PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
August 2016
585
A N I N T E R V I E W
Originally created as a response to Alyssa Wright’s talk
challenging the lack of diversity in OpenStreetMap
contributions, Maptime is designed as a space for people
to create and learn together, regardless of skill level, with
an international reach. Each chapter has its own activities,
but everyone is invited to bring their own projects, socialize,
or hang out with people with the same love of the mapping
sciences.
ASPRS recently spoke to Brian Davidson, co-organizer of
MaptimeDC, and a UI/UX Developer with DigitalGlobe in
Herndon, Virginia. MaptimeDC has provided a wide variety
of events to the DC area since 2014, including Learning
QGIS, using DC’s Open GIS data, and a mapathon of Nepal
in conjunction with the Red Cross. Their website is
How long as the DC chapter of Maptime been around?
How did it get started?
Maptime DC was initiated at State of the Map 2014 in
DC, where there was an informal session on how to start
new chapters. This is where the original organizers met
and started to bring Maptime DC into action. Our first
Maptime was in June 2014 and we have been meeting
consistently since then.
What sort of workshops does MaptimeDC offer that would
be of interest to GIS, photogrammetric, and remote
sensing students and professionals?
Maptime DC does beginner-focused workshops on modern
mapping tools and geographic concepts based on what
members would like to see. We’ve offered a wide variety of
hands-on workshops on various tools including including
Esri Story Maps, QGIS, OpenStreetMap, and Mapbox, and
presentations on geographic concepts including geodata
formats, map projections, and web map anatomy. We have
also done talks on web technologies and have plans to
expand to other areas for the future.
On June 13, 2013, around 6:30 pm, a
group of attendees at the 2013 State
of the Map US conference gathered
in a San Francisco office for the first
Maptime, an informal get-together of
people interested in mapping that has
grown to an organization with chapters
all over the US and on nearly every
continent. Maptime is an open learning
environment for all experience levels
and skill sets, from beginners to those with advanced degrees. Maptime
creates a space for mapping tutorials, workshops, ongoing projects, and
independent/collaborative work time.
What have been some of the current projects MaptimeDC
has put on?
Maptime DC doesn’t necessarily having ongoing projects,
though we do host project nights every few months where
members come with their own passion projects they have
been working on. Maptime DC has also paired with the Red
Cross and Missing Maps a few times to cohost mapathons
where participants fill in disaster-prone regions of the
world that are underrepresented in OpenStreetMap.
What is the skill level of the average MaptimeDC
participant?
This varies from meetup to meetup – we will often have
participants with degrees in geography or do GIS in their
day job attend. Typically, these attendees are not experts
in that night’s topic and want to learn more. We also see
complete geo-beginners frequently attend – these are
people who are starting to work with maps in their job,
have a side project with a mapping component, or are
simply interested in learning more. We encourage anyone
and everyone who is eager to learn more about mapping to
attend a meetup!
What does a typical MaptimeDC meetup consist of?
Most meetups consist of chatting and networking as people
get settled in, and then we do a round of introductions so
people can meet each other. People pull out their laptops
and we will either launch into a workshop (demonstration
and tutorial) or a lecture with links and activities for
people to follow along with.
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 82, No. 8, August 2016, pp. 585–586.
0099-1112/16/585–586
© 2016 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.82.8.585
