Beyond GIS: Recent Episodes
Kurt Janssen
In this show, we’re going to break down ideas and concepts related to GIS, geospatial, and digital geography to help you drive innovation, deliver on strategic initiatives, and enhance all aspects of your organisation.
We’re going to talk about the role of geospatial in digital transformation, developments and opportunities in geospatial, and abolishing silos for better collaboration, transparency, and visibility. And show you the importance of pioneering geospatial democracy.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Santosh about the open source vs proprietary data landscape in the geospatial world.
Topics include:
- The value of Open Source, including flexibility and scalability, without the constraints
- How AI and machine learning are tilting the scales in favour of Open Source
- Commercial implications and understanding the true cost of Open Source
- The future of geospatial technology and AI
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Santosh on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Peter Rose, head of Orbica’s European operations, about the synergy of geospatial and AI.
Topics include:
- The crucial roles of Geospatial and AI for the future of businesses and governments
- The challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in Europe
- Overcoming the fallacy of sunk cost to embrace innovation and growth
- How real-time data and smart cities are changing the future of urban planning
- The global impact of Geo-AI and the importance of cross-border collaboration in overcoming the challenges of our time
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Peter on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Orbica’s own AI Data Specialist Sagar Soni about the role of AI in technology development.
Topics include:
- Understanding the realm of Geo-AI, including realistic expectations and potential challenges
- How modern platforms enable real-time decision making and faster realisation of ROI
- The Segment Anything Model and it’s uses and benefits
- The potential of customised large language models
- Earth observation with SAR
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Sagar on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Peter Rose, co-founder and head of Orbica’s European operations, about the unique opportunities and challenges of bringing the Orbica platform to the European market.
Topics include:
- An overview of the European marketplace for geospatial technology, including its unique needs based on its vast geographic footprint
- Real world applications of geospatial data, including its utility in addressing water risks, energy shifts, climate implications, and streamlining supply chains.
- How relevant geospatial insights can mend political rifts, clarify cross-border EU issues, and illuminate the ripple effects of regional decisions.
- Why overcoming access barriers and championing data democratisation are crucial, with open-source paving the way for universal geospatial utility.
- How Orbica in leveraging the latest technologies to help innovative businesses stay ahead of the curve.
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Peter on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Orbica’s head of technology, Santosh, about the unique capabilities of Orbica’s geospatial platform, and what it can do for the CEO/CXO/CIO of data-driven organisations.
Topics include:
- How the platform helps leaders unlock greater team productivity, streamline tools and processes, and eliminate bottlenecks in a world where hybrid and remote working is the new norm
- The strong focus on enabling each team member to bring their specialised tools into a unified platform, fostering seamless collaboration on projects, regardless of their location
- How the cloud-native nature of the platform enables business leaders to maximise the productivity of their mobile workforce
- The business value of successfully implementing seamless, cross-functional, end-to-end workflows and management
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website.
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Santosh on LinkedIn.
Our dream team is back for yet another round table discussion, and today they’ll be focusing on how flexible frameworks can help teams adapt and innovate.
Topics include:
- The limitations of traditional infrastructure management for projects, including scalability issues and data migration challenges during demand surges.
- The impact of agile development in promoting a flexible approach to project development, emphasising experimentation and adaptability.
- The controversy around removing tech jargon and providing flexibility for developers, and why this is essential for improving tool accessibility.
- The common inadequacies in data management within organisations, contributing to decision-making inconsistencies and confusion.
- The benefits of transitioning from a process-driven output to a question-driven one, the role of flexible frameworks in fostering innovation and collaboration, and the importance of upskilling across the value chain in line with modern problem-solving approaches.
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Santosh on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt and Santosh chat about how bringing GIS into the cloud can help you abolish many of the pesky issues organisations face when wrestling with their old-school GIS solutions.
Topics include:
- The role of cloud-native GIS in managing and analysing the increasing volume and pace of geospatial data, overcoming local machine bottlenecks.
- The importance of cloud technologies for geospatial analytics and data management, considering users' growing expectations for data quality on par with services like Google Maps.
- The elasticity of cloud-native GIS for scaling processes during events when time is more valuable than cost.
- The influence of cloud-native GIS on emergency responses and user-customised report delivery intervals
- The capability of cloud technology in fostering collaboration among geospatial developers and scientists, promoting remote work, and breaking traditional organisational silos.
