Steve Coast is the Founder of OpenStreetMap, one of the most successful open source projects; started in 2004 and now used everywhere from Apple's Maps, Mapbox and even Pokemon Go recently. Steve has worked at places like Microsoft, TomTom, Telenav & Digital Globe.We talk about the future of mapping and Tech in general as well as how Steve thinks maps will disappear.Buckle up this is a long one, but well worth it.I highly recommend you watch this one on YouTube---Episode Sponsor: OpenCageUse OpenCage for your geocoding needs with their API. They have a generous Free trial you can sign up to!---About Steve:LinkedInTwitterShownotesOSM timelapse over England from GeofabrikPeter Thiel: Zero to OneMark Zuckerberg on The Joe Rogan ExperienceNavalCellular AutomatonRule 110 (not 238 as I eluded to)John BoydThe book of OSMStephen WolframNeal Stephenson: The Diamond AgeJames Dyson: Invention: A LifeThe 48 Laws of PowerJonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard BachPodcast Recommendation: EconTalkBook Recommendation: Travels by Michael CrichtonTimestamps03:47 - Conversation begins, Steve Describes Himself 06:30 -Why Does Steve think he's Good at Predicting Trends 12:22 - Steve's Predictions for the Future of Maps 21:36 - Maps will Disappear 26:46 - Incentives for a Location Based Social Media 33:26 - Steve's Detachment to Maps 38:17 - Past Achievements as Mental Frameworks 50:37 - The Start of OpenStreepMap 59:33 - Why Did OpenStreetMap work (and not other projects)? 01:04:44 - Simplicity Over Anything Else 01:17:05 - How does one build Simple Products? 01:20:35 - The influence of Cellular Automaton 01:25:18 - Pushing One's Self to Think Outside the Box 01:32:53 - Steve's Understanding of Maps when he started OSM 01:36:38 - Everything is Illegal, Except Tech 01:52:40 - Steve's Current Interests 01:58:00 - Crypto, Why it's At Least Worth Paying Attention To 02:03:22 - Putting Maps on the Blockchain, and Why You'd Even Want to Do That 02:12:13 - The Next Thing that Will Kill OpenStreetMap 02:21:10 - All the Maps are the Same Today, But Don't Need to Be 02:31:28 - Believing (or Not) in Early Projects02:33:38 - Advice for (not Only) Young People 02:44:53 - Steve on Podcasts 02:49:02 - Steve's Book RecommendationsFeel free to reach out! - Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person- Sponsor the Podcast- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work

Muthu Kumar & Aleksander Buczkowski are the Editor-In-Chief & Managing Editor (and creators) of the Geoawesomeness website, which has been running as an independent geospatial media for the past 11 years.More about Muthu & Aleks:Muthu's TwitterMuthu's LinkedInAleks's TwitterAlek's LinkedInAnd of course find more on the Geoawesomeness website--- Episode Sponsor: Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---  Time stamps00:00 - Introduction 02:30 - Muthu & Aleks describing each other 05:40 - What is Geoawesomeness 10:40 - Geoawesomeness's Early Days: 201114:40 - Impacts of Writing 15:45 - Muthu & Aleks’s story of meeting up 22:00 - Choosing Topics to Cover 28:01 - Ambitions & Thoughts being a Media Company 32:13 - Going Full Time 39:15 - Making money on the Internet 50:30 - Being Open about Business Models 57:40 - Privacy/ethics of geospatial data 1:07:26 - Finding the Right Partner 1:12:10 - The of social media (TikTok & YouTube) 1:18:45 - Advice for younger people 1:27:20 - Books & Podcasts recommendation ShownotesGeoMundusBooks & Podcast Recommendations:Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver BurkemanPeak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success by Brad StulbergRational Reminder Feel free to reach out! - Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person- Sponsor the Podcast- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work

