Geomob

This week Ed shows his ignorance about all things Earth Observation (EO) in a discussion with EO expert Julia Wagemann. Julia explains why the EO ecosystem has grown so much in recent years, and what the implications of the increased accesibility to and quality of earth observation data might mean. This is an exciting and fast-moving space that will have major implications for the geospatial industry; a space that every geomobster will no doubt want to learn about. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Ed and Steven catch up after the recent Geomob events in London and Barcelona. Steven looks forward to attending the upcoming first ever Geomob Tel Aviv, Ed calls for volunteers to speak at future events, hopefully to be held in June.   The discussion then turns to the challenges of mapping the war in Ukraine, before finally reflecting on the ethics of providing software - both closed and open source, to participants in the conflict. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Over the last few months the world has been swept with frenzy for the word game Wordle. The popularity and simplicity of the game has prompted many variants, including several with a geographic twist. In this episode Steven chats with the makers of two such games. First he speaks with the makers of Countryle, in which players have to guess a country based on various geographic attributes. Then he welcomes back Giuseppe Sollazzo (who was first on the podcast all the way back in Episode 18) to tells us about his games Wardle (guessing a UK Local Authority) and Wardle-Parli (guessing UK parlementary boundaries). Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

How do we, on a biologial level, think about place and navigation? This is the question our guest, Kate Jeffery - chair of the Royal Institute of Navigation's Cognitive Navigation Group (CogNav) and professor of behavioural neuroscience at University College London, where she founded the Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience and runs the Jeffery Lab - attempts to answer. Steven has the pleasure of speaking with Kate to get a summary of the current state of research and understanding of how we comprehend location. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Our guest today is the anonymous author of open source intelligence "OSINT" newsletter Line of Actual Control, where he combines open data, imagery, social media, and other sources to create innovative investigative research about topics ranging from military conflicts to zoning law violations.   We should note that this interview took place shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine when OSINT techniques gained much wider exposure as the world struggles to quantify and comprehend the war. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Every Wednesday at noon US west coast time, 3pm US Eastern time (21:00 central European time, 8pm UK time) "#gischat" takes place on twitter. In this episode Steven talks with organizers Kate Berg and Michele Tobias on what has become an industry phenomenon. #gischat topics range from the profound to the witty to the the mundane, providing an informal and worldwide forum for anyone to put forward their opinions and jokes about the geospatial industry, share career advice, post technical questions, vent about technical frustrations, and just generally make connections with others in the industry. Kate and Michele share the history of #gischat, and reflect on why it has become so popular. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Ed chats with well-known geospatial developer Tom MacWright to discuss his new project Placemark, a service for collaborative editing of geospatial data. Tom shares what Placemark is, the problems he is attempting to solve, the challenge of finding the balance between ease of use and power, but also why he is building it as an independent, bootstrapped business.   Placemark is currently in private beta. You can sign up on the Placemark site to get access once it launches.  Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

Another episode in which Ed and Steven share updates on their projects. Mappery is running well, and Steven is on the hunt for new consulting projects. Please get in touch with him if you think he could help you with your geospatial business of project. Meanwhile, Ed and the OpenCage team have (finally) launched their new geosearch service, though not without some perplexing ethical questions for the team.   Geomob events are restarting - we look forward to seeing you in London on the 16th of March and Barcelona on the 22nd. In further good news, Steven reveals the wheels are in motion for Geomob Tel Aviv at some point in the coming months.   After catching up Steven and Ed reflect on two years of the Geomob podcast! Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

"We tell people where to put things." Sounds basic, but with this simple strategy our guest this week, Blair Freebairn, has grown Geolytix from a one-man consultancy to a thriving multi-national company with a team of 40, and working with some of the world's best known brands. Blair joins Steven to reflect on growing his business, the pros and cons of building on open data and open source, and how the industry has evolved since the two worked together about 15 years ago. Geolytix is a great success story, and Blair shares some of the key lessons learned along the way. Finally, Steven thanks Blair for recently becoming a Geomob sponsor! Blair shares some of his motivations for giving back to the Geomob community.   Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

This week Ed is joined by Andrew Trigg, Chief Geospatial and Data Officer at HM Land Registry, who spoke at Geomob London back in 2016. Our discussion covers what HM Land Registry is, the scale of their work, and the significant challenge of digitising records and turning them into useful geospatial resources. We also cover Land Registry's experience of opening their data and sponsorship of Geovation. Show notes on the Geomob website, where you can also learn more about Geomob events and sign up for our monthly newsletter.