In a previous blog post we described our project to support climate-smart agriculture project through data-informed decision making. Back in September, we identified a number of key questions our clients and community partners were interested in answering: • What is the full geographic extent of the work we are supporting?...

While many of the projects we work on require digital solutions, we sometimes get the opportunity to work on innovative hardware projects. In a recent blog post we discussed our latest project, Portable OpenStreetMap (POSM) which facilitates offline mapping efforts, in situations when internet access is not reliable or absent....

Happy International Women’s Day! Today is a great opportunity to reflect on women’s accomplishments and challenges. Let’s take a look at some of these. OpenStreetMap, for example, is hosting several Mapathons geared toward women and girls: The OpenStreetMap community encourages diversity among its contributors to support digital literacy, and to...

If you find yourself in Seattle between now and May 8th, make sure to stop at the SAM (Seattle Art Museum) to check out the Kehinde Wiley exhibition. The exhibit, titled “A New Republic,” is a great collection of this young artist’s very distinct style and point of view. Kehinde...

First, what is SSL? SSL stands for “Secure Sockets Layer” and is a technology that creates an encrypted link between a client (browser, native mobile app, etc.) and a web server. Pair SSL with HTTP and you get HTTPS. By using HTTPS for your network traffic, all data passed between...

The University of Washington Botanic Gardens Arboretum is home to more than 15,000 plants and trees. It’s easy to (figuratively) get lost in its 230 acres, but the Arboretum wants to help its visitors find their way through its vast gardens and plant collections. The Arboretum enlisted the help of...

In recent months, we have engaged in an initiative to automate application deployments and IT infrastructure. As our server-side application stack has evolved, it has become more critical than ever that we employ reliable, replicable methods of software installation and configuration. This is especially true for the management of various...

Introduction The Value Proposition of Open Data Data is the fuel of the current information age revolution. Numerous sources have pointed out that more data is generated today than at any other time in history. Today’s data is richer, more heterogeneous, and increasingly more complex than the data of years...

This week, we kicked off an exciting new project to further develop the OpenMapKit and help take field surveys and geographic data collection using OpenStreetMap to a whole new level. Working alongside the talented team at Stamen Design and The Red Cross, we will be enabling remote field surveys and...

Spatial Development International, LLC (SpatialDev), announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Grant McKenzie, Ph.D., Chief Data Scientist, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled “A social media data-driven platform for informed data...