Kevin Pomfret is a Space and Spatial Corporate and Transaction Attorney at Williams Mullen and one of the references in terms of Law around spatial data & within the geospatial community more globally. --- Episode Sponsor: Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast--- About Kevin: - LinkedIn- Twitter - More about himShownotes: - Geospatial World's Ambassador of the Year - CCPA: California Consumer Privacy Act - GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation- Locus Charter- Github Copilot- Books & Podcasts:     - Space Business Podcast    - Author: Carlos Ruiz ZafónTimestamps: 00:00 Introduction 02:11 Kevin Presents Himself 06:33 Geosptial Law back in the Early 2000s 09:43 The Satellite Imagery is a Tricky Legal Problem14:24 Law-markers don't yet understand the Nuances of Location Data 17:38 Getting Individual Consent for Location Data doesn't always make sense 20:26 Law is Hard to Get a Grasp Over 26:10 Kevin's Critical view on the Current Focus on Ethics 31:37 The Differences between Ethics & Law 34:17 Why is the Geospatial Community so Focused on Ethics over Law?40:48 The Impact of Covid on Location Data Law 45:42 Location Data Law Issues go Way Beyond Covid 46:56 How Laws get Written 49:35 Getting Laws Changed 53:33 International Dynamics 56:09 Teaching Geospatial Law & Ethics 01:08:29 Book & Podcast RecommendationsFeel free to reach out! - Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person- Sponsor the Podcast 

Jeffrey Lewis is a Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and one of the most influential people in the Open Source Intelligence Community. He is also the host of the "Arms Control Wonk" podcast.--- Episode Sponsor: Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---About Jeffrey:- Twitter- LinkedInShownotes:Dino BrugioniSeeing the Secrets Growing the LeadersHawkEye 360 GPS InterferenceYandex changing the borders on mapsJeffrey’s Tweet announcing the invasion of Ukraine an hour before it happenedJeffrey’s podcast: Arms Control WonkBooks & Podcast Recommendations:The Mapmakers by John Noble WilfordThe Essentials of SAR: A Conceptual View of Synthetic Aperture Radar and Its Remarkable Capabilities by Thomas AgerBBC Witness HistoryTimestamps:00:00 Introduction 02:42 Conversation begins: Jeffrey is an Open Spy 05:05 The appeal of doing Intelligence Analysis in Public 09:36 Jeffrey's OSINT early days: the War in Irak 16:49 An example of 'bad OSINT' 20:49 The Tricky Nature of Confirmation Bias 25:05 How an OSINT Story Starts 28:10 Being Right, or at least Wrong for the Right Reasons 30:30 Reputation in reporting, especially in the Open 35:55 Monitoring for news 39:26 Machine Learning in OSINT 41:37 The Difficult Yet Informative Nature of Synthetic Aperture Radar 47:58 Partnering with Satellite Image Providers 59:22 Satellite images yes, but they're only 1 component 01:06:40 The use of Open Satellite Imagery Data 01:17:55 Teaching OSINT 01:25:07 The ever faster increase in our access to Data 01:29:40 Filtering out the crap 01:33:20 Knowing who to trust: The Ukraine use-case 01:37:43 How Jeffrey's team called out the Russian Invasion 1h before it happened 01:43:21 The power of Companies 01:48:52 Funding & How to Stay Independent 01:52:51 Advocacy 01:59:00 The tools used for OSINT 02:07:48 The Surprising Impact of Ukraine on the Public's View of Nuclear Dissuasion 02:10:54 Nuclear weapons are not fun, like really not 02:14:18 Working with a Community 02:17:37 Jeffrey's podcast: Arms Control Wonk 02:22:51 Books & Podcast RecommendationsFeel free to reach out! - Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person- Sponsor the Podcast

