mapscaping.com: Recent Episodes
mapscaping.com
In this episode I’m joined by Apurva Shah, co-founder and CEO of Duality AI, a company building virtual worlds — or “world models” for robots and physical AI systems. Apurva’s path here is an unusual one. He spent most of his career in animation, first at Pacific Data Images (which later became DreamWorks) and then...
My guest today is Tyler Reid, co-founder and CTO of Xona, a company building the first commercial satellite navigation system. We get into why Tyler and his team are moving satellites into low Earth orbit and what that unlocks. Stronger signals that can penetrate indoors, more resilient timing infrastructure, and better security against jamming and...
Vexcel isn’t a household name — but you’ve almost certainly used their data. This aerial imaging company flies low-elevation aircraft across roughly 45 countries, capturing imagery at 7.5cm resolution from five different angles (straight down plus four oblique views), building one of the richest geospatial datasets on Earth. In this episode, Daniel talks with Steve...
What happens when you take cloud native geospatial out of the satellite-and-petabyte world and drop it into a small city with no budget and the world’s slowest internet connection? In this episode, Daniel talks with Nissim Lebovits, a city planner turned geospatial data scientist, about his nine months in Argentina building climate risk tools for...
Jeffrey Martin is the co-founder and CEO of Mosaic, a company building 360-degree camera systems designed specifically for mapping. He’s been obsessed with 360 imagery for over 20 years — he built one of the first websites combining panoramic images with a map back in 2005, before Google Street View existed, and he holds a...
Open source software runs a huge chunk of the geospatial world — but somebody still has to pay for it. In this episode I sit down with Marco Bernasocchi, creator of QField and CEO of OpenGIS.ch, to dig into the awkward question most open source projects avoid: how do you keep something free and open...
Ian Schuler is the CEO of Development Seed — the team behind a lot of the open source tooling that quietly holds up the geospatial world. He’s been at the helm for over a decade, and in this conversation, we dig into what he calls the great retooling: the idea that cloud-native geospatial is about...
What is Earth observation, really — and why, after fifty years of satellite imagery, is it still not “mainstream”? In this episode, I’m joined by Aravind Ravichandran, founder of TerraWatch, an independent research and advisory firm focused entirely on Earth observation. Aravind writes the TerraWatch newsletter, runs the EO Summit, and spends his time thinking...
Ryan Shields has one of the most interesting careers in geospatial — from remote sensing for conservation in the Caribbean, to disaster response data engineering with FEMA, to his current role turning spatial data into animation assets for Johnny Harris’s YouTube channel at New Press. In this episode, Ryan counts down the 10 tools he’s...
Nadine Alameh is back — former CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium, and now CEO and co-founder of Lunate AI, a six-month-old company sitting right at the messy intersection of geospatial and AI. In this conversation, Nadine breaks down the three types of clients she’s seeing right now: government agencies standing at the edge of...
Telematics Data is Reshaping Our Understanding of Road Networks In this episode MIT Professor Hari Balakrishnan explains how Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is transforming traditional road network analysis by layering dynamic behavioural data onto static map geometries. Telematics data creates “living maps” that go beyond traditional road geometry and attributes. By collecting movement data from...
In this week’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome back Ariel Seidman, founder of HiveMapper. Ariel was my very first podcast guest back in 2019, and HiveMapper has come a long way since then! We explore how HiveMapper has evolved from a drone-based mapping system to a cutting-edge platform collecting street-level data at a global scale....
Tracking elephants in Southern Africa’s Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region, the largest transfrontier conservation area in the world. Lead scientist Robin Naidoo from the World Wildlife Fund-US explains the complex, cross-border collaboration required to understand elephant movements across vast landscapes and the role of GNSS. Connected with Robin https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/robin-naidoo Read more information about this study...
Today’s episode touches on some pretty big topics like Imposter Syndrome, Mentorship, Career Progression, Adaptability and Diversity Today you are going to hear two stories from two very different voices. Two brilliant people who happen to be women in geospatial. Ta Taneka https://www.linkedin.com/in/ta-taneka/ Mary Murphy https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-murphy-12319433/ You can check out the GIS Directions...
In this episode, Marco Bernasconi, co-founder and CEO of OpenGIS.ch, introduces us to QField, an open-source mobile application designed for field data collection in conjunction with QGIS. Marco shares his journey in developing QField and discusses its seamless in integration with QGIS, allowing users to capture, survey, and manage geospatial data on various mobile devices....
