The Planet as a Dashboard, Live

A free, open-source 3D globe that shows live planes, ships, satellites, and 800 public cameras — all in your browser, no account needed.

What it is

Somebody built a photorealistic, spinning 3D globe that pulls in live data from all over the internet — planes in the air, ships at sea, satellites overhead, earthquakes as they happen, traffic flows, and around 800 public security cameras from cities around the world. You open it in a browser. No account. No subscription. No technical setup.

It went to number one on GitHub — the platform where developers share code — in August 2026, with over 21,000 people saving it to their collections.

The part that genuinely stopped us: you can talk to it. Ask it to show you air traffic over the Mediterranean, or zoom in on a port. A built-in AI agent listens and responds.

Why it matters beyond the wow factor

All the data it uses is public and free. The interesting design decision is that every layer — planes, ships, cameras — can be swapped out for your own data sources. That means someone could, in theory, build a version that tracks their own fleet, monitors locations relevant to their supply chain, or visualises any kind of geographic information they care about.

It's not a product you'd buy off a shelf. But it shows what's now possible to build with public data, a browser, and an AI that can hear you.

Worth thinking about

If you run a business that has any relationship with physical movement — deliveries, logistics, events, travel — it's worth asking: what would your version of this look like?

Words worth knowing

OSINT — Open Source Intelligence. Information gathered from publicly available sources: news, satellite imagery, public databases. No hacking involved.

MIT-licensed — A type of permission attached to free software. It means anyone can use, modify, or build on it, including for commercial purposes.

AI agent — An AI that doesn't just answer questions but takes actions on your behalf — in this case, controlling what the globe shows based on what you say aloud.

GitHub Trending — A daily ranking of the most talked-about open-source projects in the world. Hitting number one is roughly the equivalent of a restaurant making the front page of a major food magazine.