use of drones in agriculture, the importance of green spaces in cities, and statistical modeling in spatial contexts. The diversity of topics comes about due to our recap of the biggest week days in Geomob history with events…

Lukas Hort, a game designer at Hamburg-based Pipapo Games, discusses their game Map Map, which is all about cartography and mapping. The game involves exploring islands, marking locations on a map, and finding clues to a legendary lost treasure. The target audience includes map fans and cozy gamers who enjoy relaxing gameplay. The game is still in …

Steven and Ed discuss #geoweirdness, a series of content "threads" that OpenCage creates on mastodon to engage with their audience and promote their geocoding API. They talk about the challenges of marketing a geocoding API and the need to create content that is interesting and shareable. They discuss the different types of threads, including count…

Ed chats with Steve McLeod, the founder of Feature Upvote, a service that allows customers to suggest and upvote ideas for products. At the recent Geomob Barcelona and Berlin events we used the service to vote for best speaker at Geomob events. They also explore the challenges of gathering feedback, distinguishing between different types of feedbac…

Our conversation covers two recent Geomob events, one in Barcelona and the other in Berlin, with discussions on the talks, speakers, and audience feedback. We then delve into the Amazon geospatial event in London, the new voting system, upcoming Geomob events, and the challenges of managing sponsors. Finally we salute Geomob sponsor Ed Parsons on r…

Gala Camacho, organizer of Geomob Edinburgh, joins Ed on the podcast to discuss her experience organizing the event and provide advice for others interested in starting GeoMob in their cities. The first event in Edinburgh was a success, with a diverse range of talks covering technical, artistic, and business topics. Gala emphasizes the importance o…

Sanna Jokela, CEO of Gispo, joins us to discuss a project the company did with UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning, and which was presented at the most recent Geomob Finland in Turku. The project focused on using rainfall data to find optimal school hours in sub-Saharan Africa. Gispo specializes in open source geospatial tools…

James Morrison, head pilot and UAS ("Unmanned Aircraft System") lead at Ordnance Survey, discusses the use of drones in mapping and surveying. He shares examples of how drones were used to quickly assess landslips and update mapping in the Isle of Wight, as well as capture data for residential housing developments. James explains the different type…

Robin Wilson, maker of the British Placename Mapper, discusses his project and the power and joy of digital geography. The web app allows users to search and explore British place names, revealing fascinating patterns and historical trends. Robin built the tool for fun during a period of free time and was pleasantly surprised by its viral success o…

Giuseppe Sollazzo, an open data expert and one of the organizers of Open Data Camp 9, returns to the podcast to discusses the upcoming event and the state of open data. Open Data Camp 9 will take place on July 6th and 7th in Manchester, and is a community event that brings together people interested in data from various angles, including data activ…

Carston Hernke, the founder of Honeycomb Maps, and recent Geomob Berlin speaker, shares his journey of building a geospatial data analysis tool using WebAssembly. He discusses the frustration of building geospatial applications that don't meet user needs and the aha moment of discovering the concept of direct manipulation. Carston explains how WebA…

In this week's conversation Ed and Steven recap the recent Geomob London event, including discussing the best speaker contest and potential improvements to the voting process. They mull how to best celebrate the 20th anniversary of OpenStreetMap's founding. Finally the discussion turns to recent developments on their respective projects, including …

Steven is joined by old friend Sean Wiid to discuss UP42, a geospatial marketplace and platform that connects users with commercial geospatial data sources and processing algorithms. Sean shares his journey in the geospatial industry and explains how UP42 aims to address the complexity and fragmentation in the Earth observation and geospatial indus…

In this episode Ed interviews Octavio Herrera, the founder of recently-launched AddressHub, an address intelligence API for parcel delivery companies. Octavio discusses the importance of address data and the challenges associated with it. He highlights common mistakes in address data, such as abbreviations, inconsistent formatting, and assumptions …

Nigel Edmead, of enumanation, joins Steven to discuss the importance of teaching geospatial professionals how to articulate the business benefits of their work. He explains that geospatial professionals need business skills to compete for investment resources and secure funding for geospatial projects. Nigel highlights the need for soft skills, suc…

Ed is joined by recent Geomob London speaker James Milner who discusses Terra Draw, a cross-platform, open source map editing tool. He explains the inspiration behind Terra Draw and its use cases, highlighting its differentiation from other mapping tools. James shares the current status of the project and future plans, as well as the open-source na…