Analyst To Engineer This is the story of Priscilla Cole, and what she did when she discovered that her ambitions were bigger than the tools she was using! Connect with Priscilla here! https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscilla-cole-5892549/ Recommended Listening The Way You Talk About Your Skills Is Costing You Money Geospatial Consulting As A Business And Career Mid-Life Career...
In this episode, I’m joined by Konstantine Klemmer, a researcher at Microsoft, to dive deep into the fascinating world of GeoAI. Konstantine introduces us to Satclip, a cutting-edge model that encodes geographic locations based on satellite images. We discuss how Satclip works, the data it uses, and its potential applications, particularly in low-resource settings and...
In this episode, I welcome Jason Gilman, a Principal Software Engineer at Element 84, to explore the exciting world of natural language geocoding. Key Topics Discussed: Introduction to Natural Language Geocoding: Jason explains the concept of natural language geocoding and its significance in converting textual descriptions of locations into precise geographical data. This involves using...
This podcast episode is all about semantic search and using embeddings to analyse text and social media data. Dominik Weckmüller, a researcher at the Technical University of Dresden, talks about his PhD research, where he looks at how to analyze text with geographic references. He explains hyperloglog and embeddings, showing how these methods capture the...
In this episode, we welcome back Lauren Guy, CEO and founder of Asterra, a groundbreaking company using L band and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for commercial purposes. Lauren shares his journey as a geophysicist and discusses the innovative applic...
Cloud-native geospatial, range requests, chucks, COGs and COPCs ... [ insert confusing acronym here ] Sometimes It feels like we need to learn a whole new vocabulary and if you have been doing #geo for a while you might be wondering how much of this...
Mappedin started as a school project and evolved into a leading indoor mapping company, working with malls, airports, hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies. You guessed, today's podcast is all about indoor mapping, why it's hard, what are the use ca...
Hugo, from IMMAP, shares his expert insights on how GIS technologies are leveraged to analyze data, visualize scenarios, and facilitate rapid decision-making during emergencies.Here are the key tools mentioned:1. Kobo Toolbox: An open-source to...
AI Autocomplete for QGISBrendan Ashworth the CTO and co-founder of https://buntinglabs.com/ focuses on integrating AI with QGIS, and today on the podcast we are talking about Autocomplete for vectorization.Along the way Brendan will share with us w...
GNSS receivers - why precise positioning will not be coming to your phone any time soon Igor is the CEO and cofounder of Emlid.com a company that started out making high-precision GNSS receivers in his kitchen and crowd-funded the first batch on Ki...
Refactoring the Way you Talk About your geospatial skills: It is Costing you MoneySome of the key topics in this episode 1.Our Geospatial Skills and Marketability: There's a realization that while our traditional geospatial skills are valuable, the...
Modern geospatial - not the bleeding edge of geospatial but modern geospatial - what is it?Well my guest Will Cadell, the CEO of SparkGeo describes modern geospatial as the intersection of the cloud, smart space, open source data/standards, AI and s...
The main topics discussed during this episode include:Basics of LIDAR data and its applications.Differences between LIDAR and photogrammetry.Processing chain of LIDAR data.Challenges in classifying point clouds.Applications of LIDAR technology i...
Alex Leith is a Digital Earth Architect and in this episode, you will learn what Infrastructure as cloud is - hint it is the opposite of the "clicky-clicky" and so much more!Connect with Alex here https://auspatious.com/ Recommended Listening Cl...
GeeMap is an open-source Python library that provides tools for interactive mapping with Google Earth Engine (GEE), which is a platform for earth science data and analysis ... and today you are going to hear from the creator of GeeMap! Connect with...
GPS reimagined?Why do we need to reimagine GPS? ... Is it broken? Recommended Podcast Episodes How Google Calculates Your Locationhttps://mapscaping.com/podcast/how-google-calculates-your-location/ From GNSS To VPShttps://mapscaping.com/podc...
Nyall Dawson is a QGIS developer, cartographer, and owner and founder of North Road, a company specializing in open-source geospatial software.His journey into geospatial began with personal interests in mapping and cartography, which later evolved ...
This episode is all about making beautiful maps ... I am not a cartographer but my guest Mamata Akella is a professional cartographer at Felt! So today on the podcast we are talking about Essential Elements of Map Design:Which of course starts with...
