Barbara Ryan - How Landsat Became Free & Open - MBM #21

Barbara Ryan was instrumental in the policy change in 2008 that opened up the Landsat data to being freely & openly available for anyone to access. This resulted in more than 100x uptake in the number of imagery downloaded and fundamentally changed the Earth Observation industry.She is currently the Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council---Episode Sponsors:Radiant Earth Foundation: Apply for the 2022 Radiant MLHub Impact Award for agriculture-related applications for Africa - with a $5,000 cash prize.Element84Dan Pilone’s appearance on the podcast---About Barbara:TwitterLinkedIn Shownotes:We recorded this interview while Barbara was in Amsterdam for the Geospatial World ForumLandsat policy change documentGilberto Camara at the time Chief of INPE: Brazilian National Institute for Space ResearchMark Mayers, former Director of USGSWorld Geospatial Industry CouncilGEO: Group on Earth Observations: the organization, not the field ;-)Books recommendations:Ender’s Game by Orson Scott CardSnow Crash by Neal StephensonTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction02:56 - Importance of in-person conversation05:52 - Connecting people08:00 - Reaching people beyond languages10:43 - Landsat pre-2008: before it was free & open19:09 - Impact of the giving the data away for free21:51 - Details on the policy change: push-backs & financial incentives28:43 - The direct impact on the USGS30:39 - International collaboration32:32 - Domino Effect: The impact of Landsat on offer Open Data Policies36:02 - Potential unexpected negative effects37:41 - The scale of the impact opening up Landsat had41:13 - Don’t use data as your transactional currency44:14 - Making satellite imagery accessible beyond the data52:00 - Distributing data as easily as possible57:07 - Spicy politics story involving the Secretary of Interior1:04:21 - Open Data should not be taken for granted1:11:31 - Thoughts on Commercial Earth Observation1:14:16 - Open Data Policies for Commercial EO: Parallels with the Gaming Industry1:23:18 - Improving Communications in Science1:28:41 - Earth Observation could learn to tell stories from the Gaming Industry1:34:21: Barbara’s current role1:39:04 - Being better ambassadors of Geospatial1:42:32 - WGIC’s funding model1:45:36: - Barbara retiring only to come back multiple times1:51:12 - Book recommendations1:53:21 - Advice for younger people Feel free to reach out!My TwitterFor news about the podcastWebsite