#45: Making Earth Observation FAIR with Nadine Alameh, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC)

Today, I am speaking with Nadine Alameh, the CEO of Open Geospatial Consortium, an international organisation dedicated to making geospatial data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) through consensus-based standards, collaborative innovation projects, and industry partnerships.

I wanted to have Nadine on the podcast to speak about the importance of standards and interoperability in Earth observation - an area that I think doesn't get a lot of attention. If you have listened to some past episodes, I have touched on this topic quite a bit. I put this into a category of problems that I call "boring problems" in an ironic way - because they may look boring, but unless they are solved the industry cannot move forward. And I think it is very much the case in EO as more and more satellites with a variety of sensors are launched, but is all that data really useful if they are not accessible, usable or fusable?

In this episode, Nadine and I discuss her story, what OGC does, the ongoing gold rush in EO, standards and interoperability, the role of the private sector in developing that and more. 

Website: https://www.ogc.org/

Nadine's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinealameh

Nadine's Twitter: https://twitter.com/nadinesa

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Thanks to Geoawesomeness for being one of the contributors to this podcast.

Geoawesomeness is a community-based platform for all things geospatial and Earth observation. I wanted to mention one of their recent initiatives called Earth Observation Hub. 

Earth Observation Hub or EO Hub, from Geoawesomeness, is a one-stop-shop for all topics related to geospatial data. It's made for policymakers, business leaders, geospatial experts, and enthusiasts, to showcase how EO is transforming our world. Built in collaboration with UP42, an EO startup, EO Hub has curated articles, podcasts, webinars and much more. 

I recommend you check out EO Hub at geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub"

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02:18: Nadine’s story and learnings from her startup experience

11:52: What is OGC?

15:49: Examples of OGC’s projects and activities

21:12: The rationale for OGC to exist and its importance for EO

26:23: The EO gold rush and working on boring problems

31:14: The role of the private sector is developing standards

35:01: The similarity and difference with what happened with meteorological data

38:03: The role of EO data platform companies and how long we wait for standards

42:57: What can we change in EO

46:03: Wrap-up