About Kate
Kate Chapman helps organizations build the right systems by asking the right questions about people, technology, product, and governance together.
I have what I call a case of commons brain. My default way of thinking is: how do we design systems so people can work together to build something shared for everyone? Not as a vague ideal, as something concrete, shipped, and durable.
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, thousands of volunteers wanted to help map damaged areas in OpenStreetMap. The effort didn’t work. People had the will to contribute but no way to coordinate. I conceptualized and built the original Tasking Manager to solve that problem, breaking large mapping efforts into small structured tasks so thousands of people could work together. That tool has now been used by more than half a million mappers.
That pattern has repeated across my career. I co-founded and ran the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, served for five years as chair of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, led engineering enablement and the architecture team at the Wikimedia Foundation, and was CTO of Open Supply Hub. In each case, I found where existing tools stopped short and designed the missing product layer. I believe in the power of open collaboration to create digital commons, and I explore the leverage points that create change in complex systems, keeping the humans at the forefront, with empathy and with humor.
Right now I’m doing fractional technology strategy work and building experimental AI projects in the open. I write Untangling Systems when I find a pattern worth sharing.
Speaking & Writing
- Techs on Texts — podcast on governance, information control, and Hugh Howey’s Wool
- SatSummit DC ‘24 — panel on open access data for impact
- Patterns of Commoning — contributor on humanitarian mapping and digital commons
Get in touch
kate@untanglingsystems.io or book thirty minutes on my calendar.