A talk presented by Ed Freyfogle 25th Sept 2014 at the APIconUK conference in London. The talk introduces the OpenCage geocoder and describes our considerations in developing a sustainable and scalable business model around open data.

1. A meta-geocoding API
Ed Freyfogle - @freyfogle
APIconUK - 25 Sept. 2014
http://opencagedata.com
@opencagedata

2. Problem

3. Where are we?

4. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors

5. 51.5007703,-0.1164174

7. London!

8. London!
Lambeth!

9. London!
Lambeth!
Waterloo!

10. London!
York Road
SE1 7UT
Lambeth!
Zone 1
United Kingdom
Waterloo! England
Westminster Bridge Rd

12. placename long/lat

13. placename long/lat
forward

14. placename long/lat
forward
reverse

16. Yes!

17. Yes! but …
T&Cs
expensive at volume

18. OpenStreetMap

19. Yes!

20. Yes! but …
not for high volume use
variable coverage

22. Yes!

23. Yes! and …
one API, many geocoders
free as in freedom
annotations

24. You Geonames
and more

25. Open data
use with any map you like
cache as long as you like
fix it
get creative

26. Annotations
timezones
OS gridrefs
geohash
what3words
more coming, suggestions welcome

27. Start geocoding:
opencagedata.com

28. Free as in freedom

29. What does it cost?

30. Bigger question

31. Can we build a sustainable,
scalable product business around
an open data API?

33. not scalable

34. What is the
differentiator?

35. The Moat

36. Competition

41. Competition is any
way that consumers
address the problem.

43. Direct and indirect
competition

44. Direct - other API
providers (closed and
open)

45. Indirect - build it
themselves

46. Indirect - do nothing

48. But how exactly?

49. Direct
Product
Price
Placement
Promotion

50. Indirect
Education
Awareness
Reduce trial barrier

51. Product

52. - add to the open data
- curating the open data

53. Annotations
timezones
OS gridrefs
geohash
what3words
more coming, suggestions welcome

54. "timezone" : {
"name" : "Europe/London",
"now_in_dst" : 1,
"offset_sec" : 3600,
"offset_string" : 100,
"short_name" : "BST"
}
Very common use case

58. Go niche

59. "OSGB" : {
"easting" : 530711.341,
"gridref" : "TQ 307 797",
"northing" : 179728.745
},
Viewed globally, the UK is niche

60. Not niche to them

61. Keep it simple

62. Can we get their help?

63. Our goal:
1 + 1 > 2

64. Value through curation / editing

65. You Geonames
and more

66. Too much of a good thing

67. spendnetwork.com

68. Where?

69. Berlin

72. NOT “Berlin, Berlin”

73. Our goal:
1 - 1 > 0

75. Partners/Allies?

76. Enemy of my enemy is my friend

77. The enemy is business as usual

78. what3words

79. epic.limit.diary

80. Pricing?

81. Consider many models

82. usage
cost
traditional model

83. The enemy is business as usual

84. pinboard.in
“The fee is based on the formula (number of users *
$0.001), so the earlier you join, the less you pay.”

85. Final points:

86. Start geocoding:
opencagedata.com

87. See you at #geomob
4 Nov.
geomobldn.org

88. theodi.org

89. http://opencagedata.com
@opencagedata
Thanks!
Questions?
Ed Freyfogle - @freyfogle
APIconUK - 25 Sept. 2014