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 HammerWebsiteLinkedInTwitterShow notes:Global Plastic WatchGlobal Forest WatchEarthrise MediaSpaceKnowApollo 8 Earthrise imageFrank Borman Apollo 8 Wikipedia articlePew Research survey: 2018 public survey on NASA PrioritiesCaptain Fantastic Time stamps:03:00 - Conversation starts, Dan presents himself08:30 - The tools behind monitoring deforesting back in 200912:00 - How Global Forest Watch 2.0 started18:45 : Why Global Forest Watch continued on25:40 - Collaborating with journalists29:50 - An example of leveraging Earth Observation data for policy making : Global Plastic Watch31:00 - Having an impact38:50 - Precision vs Accuracy45:45 - Earthrise Media: Design, Data science & story telling51:35 - The importance of Design56:50 - Dealing with & communicating uncertainty1:02:00 - Non-profit or for-profit?1:08:10 - Building a team1:10:20 - Origin of the name "Earthrise" & Inspiration through space1:21:15 - Book / Media Recommendation Please feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastReach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.com

Charles Blanchet is the VP of Solutions at Iceye. Charles has over 20 years of experience building start ups, more recently in companies focused around data. Iceye owns a constellation of Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites, and is also working on providing flood monitoring insights derived from the images these satellites take.We talk SAR, how Charles joined Iceye, the importance of finding focus as a company, and how thinking is an important task in itself. Charles Blanchet:LinkedInShow notes:Iceye SolutionsCharles blog post on hiringNew Philosopher magazineTime Stamps:04:00 - Episode begins: Charles presents himself8:45 - Finding product-market fit in Earth Observation13:10 - The importance and need for focus17:00 - Is the space industry different than any other field?21:30 - Is SaaS a good model for companies like Iceye?26:30 - "Deriving value out of imagery and turning it into information is a tough business"36:20 - Can there be too much focus?39:00 - Charles thoughts on Iceye’s current focus on flood monitoring41:46 - Building startups over and over again48:30 - Assembling a team58:10 - The life story interview question1:08:40 - How Charles joined Iceye1:12:20 - Charles’ next 5 years1:14:10 - Taking dedicated time to think1:25:25 - Media recommendationPlease feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastReach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.com

Chinmay Adhvaryu is the co-founder and CEO of Influunt, a company focused on providing insights around water damage using Earth Observation data. He previously founded, and then shut down Earthlab AI, a platform to aggregate, preprocess and analyze satellite imagery.We talk about both of these experiences, how Chinmay learned from the first one and from his previous experience in the world of Internet of Things, which he now applies those to Influunt. About Chinmay:TwitterLinkedInInfluuntShow notes:Tech starsWeather data company, TomorrowChinmay's Twitter thread on founding an Earth Observation companyBook & Media recommendation:"Enemy of All Mankind" by Steven JohnsonTime stamps:2:20 - Episode Begins, Chinmay presents himself4:05 - Chinmay’s entry into the satellite imagery market9:10 - Reality check, what customers want compared to what can be done14:50 - Finding a fitting business model16:40 - Context is king22:10 - Staying in Earth Observation after closing a previous company24:30 - Choosing to work on water damage monitoring32:30 - How do we move from assessing damage to preventing it?38:45 - Chinmay’s thoughts on the Earth Observation industry44:40 - Parallels with the Internet of Things world47:15 - Microsoft Planetary Computer & Google Earth Engine51:45 - Chinmay’s ties to India55:10 - Climate change is tackled by people from all over the world1:01:25 - Experience at Techstars1:08:10 - Incremental changes over revolutions1:12:00 - Book & Media recommendationPlease feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastReach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.com