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Santosh on LinkedIn.
Beyond GIS brings you another round table discussion with Kurt Janssen, Kurt Joy, and Santosh Seshadri from Orbica.
This time, they chat about the unspoken cost of isolation, and how working in a silo stifles innovation and growth.
Topics include:
- How silos limit personal and organisational growth and hinder problem-solving and innovation
- The impact and compromise of prioritising results over the development process
- The crucial role of collaboration in addressing challenges faced by organisations and the world at large
- The potential limitations of relying on the wrong tools and how that can hinder growth and innovation
- How standardisation and cloud computing can facilitate collaborative development and innovation within organisations
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Santosh on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt shares his personal Orbica founder story, and unpacks his mission of revolutionising the field of GIS with AI and the Cloud.
Topics include:
- The vision behind Orbica, and how it evolved from a boutique geospatial consultancy into a disruptive force on the geospatial PaaS market
- How Orbica fully embraces modern technologies like the Cloud and AI to revolutionise geospatial workflows
- Orbica's journey towards building a scalable, cloud-first geospatial platform, and the design principles that radically set it apart from other solutions on the market.
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Orbica’s own AI Data Specialist Sagar Soni about the opportunities and limitations of GeoAI.
Topics include:
- The transformational potential of GeoAI in disaster management and spatial data analysis, achieved through the fusion of geospatial technology and AI.
- How the accuracy of AI models hinges significantly on the quality of training data, and how it can benefit from human involvement and expertise.
- The importance of ground validation in mitigating potential biases inherent in AI models due to their training datasets.
- The superior value of temporal trends in GeoAI models compared to pixel-perfect accuracy for extracting meaningful insights over time.
- Strategies for enhancing output quality, such as integrating AI into specialised databases, using cloud post-processing techniques, and exploiting unique features of vector datasets, even with minimal training data.
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Sagar on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt discusses how you can revolutionise your data strategy by leveraging the agility and scalability of cloud native GIS.
Topics include:
- How moving your data and tech to the cloud enables you to effectively scale your operations, manage costs, and increase collaboration
- The unseen benefits of the cloud transformation, including an increased focus on engaging with your customers and solving problems
- The power of cloud-based elasticity for project-based workloads, allowing you to scale resources as needed for cost savings & time efficiency
- How to approach staged cloud transformation in your organisation instead of seeing it as an "all or nothing" move
- How cloud transformation can help you reallocate resources from maintenance to meaningful tasks that add value to your business and customers
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt and Santosh give you a look under the hood as they discuss the Orbica journey and why democratising access to geospatial is the way forward.
Topics include:
- The story behind Orbica's geospatial platform development journey
- How Orbica selects foundational customers and partners to collaboratively shape their innovative platform
- The advantages of a cloud-native geospatial platform, such as scalability, cost efficiency, interoperability, easy collaboration and centralized access
- How the cloud-native platform automatically handles migrations, maintenance, and support, which frees up users to focus on their work
- The concealed complexities and hidden total cost of ownership for traditional geospatial systems, and how Orbica is revolutionizing the industry.
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt or Santosh on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Kurt discusses the importance of data storytelling and how it broadly impacts your business success.
Topics include:
- How geospatial insights have intriguing stories to tell that can help businesses navigate modern challenges
- The importance of data storytelling for sustainable behaviour change, e.g., by making climate change narratives more relatable
- The benefits of visualisation and data-driven approaches for making complex data accessible to stakeholders and decision makers
- Real-world applications of geospatial data storytelling, including resource allocation and decision-support in sectors like healthcare and urban planning
- How data storytelling can help us understand megatrends like urbanisation and support strategic planning in these areas
And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt on LinkedIn.
In this episode, Orbica’s two Kurts, Kurt Janssen and Dr. Kurt Joy discuss the advancements in earth observation and what that means for the geospatial field.
Topics include:
- How small, low-cost satellites open up new realms of opportunity
- The repercussions of analysis after the fact (versus real time)
- How to leverage freely available Landsat and Sentinel satellite data
- How SAR data can be a game changer for various industries
- The importance of geospatial along the business value chain
- And more!
Enjoy the show!
To learn more about what Geospatial can do for your business, visit our website www.orbica.com
Feel free to reach out via the website, or connect with Kurt on LinkedIn.
In this episode of Beyond GIS, Kurt discusses how to move up through the DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) Pyramid through collaboration and democratization of geospatial.
