Minds Behind Maps

Dan Hammer co-founded & build the first few versions of Global Forest Watch, and is now working on Earthrise Media, a non-profit that brings data scientists, designers and storytellers together to tackle global environmental challenges.

We talk about how Global Forest Watch was built, how journalists have leveraged the platform to tell stories and how it lived on until today. We also touch on the importance of design in addition to data science, and the power of telling stories.

Dan Hammer

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• Twitter

Show notes:

• Global Plastic Watch
• Global Forest Watch
• Earthrise Media
• SpaceKnow
• Apollo 8 Earthrise image
• Frank Borman Apollo 8 Wikipedia article
• Pew Research survey: 2018 public survey on NASA Priorities
• Captain Fantastic

Time stamps:

• 03:00 - Conversation starts, Dan presents himself
• 08:30 - The tools behind monitoring deforesting back in 2009
• 12:00 - How Global Forest Watch 2.0 started
• 18:45 : Why Global Forest Watch continued on
• 25:40 - Collaborating with journalists
• 29:50 - An example of leveraging Earth Observation data for policy making : Global Plastic Watch
• 31:00 - Having an impact
• 38:50 - Precision vs Accuracy
• 45:45 - Earthrise Media: Design, Data science & story telling
• 51:35 - The importance of Design
• 56:50 - Dealing with & communicating uncertainty
• 1:02:00 - Non-profit or for-profit?
• 1:08:10 - Building a team
• 1:10:20 - Origin of the name "Earthrise" & Inspiration through space
• 1:21:15 - Book / Media Recommendation

Please feel free to reach out!

• My Twitter
• For news about the podcast
• Reach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.com