Joe Morrison is the VP of Commercial Product at Umbra, who builds & operates Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites. He is determined to make satellite imagery more accessible, and has shared many of his thoughts about the Earth Observation industry on this blog "A Closer Look with Joe Morrison".We talk about how buying satellite imagery is not a solved problem, how he builds a team and how Umbra is trying to change how satellite imagery is sold. Joe compares the current Earth Observation market to the railroad companies of a few hundred years ago, and we discuss making predictions in public. Joe Morrison:Twitter: https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrisonSubstack Blog: https://joemorrison.substack.com/welcomeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-morrison/Time stamps:6:30 - Episode begins, Joe presents himself8:48 - How does a people person end up in the map business?10:25 - Joe's story entering the geospatial field15:15 - People who use the word "geospatial" hate maps21:20 - Is "New Space" changing the industry?(22:25 - Audio starts degrading a bit)29:00 - Why work on the infrastructure when applications are lacking?32:20 - Why Joe joined Umbra34:25 - What if buying X were like sat imagery37:25 - Is infrastructure ever solved? (Audio is better again)40:18 - The importance of the people we work with49:05 - Space attracts people53:12 - Working with people who’ve interacted with your content & how we both create our content59:22 - Coming from a Space background1:06:10 - Fighting impostor syndrome1:10:55- A great team isn’t just great people1:17:40 - Is Umbra a data company?1:26:00 - Moving towards selling data as cheap as possible1:31:25 - Relationship between image providers and Defense & Governments1:36:10 - Umbra’s target audience1:42:58 - The technical barrier to entry and Joe’s thoughts on Analysis Ready Data1:45:40 - SAR imagery isn’t valuable in it’s own, it’s like salt (Audio quality drops again a bit)1:52:28 - Making predictions about the industry in public2:00:33 - Insanity & Obsessions (Audio quality is good again)2:08:02 - Joe’s Book RecommandationShow notes:Umbra: https://umbra.space/Azavea: https://www.azavea.com/NACIS (National American Cartographic Information Society): https://nacis.org/GIS definition, video of guy trying to explaining his job to non geo people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg4YsAjreOAMusk presenting Starship in 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Uyfqi_TE8Joe’s prediction Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/mouthofmorrison/status/1447917122772946951?s=20Book recommendation: “A river runs through it” by Norman MacleanBand recommendation: Lawrence, their latest album: Hotel TV Please feel free to reach out!My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxLenormandReach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.comFor news about the podcast: https://twitter.com/MindsBehindMaps

Welcome back to another episode of Minds behind Maps!In this episode I sit down with Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, the Program Director of the Planetary Computer at Microsoft as well as the author of "Impact Science: The science of getting to radical social and environmental breakthroughs". About Bruno:Twitter: https://twitter.com/brunosanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nasonurb/Website: https://brunosan.eu/Bruno's book "Impact Science, The science of getting to radical social and environmental breakthroughs": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46137268-impact-science?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=jvKJBnRM5k&rank=1"Impact Science" on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SN1L4L2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1 Timestamps:4:20 : Conversation starts, Bruno presents himself10:30 : How Bruno entered Academia14:20 : Science / Engineering duality18:05 : Skills over Knowledge21:15 : How education could be more skill centered29:05 : How Bruno entered geospatial31:51 : At the edge of human knowledge of the Sun36:07 : Leaving NASA to focus on more applied projects40:04 : Trying to work for an NGO: “Bruno we don’t need a rocket scientist”47:53 : Cheap Data Science51:20 : Limitations & Playfulness for clever ideas55:18 : Writing “Impact Science”1:05:01 : From outputs to outcomes: a missing layer in Data Science1:11:08 : Data Informed instead of Data Driven1:17:44: Bruno's work at Microsoft as Program Director of the Planetary Computer1:33:18: Partnerships within the Planetary Computer project1:38:25 : Books & media recommendations Show notes:OpenStreetMap: https://www.openstreetmap.orgFast.ai : Applicable Machine Learning framework & lessonsKaggle.com: Data Science competition platformOrigin of the term data science (under 'Etymology'): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_scienceBruno’s Medium blog post “In Defense of Cheap Data Science”: https://towardsdatascience.com/in-defense-of-cheap-data-science-f630f248d400Chai time data science interview of Jeremy Howard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=205j37G1cxwIndia’s night light mapping project: http://india.nightlights.io/Microsoft's Planetary Computer: https://planetarycomputer.microsoft.com/Book recommendations:A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonThe Martian by Andy WeirHumankind by Rutger BregmanFactfulness by Hans RoslingBruno's Goodread: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19228134.Bruno_S_nchez_Andrade_Nu_oI'm sorry I couldn't find the story related to Youtube's video loading times! Please feel free to reach out!My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxLenormandReach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.comFor news about the podcast: https://twitter.com/MindsBehindMaps

