May 2024 Summaries

The Mobile World Congress, held annually in Barcelona, is a major exhibition for the mobile industry and CARTO will be attending it for the fifth consecutive year. The conference features over 8 core themes that highlight areas of change and development across the industry, with Location Intelligence being a central component in several of these themes. CARTO's team will be available to connect with experts on utilizing Location Intelligence, and attendees can find them at various locations throughout the event, including the Estonia Pavilion and Vodafone's exhibition stand. Additionally, CARTO's VP of Sales Jaime de Mora will be giving a session at 4YFN: CARTO, Scaling From Cool Maps to Location Intelligence Leader.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) is an annual event that promises to be full of exciting new technologies and announcements, attracting over 100,000 tech professionals from around the world. The conference features various sessions and experiences, including the Showcase Stage, which showcases new companies and facilitates informal conversations and demonstrations with attendees. A notable pilot project called "Connected Tourist" will be presented, exploring how big data can improve the tourism experience in Barcelona. Additionally, there are sessions on smart cities, IoT platforms, and more, making MWC a must-attend event for anyone interested in the latest tech trends and innovations. CARTO's team will also be present at the conference, offering one-on-one meetings with attendees.

The conference calendar for 2017 includes various events focused on location intelligence (LI) and its applications in different industries, such as analytics, data visualization, geospatial analysis, machine learning, and smart cities. CARTO Locations is a two-day summit exploring the world of LI, while other notable conferences include GISTAM, MLconf, Strata Data Conference, Deep Learning Summit, Geo IoT World 2017, Smart Cities Connect Conference and Expo, ICC 2017: International Cartographic Conference, Esri User Conference, SciPy 2017: Scientific Computing with Python, ICGSAM 2017, FOSS4G, GIS and Remote Sensing Conference, Smart Cities Week, North American Cartographic Information Society, State of the Map US, GIS-Pro 2017, and ACM SigSpatial 2017. These events provide a platform for professionals to learn about LI and its applications, network with peers, and stay updated on industry trends.

The North American Cartographic Information Society’s annual meeting took place in Montreal, Canada, providing a platform for GIS professionals to learn new tips and techniques from industry experts. CARTO representatives were present, sharing their expertise on data-driven cartography and web map responsiveness. The conference featured various presentations, including talks by Wenfei Xu about "Ghost Cities of China," Lyzi Diamond's illustrated explanation of projection usage, Aaron Dennis' solution for generating static infographics, and others showcasing innovative mapping techniques such as animated drainage maps and custom area selection tools.

Several members of the CARTO team are attending Dreamforce 2017, a large conference on sales and customer success. They will share more about their location-based sales analytics solution, SalesQuest, and integrating with Salesforce to bring geospatial data into the CRM. The team is also excited to participate in various panels and discussions, including keynotes and breakout sessions such as Embedded Analytics and Location-Aware Salesforce Development. Several CARTO leaders and Account Executives will be on-site at Dreamforce and would love to meet attendees.

The demand for data scientists to understand and use geospatial analysis has led to new trends and innovations in the field of data science, with a focus on spatial data and analysis inspiring CARTO's Spatial Data Science Conference. The conference will feature talks on working with GPS data, the emergence of spatial statistics, and spatial data science fueling route optimization. As the amount of GPS data grows, agile approaches and attention to spatial components are becoming increasingly important to make sense of this information, while spatial statistics help extract meaningful insights from geographical data. Spatial data science is also being used to optimize routes in logistics and transportation problems, with innovative processes being developed to determine the most cost-efficient route given constraints.

The Data Through Design exhibition, held at the Made in NY Media Center by IFP, is a collaboration between Pratt SAVI and Enigma to explore how open data shapes living conditions for New Yorkers. The event aims to raise awareness about working with open data and its discontents, including issues of data interpretation, implicit biases, and policy implementation. Several projects, such as "Broken Windows and Pink Tickets" and "How We Die," expose the repercussions of confusing data for information, while others, like "Manhattan Tree Topography," highlight the importance of urban planning and design in creating open cities. The exhibition also touches on topics such as road safety, government employee experiences, and the need for more nuanced approaches to understanding city living conditions.

FOSS4G, an annual International Conference for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial, was held in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference saw a significant increase in interest from business professionals, with B2B sessions and events featuring geospatial solutions for cities, governments, and businesses. Real-time data syncing capabilities were highlighted as a key innovation, with attendees expressing interest in using geospatial tools for data science projects. Serverless architectures were also a topic of attention, allowing for complex computations including spatial analytics. The conference featured presentations on open source libraries such as PROJ.4, which has faced similar challenges to other popular libraries like JTS. Overall, the FOSS4G conference showcased the growing impact and appeal of geospatial data sharing technologies, with attendees from various industries and backgrounds coming together to discuss the benefits of software freedom.

The CARTO Spatial Data Science Conference 2018 will take place in October at their Brooklyn office, featuring a keynote address by Marc DaCosta and lightning talks from experts working with spatial data science to solve real-world problems. The event aims to bring together private sector, local government, and academia professionals to share knowledge and best practices in the field of urban data science. The conference will showcase various presentation formats, including panel discussions and practitioner demos on tools such as Uber's geospatial visualization tools and Google Streetview, highlighting the diverse range of applications and use cases for spatial data science.

