Oliver Wipfli leaving the MapLibre Team

Two years ago, MapLibre announced that Oliver would become the first person to work on the MapLibre team in the capacity of coordinator. Oliver has been involved with the project before that, being the reviewer of the now legendary TypeScript migration PR for MapLibre GL JS, one of the first major milestones after the fork.

Oliver holds a PhD in Physics, but developed a fascination for maps, with a particular interest in text rendering. As a hot-air balloon pilot he created Ballometer for tracking hot-air balloons.

Oliver’s work has been instrumental in professionalizing the project and giving shape to its current workings. He helped create many processes, organized board and TSC meetings, helped write the charter and held the yearly elections. Also not unimportant for the longevity of the project: Oliver was very productive garnering trust from sponsors. MapLibre has now collected over a million USD in funding.

Meena Chandrasekar and Ramya Ragupathy will take over the responsibilities of Oliver, as announced last week.

On behalf of the community, we would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Oliver for all his efforts and the lasting positive impact he had on MapLibre. We wish him all the best with his future ventures. He is available to be hired as a contractor.

Many of you from the community would have had a chance to work with Oliver and have your own stories to share. Please leave a personal message for Oliver on GitHub!

My Dear Friend Oliver,
I’m very sad to see you leave the coordinator role for MapLibre. I’m certain our path will cross again in the future, whether it will be a FOSS4G conference, a presentation somewhere or maybe a hiking route through some mountain.
As you look back on from the creation of MapLibre to nowadays your fingerprints are evident everywhere, from getting sponsors to invest, getting PR pushed, hosting the monthly meetings and making sure everyone is welcomed in the community.
I have no doubt you will succeed in everything you decide to do, as your passion is contagious.
Besides our joint battle to convert maplibre-gl-js to typescript, I think the best memory I have of you would be getting the MapLibre magnet with a personal engraving written on a small piece of paper, which took me a few days to decode. This is ironic for someone who likes scripts from different languages so much. Your personal touch is what makes this memory sweet and really encapsulates your essence for me.
Good luck, good man!
May you always find your north star.

Oliver,

To me, you are synonymous with MapLibre. Reflecting on every MapLibre meeting I’ve attended, I realized I associated each one of them with your presence. Curious, I revisited the meeting notes and, indeed, you were at every single one except for one. It’s not just your exceptional coordination skills that will stay with me, though. Your eagerness to explore new ideas, delve into technical details, and propose innovative solutions has been truly inspiring. Despite your role requiring a focus on coordination, you never hesitated to dive into the work hands-on, embracing the challenges and workload with enthusiasm.
It’s bittersweet to see you leave just as I’m getting started at MapLibre, but I understand that life sometimes necessitates a change in direction. I’m confident that wherever life takes you, you’ll soar to new heights—perhaps quite literally, with the help of hot-air balloons.

Wishing you all the best on your new journey.