A podcast for geospatial people. Weekly episodes that focus on the tech, trends, tools, and stories from the geospatial world. Interviews with the people that are shaping the future of GIS, geospatial as well as practitioners working in the geo industry.
This is a podcast for the GIS and geospatial community subscribe or visit https://mapscaping.com to learn more
Last refreshed: ⓘ
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
How can you accurately aggregate and compare point-based data from different parts of the world? When analyzing crime rates, population, or environmental factors, how do you divide the entire globe into equal, comparable units for analysis? For data scientists and geospatial analysts, these are fundamental challenges. The solution lies in a powerful class of tools called Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS). These systems provide a consistent framework for partitioning the Earth's surface into a ...
The Open-Source Conundrum Many successful open-source projects begin with passion, but the path from a community-driven tool to a sustainable business is often a trap. The most common route—relying on high-value consulting contracts—can paradoxically lead to operational chaos. Instead of a "feast or famine" cycle, many companies find themselves with more than enough work, but this success comes at a cost: a fragmented codebase, an exhausted team, and a growing disconnect from the core open-sourc...
Open-source software is often described as "free," a cornerstone of the modern digital world available for anyone to download, use, and modify. But this perception of "free" masks a growing and invisible cost—not one paid in dollars, but in the finite attention, time, and mounting pressure placed on the volunteer and community maintainers. This hidden tax is most acute when it comes to security. Jody from Geocat, a long-time contributor to the popular GeoServer project, pulled back the curtain o...
What if communities could map their own worlds using low-cost drones and open AI models instead of waiting for expensive satellite imagery? In this episode with Leen from HOT ( Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team) , we explore how they're putting open mapping tools directly into communities' hands—from $500 drones that fly in parallel to create high-resolution imagery across massive areas, to predictive models that speed up feature extraction without replacing human judgment. Key topics: Why local k...
This conversation with Jed Sundwall, Executive Director of Radiant Earth, starts with a simple but crucial distinction: the difference between data and data products. And that distinction matters more than you might think. We dig into why so many open data portals feel like someone just threw up a bunch of files and called it a day. Sure, the data's technically "open," but is it actually useful? Jed argues we need to be way more precise with our language and intentional about what we're building...
Reflections from the FOSS4G 2025 conference Processing, Analysis, and Infrastructure (FOSS4G is Critical Infrastructure) The high volume of talks on extracting meaning from geospatial data—including Python workflows, data pipelines, and automation at scale—reinforced the idea that FOSS4G represents critical infrastructure. AI Dominance: AI took up a lot of space at the conference. I was particularly interested in practical, near-term impact talks like AI assisted coding and how AI large language...
Karl returns to the Mapscaping podcast to discuss his latest venture, Tyche Insights - a platform aimed at building a global community of geospatial storytellers working with open data. In this conversation, we explore the evolution from his previous company, Building Footprint USA (acquired by Lightbox), to this new mission of democratizing public data storytelling. Karl walks us through the challenges and opportunities of open data, the importance of unbiased storytelling, and how geospatial p...
AI Slop: An Experiment in Discovery Solo Episode Reflection: I'm back behind the mic after about a year-long break. Producing this podcast takes more time than you might imagine, and I was pretty burnt out. The last year brought some major life events, including moving my family back to New Zealand from Denmark, dealing with depression, burying my father, starting a new business with my wife, and having a teenage daughter in the house. These events took up a lot of space. The Catalyst for Return...
Jonathan Wagner, CEO of Scribble Maps , is back on the podcast, and this time we're talking about Scribble—an AI agent he's built into his platform. Not a chatbot, an agent. There's a difference, and we get into that. https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-business-of-web-maps/ So far, Scribble has access to 140 tools. It can view your map, select tools, build plugins, fetch data, and handle onboarding and customer education. But here's the thing—should you care? I think you should, because we're go...
Exploring the Evolution and Impact of Mapillary with Ed from Meta. Topics include Ed's journey with Mapillary, the process of uploading and utilizing street-level imagery, and the integration with OpenStreetMap. Ed talks about the challenges of mapping with various devices, the role of community contributions, and future potentials in mapping technology, such as using neural radiance fields (NeRFs) for creating immersive 3D scenes. The episode provides insights into how Mapillary is advancing ge...
