The author, Ross Lawley, used open data from OpenStreetMap to gather information about popular pub names in the UK. He utilized the MongoDB aggregation framework to group and sort the data by pub name, ultimately determining the top 5 most popular pub names. The author then filtered the results to find the top pub names near a specific location, using GeoJSON coordinates to limit the search radius. Finally, Ross created a dynamic demo code that allows users to input their own location and view the top 5 most popular pub names near them.