The world is big. So is the global OpenStreetMap dataset -- and it's growing bigger each day. This is great, of course, since OSM is becoming ever more complete and detailed. But working with this data volume requires high-end hardware, SQL skills, and ample patience.

GeoDesk takes a novel approach, with a database engine designed specifically for OSM data, with orders-of-magnitude improvements in import times, storage requirements and query speed. The software is 100% free and open-source and runs on Windows, Linux and macOS, with modest hardware requirements.

In this talk, I'll cover the basics of the GeoDesk workflows: how to import OSM data and perform basic queries using the command line, and export results in various formats. I will also give an introduction to the three GeoDesk SDKs for Python, Java, and C++. These toolkits allow more sophisticated spatial queries and can be integrated with other popular libraries (e.g. JTS, Shapely, and GEOS) to build full-fledged geospatial applications.

Finally, I will briefly outline the project roadmap for the 3.0 release coming this fall.