Geomob

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 fills us in on the Belgium OSM community...

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 challenge of long-running projects and plot the path forward.   Many thanks to all the podcast guests over the years, and especially to the listeners...

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 difference across the world...

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 face. The service is thriving with features such as weather routing, and Sascha is looking to add new members to the team. Tune in to find out more...

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 all about the latest projects for Chloe and which celebrity got commissioned her for a custom role play map...

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 program allows you to record your trips automatically without draining battery with constant manual check ins...

Ed and Steven take a break from summer break to chime in on some recent geonews. First up they consider the Overture dataset release, then the discussion turns to whether Apple Maps has improved and/or whether Google Maps has worsened.   Enjoy the break everyone and we hope to see you at Geomob events in September. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This week the spotlight is on the new Executive Director of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), Rebecca Firth. Chatting with Steven, Rebecca recalls how she got involved with HOT, what the volunteer run organisation has achieved, and what you can expect as she moves forward with her new role. The main goal is to map under mapped places in an area home to a billion people across 94 countries...

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is 19 years old! As the global project completes its ‘teen years’, Ed reflects back on the early days along with OSM veteran Andy Allan. Going back to the early days when there were only 20 streets mapped, Ed and Andy discuss what was and what is to come for OSM in the next twenty years. You’ll hear all about the slow but satisfying process or early virtual mapping days...