Hajime Ise

Hajime Ise is a Director at Pacific Spatial Solutions (PSS) in Tokyo, where he works on geospatial data strategy and open source GIS adoption. He co-authored the third edition of Japan's widely used QGIS textbook, "Introduction to QGIS". Before moving into industry, he researched species distribution modelling and landscape connectivity, publishing in journals such as Remote Sensing and Landscape Ecology. At PSS, he supports projects including Japan's Project PLATEAU and the Tokyo Digital Twin, connecting open geospatial standards and open source tools with real-world urban data.


Session

09/02
11:35
5min
Open at the Core: Building a Geospatial Business With the Open Source Community
Hajime Ise, Hiroo Imaki

Pacific Spatial Solutions (PSS), founded in Tokyo in 2012, builds its business around open geospatial standards and open source software rather than in spite of them. As an OGC member, our team also contributes directly to the community — from OGC/CityGML data pipelines for Japan's Project PLATEAU to a widely used Japanese QGIS textbook co-authored by our CEO and a director.

That same philosophy shapes our product lineup. Fully open-source CesiumJS and TerriaJS power Japan's national 3D city model viewer and Tokyo's Digital Twin. Around that open core, we partner deliberately with tools that strengthen the ecosystem rather than compete with it: FME converts hundreds of municipal datasets into OGC standards; Felt — QGIS's flagship sponsor — maintains Tippecanoe and funds PMTiles/Protomaps; Fused builds its serverless spatial analysis on DuckDB and H3; CARTO, a core PostGIS contributor, open-sources its Analytics Toolbox.

In five minutes, we'll share what more than a decade of treating open standards and open source as a growth strategy, not a cost, has meant for our business — and what we've learned along the way.

Sponsor Session
Phoenix Hall