 After a few weeks of #geoweirdness threads, this weekend let's switch things up and do some #geoeducation One topic that often comes up around location data is privacy ๐ต๏ธ If you accurately know where someone spends their time, you can often figure out who they are. Users of our geocoding API have to send us location info. So, how can they ensure privacy? ๐๐งต๐ This week's #geoweirdness thread is dedicated to our friends up north in Finland ๐ซ๐ฎ since in two day's time (on ๐๏ธ April 9th) Geomob Finland will take place in Turku. So what's geoweird about Finland? ๐๐งต๐ Details of #geomobfin on April 9th: 2/ A famous Finnish geographic oddity is the tiny island of Mรคrket crossed by the Finland ๐ซ๐ฎ / Sweden ๐ธ๐ช border. After Finland built a lighthouse in 1885 on the island's highest point it was realised the lighthouse was actually on the Swedish side, so the border was adjusted via a land swap to include the lighthouse in 1985.  A mere four hours to go until this month's #fridaygeotrivia contest See you here at โฒ๏ธ17:00 Berlin ๐ฉ๐ช / 4p London ๐ฌ๐ง / noon New York ๐บ๐ธ time. Details: https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/geotrivia-march-2024 1/ Next week (26th March ๐๏ธ) is the first ever Geomob Edinburgh, which is reason enough for us to turn this week's #geoweirdness focus to Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ ๐๐งต๐ Details of @geomob #geomobEDI 2/ So first up Scotland ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ is #geoweird in that it's not really clear what exactly it is. Is it a country? A region? A country within a country? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_of_the_United_Kingdom It's part of the UK ๐ฌ๐ง, but has its own legal system: Some day we'll do a UK #geoweirdness thread, but be warned it will very, very long. No country (countries?) is/are as odd. Last week's #geoeducation thread seemed to really resonate, so let's do another. Many people come to our service because they need geocoding. They don't (yet) really know anything about open data. So this week let's break down why using open data matters. #opendata ๐๐งต๐ 2/ The "open" in "open data" has to do with the idea that you have freedom to do more with the data. Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_data But what exactly does that mean in the context of geodata? Let's close out the week with a geo thread. This time #geoeducation rather than #geoweirdness Today we feature our address-formatting project. What is it, and what is the problem we are trying to solve? ๐๐งต๐ 2/ Here's the problem: addresses all over the world do not look the same. Different countries do things differently, and sometimes there are even differences within countries. Some countries have postcodes, other don't. Some have states/provinces or abbreviations in their address. And different pieces of the address are ordered differently. It's a mess. ๐  @opencage As a person from ๐ช๐ช Estonia I should mention it :) #fridaygeotrivia (wouldn't the list be like 150 countries long?..) Don't forget - #fridaygeotrivia later today. Who will take home the coveted emoji trophy ๐ ? The game begins at 17:00 Berlin time / 4pm London / 11am New York. Details: Despite this being a leap year, this Friday, the 23rd ๐๏ธ is already the final Friday of the month, which of course means we will again play #fridaygeotrivia See you here at 17:00 Berlin ๐ฉ๐ช time / 4pm London ๐ฌ๐ง / 11am New York ๐บ๐ธ Details and rules: https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/geotrivia-february-2024 Past questions: https://blog.opencagedata.com/tagged/fridaygeotrivia Don't forget! #fridaygeotrivia is today! We play here on mastodon at 17:00 Berlin ๐ฉ๐ช time / 4pm London ๐ฌ๐ง / 11am New York ๐บ๐ธ Who will start 2024 with the coveted emoji trophy ๐? rules / details: Most of this week the OpenCage team is back in London ๐ฌ๐ง for a day of team planning, meetings, and Geomob @geomob on the evening of Wednesday, the 24th. Come along if you are in London, the speaker lineup looks great, and the post talk discussion over drinks is always fun: https://thegeomob.com/post/jan-24th-2024-geomoblon-details Big thanks to Geovation for again hosting Geomob, and our fellow sponsors GEOLYTIX, Ed Parsons, Esri UK, SplashMaps, and @mappery Let's close out the week with a geo thread. This time #geoeducation rather than #geoweirdness Today's topic is one that doesn't get as much respect as it should. Today though we'll cover the opposite: reverse geocoding 1/n 2/ Reverse geocoding is turning coordinates (latitude, longitude) into location info. So 52.3877830, 9.7334394 becomes "Philipsbornstraรe 2, 30165 Hanover, Germany" as you can see on our demo page. Those are the coordinates of OpenCage HQ, BTW So far, so simple, right? @opencage Regarding reverse geocoding with OpenStreetMap, there are some other complications one should be aware of. Like polygons and interpolations. I'd recommend my own FOSDEM talk, "Reverse Geocoding Is Not Easy": Feeling like you didn't get much done in 2023? Well, it is not too late, you can still close out the year with a victory in #fridaygeotrivia We play this Friday ๐๏ธ 29th Dec. at 17:00 ๐ Berlin ๐ฉ๐ช time, 4pm ๐ London ๐ฌ๐ง, 11am ๐ New York ๐บ๐ธ Details / rules / etc: https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/geotrivia-december-2023 Wait, what's that there behind the tree? ๐ Could it be ... yes, it is! Our Christmas gift ๐ to you, our followers ... a #geoweirdness thread about ... Christmas Island ๐จ๐ฝ 1/n 2/ The island was named Christmas Island ๐จ๐ฝ when it was sited by an English sea captain on 25 December 1643. Christmas Island is an external territory of Australia ๐ฆ๐บ, but for historical reasons it has its own ISO 3166-1 code: "CX", a good example of why our geocoding API returns both ISO codes and a "country_code" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/States_and_territories_of_Australia#External_territories Looking for that extra edge against fierce #fridaygeotrivia competition? Best thing to do is quiz yourself with the past questions, which you can also find over on the blog: See you here on the 29th! Until then we wish everyone an enjoyable and relaxing holiday break with friends and family.  |
Gregory's Server
2/ From day one, we've known one of the key value propositions of our geocoding API is that some customers really do NOT want to share data with Google and other internet giants.
So privacy has been a continual focus for us, not an afterthought.
We're a ๐ฉ๐ช ๐ช๐บ German legal entity thus fully compliant with GDPR.
Here's our GDPR policy: https://opencagedata.com/gdpr
and you can easily see all the details of exactly who we are on our about page: https://opencagedata.com/about
#geoeducation