 I am welcome to InterGioTV. Scientific breakthroughs and technical achievements, nobody right now is better placed to present them than social media star Hashim Al-Ghalili at his Science Nature page. The graduate from Bremen's Jacobs University just knows how many stories are hidden away in the seemingly dry and dusty topic of science. Whether from the fields of nature, science, medicine, or healthcare, Hashim Al-Ghalili has an impressive talent for bringing phenomena to life. In his keynote speech at the InterGio conference 2019, he's showing how science can be made easy to understand and we are really happy that he has time for our interview now at InterGioTV. Welcome, Hashim. Thank you so much for having me. Well, today you're talking to a special audience, to the geospatial audience, and you will tell us about your talent to bring science into life. And maybe the geospatial community can take a part of that knowledge from you, isn't that? So that's actually the idea. So the idea is that through this keynote talk, is that I'll tell them about what are the key tricks that you can use to deliver information in an engaging way on social media so that you can reach millions of people online on all types of social media platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. You produce a lot of content, as you just said, and so many channels. So is there any kind of secret how you organize it, or how do you create all that content all the time? So the key is, first of all, relying on reliable sources of information. I mean, the internet is an ocean of knowledge, and you can't trust everything. So first I have to find the authentic sources of information and then use them as a source to create the content. And then I turn this type of complex knowledge that is mainly written for scientific papers and publications into something simple, into simplified language, and then create videos out of these materials. And these videos contain graphics and basically animations and footage that is really appealing and interesting. And combined together, we have a very good video that people can watch and share with their friends. So today, one thing is special. We just run the Intergeo Expo and Conference and within the Expo we have 700 exhibitors with innovations, future innovations, but also that rely to our everyday life. It's kind of technologies for augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence. How do you think will these technologies affect us in our everyday life? Will we all wear glasses? Will we get implants? Or what do you think? Well, I mean, I think these technologies are going to affect our lives greatly. I was exploring the Expo right now and I was just blown away by the amount of progress that these technologies have brought. They will make our lives easier. Now, in terms of the technologies that I have seen here today, they will make it easier for serving and 3D mapping, which will lead to new types of infrastructure and new types of basically mapping. These futuristic landscapes that all we always see in the movies, these are the technologies that will open the gate for something like that. Now, artificial intelligence, for example, is also being used here, but it has a wide range of applications. Then we have 3D glasses, which I also saw here. I was actually using one of these 3D glasses here, which, I mean, there is a screen and there were like 3D structures in the screen and it was using these 3D glasses. I've never really used 3D glasses like these ones before and it was amazing, you know, like seeing the 3D coming out of the screen, wonderful. But in terms of 3D glasses in general, I learned that Sony is working on smart contact lenses that can record videos, play them back, that can zoom in, that have incredible features. Just think about how these technologies can affect our lives, maybe privacy, you never know. But all in all, technology has a positive impact. In the end, it really depends on how you use it. Well, the geospatial sector is producing so many data, data from sensors, data from our everyday tablets or smartphones, from drones. There's so many applications who create data and geo-information is very often the basis data for all the digitalization in many, many sectors. So what do you think how important is this sector, this branch of the geo-information community for the digitalization in general? It's really important, first of all, so that the information can be kept for a long time. Second, so that this information can be accessed by everyone. I mean, it doesn't make sense if you just create data and keep them limited to those who can understand them, only the scientific community or the geo-community, you need to find a way to digitally communicate these kinds of data to everyone, so everyone can benefit from them. And digitalization is also important because now if you have a huge amount of complex data, you can finally make sense of them. If everybody started publishing their data, you would start to see the connections. And through these connections, you would come up with new ideas, which could be revolutionary and can change your future for the better. Another topic here is smart city. So many people move into cities like Berlin, the city you are also living in. And well, so many things affect us in our everyday life with new applications for citizens, with new ways of mobility or how to live in these huge cities. What are your visions or what are your insights of your science nature page, which will concern us within the next years in those mega cities? One technology, the internet of things, that everything starts to communicate with the rest of the technologies. The cars start communicating with one another. And that's one of the ways smart cities will develop is that you've got driverless cars that communicate with one another, making the city, having a smart connection. Then you have technologies inside the house or a smart home. And these technologies are communicating with one another. Probably have seen it in some videos or video concepts from some companies that are working on these concepts is that you've got, for example, the fridge is communicating with your microwave. And so all these concepts come together through the internet of things, and you have a smart city. And that's the future of cities. And we're slowly moving to that, but there is a lot of concern with privacy and the spread of information to areas where they shouldn't be. How do you describe yourself with your profession? So you're a kind of science content creator, oh, yeah, what's the force which drives you? Well, I'm a science communicator. What I do is that I take complex information and turn them into abstract ideas, simplifying them, but not oversimplifying them because oversimplifying things can lead to misunderstanding. I simplify them and I turn them into engaging materials and share them with the general public. So it's science communicator. That's how I describe myself. Now recently I started making movies. So I guess that makes me a filmmaker now. So I'm getting into making films and I'm trying in these films to introduce new concepts based on technologies around us and technologies that will shape our future. And I got some inspiration from today's expo. Okay. And I'm excited to implement this in my next film. Okay, so we will still follow you at your Science Nature page and also your other channels. And thanks very much for your time, for joining us here on InterGioTV. This was Hashem Alkalili. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me.