Welcome to another episode of Minds behind Maps!In this episode I sit down with Dr Nadine Alameh, current CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). We talk about geospatial, standards, but also Nadine's earlier days in wartime Lebanon, dance, making life changing decisions, and just many different topics that I hope portray how people are complex, in many different ways.  About Nadine:Twitter: https://twitter.com/nadinesaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinealameh/Open Geospatial Consortium: https://www.ogc.org/ Time stamps:- 04:00 : Episode starts, Nadine presents herself- 9:30 : Nadine’s childhood days in wartime in Lebanon and how it shaped her decision making- 15:00 : Nadine talks about sharing her journey with her children- 19:05 : Nadine’s journey at and after MIT- 24:30 : Dance & activities outside of ones career- 28:40 : How owning a dance franchise helps push the OGC forward- 33:30 : Nadine’s previous startup experiences & why Consulting doesn’t scale- 40:00 : Geospatial is mainstream but it’s not done- 42:00 : The role of the Open Geospatial Consortium- 48:15 : Prioritization of different issues that need solving- 51:45 : Adoption of standards & working with a community- 54:00 : The OGC as an organization- 1:04:30 : Working with companies outside of the “normal” geospatial: Epic Games- 1:12:00 : Lessons from the aviation industry- 1:23:05 : Trust issues with satellite derived information- 1:28:45 : Accessing data is still complex- 1:30:20 : Speaking & learning multiple languages- 1:40:10 : Book recommendations! Show notes:Previous interview of Nadine I refer to a few times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29bKEJ9jZsQTalk about the overlap of geo with the entertainment industry (Starts at 9min): https://vimeo.com/340070941OGC Innovation Program Developer Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/OGCDevSurveyCesium on building the open metaverse: https://cesium.com/blog/2021/08/13/a-birds-of-a-feather-session-building-the-open-metaverse/Book & media recommendations:Daniel O’Donohue’s podcast, Mapscaping: https://mapscaping.com/Aravind Ravichandran’s podcast, TerraWatch Space: https://anchor.fm/terrawatch-spaceGap selling by KeenanCulture Renovation by Kevin OakesHello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms by Hannah FryBrick by Brick by David Robertson Please feel free to reach out, I truly do want to hear what you think of this :)My Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaxLenormandReach out by email: minds.behind.maps@gmail.comNew Twitter account for the podcast: https://twitter.com/MindsBehindMaps

Welcome to the 5th episode of Minds Behind Maps!This is a bit of a special episode, though maybe one of my favorite conversations I've had the chance to have so far. We talk about creating content online, it gets a bit meta about geospatial podcasting but we also touch on some of the different paths one takes in life.About Daniel:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielodonohue/Twitter: https://twitter.com/MapScapingMapscaping: https://mapscaping.com/Timestamps:- 4:15 : Beginning of episode, Daniel introduces himself- 9:20 : The beginning of the Mapscaping podcast- 15:30 : Leading a conversation- 18:40 : Daniel’s editorial decisions- 23:40 : Mapscaping’s “Grand Plan”- 26:25 : Podcasting as a medium- 37:50 : Finding one's voice online - 39:55 : Marketing the podcast & spreading the word- 44:30 : Targeting a specific audience- 51:00 : Building an audience is the true barrier to entry- 55:00 : Where does the name “Mapscaping” come from?- 57:40 : Starting doesn’t require much means- 59:50 : Inspiring others- 1:07:45 : The accessibility of the people within the geospatial field- 1:11:50 : Building communities- 1:15:05 : Building a business around Mapscaping- 1:20:45 : Monetizing a podcast- 1:30:10 : Daniel’s previous lives- 1:44:15 : Daniel's last thoughts & media suggestionsLinks towards topics in the conversation:Mapscaping episode about personal branding ("Building A Personal Brand In The Geospatial Industry"): https://t.co/fr7HpatKuV?amp=1Seth Godin's website: https://www.sethgodin.com/Seth Godin's Akimbo podcast: https://www.akimbo.link/

