Ryan is a GIS Engineer and geologist working with OneOcean, a big data startup based in Seattle, WA. His current research focuses on identifying ways in which people and data interact, as well as applying spatial technologies to visualize and improve these interactions. He is particularly interested in applying these improvements to the geological and oceanographic disciplines due to the need to better (and quickly) understand the role anthropogenic changes play in these natural life-support systems. On VISIONS '13, he will be designing and prototyping custom software tools to efficiently collect, process, and visualize the various types of metadata collected. Before becoming involved in the geoscience community, he spent many years in the music industry as well as a significant amount of time as a journalist and entrepreneur.