Steven's guest this week is Jorge Sanz. They discuss the evolution of open source in the geospatial industry, particularly around the role of larger tech companies like Carto, where Jorge previously worked, and Elastic, where he now works. They delve into the capabilities of Elasticsearch and its use in geospatial applications. The conversation tou…

Ed Freyfogle interviews Jake Cracknell, co-founder and CTO of doorways.ai, a company focused on geocoding and routing for the delivery use case. They discuss the frustration of navigating the last 100 meters of a delivery and the need for efficient routing and parking solutions. Jake explains how doorways.ai provides navigable geocoding, doorway ge…

Max Lenormand returns to the podcast, this time to join Steven in discussing the emergence of generative AI and its applications in the geospatial field. Max explores the challenges and opportunities of using generative AI in geospatial data analysis and mapping. The conversation delves into the importance of trust and accuracy in geospatial data, …

Ed and Steven announce the first ever Geomob Edinburgh (March 26th) and recap recent Geomob events in London, Barcelona, and Berlin. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.By Ed Freyfogle

Old friend Thierry Gregorius, an executive coach and founder of True Horizon Coaching - and occasional London geomobster - discusses his journey from the geospatial industry to coaching. He highlights the transferable skills developed within the geospatial industry and the challenges faced by professionals transitioning in and out of the industry. …

Ed and Patrick Ribeiro discuss explorer.land, a map-based storytelling and transparency tool for nature-based projects related to climate change. The platform allows organizations to showcase their projects on a map, providing transparency and accountability to stakeholders. It offers features such as aerial imagery, thematic layers, and real-time …

Steven interviews Ana Lucia González Paz, a senior journalist in visual journalism with the BBC World Service. They discuss the role of visual journalism in a radio program, the importance of maps in storytelling, and the personal connection between maps and memories. Ana Lucia shares her inspiration for creating A Map Inside, a flip book that expl…

In this episode Neelima Mohanty and Pragya Pant share their experiences as young women in the geospatial industry and the impact of mentorship on their careers. They discuss the challenges they face as women in a male-dominated field and the importance of equal opportunities. Nalima talks about her internships and the practical experience she gaine…

Ed and Steven catch up on their holiday experiences, their projects, and look forward to this week's Geomob London event. They discuss the growing financial challenges of running Geomob and explore potential sponsorship ideas to cover the rising costs. One idea is to offer a 'buy one, get one free' sponsorship package, where sponsors support both t…

Joining Ed this week is data expert Auren Hoffman. Auren is the founder of SafeGraph, a geospatial company that aggregates geospatial data from multiple sources and sell it to a diverse list of clients. Listen in as Auren explains where the data comes from, how it is used, and the issues around accuracy. They also discuss the business of places dat…

In this episode, Steven and Ed discuss their favorite tools and workflows for daily tasks. They cover clipboard management tools like Clip Menu and Clipy, the differences between browser-based and local installations, the use of password managers like OnePassword and LastPass, the power of the Perl programming language, and the convenience of QGIS …

We start off 2024 with a new series focussing on the humanitarian use of GIS and partnering with MapAction, the humanitarian mapping charity and volunteer driven organisation that works with local and regional disaster management agencies worldwide. Joining Steven are Renee Babb, Lavern Ryan, and Alan Mills. The focus of the discussion is the Carib…

Once again we convene the Geomob expert panel to look back on 2023 and make predictions for 2024. Join Steven, Ed and the geo-elves: Ken Field, Mark Iliffe, Jeremy Morley, Ed Parsons Denise McKenzie, and Alex Wrottesley for our extra-long holiday special. We wish all of our listeners a restful holiday break and a geotastic 2024! Show notes on the G…

You'll want to take a look at these photos before you listen to this episode. Joining Steven this week is anthropologist and humanist Angel Arenas, the creator of Giant Interactive Maps that promote different territories in a gamified way. These huge outdoor maps are placed in public spaces and walked on by hundreds of people at a time. However, th…

Simon Poole returns to Geomob this week for a deeper look at building an OpenStreetMap editor. Having spent the last ten years working on Vespucci, an OSM editor for Android phones, Simon is well versed in OSM editor innovation. Editors have come a long way since OSM started. The main difference is that everyone now has a mobile device, and for som…