100 billion Points Every Day 100 billion is a very large number, let's say that I gave you a spreadsheet with 100 billion rows in it, each row consisted of five columns Latitude, Longitude, Device ID, A Timestamp, and a column telling the name of the...
Computer vision is everywhere! But teaching an algorithm to identify objects requires a lot of data and this is definitely the case when we think about GeoAI But it is not enough to have a lot of data we also need data that is labeled If we are loo...
This is an interview with a senior data scientist from Hub Ocean, a platform that aims to unlock and unite ocean data. Hub Ocean - as the name suggests is a hub for ocean data Now we have talked about these kinds of data hubs before on the podcast -...
felt.com is a browser-based mapping tool and but its also a reminder that just because we have always done web mapping one way it doesn’t mean it always has to be done that way. For example, Felt lets you upload anything! That's a bold promise, you ...
Rapid is a free open-source web-based editor for an OpenStreetMap. In the past the focus was on conflating AI-generated datasets with OpenStreetMap data but the future for this editor is conflating authoritative datasets with OpenStreetMap. Humans a...
The promise of digital mapping is to provide a shared and real-time view of the state of the underlying system.
pg_eventserv is a free and open-source component that helps fulfill the promise of real-time event modeling and shared views in ...
You guessed it this episode is all about recruitment! Who is this episode for? Well if you have a career in geospatial … it's for you! Getting the job you want, changing your career path, or deciding whether to work at a start-up or a more establi...
How do we get data from a satellite down to Earth? How do we task a satellite? Today the answer is likely to be via radios and a system of downlink sites or ground stations. As the satellites pass overhead or within “line of sight” data can be sent ...
There is a general understanding that it is becoming increasingly difficult to extract meaning from all the data we are collecting without using AI. But what is AI, and how did we end up in a situation where it is identifying wolves from dogs base...
PYGEOAPI is a Python server implementation of the OGC API suite of standards ... which might be really useful if you are thinking about upgrading from the first-generation OGC standards to the second-generation OGC standards ... or if need to implem...
So why would anyone want to put alot of data into a browser? Well, for a lot of the same reasons that edge computing and distributed computing have become so popular.You get the data a lot closer to the user and you don’t have to pay for the compute...
Sounds like a great idea right? In this episode, Paul Ramsey explains why you shouldn't ... unless you want to ... and how you can ... if you have to. You can find Paul's blog here: http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/about Previous episodes with Pau...
I am sure you have heard of ChatGPT by now so the hope of this episode is to give you some more context about what is it built on and how it works. To do that I invited Daniel Whitneck back on the podcast You can connect with Daniel herehttps://d...
A knowledge graph is a network of relationships between real work entities and in this episode, you will learn how and why knowledge graphs might be a better choice than spatial joins! Further listening!The H3 Indexing Systemhttps://mapscaping.c...
Computer vision is a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables computers and systems to derive meaningful information from digital images. You might think that this is exactly what we are doing in earth observation but there are a few imp...
Data is what data does - more about that later on ;) This episode focuses on designing for privacy, how do we create value from location data without sacrificing personal privacy? Well, you might start by adhering to the Enhanced Standards For Pre...
When comparing multispectral and hyperspectral data it is not simply a case of “more data more better”! With hyperspectral you have “The curse of Dimensionality” but you also get more flexibility to pick exactly what bands you want to use!With mult...
This week we are going to learn how Foursquare is trying to identify and map locate all of the places in the world! Foursquare uses a mixture of crowd souring and data conflation to maintain a database of 205 million places ... and it's not easy!Ea...
Protomaps is a serverless system for planet-scale maps, it's an umbrella project consisting of a few different components one of which is PMtiles.PMtiles is “Cloud Optimise Geotiff” for web mapping, what this means is that you can build a base map a...
Storytelling with point clouds This is not your typical point clouds episode! Today we are talking about how to use point clouds to tell a story. During this episode, you will hear Benjamin Muller talk about using a point cloud to make a film about...
You are about to meet Peter Spencer, a Freelance Archaeologist, Surveyor, and Geomatics SpecialistYou are also about to learn how geospatial tech and techniques are being applied in the field of archaeology at an object scale with laser scanning tha...
Warning! this podcast episode is not as boring as it sounds! While geospatial standards are boring on purpose ... this episode is not .-If you woke up this morning wanting to listen to a boring podcast episode about geospatial standards this is no...
