OpenStreetMap US Tech Lead Quincy Morgan introduces Layercake, a new cloud-native way to work with OSM data, at FedGeoDay 2025 in Washington, D.C.
Speaker
Quincy is a mapper and open source developer focused on helping people to contribute and benefit from OpenStreetMap data. His projects include themap.is, Beefsteak map tiles, Pinhead map icons, and OSM 411. He has previously worked on iD, Field Papers, and OpenTrailMap. When not at his desk, you can find Quincy surveying out of the way places by foot, bike, kayak, or train.
More info
OpenStreetMap’s native file format is OSM PBF, but this 80GB ‘planet file’ is unwieldy and not supported by all GIS software. Layercake is OSM data extracted into thematic layers (buildings, transportation, etc) and converted to cloud-native file formats that are easy to use with software from DuckDB to QGIS.
