WHAT IS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE? It’s software thatshares the actual instruction code, and the binary you run on your computer. There are different versions and variants of how that sharing happens. Essentially, you get access to the underlying recipe of the software. You can modify it and adapt it for your needs. This episode is all about building a business based on open source GIS software.

On one side, we have the promise of personalization of being seen and understood, provided we share our data about how we interact with the world. That data can be used to make things better. On the other side, we risk being exposed or being manipulated and treated like a product instead of the customer. In terms of data privacy, location plays a massive role. We, the geospatial community, play a role in this conversation.

Artists, mathematicians, and scientists think about their work as a structure that already exists. Their job is to chip away at the detritus. They clear the noise and the content that distracts. They dig up the bones of a fossil and work on revealing a structure that’s already there.

Take Michelangelo, who, by his own admission, was onlyfreeing David from the surrounding marble.

Mapmakers let the geographic content ̶ the data and the layers ̶ communicate.