In this episode Ed chats with Sarah Hoffmann, long time OpenStreetMap contributor, software developer, and the primary maintainer of Nominatim, the main OpenStreetMap geocoding software. We go deep on the difficulty of geocoding - especially on top of an every-changing, crowdsourced data set like OpenStreetMap. Nominatim is immensely powerful, handling about 400 requests per second as the search on openstreetmap.org. Sarah explains the tech stack, and also the challenges of managing such a technically complex and publicly visible open-source project.
At OpenCage we rely heavily on Nominatim and are delighted to help support Sarah's work financially - and of course also with code contributions.
Interested in geocoding? Please get involved with Nominatim.
Relevant links:
On the Geomob podcast every week we discuss themes from the geo industry, interview Geomob speakers, and provide regular updates about our own projects.
The Geomob podcast is hosted by:
Host Ed Freyfogle
Ed Freyfogle, co-founder of OpenCage
Host Steven Feldman
Steven Feldman, of KnowWhere Consulting
Host Alastair Graham
Alastair Graham, freelance geospatial/earth observation consultant.