Blog
Oct 13, 2026 |
The unglamorous work of making open map data fit together
If you work in geospatial, your first reaction to "Overture Maps" was probably some version of: don't we already have enough maps? OpenStreetMap exists. Google and Microsoft have their own. Cities publish authoritative data. So why does the world need one more? That's the question MapScaping Podcast Host Daniel O’Donahue…
Oct 8, 2026 |
Stronger Together: Why We’re Building the Overture Community Badge Program
Overture Maps data doesn’t build itself. Behind every schema fix, every dataset we conflate into GERS, and every hour spent on those early-morning working group calls, there are actual human beings doing the heavy lifting. In my 27 years in the geospatial industry, from my time as an Army collection…
Sep 24, 2026 |
Rethinking the Foundation: Why Geospatial Innovation Demands a New Playbook
Earlier this month, I had the privilege of joining a panel at the GeoGov Summit alongside leaders from across government, commercial, and research sectors, including Michael Halem (DOT), Mike Tischler (USGS), Jerry Johnston (Deloitte), Craig Weinschenk (UL Research Institutes), and Kate Hickey (Sanborn). We tackled a challenge that is rapidly…
Sep 17, 2026 |
How do you trust open map data in an agentic AI world?
If you've ever pulled up a map on your phone, checked a flood zone before buying a house, or wondered how a delivery app always seems to know exactly where you are, you've relied on geospatial data - probably without giving it a second thought. Overture Maps CTO Amy Rose…
Aug 6, 2026 |
On the Ground at the 2026 Esri User Conference
The conversations we had at the 2026 Esri User Conference (Esri UC) pointed to something real: more teams across more sectors are reaching for open, standardized spatial data. On the plenary stage, an Esri team member ran Overture Places live in ArcGIS Online - 43 million points rendering in real…
Jul 29, 2026 |
Finding the Front Door: How Zephr is Collaborating with Overture to Teach AI Agents to Understand the World Around Them
Walk down Pearl Street in Boulder, Colorado with Sean Gorman and he'll point out things most people filter out: which storefront signs are actually visible from the sidewalk, which business entrances face the street and which open onto an alley, which coffee shop's awning is the only thing telling it…
Jul 22, 2026 |
From Concept to Prototype: Grounding AI & LLMs with Overture’s Cross-Theme Knowledge Graph
LLMs are good with text and bad with coordinates, so they guess when asked where things are. Overture is testing whether map geometry itself can become the connective layer across data themes, giving AI a verifiable spatial graph to reason over. ORATOR, a prototype built by Overture member Wherobots, (led…
Jul 13, 2026 |
Overture hits 50: Building the Open Foundation for a Connected World
As Overture Maps Foundation grows the ecosystem to 50 members, that milestone is really a story about the people and organizations behind it. From government agencies streamlining how they share local data, to research foundations advancing disaster resilience, to companies grounding AI in real-world places, Overture's members bring a wide…
Jul 2, 2026 |
Notes from the Field: SOTM US 2026 in Madison
My trip to Madison started with chasing the sunset. The city looked magical, with an island splitting the lake in two, and the sky, the clouds, and the lake's reflection each holding a different color. I was mesmerized, but mostly more excited about the event ahead and the chance to…
Jun 30, 2026 |
Keeping Overture Places Fresh with Combined Signals
Maintaining an accurate Places dataset at scale is challenging: Businesses are always changing, with 1 in 4 businesses opening, closing, or relocating each year. This requires a constant supply of fresh data to remain up-to-date. However, fragmented approaches and hesitant sharing have traditionally led to incomplete and outdated location data.…
