A: Break it into two parts, vector and raster. For the former, focus on Mapbox and associated libraries/standards (VectorTiles, Leaflet, GeoJSON, etc.). JS is the name of the game in vector land—it’s amazing what you can do all on the front end now. For backend/DB tech, look at PostGIS.

For the latter, I’d focus on Python to start. Look at GDAL (and it’s various Python interfaces/wrappers like rasterio), Cloud Optimized Geotiffs, and the SpatioTemporal Asset Catalog spec.

In both cases, watch what the leading companies are putting out (Mapbox, Azavea where I work, Development Seed, etc.) and not what OGC is doing. One is a leading indicator, the other is a lagging one. Sorry OGC, I still love you and you play an important role.

B: Get comfortable with the idea of working with Defense. For better or worse, they’re the ones with the budget to take on humanitarian work, disaster response work, even climate change adaptation work. That’s my advice. Possible to avoid it altogether, but only if you work on an app that is domain-focused (eg Trulia) and incidentally geospatial.