The article highlights various Location Intelligence conferences around the world for spring 2018, targeting professionals in data science, development, analysis, spatial, and geospatial fields. Conferences include GeoSmart Asia and Locate 2018, American Association of Geographers 2018, Data Visualization Summit, CARTO Locations, GEOINT Symposium 2018, Enterprise Data World, The MidAmerica GIS Consortium: Magic 2018, EnerGIS 2018, 2018 Center for Geographic Analysis Conference: Illuminating Space and Time in Data Science, Data Science Salon: Dallas, Artificial Intelligence Conference: New York City, Collision: binate.io, ODSC East, FIG 2018, Smart Cities Week: California, ISPRS-TC3 Symposium, FOSS4G North America, TRELIS Madison 2018, Strata Data Conference: London, WAURISA 2018 GIS Conference, GEO Business 2018, CARTO Locations, and Locate. The events cover a range of topics including geospatial technologies, data science, AI development, big data, open source innovations, IoT, and smart cities.

The upcoming CARTO Locations Madrid summit will feature 33 speakers presenting the latest industry trends, technology innovations and use cases in Location Intelligence. The event will highlight new product offerings, analysis and data streams from CARTO's latest Location Intelligence solutions, as well as exciting announcements on custom app development, customer-centric UX design, and new libraries for various industries. The summit will also showcase case studies and lightning talks from clients who have successfully implemented Location Intelligence to solve real-world problems in fields such as smart cities, food insecurity, environmental conservation, and more.

The Spatial Data Science Conference 2024 (SDSC24) brought together over 600 attendees from more than 200 companies across various industries, highlighting the growing relevance of spatial data science in diverse sectors. The conference focused on three main themes: climate change, GeoAI, and data integration in the cloud. CARTO announced several new product updates, including AI agents that utilize latest LLM models to simplify complex spatial analysis, and a new edition of Analytics Toolbox for Databricks. Raster Parquet was also unveiled, allowing seamless interoperability with non-geospatial data and supporting projections and encodings. The conference featured presentations on the impact of climate change, GeoAI applications, and data integration in the cloud, as well as tools like Google Earth Engine and Amazon's GeoAI capabilities. The New York edition of SDSC24 will take place on October 16th & 17th at Columbia University, with a call for speakers now open.

The CARTO.js 4.0 beta release provides an updated JavaScript library for creating custom UI components, such as widgets and pop-ups, with enhanced data extraction and filtering capabilities. The new version allows developers to build visually stunning and functional applications using location intelligence tools. A recent internal hackathon showcased the library's potential by demonstrating various use cases, including displaying US wildfires, exploring regional patterns in place names, and visualizing bike ride intensity. The CARTO.js 4.0 beta release includes changes to the JavaScript library only, with a future enhancement planned for core application maintenance.

The 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, provided a rich source of data for journalists and storytellers, with various maps and visualizations showcasing the geopolitically significant event, athlete performance, and demographic insights. Data visualization tools like Google Trends, YouGov, and SnapMap enabled analysis of search trends, country-specific sports preferences, and real-time event reporting, providing new insights into international politics, sports, and statistics. The Olympics also generated large quantities of location data, which can be used to analyze spatial patterns, athlete performance, and geographical differences in Olympic success. Emerging technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, and spatial analysis will continue to grow, yielding more powerful and insightful stories from future Olympic events.

CARTO has introduced a new feature called CARTO Boundaries that enables faster data visualizations in spatial applications by using official administrative, postal and statistical boundaries. This feature is included in the deck.gl v9 module and offers a simplified architecture for large scale spatial visualizations. By separating data from static boundary geometries, it accelerates map visualizations and reduces the need to process heavy geometry data in every query. CARTO Boundaries allows developers to join client-side data tables with pre-generated vector tilesets, which includes boundary geometries, simplifying the application architecture. The feature is available in public preview and can be used with Google BigQuery and Snowflake, with plans to expand the collection of pre-generated tilesets to more countries and types of boundaries.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has launched Resource Watch, a dynamic platform that provides access to hundreds of trusted and relevant datasets on various topics from around the world. This platform aims to visualize the interconnectedness of global sustainability challenges, such as climate change, food security, land degradation, water scarcity, and more, by overlaying and interacting with data hand-picked by WRI experts. Resource Watch builds upon the success of Global Forest Watch, a dynamic forest monitoring platform that provided near-real-time deforestation data and tools for interactive mapping and spatial analysis. The platform allows users to access and map datasets, layer them onto one another, and work at the intersection of issues impacting our planet. It also features The Planet Pulse tool, which pulls data from satellites and ground sensors to provide a global snapshot of factors affecting people's lives daily. Resource Watch is an open-source platform with a team of experts who select reliable and accurate datasets, ensuring users have access to high-quality data for further use. By democratizing data access and broadening understanding, Resource Watch aims to help build solutions and raise awareness on global issues.

When building new software applications, developers face doubts about design decisions that impact user experience. To solve this problem, CARTO developed the Airship front-end library, a comprehensive CSS framework and Location Intelligence component library offering ready-to-use layout elements, components, CSS styles, and icons with user-centric designs. Airship eliminates guesswork in app design, allowing developers to focus on problem-solving features that attract new business. The typical Airship app layout includes maps, charts, and other interactive elements, facilitating viewer engagement. Airship also provides a simple API connecting charts to their source data, ensuring dynamic updates when map zoom levels change. With Airship's predefined CSS styles and basic UI components, developers can create consistent and synchronized workflows for UI elements, reducing tedious tasks. Airship works with any browser and framework, including React, Vue, or JavaScript plain, and is designed to be cross-browser compatible and responsive on mobile devices.

CARTO has released an updated version of its Spatial Features data product, adding new variables that model human activity, night light intensity, and the presence of telecommunications infrastructure. The Human Activity Index assigns a score to represent the level of human activity in a given grid cell, while other new features include night-time lights and cell tower count. These additions aim to increase efficiency for data science teams by reducing time spent curating spatial data.