The first SatSummit gathered 156 leaders from the satellite industry, global development and humanitarian organizations. The day was packed full of great content and announcements.

Some of the highlights included:

World Bank and Development Seed launched an open source guide to using satellite imagery for humanitarian efforts

What's 50cm satellite image? Cost? @WorldBank kickstarts this tool to get answers #satsummit https://t.co/Xcsm4gupw1 pic.twitter.com/YYA9Qf9vEc

— Bruno Sánchez-A Nuño (@brunosan) November 9, 2015

The most important aim of SatSummit was to promote broader understanding of how satellites can be used for social good. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño demoed our latest collaboration with the World Bank Innovation Labs. The site provides an easy to understand starting point for anyone looking to get more use out of satellite imagery.

Planet Labs further outlined their commitment of $60M in imagery for sustainable development

In September, Planet Labs announced their pledge of $60M of imagery to support the UN Global Goals. Amit Kapadia was on hand to showcase their first tangible result: Open California. This same platform will be used to host the next imagery release for a yet-to-be-determined developing country. This data is all available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license to allow open use by researchers and humanitarian organizations alike.

Airbus previewed its HAPS program which combines benefits of satellites and drones

Jeremy Hale shared details on the latest advances made by the Airbus pseudo-satellite, HAPS. These devices combine the persistence (via solar power) of satellites with the real-time response of drones. These qualities make them well suited for natural disaster response and long-term monitoring of a specific areas. After more than a decade in development, operational tests have taken place across the world in the past year and we’ll soon have access to this incredible new tool.

Amazon announced that AWS on Landsat served up 500 million requests

Landsat data is some of the most valuable open data that the US Government provides. But without the fast, programmatic access that AWS provides, we aren’t getting the full impact. Jed Sundwall shared some stats on how fast their program has been growing and how different organizations are making use of their hosting.

Continuing the Conversation

We can only accomplish so much in one day. Here’s how you can continue the conversation about satellite use in global development:

• Read the World Bank “Satellites in Global Development” Report and hit us or Bruno up with your feedback. We’re working hard to get this open on GitHub in the near future.
• Check out the presentations (posted soon!) and let us know what you think!
• Follow SatSummit on twitter for ongoing discussion on this topic and more info on the next event.