Welcome to the 4th episode of this experiment!This was a insightful conversation talking about the big picture of where the Earth Observation market is and might be heading in the next few years.About Aravind:Aravind's Twitter: https://twitter.com/aravind_ravesAravind's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aravindravichandran/TerraWatch Space consulting: https://www.terrawatch.space/servicesTerraWatch Space podcast: https://anchor.fm/terrawatch-spaceTime stamps:04:05 : Aravind presents himself13:25 : How a software background helped in Aravind's consulting work17:00 : Explaining the field at a high level / low level21:50 : Helping companies get "out of the Earth Observation bubble"25:20 : Working with non-geospatial industries that need Earth Observation data31:45 : How to manage expectation for people not familiar with geospatial data?38:10 : Is the SaaS (Software as a Service) model leading to some of rise in funding?41:00 : IaaS; Insights as a Service instead of SaaS46:25 : The relationship between Big Tech and Earth Observation53:10 : The iPhone moment in Earth Observation1:00:00 : Public / Private sector interaction1:12:20 : The value of working on the boring stuff1:17:25 : The Indian EO market1:28:35 : Trying to understand why the West hears little about the Indian scene1:31:00 : Aravind's podcast: TerraWatch Space1:41:25 : Book recommendations!Links towards topics in the discussion:Kerbal Space Program: https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/PwC: https://www.pwc.com/Planet acquiring Google's Terra Bella constellation in 2017: https://spacenews.com/planet-to-acquire-terra-bella-from-google/Indian Space Research Organization: https://www.isro.gov.in/Pixxel: https://www.pixxel.space/Tim Ferris Show: https://tim.blog/podcast/Book recommendations:Sapiens, a Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah HarariWhen Breath Becomes Air by Paul KalanithiMeditations by Marcus Aurelius As always feel free to reach out to me if you have anything to say about the podcast:minds.behind.maps@gmail.comor through Twitter: @MaxLenormandThanks for taking the time to listen :)

Welcome to the 3rd episode of Minds Behind Maps!As I mention in the episode intro, Denise was one of the first people I wanted to talk to when starting this podcast. I hope you enjoy this conversation!Denise's social media's:https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisemckenzie/https://twitter.com/SpatialRed Links towards topics of discussion:- Locus Charter: https://ethicalgeo.org/locus-charter/- Benchmark Initiative: https://benchmarkinitiative.com/- Strava reveals location of US military bases: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases- Elaine Ball's Get Kids Into Survey: https://www.getkidsintosurvey.com/- Andrew Zolli, from Planet: https://twitter.com/andrew_zolli- Book recommendation: Bill Gates': 'How to Avoid a Climate Disaster' And some time stamps:3:00 : Episode Starts, Denise presenting herself5:20 : Why is location data ethics important?7:35 : Public involvement & outreach9:05 : The Locus Charter13:35 : How would applications & companies share their experiences19:05 : Response to the Locus Charter21:40 : Covid increasing the public's' interest in location data29:50 : How do we decide what is ethical?35:00 : Laws / Policies39:05 : Denise's early career path45:05 : The term "geospatial"49:15 : Education in geospatial (& geography)55:25 : Data Trusts61:15 : Difference between Locus Charter & Data Trust1:02:55 : The data take of open source1:08:15 : The Non-for-Profit scene1:14:45 : Book recommendations! For those who do check these show notes, and if you feel like it, you can reach out to me ;)minds.behind.maps@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/MaxLenormand Most importantly though, thanks for listening :)

Welcome to the 2nd episode in this experiment!It was a blast to sit down with Will, I hope you enjoy this, I certainly did. As last time here are most of the things we talked about:Will Cadell & Sparkgeo on Twitter:@geo_will@sparkgeoLinks to materials we talked about:The geospatial product trap blog post: https://sparkgeo.com/blog/the-geospatial-product-trap/GDAL sponsors page: https://gdal.org/sponsors/index.htmlEven Rouault, current maintainer of GDAL: @EvenRouaultSTAC (SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs): http://stacspec.org/Google Earth Engine: https://earthengine.google.com/Seems like time-stamps were appreciated, so here they are:00:00 : Intro02:35 : Beginning of episode: Will presents himself and the story of creating Sparkgeo20:30: Do you miss coding?23:25 : Keeping up with the ever changing technical side of things27:00 : 3 main reasons that make geospatial so popular today32:02 : Do we have a role in educating people outside of geospatial about the field?37:40 : OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) & STAC (SpatioTemporal Assets Catalog)40:30 : Our responsibility to explain what we are doing with geospatial data46:25 : The "geospatial product trap"55:10 : How is Sparkgeo not falling for this trap?1:06:00 : Choosing the projects Sparkgeo works on1:09:50 : GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Layer) & open source1:18:50 : Cloud infrastructure in geospatial1:27:55 : Google Earth Engine1:31:22 : Will's Book recommendations Feel free to drop me a line, I'd love to know what you think of this!@MaxLenormandminds.behind.maps@gmail.comThanks for listening!