Shan He (heshan0131)
Kepler.gl is a data-agnostic, high-performance web-based application for visual exploration of large-scale geolocation data sets.
Urban Computing Foundation merging into the OpenJS Foundation.
kepler.gl is a fully open sourced Javascript library for geospatial analysis and visualization in the browser. kepler.gl makes traditional GIS a lot more accessible to everyone. It is a JS library that can be used to build other geospatial apps. kepler.gl's demo app is a single page app hosted on Github, no backend and no login required, fully open to everyone. kepler.gl is one of very few open sourced in browser geospatial visulization library. Built on top of deck.gl, another open sourced WebGl based visualization framework, kepler.gl's full tech stack is open sourced.
The development of kepler.gl is fully visible to everyone. The kepler.gl team uses Github issues to track their work. The project has established clear Code of Conduct and Developer Guide
- What is the ecosystem impact of the project?
Traditional geospatial analysis & visualization or GIS possible by decktop app - ArcGIS, QGIS. kepler.gl is the one of the most powerful browser based geospatial analysis visualization tool that are fully open. The kepler.gl demo app fully open to everyone has 30k weekly users.
The project's impact is especially well recognized in the geospatial analytic and visualization field. The ecosystem includes integration with Jupyter Notebooks, Jupyter Labs, VSCode, Tableau, and Apache Superset.
- Who are the biggest users of the project? (if they are not JavaScript space, then will it ever expand to JavaScript space)
Known kepler.gl users are Unfolded (acquired by Foursquare), Uber, and Carto. There are many more companies in the mobility space are using kepler.gl internally for geospatial analysis.
- What is the potential long term impact and adoption?
With the rapid development of GPS technology, location data has become the new frontier of big data anaysis. More and more companies are looking for a Web based geospatial analysis and visualization library that can handle large dataset, and easy to use, for quick data exploration. kepler.gl is first of its kind and have gathered an active users of data scientists, analysts, researchers and engineers.
With continuous investment, kepler.gl can be adoptied by more industry users for geospatial analysis. The goal of kepler.gl team is to make geospatial analysis - once highly spetialized domain - easy and fun, available to everyone.
- How does it differ from other projects?
Mapbox Gl JS v1: kepler.gl is designed for geospatial data analysis and visualization, while mapboxgl are generic-purposed for rendering basemap, it does not have a UI component for configuring layers and filters for the visualization
Leaflet: leaflet is similar to mapboxgl.js, mainly for rendering basemap.
QGIS QGIS is the most widely used open sourced geospatial analysis software. It is however a desktop app. While kepler.gl is fully browser based.
At Large
None
kepler-gl.slack.com
N/A
- Is there a leadership team?
The Unfolded team at Foursquare leads the development of kepler.gl
- Who are the members of the leadership team?
- Shan He - Project Lead
- Giuseppe Macri
- How are members of the leadership team nominated?
kepler.gl was a project started and open sourcedby Uber's visualization team lead by Shan He. A team of engineers who were working on kepler.gl left Uber and started Unfolded, later acquired by Foursquare. The leadership team formed organically by active contribution to the library.
- How are individuals outside of leadership given commit access?
Anyone who wish to contribute to kepler.gl can make PR against the kepler.gl repo. A member from the active contributors will assist that person landing his/her PR. See DEVELOPERS
- Is the project open/willing to move to open governance, if not already in place?
Yes. At the moment, the only substantial contribution comes from the Unfolded team at Foursquare. If more parties are interested in contributing, the leadership team is open to move to open governance.
- Is the project willing to adopt the OpenJS Foundation Code of Conduct (CoC)?
Yes
- Please share links to all existing documentation
For each repository, please provide:
Foursquare (domain registration) Mapbox (base map license)
- Domain ownership and registration fees
- Invest in our own CDN for distributing ready-to-use bundles. This will help us understand CDN-based usage better.
What questions do you have? What questions might arise during your application?