FOSS4G North America Conference 2013 Preliminary Program

outique desktop software, however. This paper will highlight the use of open source
technologies such as PDAL, PostGIS, and Tornado to develop end­to­end WebGL­enabled point
cloud particle visualization. We will discuss using PDAL to pre­process your data along with tips
on what to expect when using the newly developed POINTPATCH support in PostGIS for storage
of LiDAR data.
CartoCSS for Styling Maps
Tom MacWright, MapBox
The growth of cartography to new uses and new groups of people ­ scientists, artists, and
hobbyists ­ has made the accessibility of map design more important than ever. Historically
we've relied on complicated user interfaces and extremely domain­specific styling languages to
style maps, but the expectations are being raised, and CSS­like, mature, and documented
languages are on the rise.
I'd like to discuss CartoCSS, an open source language and implementation designed along with
the open­source TileMill environment. It's a powerful abstraction that's familiar to users with
experience in web design but also powerful for those who need to use every feature and concept
in the map renderer. After two years of development, it's now at the center of an ecosystem of
tools, integrations, and solid documentation. Its use has also expanded from MapBox's TileMill to
Vizzuality's CartoDB tool and experimental new technologies like node­tiles.
There's also a lot on the horizon for CartoCSS: we'll discuss the opportunity of an interoperable,
standardized language that could be used across platforms. Additionally, OpenStreetMap plans
to switch to a standard style based on CartoCSS that will constitute a significant increase in
contributability.