Great Data Products

Jed talks with Kwin Keuter and Brad Andrick, geospatial software engineers at Earth Genome, about the Storm Events Database Explorer. This collaborative project between Earth Genome, The Commons, and the Internet of Water Coalition provides access to over 1.9 million U.S. severe weather events spanning 70+ years of NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) storm records, including tornadoes, floods, hail, and hurricanes.
Links and Resources
Storm Events Database Explorer — Interactive map and search interface
Storm Events Database on Source Cooperative — Cloud-optimized Parquet files
Earth Genome blog post on the project — Technical process and discovery work
The Commons case study — Project background and case study
NOAA Storm Events Database — Original NOAA dataset and beta interface
GeoParquet.io — Chris Holmes’s project for working with Parquet files

More show notes and transcript at https://greatdataproducts.com/episodes/2026/02/keuter-andrick-storm-events/

Jed talks with Denice Ross, Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists and former U.S. Chief Data Scientist, about federal data's role in American life and what happens when government data tools sunset. Denice led efforts to use disaggregated data to drive better outcomes for all Americans during her time as Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and now works on building a Federal Data Use Case Repository documenting how federal datasets affect everyday decisions.

The conversation explores why open data initiatives have evolved over the years and how administrative priorities shape public data tool availability. Denice emphasizes that federal data underpins economic growth, public health decisions, and governance at every level. She describes how data users can engage with data stewards to create feedback loops that improve data quality, and why nonprofits and civil society organizations play an essential role in both data collection and advocacy.

Throughout the discussion, Denice and Jed examine the balance between official government data products and innovative tools built by external organizations. They discuss creative solutions for filling data gaps, the importance of identifying tools as "powered by federal data" to preserve datasets, and strategies for protecting federal data accessibility for the long term.

LINKS AND RESOURCES
- Denice Ross at the Federation of American Scientists: https://fas.org/expert/denice-ross/
- The federal data and tools that died this year (Marketplace): https://www.marketplace.org/episode/2025/11/25/the-federal-data-and-tools-that-died-this-year

TAKEAWAYS
1. Federal data underpins daily life — From public health decisions to economic planning, federal datasets inform choices that affect Americans whether they realize it or not.
2. Data tools require active protection — When administrative priorities shift, public data tools can disappear. Building awareness of data dependencies helps preserve access.
3. Feedback loops improve data quality — Data users should engage directly with data stewards. Public participation in the data lifecycle leads to better, more relevant datasets.
4. Civil society fills critical gaps — Nonprofits and external organizations can collect data and advocate for data resources in ways government cannot.
5. Disaggregated data drives equity — Breaking down aggregate statistics reveals disparities and enables targeted interventions that benefit underserved communities.
6. External innovation complements government stability – A healthy ecosystem keeps federal data stable while enabling community-driven tools to evolve and serve specific needs.

---

Great Data Products is brought to you by Source Cooperative. Learn more at https://greatdataproducts.com

[Jed's audio in this sounds terrible because of a hardware setting that Marshall Moutenot very kindly helped us identify. Will sound better in future episodes!]

Jed talks with Matt Hanson from Element 84 about the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog (STAC) specification and its role in making geospatial data findable and usable. Matt describes STAC as "a simple, developer-friendly way to describe geospatial data so that people can actually find it and use it." The conversation covers how STAC emerged from a 2017 sprint in Boulder with 20 people and grew into a specification now adopted by NASA, USGS, and commercial satellite companies worldwide. Matt discusses the concept of "guerrilla standards," why adoption is the only metric that matters, the limitations of remote sensing, and why credibility can't be skipped when launching standards efforts.

Full show notes and transcript: https://greatdataproducts.com/episodes/2025/12/hanson-stac/

Links and Resources:
STAC Specification: https://stacspec.org/
STAC: A Retrospective, Part 2: https://element84.com/software-engineering/stac-a-retrospective-part-2-why-stac-was-successful/
Emergent Standards white paper: https://tial.org/publications/white-paper-003-emergent-standards-enabling-collaborations-across-institutions/
STAC Auth Proxy: https://github.com/developmentseed/stac-auth-proxy
FilmDrop UI: https://console.demo.filmdrop.element84.com/
Planet Planetary Variables: https://www.planet.com/products/planetary-variables/
CommonSpace: https://www.commonspace.world/
"You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc9F0bh5OXc

Great Data Products is brought to you by Source Cooperative: https://source.coop

Jed talks with Jack Cushman from the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab about their project to archive and preserve more than 311,000 datasets from Data.gov. We explore how they use BagIt for long-term preservation, built a serverless search interface that makes 17.9 TB of data discoverable in the browser, and what this means for the future of online archives.

Jed talks with Brandon Liu about building maps for the web with Protomaps and PMTiles. We cover why new formats won't work without a compelling application, how a single-file base map functions as a reusable data product, designing simple specs for long-term usability, and how object storage-based approaches can replace server-based stacks while staying fast and easy to integrate. Many thanks to our listeners from Norway and Egypt who stayed up very late for the live stream!

Links and Resources
- Protomaps – a free, customizable base map you can self-host
- PMTiles Viewer – drag-and-drop viewer for .pmtiles files
- Browse 2.7 billion building footprints in PMTiles in the Google-Microsoft-OSM Open Buildings - combined by VIDA product on Source
- Emergent standards white paper from the Institutional Architecture Lab

Key takeaways:
1. Ship a killer app if you want a new format to gain traction — The Protomaps base map is the product that makes the PMTiles format matter.
2. Single-file, object storage first — PMTiles runs from a bucket or an SD card, with a browser-based viewer for offline use.
3. Design simple, future‑proof specifications — Keep formats small and reimplementable with minimal dependencies; simplicity preserves longevity and portability.
4. Prioritize the developer experience — Single-binary installs, easy local preview, and eliminating incidental complexity drive adoption more than raw capability.
5. Build the right pipeline for the job — Separate visualization-optimized packaging from analysis-ready data; don’t force one format to do everything.