Jean Martin Bauer is the Country Director for the World Food Programme in Haiti, where his job is in simple terms to ensure the population does not run out of food. This conversation focuses on the use of data - specifically satellite imagery & maps - and how it helps feed the country.---Episode Sponsor: Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast--- About Jean-Martin: - Twitter- LinkedIn- World Food Programme Shownotes:World Food ProgramHunger MapWFP’s PrismWFP’s Van ProjectFEWS NET: Famine Early Warning System NetworkStanford’s Monica LamJean-Martin Bauer on the Humanitarian AI Today PodcastBooks & Podcasts Recommendations:Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain (”Gouverneurs de la rosée” in French)Stuffed And Starved: Markets, Power And The Hidden Battle For The World Food System by Raj PatelHumanitarian AI Today PodcastTime-stamps:- 00:00 Introduction 01:53 Conversation Starts: Jean-Martin presents himself- 03:08 Humanitarian Geography- 10:31 Jean-Martin's current role: WFP's Haiti Director- 16:39 How do we know the food situation in a country?- 21:10 Gathering Data To Understand the Food Situation in a Country- 26:18 Modelling at a Global & Local level- 31:03 Distributing Data is also hard- 32:14 Getting people involved- 35:56 Online Human Rights- 40:34 What New Space means for WFP- 45:21 What's in it for Private Companies to work wit NGOs?- 48:57 Building Trust when Predictions come First from Machine Learning- 52:25 Disruption is Not Always the Goal- 53:32 Financing Collecting Data in the Humanitarian World- 01:01:19 The Role of Data for Jean-Martin's role as Country Director- 01:05:56 Making Hard Decision when Numbers represent real People's Livelihood- 01:09:58 Jean-Martin's Critical Look on the Data Science Community- 01:14:19 Books & Podcast Recommendations- 01:17:16 Outro Please feel free to reach out, I truly do want to hear what you think of this :)- Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person

Indra Den Bakker is the CEO & Co-Founder of Overstory, a company providing vegetation information to electric utility companies about the state of (mostly) trees around power lines by using high resolution satellite imagery. This can lead to prevention of wildfires by finding hazardous vegetation before it falls on a line.--- Episode Sponsor:Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast--- About Indra: - Twitter- LinkedIn- OverstoryShownotes: - Kaggle- Planet- Global Forest Watch- Vandersat’s Acquisition by PlanetBook recommendations;-  Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation by Paul Hawken-  The Overstory by Richard PowersTimestamps: 00:00 - Teaser 00:29 - Introduction 02:18 - Conversation begins, Indra Describes Himself 05:20 - Indra's description of Overstory 08:44 - The Story of Overstory 10:57 - From a Kaggle Competition to Founding a Company 13:54 - Talking to Customers in Early Days 16:58 - Find Product-Market Fit : Why utility companies?19:37 - Finding a Sweet Spot in the Imagery Resolution - Price trade-off 22:02 - Deciding to build a product, not focusing on imagery 28:34 - Bringing in a dedicated designer in an early stage data start-up 30:12 - Finding focus as a company 33:44 - Could Earth Observations Companies ever have millions of customers? 36:13 - Could Overstory get to more consumer facing applications? 39:58 - Failures along the way 42:14 - Moving from bootstrapped to taking investment 44:31 - Staying on the Mission while raising money & losing control 47:49 - Preventing Green-washing 53:20 - What does Indra do today? 55:42 - The transition from Data Scientist to CEO 58:56 - Does a Data Scientist background help as a Leader? 01:00:14 - Hiring 01:04:12 - Deciding to become a Remote First Company 01:07:20 - Building a start-up in a post-covid recession 01:11:15 - A supermarket analogy to the Earth Observation industry 01:15:57 - Is Indra worried of data providers eating into downstream company's business? 01:18:20 - Balancing exits strategies with keeping on a Mission 01:19:51 - Newly public space start-ups are going down in valuation 01:23:45 - What is Overstory's current main challenge? 01:25:44 - Dealing with number of employee growth: Not knowing what everyone does anymore 01:34:00 - Book & Podcast recommendations01:35:48 - Having the same company name as bookPlease feel free to reach out, I truly do want to hear what you think of this :) - Website: https://mindsbehindmaps.com/- My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxLenormand- Podcast Twitter: https://twitter.com/MindsBehindMaps- Previous Newsletter: Why I want to do more interviews in person

