Miriam Gonzalez
Miriam is passionate about how Geospatial data and Earth Observation technologies can change the world. She is doing Partnerships between Space and Geospatial organizations at UP42, an organization that aims to democratize data accessibility from Space and Geospatial industries and support companies to derive insights to solve challenges on Earth. For the past years, Miriam has been involved in different Geospatial initiatives such as Geochicas where she promotes more women participation and knowledge sharing in the Geospatial spaces. Promoting OpenStreetMap and Humanitarian OpenStreetMap (HOTOSM) in the one she is Voting Member and was President of the Board of Directors 2019-2021. She participates in these initiatives by giving workshops, conferences and coordinating efforts among Open Data key players and most recently is part of the FIRE project (Forum for Innovation and Research in European Earth Observation) as an EO Evangelist in the Energy sector. Currently, she is involved in Earth Observation, Data Analytics and Open Data initiatives.
Sessions
It makes me very happy that this year there is a topic focused on "Building a business with FOSS4G". Last year I attended other Geospatial industry events in the ones I spoke with people from different organizations and some of the comments I received when mentioning I am an Open Source advocate was that it is great that Open Source exists because it can help students who can't afford licenses, this is one of the very recurrent comments I hear, another comment is that Open Source is for companies with no money. From my point of view, we, the community need to find a way to communicate better the values and benefits of Open Source so we can change this mindset that still exists.
More than a talk I would like to organize a panel with 3-4 Open Source Entrepreneurs in the one we have an open discussion about how we can change that mindset and impulse more business opportunities together.
Back in my childhood, I fell in love with Space by watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos Television series and a local kids' TV show with a Planetary rocket named "Popotito 22" which traveled through time and Space. Several decades later I still remember Carl Sagan's words speaking in Mexican Spanish and explaining the wonders of our Pale Blue Dot, this love took me to the Earth Observation field. Last year in the talk I gave in FOSS4G Kosovo, "Unlocking the potential of Earth Observation combining Optical and SAR data" I realized how useful it could be a talk about the current state of Earth Observation, most of the FOSS4G attendees were very knowledgeable about the Copernicus and Landsat programs but there is so much more happening in the New Space Industry where several commercial companies are also committed with Open Data programs so they can help organizations to build more solutions and keep supporting startups, research and education in this briliant field.
In this talk, I want to share what is happening today in the New Space Industry, which companies are launching Satellites and developing new sensors, how "space buses" are supporting reducing Satellite costs and making Space Data costs even more accessible, how Platforms are a way to facilitate the access of all this Data available and also how these sensors have a variety of applications of EO. In my current role I do Partnerships with Satellite and Geospatial companies, in four years, together with my team we have signed more than 80 partnerships.