It sounds like a clickbait title, right? And to be fair I am trying to capture your attention but this is not clickbait in the sense that the title makes a promise that the episode lives up to! This is not a “get-rich-quick-scheme” its a story about...
Distributing Geospatial Data - Every wondered why you might what to do this? Or maybe you understand the why but are unsure about the how? Perhaps you have heard people talk about partitioning data or sharding data, you might have heard some of thes...
So you might be wondering why the United Nations World Food Programme needs a geospatial support unit. Let me give you a brief overview, Basically, they curate and maintain global datasets that they use to model the risk of sudden-onset disasters ...
Personally, I don't feel like aerial imagery gets the attention it deserves! So I invited Micheal Bewley - Senior Director of AI Systems at Nearmap back on the podcast to help bring us up to speed on the state of the art of capturing, processing, and...
This episode covers a wide range of topics from the role of geospatial in systems thinking - representing natural systems in location systems and how we can apply the technology behind virtual worlds to the real world.During this conversation, it be...
My guest on the show today is Mike. Today Mike is the founder of a software startup called ChroneChards, but he started as a cartographer for an adventure race and Patagonia.So he has come a long way.A couple of other really interesting points abou...
If 80% of all data has a spatial component why do we need to approach mature and emerging markets differently? With everyone racing to democratize location technology why is GIS still a valuable skill? What are consultancies looking for when they h...
FROM THE ARCHIVE! Calculating the location of your mobile device ( the blue dot ) is not as straightforward as you might imagine. It involves databases of wifi hotspots, 3D city models, IMU's, GNSS, your proximity to cell towers, and maybe somethin...
Tropical forests are large sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, due to deforestation. They could instead be a big part of the climate solution. Through Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative (NICFI), users can now access high-reso...
Cloud Optimized Point Clouds ( COPC) allow you to stream point cloud data! Cloud Optimized Geotiffs made raster data streamable and now its time for Point Clouds to be just as accessible! https://weeklyosm.eu/ weeklyOSM updates the community, on...
We cover a lot of ground in this episode but some of the key takes are: A key difference between visualizing non-spatial data and spatial data is that non-spatial data gives you the freedom to choose the locations of different objects. Design is not a...
For some time, there was hype around AI and data science and that they would solve all of our problems.If you think AI solves every problem, then you’re overestimating its utility and where we’re at.However, on the other side, if you’re a business of a...
This is a story about a peer-to-peer mapping technology that is enabling people to "fight maps with maps" https://www.digital-democracy.org/ You can find Mapeo here https://www.digital-democracy.org/mapeo/ Promoting OSM projects
OpenCage and Mapscap...
Applications of thermal imaging from space include monitoring wildfires, urban heat islands, economic activity, and the built environment. But it's not easy ;) Connect with Robin Cole at https://robmarkcole.com/ Check out the Earth Observation Hub!...
Republishing this episode because of the audio issues with the original episode! Mergin Maps lets you create QGIS projects that can be used to collect and edit data in the field. You see updates in near real-time, even from the field. Works offline. ...
I have to break my promise to you in the short term in order to keep it in the long term. Podcast recommendations Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin - an episode called Ignore sunk costs Hidden Brain How I Built This With Guy Raz - Planet: Will Mars...
Aerial collection of data from smart meters. In this episode, we discuss why this is better than mesh networks, and other ground collection options and also look at the limitations of drones in terms of data collection platforms. Join the email list f...
This episode is the last episode for 2019 and I wanted to do something a little different so this episode is a look back at some of the trends that I have seen in the geospatial industry of the course of the last year. I also mention a few of the initiat...
Location intelligence is crucial to managing risk. WatchKeeper International is using real time data feeds from a variety of different sources to monitor and mitigate risk and location is the thing that gives context to the data. In this interview, I tal...
Fishviews is the Google Street View for rivers. The creators believe that the ability to virtually explore river environments is going to fundamentally change the way we understand waterways. The idea being that 360 immersive experiences will give people...
I thought I would take the time to share my background with you, how I became involved in the geospatial industry and share I few things that I have learned from conducting interviews with people in the industry. I also have a few housekeeping messages I...
Flightradar24 is a global flight tracking service that provides real-time information for over 180,000 flights a day. It's based on a largely terrestrial network of over 20,000 ADS-B receivers. Flightradar started as a side project in 2006 and now has ov...
If GPS can be spoofed, how can we prove that you are where you say you are? XYO is solving this problem by building a network that of devices that independently verify the locations of other devices participating in the network. By building this network ...