Radiant Earth

In 2023, a new executive director led the Open Imagery Network Inc., dba Radiant Earth to key milestones in data access and collaboration. Two initiatives, source cooperative and the cloud-native geospatial foundation (cngf), field these advancements. Source cooperative, the improved version of Radiant mlhub, streamlined data sharing. Individuals and organizations can now easily share data products on the internet. This simplified system lets data producers manage multiple datasets under one account, build new data products from existing data, and even preview data files directly in their browser without having to download it first, saving time and effort. This ease of use has resulted in a 62% increase in datasets, with 123 new ones added last year. Changes to source have encouraged data producers to build demos and tutorials, leading to increased data discovery and use. An example of this is the google-microsoft Open buildings - combined by vida, which is now considered to be the most complete openly available dataset of building footprints. This dataset merges google's v3 Open buildings that was added to source with a cloud-native geospatial distribution and microsoft's building footprints.with cngf, we have expanded our involvement in geospatial standards. We championed established data formats like stac and worked towards broader adoption of newer ones like zarr and geoparquet. Partnering with various organizations, we secured funding to host an in-person stac sprint, improve the specification and its educational resources, and coordinated the production of 12 stac learning tutorials. Additionally, we organized 5 webinars to reach new audiences in africa, brazil, and the pacific region and published 15 blog posts about cloud-native geospatial approaches to working with data online. To spread awareness of these initiatives, we participated in 8 conferences and hosted over 20 meetings to demonstrate source and its new features. Expanding our funding sources, we became the fiscal sponsor of the clay initiative, which is a project dedicated to helping individuals and organizations access, use, and generate Earth observation insights for a better planet.