The value that highly customizable vector tile based maps bring is undisputed. It is an awesome feeling, knowing that something so beautiful and versatile can be free. The question is: can a community of like-minded individuals not only sustain a project like that, but continue to innovate it? Hats off to the people that have answered this question affirmatively, and have demonstrated that it is true.
So far my work as Maintainer Native has been challenging, yet rewarding. Map rendering is hard. Multi-platform native development is hard. There is a dizzying array of technologies, build tools and dependencies involved. There is a lot of potential to make the project more mature and easier to contribute to. I love helping to realize that potential. I am also a C++ geek, and I am looking forward to the redesign of some of the internals, and to deepen my knowledge of the code base further, so I can be the most effective maintainer I can be.
Maps serve a vast number of purposes. Something I am passionate about is democratizing urban design and urban mobility. In plain English that means giving people the tools to (re)shape their cities to be a pleasure to live in and to move through. Maps are an essential part of that.
Feel free to reach out to me on Slack in case you have any feedback or suggestions, or if you want contribute to MapLibre Native, but you are not sure where or how to start.