We are psyched to announce that Dane Springmeyer has joined our team as our senior geographer. Dane is a lead developer, along with Artem Pavlenko, of Mapnik, the open source software that makes up the innermost layer of our mapping tools and that we use to draw our map tiles from data and styles. With us Dane will continue to work on improving Mapnik’s core, as well as help us strengthen our overall mapping infrastructure and build out tools like MapBox and TileMill. He’ll also strengthen our work on upcoming mapping projects we have with international development partners.

Dane brings with him a deep understanding of open source software. He is an expert at architecting scalable applications that combine beautiful cartography with highly dynamic data. Alongside his development experience, he has many years of GIS experience that has brought him to places like Haiti and the Russian Far east.

This move is another major investment for us in the social capital of innovative open source projects and people. Dane is stepping away from running his own mapping consultancy dbsgeo.com to invest more deeply in developing Mapnik from within the agile and creative team environment here. We’re excited to get down to work together!