Geointeresting

Alex Kent, Ph.D., professor of cartography and geographic information at Canterbury Christ Church University, and John Davies, a lifelong map lover and collector, recently sat down with NGA’s Geointeresting podcast team to talk about Cold War-era Soviet mapmaking and its impact on modern-day cartography.

In need of a little motivation? The latest Geointeresting podcast features U.S. Air Force Gen. Darren W. McDew, commander, U.S. Transportation Command. McDew participated in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency director's distinguished speaker series Sept. 7. At the event, McDew spoke about leadership and the importance of thanking colleagues for their work.

Former "Navy Times" Managing Editor John Grady visited the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency earlier this year to discuss a 19th-century pioneer in the study of ocean and modern navigational techniques, Matthew Fontaine Maury. In honor of World Maritime Day, Sept. 29, get to know this "pathfinder of the seas."

Geointeresting sits down with two National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency interns from this past summer to discuss their unique experiences as interns in the intelligence community. They are also joined by one of the agency's student programs managers for some helpful tips to becoming an intern at the agency. Interested in learning more about NGA's internship program or applying? Visit: https://www.nga.mil/Careers/StudentOpp

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Sue Gordon and NGA’s Director of Operations, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. “UV” Linda Urrutia-Varhall, sat down with the agency’s Geointeresting podcast to talk about women's equality, leadership and some of their personal experiences.

Geointeresting talks to Terry Ford, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, National Intelligence Manager - Africa, and Dr. Odean Serrano, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, intelligence community lead for combating wildlife trafficking. Mr. Ford and Dr. Serrano detail the impact of the IC's role in combating wildlife trafficking and poaching, and the importance of the collaborative, information and data-sharing National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency combating wildlife trafficking portal.

Geointeresting talks to former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden. In this podcast, Gen. Hayden discusses innovation, leadership and transparency in the intelligence community.

Geointeresting talks with Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook about his role as the spokesman for the Department of Defense. Cook was previously a correspondent for Bloomberg Television, where he covered Congress, the White House , the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Now for the Department of Defense he conducts daily press conferences and frequently uses information from NGA to keep the public informed.

Geointeresting talks to Jack O'Connor, author of NPIC: Seeing the Secrets and Growing the Leaders. Listen to learn about the National Photographic Interpretation Center culture, the day-to-day lives of imagery analysts, and about the leaders who helped mold the NGA legacy organization and whose leadership values are still followed, today.

Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré was the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina undertaking the Department of Defense response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen was designated principal federal official for the U.S. government’s response and recovery operations. Learn more: https://www.nga.mil/MediaRoom/News/Pages/%E2%80%98Pretty-clear,-pretty-simple%E2%80%99-lessons-in-survivor-centric-customer-service.aspx

Geointeresting welcomes Sue Shumate, NGA's talent acquisition lead, to help demystify the intelligence community's recruiting process and talk about some of the open jobs at NGA.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s “Geointeresting” podcast welcomed Ms. Cleo Loi and Professor Steven Tingay to discuss the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) — a radio telescope located in the Western Australian desert — and Loi’s discovery of the existence of tubular plasma structures in the inner layers of the magnetosphere surrounding the Earth. Professor Tingay is the director of the MWA project and Professor of Radio Astronomy at Curtin University in Australia. Loi is a PhD student in astrophysics at the University of Sydney. Tingay and Loi visted NGA's campus in Springfield, Virginia to speak with employees about the MWA and Loi's discovery. To learn more about Loi’s discovery, read the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics press release (http://caastro.org/news/2015-tubes) and Dr. Tara Murphy’s article on The Conversation (http://tinyurl.com/pknq3e2). For more about the MWA, visit http://www.mwatelescope.org/.

Mr. Justin Poole is the Director of NGA’s Xperience Directorate, where he is charged with enhancing the user’s experience through online, on-demand GEOINT services that provide access to content, expertise, and applications. Dr. Carter Christopher is currently part of the Core Leadership Team of the GEOINT Services Initiative – responsible for developing and executing the agency’s GEOINT Services Strategy.

Chris Rasmussen drove the initiative that made NGA the first intelligence agency to open source software on GitHub and place apps into iTunes and Google Play. He is also is one of the primary architects behind the Unclassified GEOINT Pathfinder initiative, which aims to transform GEOINT into a mostly open source intelligence discipline.

Ben Balter is the Government Evangelist at GitHub — the world’s largest software development network — where he leads the efforts to encourage adoption of open source philosophies, making all levels of government better, one repository at a time.

Mark Anderson is the founder and publisher of the Strategic News Service newsletter, long a must-read for industry leaders and venture capitalists, and founder, chair and host of Future in Review, an annual gathering for tech leaders, investors, and policymakers The Economist called “the best technology conference in the world.”