Home Podcasts The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography
The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography

The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography

MapScaping 258 Episodes Jul 2, 2026

A podcast for the mapping community, featuring interviews with people shaping the future of GIS, geospatial technology, and the mapping world. It covers topics like remote sensing, earth observation, and digital geography. The show is hosted by MapScaping and aims to provide insights for professionals and enthusiasts in the geospatial field.

Episodes

Who Pays for Open Source? Jul 2, 2026 3255 Open source software runs a huge chunk of the geospatial world — but somebody still has to pay for it. In this episode I sit down with Marco Bernasocchi creator of QField and CEO of OpenGIS.ch, to dig into the awkward question most open source projects avoid: how do you keep something free and open while paying real people to build and maintain it? Marco has been in the open source world since 200
The Great Retooling Jun 24, 2026 2658 Ian Schuler is the CEO of Development Seed — the team behind a lot of the open source tooling that quietly holds up the geospatial world. He's been at the helm for over a decade, and in this conversation, we dig into what he calls the great retooling: the idea that cloud-native geospatial is about to flip from an emerging pattern to the dominant one, and that AI is the thing tipping it over the ed
Earth Observation - The Invisible Industry Jun 18, 2026 3993 What is Earth observation, really — and why, after fifty years of satellite imagery, is it still not "mainstream"? In this episode, I'm joined by Aravind Ravichandran, founder of TerraWatch, an independent research and advisory firm focused entirely on Earth observation. Aravind writes the TerraWatch newsletter, runs the EO Summit, and spends his time thinking about the strategy and economics of t
10 Tools for Telling Stories With Maps May 29, 2026 3714 Ryan Shields has one of the most interesting careers in geospatial — from remote sensing for conservation in the Caribbean, to disaster response data engineering with FEMA, to his current role turning spatial data into animation assets for Johnny Harris's YouTube channel at New Press. In this episode, Ryan counts down the 10 tools he's using right now to tell map stories that reach millions of vie
Agents, Guardrails, and the Death of the Dashboard May 14, 2026 3056 Nadine Alameh is back — former CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium, and now CEO and co-founder of Lunate AI, a six-month-old company sitting right at the messy intersection of geospatial and AI. In this conversation, Nadine breaks down the three types of clients she's seeing right now: government agencies standing at the edge of the river, wondering whether to jump in, startups from outside the
How HOT Is Rethinking Drone Mapping Apr 30, 2026 3014 What happens when you put professional-grade aerial mapping in the hands of the people who actually live in the places being mapped? In this episode, I'm joined by Rebecca Firth, Executive Director of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) — a global community of around 750,000 people building free and open-source maps in the places that need them most. We dig into HOT's Drone Tasking Manager:
Common Space Mar 23, 2026 2311 This episode examines the Common Space initiative, a non-profit project dedicated to building and launching high-resolution optical satellites designed specifically for humanitarian purposes, such as aiding populations at risk from climate events and conflict.  Although there are over a thousand Earth observation satellites currently in orbit, high-resolution imagery remains largely inaccessible t
AI in QGIS Mar 5, 2026 2960 I've been playing around with a lot of large language models lately, and it is absolutely fascinating to watch them work. But what happens when you bring that directly into QGIS? Right now, AI in the geospatial industry is a lot like a fast, enthusiastic new intern, incredibly helpful, and sometimes completely wrong, but improving at a rate that no human can compete with.  As we hand more of our g
Geospatial Makers Start Building! Feb 12, 2026 2812 Geospatial Product Swiss Army Knife 1. The "Build It and They Won't Come" Trap We have all seen it: a talented geospatial professional spends months—perhaps years—perfecting a technically sophisticated web map or a niche data service, only to release it to a deafening silence. In our industry, the "build it and they will come" philosophy is a fast track to zero traction. Precision is the enemy of
Vibe Coding and the Fragmentation of Open Source Feb 3, 2026 2196 Why Machine-Writing Code is the Best (and Most Dangerous) Thing for Geospatial:   The current discourse surrounding AI coding is nothing if not polarized. On one side, the technofuturists urge us to throw away our keyboards; on the other, skeptics dismiss Large Language Models (LLMs) as little more than "fancy autocomplete" that will never replace a "real" engineer. Both sides miss the nuanced re
A5 Pentagons Are the New Bestagons Jan 19, 2026 2241 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 Sys
The Sustainable Path for Open Source Businesses Jan 8, 2026 2178 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 com

Recommended