The importance of giving ‘geospatial’ a seat at the table from the get-go of a project, risks of bringing it in too late, feedback loops, what democratization looks like and why it matters, through to how to achieve a flywheel effect of the DIKW pyramid… these are just some of the points Kurt touches on in this episode.
What tools, methodologies, and processes do you need in your organisation to build that solid base of the pyramid? And how to move up from there? Tune in to get your head around this topic.
In this episode of Beyond GIS, Kurt Janssen talks with Gareth Levens, Head of Ops at Orbica, about risk management, project governance and getting value landed inside organisations.
They delve into the company philosophy and common ethos that guides their vision, what makes a great Orbican, and how they’ve shaped their processes to create wow-moment-worthy customer experiences.
Cloud transformation plays a pivotal role in streamlining governance, managing risk, and fostering long-term relationships with their clients. Catch the full story here and be inspired.
Many organisations suffer technology blindspots that impact reliable decision making.
Because the wrong systems and processes can leave you exposed to gaps in knowledge, rework and confusion, and even detrimental security issues.
In this episode, Kurt discusses 4 common technology blindspots that data-driven organisations need to look out for in order to make critical decisions in a changing world.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com Enjoy the show!
Beyond GIS brings you the first round table discussion with Kurt Janssen, Kurt Joy and Santosh Seshadri from Orbica.
They delve into topics like the critical role of risk management, particularly in the context of emergency management and disaster response and recovery.
In the wake of the recent cyclone Gabrielle, which wreaked havoc on the North Island of New Zealand, Kurt and his colleagues discuss the importance of effective data management and sharing.
New technologies are paving the way for better practices, but a lot is yet to be done. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion that sheds light on the topic from various angles.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com Enjoy the show!
Big data exists, but it'd not a badge of honour! What matters is what you're doing with your big data.
Whether you're using it to drive business decisions and move the needle in your organisation.
Because data is useless unless we do something with it.
In this episode, Kurt discusses the risks and opportunities of big data, and how we can leverage it more effectively to help make critical decisions in a changing world.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com
Enjoy the show!
Tech silos and poor visibility on IT are core elements of risk in any organisation.
Poor internal collaboration can jeopardise your ability to deliver on your organisation's strategic initiatives and the expectations of your customers.
In this episode, Kurt outlines the top 5 risks associated with poor visibility on tech and looks at ways to foster better internal collaboration.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com
Enjoy the show!
Is your organisation held to ransom by geospatial silos?
If so, it could be having a detrimental impact on your organisation.
In this episode, Kurt discusses what causes geospatial silos within an organisation and how that negatively impacts your team and puts your wider organisation at risk.
He also unpacks possible solutions, and outlines the many benefits of democratising GIS.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com
Enjoy the show!
Leveraging geospatial data is the key to unlocking real business value, yet most organisations aren't making the most of their data assets.
Because the typical GIS stack hasn't kept pace with our modern requirements.
In this episode, Kurt chats to Orbica's innovation lead Santosh Seshadri about the current state of Geospatial in 2023 and what the future could look like.
They touch on the role of geospatial in driving crucial decisions, current issues facing the geospatial value chain, and the importance of pioneering geospatial democracy to ensure a sustainable future for the people and planet.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com
Enjoy the show!
Data is the lifeblood of most organisations, but many aren't leveraging their data to its full potential.
Especially not in the age of mega data, where we're stockpiling data at an unprecedented rate.
In this episode Kurt discusses how we need to shift our focus from the data itself to the technology and people responsible for analysing and making sense of the data if we want to use it to drive value and make critical decisions in a changing world.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com
Enjoy the show!
Over the last two decades, GIS has undergone an evolution.
What started off as s set of technical tools and methods, has seen increasing democratisation as the public began to leverage digital maps and Geospatial APIs.
But that's not enough to meet the demands of our rapidly changing world.
In the face of mega data, and other worldwide trends, we need to broadly democratise geospatial tools, techniques, and software.
Which means moving away from GIS and towards Digital Geography.
Because geography is pervasive in everyone's lives.
In this episode, Kurt breaks down the evolution from GIS to Geospatial, to Digital Geography, and explain how everything in our lives is impacted by Digital Geography, whether we realise it or not.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Kurt on LinkedIn under Kurt Janssen, or contact us via our website www.orbica.com
Enjoy the show!