Steven and Ed wrap up the year (though don't worry, our traditonal Christmas Chaos episode is coming!) by running through their various projects. Ed is proud to continue OpenCage's long-running, end-of-year tradition of donating to HOT, while Steven calls for submissions for Mappery's "12 days of Christmas" (while also bragging about now being the …

The topic this week is "vehicle video analysis" as Jorit Schmelzle - a recent speaker at Geomob Berlin - joins Ed to talk about his company: Peregrin. Using various devices such as dash cams or smartphones, Peregrin collects visual data for real time interventions as well as later use. Primarily used by professional driver fleets, the data helps to…

Geomob welcomes back Marco Bernasocchi this week for a close look at QField. With a full QGIS core QField has a user interface that is made for amateur users. Digitising and taking care of mobile data so that you can do what you need to do "in the field" with all the data available to you anywhere you are. There is now also a QField Cloud that sync…

There are many services that focus on transporting people by cars, but on this episode of the Geomob podcast, we flip things around and learn about an on-demand service where people transport cars. Our guest today is Miika Sikala, winner of the best speaker prize at last week's Geomob Finland and research director at Biila, where they solve the com…

Another Steven and Ed catchup. After briefly recapping the Lisbon event, Ed rants a bit about Wise's recent decision to change OpenCage's bank account number on very minimal notice. But then the discussion turns to What3Words, a company many in the georati love to hate. Our hosts recount a recent experiment in which Chris Sheldrick (What3Words co-f…

Come for the geo-merch, stay for the e-textiles! If you’re a frequent Geomob London attendee you will be familiar with this weeks’ guest David Overton, co-founder of SplashMaps, sponsor of our best speaker prize. David has been on the podcast before to introduce us to SplashMaps. Since then, the business has grown and the use cases for SplashMaps h…

This week's episode focuses on open tech, diversity, and inclusion as Petya Kangalova joins Steven. Petya is an Open Tech Advocate and works in Community Engagement at HOTOSM. Proving that you don’t need to have a degree in tech to make an impact, Petya explains there are many ways of getting involved even if you’re new to tech or mapping. Steven a…

Joining Ed this week is Hannah Babineau from Data Appeal. Hannah explains how Data Appeal is processing and organising geospatial data for brands to use in marketing campaigns. Listen in as she explains the process of sorting through the vast amount of data and making it useful for clients such as Best Western and the Campari Group. Simplifying and…

The European OpenStreetMap (OSM) community is having its biggest meeting - State of the Map Europe - next month in Antwerp, from November 10-12th, so Ed catches up with one of the organizers: Ben Abelshausen. Ben is not new to State of the Map, he has been a part of the OSM community for over 15 years and has organised State of the Map before. Ben …

Steven shares his impressions from FOSS4G UK Local, and then Ed and Steven look back on recent Geomob events in London and Barcelona. We hope you can join us at an in-person Geomob in the near future. 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 reflect on achieving the milestone of 200 episodes. They are joined by fellow geospatial podcaster Maxime Lenormand to discuss the challenge of endurance. As the saying goes: "Building is easy, maintaining is hard", a truism that particularly applies to the work of geospatial: the world never stops changing. Join us as discuss the cha…

This week Steven chats with a special guest about the non-profit mapping organization PLACE. Denise McKenzie is a veteran in the geospatial community with over 20 years experience in the field. She returns to the podcast for the third time to explain why mapping data is so important in the modern digital ecosystem and how this startup is making a d…

Do you like travelling off the beaten path? Joining Ed this week is Sascha Klement of Bareways. Offering a different approach to navigation, Bareways provides a highly customisable routing service. Find out how the service works, what they are doing differently than Google and other major players, and what technical challenges Bareways' creators fa…

This week's guest warrants an immediate visit to her website so you can look at the maps while you listen. Joining Steven is fantasy book, role play game, and computer game cartographer Chloe Bolland. A physicist by trade, Chloe explains how in her spare time she is able to combine her love of maps and games into a fun side hustle. Tune in to learn…

Ed welcomes a distinguished Geomob speaker to the podcast this week. Tim Fernando has won best speaker at Geomob London twice. One of those talks was about his travel journal service Esplorio. Esplorio is an app for those who don’t want to share their journeys with the entire internet universe, but still want to document and share with a few. The p…