Dr Catherine Nakalembe is an Associate Research Professor at University of Maryland and the Program Head of NASA Harvest Africa. We talk about some of her work on using satellite imagery for Food Security in her home country of Uganda & how she got into this field in the first place.---Episode Sponsors:Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---About Catherine:TwitterLinkedInWebsiteShownotes:- NASA Harvest- Catherine’s Bio on University of Maryland’s websiteBooks & Recommendations:- The New Humanitarian- BBC Discovery- Africa Today- Little Stories for Tiny People- Catherine’s appearances on Science in Action- Leadership Journey- The Divide by Jason Hickel- Jason Hickel’s Twitter Time-stamps: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:04 Conversation begins: Catherine describes herself 00:08:19 Starting by wanting to play badminton 00:20:45 Wanting to work back in Uganda 00:24:32 How Catherine got into Food Security 00:32:15 What even is Food Security? 00:34:14 The Role of Remote Sensing in Food Security 00:37:58 Who benefits mapping food security? 00:44:23 How do people on the ground perceive insights from satellites? 00:48:54 Creating insights that actually get used 00:52:43 You can't improve what you can't measure 00:55:41 The Double-Edge Sword that comes with Remote Sensing at Scale 01:00:52 Not getting lost in the Maps 01:03:32 Incentives: Working from a University in the US, helping Uganda 01:10:40 The relationship between Private & Public sector in regards to Climate Change 01:13:13 The Government as the main Private Sector's Government 01:20:10 Story Telling as a Source of Change 01:27:02 Inspiring & Helping Others 01:30:53 Books & Podcast recommendations If you want to hear more about me & the podcast:My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite

Emily Darling & Kim Fisher both work at the Wildlife Conservation Society, respectively as the Director of Coral Reef & as Spatial Analyst. They have developed MERMAID, a platform enabling coral reef scientists to aggregate & share their data together.  One of the main challenges they tackle being most measurements need to happen in the field as opposed to being able to leverage satellite imagery. ---Episode Sponsors:Radiant Earth Foundation: Apply for the 2022 Radiant MLHub Impact Award for agriculture-related applications for Africa - with a $5,000 cash prize.Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---About Emily:LinkedInTwitterAbout Kim:LinkedInTwitterWorld Conservation SocietyShownotesMERMAIDWildlife Conservation SocietyAllen Coras AtlasSparkGeoBooks & Podcast Recomendations:We can do hard thingsWhere should we beginSong ExploderData Feminism: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/data-feminismHere GOES RadiotelescopeMannahatta/Welikia:book: https://www.amazon.com/Mannahatta-Natural-History-York-City/dp/1419707485/website: https://welikia.org/Timestamps00:00 - Introduction03:07 - Kim & Emily presenting themselves07:49 - Computer Science & Data at the service of Science17:30 - A symbiotic relationship Software Engineering & Marine Biology23:38 - High level overview of what MERMAID is26:52 - What problem does MERMAID solve?32:28 - Getting traction on a scientific tool37:37 - Stories on top of the data46:00 - Another simple question: Why is coral reef important?49:55 - Working with Policy Makers55:28 - Coral Reef is still measured with pen & paper1:01:55 - Partnering with SparkGeo, a geospatial consultancy1:10:54 - Thinking about projects over the long term1:12:45 - Financing a Non-Profit project1:19:40 - Transparency in Non-Profits through Open-Source1:25:45 - The impact of Data Science on Emily’s work1:29:01 - Book & Podcast RecommendationsFeel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite

