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USGIF and OGC are committed to organizing a conference focused on place-based policy. However, after discussions with several of our respective members and sponsors, we have decided that the community would be better served if this event were rescheduled.
I know I was confused regarding the name, timing and other issues.
- OGC/USGIF statement on OGC website
I was very excited about Podcamp Boston held in Cambridge this past weekend. I planned to spend all day Saturday but ended up using "the law of two feet" and bailing at lunch. Why?
At the opening we learned we are all geeks who got picked last for the teams in school. Probably true. But frankly, I hoped to find some social media folks or podcasters who were not so geeky with whom to network. Maybe people who loved surfing or did podcasts about cooking or ballet. One of the sessions asked about who you think about when you hear "location based services" and the answer was @SchneiderMike from allen & gerritsen, the presenters boss I later learned. I'd never heard of him...but super geeky attendees I guess had.
Later I attended Social Media 101 Questions. There were about five people there and no "leader," which is very podcampy. I rasied my issue to blank stares. It seems the folks in attendence wanted to be taught Social Media 101. I think I heard someone recently out of a job say someone else was buiding his LinkedIn profile. Another person, when asked what she wanted out of a session on using podcast interviews for branding, said she wanted to learn the mechanics of podcasting.
The group was very small, far smaller than the several hundred at podcamp Boston 4, which I think is the last one I attended. To be fair, this weekend's venue (Microsoft's Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, aka NERD) was smaller, but it was not the near sell out attendence noted on the website. I guess many folks simply didn't show up.
So, it seems we had "experts" and "total newbies." I was not finding my people; the folks in the middle. And, yes, I did use the law of two feet quite a bit within the event (leaving any session that's not working for you to seek another). I did not have the energy, nor was I sure how to set up my own session. I guess I could have done that.
Still, I did pick up two things worth the price of admission. A session called Breaking the Bell Curve: Standing out in a sea of same by Tamsen McMahon of allen & gerritsen about how to stand out from the crowd was excellent and I learned quite a lot. The other takeaway was from a pretty savvy fellow I met on T as I headed out. He was frank and noted he was heading to lunch but might not return, either. When I described my experience he cited Clayton Christensen's observation that when innovations are new the early adopters are tinkerers and teach themselves. When those same innovations go mainstream potential users expect to do no work. Indeed.
Foursquare Everywhere, announced earlier this year, puts Foursquare content on Bing Maps. It's now available. And, CEO Dennis Crowley said the company will put some energy into using people's future location rather than their current one in future features per GigaOM.
Fwix updated its API to allow developers to to pull in names, locations and web content about places.
Pete Warden and Alasdair Allen reported at the event (and on O'Reilly Radar) that iPads and 3G iPhones have stored their locations in an internal, unencrypted file. No word from Apple on why. The FCC and Congress are already on the war path against Apple per Politico.
Google announced Google Earth Builder, a cloud platform for storage and data "grooming" accessible via Google Earth clients. Joe Francica attended the press event and has details at Directions Magazine.
Loopt introduced Qs, its play at real-time, local micro-reviews, and polls. (press release)
UScapeIt, from Everyscape, is an app to produce and share panoramas using an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad 2 — and it's free per the Boston Globe.
Microsoft announced Read/Write World hosted by Bing and introduced on the Bing Maps Blog.
Informally, it’s the magic of:
- Seeing your photos automatically connected to others;
- Being able to simply create immersive experiences from your or your friends photos, videos, and panoramas;
- “Fixing” the world, when the official imagery of your street is out of date;
- Visually mapping your business, your favorite park, or your real estate for everyone to see;
- Understanding the emergent information from the density and tagging of media.
SimpleGeo announced on its blog the licensing of its Places database:
Today we’d like to announce that we’re making the data in our Places product public using the Creative Commons Zero, or “No Copyright”.
The “Call for Abstracts” supporting The National Map Users Conference and GIS Workshop to be held May 10-13, 2011 in Denver has been extended to February 6, 2011. Information and submission form.
- USGS e-mail
The event starts today and Joe Francica and others are already tweeting pretty regularly.
