I came across the company MapTiler and its founder, Petr Pidal, in 2017 when it was still called Klokantech1. The company has progressed remarkably, currently boasting more than 9,000 clients and 500 million people per month viewing their maps!2 Yesterday, I attended MapTiler Connect in Zurich. Compared to the usual large GIS gatherings, this event achieved something rare: it combined genuine warmth, technical excellence, and a visible commitment to open-source.
Three things presented at the event stuck with me:
- Digital cartography done right. MapTiler is doubling down on map quality. The level-of-detail slider was elegant, and the global rollout of relief generalization felt like a modern tribute to Eduard Imhof (and utilized research by the ETH).
- GeoSplats: Where Gaussian splatting meets maps. Gaussian splatting is the current buzz in 3D technology, and MapTiler has extended it with GeoSplats: a tiling scheme for splats and integration with generative AI to enhance – or create – 3D scenes. We should watch what will happen in the future at geosplats.org.
- A real open-source gesture. The new MapTiler Foundation signals serious intent. A contribution of $100k isn’t symbolic, but substantial! I heard it even began as a grassroots employee initiative. The obvious pick for funding would be GDAL – because, frankly, everything in geospatial depends on it.
All in all, it was a well-run and inspiring event by a small team and with a list of interesting guests. Kudos to Petr and the MapTiler team!
Footnotes
The founder, Petr Pidal, has also been the organizer of GeoBeer #21.↩︎
This estimate also includes map views in TV news shows. Still, the number is impressive.↩︎