Arjen Vrielink is the Director & co-founder of Satelligence, dedicated to stopping deforestation by leveraging satellite imagery. They work directly with commodity companies who sell things like cacao or coffee to understand the causes of deforestation and how alternatives can be found.About Arjen:TwitterLinkedInSatelligence---Episode Sponsors:Radiant Earth Foundation: Apply for the 2022 Radiant MLHub Impact Award for agriculture-related applications for Africa - with a $5,000 cash prize.Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---Shownotes:Zero to One by Peter ThielKate Raworth’s Doughnut EconomicsPlanet Acquiring VandersatRange by David EpsteinSteve BallmerUp and Down the Ladder of Abstraction by Bret Victorxkcd: Adjective FoodsSuperforecasting by Philip E. Tetlock, Dan GardnerBook recommendations:Man’s Fate (La Condition Humaine) by André MalrauxThe Stranger (L’Etranger) by Albert CamusThe Plague (La Peste) by Albert CamusThe Mandarins by Simone de BeauvoirTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction02:55 - Conversation Begins07:56 - Arjen quoting me to describe work environment13:02 - The origin story of Satelligence17:45 - What Satelligence does19:05 - Remote Sensing to solve deforestation: Solution looking for a Problem?26:48 - Data comes in to convince bosses34:38 - Financial incentives & shareholders40:27 - How Satelligence makes money & long term vision45:02 - Why Satelligence decided to raise a first round after a few years51:25 - Downsides to raising55:14 - What happens to the mission after an exit?59:30 - Creating a work culture1:03:43 - Lunch is more important for your culture than your Strategy day1:13:17 - Hiring1:17:47 - Why Arjen hired me as an intern1:29:48 - Open Source in Geospatial1:42:28 - Importance of technical knowledge in leadership roles1:44:36 - Layers of Abstraction1:51:16 - Committing to one specific thing1:57:18 - Why maps aren’t (always) the best way to communicate insights2:06:43 - Geospatial is incredibly niche2:12:57 - Book recommendations2:21:15 - Asking for adviceFeel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite

Barbara Ryan was instrumental in the policy change in 2008 that opened up the Landsat data to being freely & openly available for anyone to access. This resulted in more than 100x uptake in the number of imagery downloaded and fundamentally changed the Earth Observation industry.She is currently the Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council---Episode Sponsors:Radiant Earth Foundation: Apply for the 2022 Radiant MLHub Impact Award for agriculture-related applications for Africa - with a $5,000 cash prize.Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---About Barbara:TwitterLinkedIn Shownotes:We recorded this interview while Barbara was in Amsterdam for the Geospatial World ForumLandsat policy change documentGilberto Camara at the time Chief of INPE: Brazilian National Institute for Space ResearchMark Mayers, former Director of USGSWorld Geospatial Industry CouncilGEO: Group on Earth Observations: the organization, not the field ;-)Books recommendations:Ender’s Game by Orson Scott CardSnow Crash by Neal StephensonTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction02:56 - Importance of in-person conversation05:52 - Connecting people08:00 - Reaching people beyond languages10:43 - Landsat pre-2008: before it was free & open19:09 - Impact of the giving the data away for free21:51 - Details on the policy change: push-backs & financial incentives28:43 - The direct impact on the USGS30:39 - International collaboration32:32 - Domino Effect: The impact of Landsat on offer Open Data Policies36:02 - Potential unexpected negative effects37:41 - The scale of the impact opening up Landsat had41:13 - Don’t use data as your transactional currency44:14 - Making satellite imagery accessible beyond the data52:00 - Distributing data as easily as possible57:07 - Spicy politics story involving the Secretary of Interior1:04:21 - Open Data should not be taken for granted1:11:31 - Thoughts on Commercial Earth Observation1:14:16 - Open Data Policies for Commercial EO: Parallels with the Gaming Industry1:23:18 - Improving Communications in Science1:28:41 - Earth Observation could learn to tell stories from the Gaming Industry1:34:21: Barbara’s current role1:39:04 - Being better ambassadors of Geospatial1:42:32 - WGIC’s funding model1:45:36: - Barbara retiring only to come back multiple times1:51:12 - Book recommendations1:53:21 - Advice for younger people Feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite