Blog

A blog on my teaching, open source GIS, travel and life

Introducing: gitRmap / “Guitar Map”
communication
GIS
maps
open source
I’d like to introduce gitRmap: a semi-automated map of locations that you can add your own points to. It’s designed for people who are new to GIS, but who know a little bit…
Nick Bearman
Jun 24, 2026

GISRUK 2026: GIS that makes a difference
CPD
conference
in person
GISRUK
From 14th - 17th April, I was fortunate to be able to attend GISRUK 2026, at the University of Birmingham. GISRUK is a regular feature in my calendar and it’s a great…
Nick Bearman
May 13, 2026

Generative AI Tools for Mapping
R spatial
teaching
GIS
David Bann and Liam Wright have put together a great guide to Generative AI Tools for Quantitative Research on the NCRM resources site. This is a great overview of what…
Nick Bearman
Apr 8, 2026

QGIS 4.0 is now available - but don’t upgrade….. yet!
QGIS
teaching
open source
QGIS 4.0 is now available! But yes, you have read my title correctly - I would recommend many people don’t upgrade…. yet.
Nick Bearman
Mar 18, 2026

FOSS4G:UK 2025 Leeds - It’s all about the people
conference
in person
FOSS4G:UK
GIS
open source
I’ve just returned from a fantastic 2 days in Leeds for FOSS4G:UK 2025. FOSS4G is an amazing group, and I am so proud to be part of the fantastic team that ran FOSS4G:UK…
Nick Bearman
Oct 6, 2025

RGS AIC 2025 in Birmingham
conference
in person
CPD
It was great to be able to attend a couple of days of the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference at the University of Birmingham last week. The RGS conference is an annual…
Nick Bearman
Sep 1, 2025

Becoming a Dad
in person
This blog post isn’t about GIS, mapping, conferences or travel, so feel free to skip it if you want. However, if you’re interested in my experiences of becoming a Dad, read…
Nick Bearman
Jun 21, 2025

GISRUK 2025 in Bristol
CPD
conference
in person
GISRUK
Last week I was fortunate to be able to attend GISRUK 2025, in Bristol, UK. I am a regular at the GISRUK conference series and it is always fascinating to see the latest…
Nick Bearman
Apr 24, 2025

The Open Science Retreat, Batenberg, Switzerland: collaboation, connection and snow!
CPD
open source
in person
europe
For four days in April I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Open Science Retreat, in Batenberg, Switzerland. The Open Science Retreat (OSR) is a chance for anyone…
Nick Bearman
Apr 17, 2025

Travel to Interlaken for the Open Science Retreat
low carbon
train
travelling
europe
I had been invited to attend the Open Science Retreat (OSR), in Batenberg, Interlaken, Switzerland and this is my journey. I have posted another post about the event itself.…
Nick Bearman
Apr 13, 2025

tmap version 4 released!
open source
GIS
teaching
R spatial
tmap version 4 has now been released, and is now available on CRAN. It has a whole range of new features, which we will explore in this blog post.
Nick Bearman
Feb 11, 2025

FOSS4G 2024 - Belém, Brazil
FOSS4G
open source
GIS
conference
networking
R spatial
in person
I was very lucky to be able to attend FOSS4G 2024, in Belém, Brazil on 2nd - 8th December 2024. Belém is a fantastic city, and due to host COP30 in November 2025, with lots…
Nick Bearman
Jan 13, 2025

FOSS4G:UK South West 2024 - Bristol
FOSS4G:UK
open source
GIS
conference
networking
It was great to attend FOSS4G:UK South West 2024 in Bristol on 12th Nov, at OSGeo:UK’s now regular Bristol Venue, The Engine Shed. The event was a sell out and we had 62…
Nick Bearman
Nov 12, 2024

New Website - Quarto
open source
GIS
communication
online
I’ve been thinking for a bit of time that I need to redo my website as some of the pages had evolved a bit, and were getting a bit too long. What you see now is what I have…
Nick Bearman
Sep 20, 2024

OCG Open Standards Code Sprint, Geovation, London, UK
GIS
open source
R spatial
in person
In July I spent three days at Geovation in London attending the OGC Open Standards Code Sprint. OGC, the Open Geospatial Consortium manage and approve standards for…
Nick Bearman
Jul 15, 2024

ArcMap: 1999 to 2024
ESRI
GIS
teaching
We finally have an end date for ArcMap! This has been something that has been a long time coming, but I would say is certainly due now. ArcMap final date of support for…
Nick Bearman
Jan 18, 2024

ICC, Cape Town, South Africa – 3D Models and UN Acronym Soup
conference
GIS
open source
A couple of weeks ago I spent a fantastic week in Cape Town, South Africa, attending the 2023 International Cartographic Conference. The ICC (not to be confused with the…
Nick Bearman
Sep 5, 2023

ESRI UK & GeoBusiness: GeoAI & Digital Twins
conference
GIS
networking
GeoBusiness
ESRI
Along with many other people from the geospatial community, I was up in London earlier this week for ESRI UK Annual Conference, GeoBusiness and Spatial Data Science…
Nick Bearman
May 18, 2023

FOSS4G: Travelling by Train to Florence, Italy (from Weymouth, UK)
conference
low carbon
train
travelling
I recently attended my first international FOSS4G conference in Florence (Firenze), Italy, in August 2022. For those who don’t know, FOSS4G is Free and Open Source for (4)…
Nick Bearman
Nov 24, 2022

FOSS4G:UK Local 2022
conference
FOSS4G:UK
GIS
in person
open source
remote
On PostGIS day last week, Thurs 17th Nov, we ran FOSS4G:UK Local 2022. We were trying out a new model, with the conference distributed over 9 different physical venues (and…
Nick Bearman
Nov 22, 2022

ESRI UK & GeoBusiness: Digital Twins or just Digial Offspring?
conference
CPD
ESRI
GeoBusiness
Last week I attended the first ESRI UK Annual Conference (17th May) and the first GEO Business conference (18th & 19th May) for three years (although GEO Business had a…
Nick Bearman
May 23, 2022

Spatial R – Time to move from sp to sf
open source
R spatial
teaching
It was about three years ago (2019) when I last wrote about the sp and sf libraries in R. The R Spatial world has moved on since then, with sp heading close to retirement…
Nick Bearman
Feb 25, 2022

Matrix: What’s it all about?
open source
teaching
remote
communication
I’ve recently come across a new piece of software that could revolutionise communication – and yes, you have probably heard that before, in many articles on the Internet!…
Nick Bearman
Sep 12, 2021

To video, or not to video
GIS
GISRUK
conference
online
remote
“That is the question.”
Nick Bearman
Jul 2, 2021

GISRUK 2021: Online II
GISRUK
GIS
conference
online
We had a great GISRUK conference this year. We were online again (as we were in 2020), because of Covid-19, with Scott Orford at Cardiff University hosting, we had a really…
Nick Bearman
Jun 3, 2021

Census 2021: Who gets a letter and who gets a paper form?
census
data
GIS
maps
open source
The Conversation
This is an extended article, which was originally posted on The Conversation on 18/03/2021.
Nick Bearman
Mar 18, 2021

GISRUK2020: A brave new world
GIS
conference
GISRUK
Online conferences are everywhere now – and everything now has online as a prefix. The GISRUK 2020 conference was no exception, and originally scheduled for 21th – 24th…
Nick Bearman
Jul 24, 2020
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