Oliver Fink

Chief Innovation Officer · Founder, lemon slice digital GmbH
Frankfurt, Germany - Fukuoka, Japan

Profile

Technology strategist and systems thinker with over three decades of experience designing durable digital platforms at the intersection of data, AI, and human-centered systems. I specialize in turning ambiguity into clear technical direction — building solutions that scale, endure organizational change, and remain understandable over time.

My work spans geospatial platforms, large-scale data infrastructure, AI-driven products, and next-generation user experiences. I’m often brought in at pivotal moments to help teams and founders navigate complexity, align technology with intent, and move forward with confidence. I describe this approach as Quiet Tech: technology that empowers rather than overwhelms.

Experience Summary

Selected Work & Impact

Geospatial Platforms & Data Infrastructure

I architected MapHub, an early real-time collaborative environment for map editing that became foundational infrastructure for multiple internal and external products. Working closely with a small, highly capable engineering team, I shaped backend services, standardized data models, and introduced interaction patterns that made large-scale spatial data tangible and editable in near real time.

At Nokia, this work scaled into Nokia Map Creator, a public map-editing platform that significantly expanded global map coverage. Alongside community contribution, we built moderation, review, and partner data ingestion workflows that balanced openness with data quality.

Later, I led the technical and organizational coordination required to launch HERE XYZ, a modular geospatial data platform with a low-code/no-code editor (XYZ Studio). We released the platform with both HERE and OpenStreetMap base data and open-sourced the full ecosystem — including SDKs, command-line tools, and AI/ML integrations — enabling developers to run or host their own XYZ instances.

I was a founding member of the Linux Foundation Urban Computing Foundation, initially serving on the Steering Group to help shape open standards for urban data platforms.

Platform Leadership & Developer Engagement

From 2017 onward, my focus expanded toward platform leadership and ecosystem development. I coordinated engineering teams across Frankfurt, Mumbai, and San Francisco, worked closely with the Open Source Program Office in Berlin, and collaborated with stakeholders across Europe and the U.S.

Following the public launch of HERE XYZ, I increasingly represented the platform externally — delivering sessions and keynotes at events such as WeAreDevelopers, FOSSGIS / FOSS4G, the Linux Foundation Open Source Summit, and Embedded Linux Conference Europe. I also supported numerous hackathons and developer initiatives, helping teams turn ideas into working prototypes.

In 2021, HERE decided to significantly reduce its open-source activities. As open collaboration had been a core motivator for both the teams and myself, this marked a natural transition point.

Entrepreneurship, Open Source & Quiet Tech

After leaving HERE, I founded lemon slice digital GmbH to focus on building thoughtful, sustainable digital products — from bespoke web and mobile systems to AI-driven platforms. The company also maintains a fully open-source fork of XYZmaps as a geospatial and earth-observation data platform and holds the EU trademark for “XYZ maps”.

To support focused exploration and product craftsmanship, lemon slice digital operates several internal initiatives:

• Lemon Slice Labs — experimental R&D, including evolutionary AI-assisted software development (REI Project)
• Lemon Slice Studios — refined Android experiences and product design
• XYZ Maps - a free and open source mapping and earth data platform
• Ambiance — a dynamic, theme-aware Android wallpaper application

AI-Driven Product Innovation

As Technology Partner at LevaData, I helped modernize architecture, infrastructure, and user experience, enabling more scalable AI-driven insights.

As Fractional CTO at Braided Health, I designed and guided the development of an AI-enabled care management platform supporting complex, dual-eligible healthcare environments. The work focused on augmenting care coordinators, improving system coherence, and building technology that fits the realities of healthcare delivery.

I also created SenpAI, a real-time conversational and contextual AI that provides subtle, context-aware guidance during audio and video calls, currently deployed in early production environments.

Speaking & Community Engagement

• Keynotes and sessions at:
  • Linux Foundation Open Source Summit
  • WeAreDevelopers
  • FOSSGIS / FOSS4G
  • Embedded Linux Conference Europe
• Ongoing mentor and contributor at developer community events and hackathons.

Links

Lemon Slice Digital

• https://www.lemonslice.de
• https://labs.lemonslice.de
• https://studios.lemonslice.de
• https://folio.lemonslice.de

Open Source

• https://github.com/xyzmaps
• https://github.com/rei-project
• https://github.com/lemonslice-studios/folio
• https://github.com/olifink/pypad
• https://github.com/olifink/rubypad

Historic Projects

• https://github.com/olifink/qspread
• https://github.com/olifink/ql-space
• https://github.com/olifink/smsqe

Talks & Media

• Linux Foundation Keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJEp3GhUMkY
• FOSS4G HERE XYZ Deep Dive: https://media.ccc.de/v/bucharest-323-here-xyz-deep-dive-on-creating-custom-web-maps