Map Happenings

Map Happenings is a mapping industry blog written by James Killick (@MapGuy). Killick is a jaded mapping curmudgeon (‘JMC’) who accidentally embarked on a career in the mapping technology industry in 1985. He first worked as a coder for Etak, a startup originally funded by Nolan Bushnell. Etak pioneered a ground breaking in-vehicle navigation system, the Etak Navigator, and invented much of the fundamental mapping technology still in use today. In the 1990s he went on to work for MapQuest.com. MapQuest was the first site to popularize interactive mapping and directions on the web. He left not long after its acquisition by AOL Time Warner. Following MapQuest, Killick did a nine year stint working for Jack Dangermond deep in the bowels of Esri. In case you don’t know Esri — they are the biggest enterprise mapping technology company on the planet. In 2013 a call from one his old colleagues induced him to join Apple where he worked diligently on the Maps team for a number of years. In May 2022, after 37 years in the industry, he decided it was time for a sabbatical Map Happenings was launched in July 2022 and is published by Prowabo, LLC.