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 45 million users through phones and IoT devices, CMT has developed sophisticated models that can: ...
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. Ariel shares the challenges of scaling large-scale mapping efforts, the pivot to building their own hardware, and the role of blockchain-based incentives in drivin...
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 here https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/136...
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 Podcast here: https://esriaustralia.com.au/gis-directions-podcast or search for GIS Dire...
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 integration with QGIS, allowing users to capture, survey, and manage geospatial data on various mobile devices. We also discuss the technical aspects of QField, including its user-friendly interface, the ability to connect with external ...
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 Change Getting Where You Want To Go In Your Career Applying For A Job, Getting Picked and Negotiating Mentorship Leadership And Career Advice...
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 predictive modeling. Whether you're into AI, geography, or just curious about the intersection of these fields, this episode is p...
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 large language models to interpret a user's natural language input, such as "the coast of Florida south of Mi...
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 meaning of text and can be used to search big databases without knowing the topics beforehand. Here are the main points discussed: Intro to Sem...
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 applications of L band in detecting water leakages, soil moisture, and even minerals from space. Dive deep into the technical, commercial, and environmental aspects of SAR technology and learn about the future potential of this exciting field. **Key Topics...
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 is actually going to impact me. What bits of this are the ones that I need to know about? I don’t think that anyone is going to be talking about cloud native in 10 years, in the same way, no one talks about digital cartography or computer analysis be...
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 cases driving it, what the state of the art looks like today and what we can expect in the future. Key points discussed include: 1. **The Challenge of Indoor Mapping**: Unlike outdoor mapping, indoor environments are complex due to the density of objects...
Hugo Powell , from immap.org 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 tool used for data collection in humanitarian contexts. Kobo Toolbox allows for both quantitative and qualitative data collection and is operational offline, which is crucial in areas with limited internet connectivity. It supports geospatia...
AI Autocomplete for QGIS Brendan 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 why Bunting Labs chose to build this on top of QGIS, the Challenges in Map Digitization, what the development process was like and how this is different from tools like Segment Anything ( from meta ) Here's what we discussed: Introduction to Bunting L...
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 Kickstarter. But that was over ten years ago so today on the podcast Igor is going to tell us about the innovations that made this possible, give a great explanation of RTK and PPP and explain why we should expect to see high precision positioning on you...
Refactoring the Way you Talk About your geospatial skills: It is Costing you Money Some 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, they might not always be marketed effectively to match the broader IT and data analysis job markets. We discuss the benefit of framing our skills in terms that are more widely recognized outside the niche of geospatial technology, such as data science or...
This episode explores "modern geospatial," defined as the intersection of cloud, smart space, open source, AI, and smart devices. Guest Will Cadell of SparkGeo discusses the difference between modernization and innovation, how organizations adopt technology based on their position on S-curves and risk tolerance, and the importance of understanding user needs to help them succeed. The conversation highlights the human element in technology adoption and offers predictions for the future of the field.
This episode features Nate Duggan, founder and CTO of Fly AI, specializing in processing LiDAR data. The discussion covers the fundamentals of LiDAR, its differences from photogrammetry, and the end-to-end processing chain from data acquisition to final products. Nate details Fly AI's AI-powered point cloud classification services, exploring challenges in classifying complex data, handling large datasets, and various applications like topographic mapping, power line inspection, and forestry.
Alex Leith is a Digital Earth Architect and in this episode, you will learn what Infrastructure as code is - hint it is the opposite of the "clicky-clicky" and so much more! Connect with Alex here https://auspatious.com/ Recommended Listening Cloud-Optimized Point CLounds https://mapscaping.com/podcast/cloud-optimized-point-clouds/ Cloud Native Geospatial https://mapscaping.com/podcast/cloud-native-geospatial/ Planet Scale Tiled Maps without a Server https://mapscaping.com/podcast/planet-scale-t...
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 Qiusheng Wu here: https://wetlands.io/ This episode is sponsored by Planet learn more at https://www.planet.com/gis/ Recommended Listening Introduction to Google Earth Engine https://mapscaping.com/podcast/introducing-google-earth-engine/ Introduction...
