making things. saying things.

At Mapzen, we start from the assumption that fully open software and data isn’t just the best model, it should be the inevitable one. Ideally someday, companies and developers will work together on opening the inaccessible core of mapping technology. Instead of competing to have the best data or the fastest geocoder, they can compete somewhere more interesting, like their products.

The Mapzen graphics team has been working on an open-source mapping library called Tangram that uses ideas and techniques from 3D animation, video games, and other visual disciplines.

This month's meetup focuses on satellites. Big satellites! Little satellites! Remote sensing and the politics of seeing at a distance!

We spent some time with the folks at Mapillary, a company based in Sweden that's crowdsourcing street view imagery.