GeoCommunity Call for Papers closing soon

The Call for Papers for GeoCommunity closes on Friday. We already have a record number of submissions for this stage in the process and are expecting the usual panic over the next couple of days. Given the long weekend I am sure we will be OK with papers that are in the inbox by start of business on Tuesday.

If you are wrestling with a brilliant idea for a paper or workshop and you "just need a couple of extra days" ring Claire Huppertz at AGI and let her know so that she can assign you a number in the submissions process.

If your paper is accepted for conference you will get a free day pass to the conference which can be worth up to £175 (terms and conditions apply as they say in all good offers) - must be worth putting in a submission surely?

GeoCommunity on LinkedIn

There are now over 100 people in the GeoCommunity Group on LinkedIn with some interesting discussions under way.

If you are a member of LinkedIn do join us and please invite those of your connections who you think might be interested

Godfather or Founding Father of neogeography at GeoCommunity

Chris Osborne and I are very chuffed that we have enticed Andrew Turner who is known by some as the "Godfather" (Chris's) or one of the "Founding Fathers" (mine) of neogeography to be a plenary speaker at GeoCommunity this year.

Andrew Turner is the CTO of FortiusOne, the company behind GeoCommons and the author of O’Reilly’s “Introduction to Neogeography” and “Trends in Where2.0” You can read the full announcement here.

Hopefully Andrew will also be leading a workshop or some other activity in the Geoweb stream that #Geomob are coordinating at the conference.

The combination of new and traditional geography (or if you prefer funky and serious) atthis year's GeoCommunity promises to offer a stunning event and a great oppportunity for both groups to dip their toes in the other's pond (or some similar metaphor).

You have just under 2 weeks to submit a paper and if accepted get a free day pass to the conference. Surely you want to share your wisdom and ideas with your peers and luminaries like Andrew?

Budget disappointment (plus an update)

Well the budget was a predictably dull affair (unless you earn more than £150k) with little surprise even the slight fudge on Ordnance Survey status. There we were expecting an announcement about the future status of the Trading Fund and instead there will be a strategy released today according to the OS web site :

"A new Strategy for Ordnance Survey has been developed and will be published for comment and feedback on Thursday 23 April following the Budget"

Michael Cross has a short piece here that outlines what the strategy may contain. 

The strategy has now been published here as a blog that allows you to comment. If you think it represents positive change, if you think it doesn't go far enough or if you have other thoughts give them your responses.

Next deadline May 12th - 19 days and counting ...

Directions and Street View

Ever wondered what use Street View might be put to?

I stumbled upon the intergation of Street View with driving directions in Google Maps today (no doubt someone will tell me this has been about for ages or at least since the launch of Street View). Alongside each stage of the route directions a camera icon is displayed, clicking on it brings up a split screen with a Street View image and a direction graphic plus the normal map. 

How long before I can get that on the SatNav in my car and perhaps it says to me "Turn left in 50 yards just before the Woolworth store"? Well forget the bit about Woolworth which shows the vintage of the imagery but you get the point.

Try printing the directions and selecting the Street View option, it's really neat.

Just under 3 days to the budget. Don't expect too much from the budget text, the key will be how the revisions are put into practice. I am optimistic, but then I always am.

Going to Wemberley

Some people have said that FA Cup semifinals should not be played at Wembley. Traditionally the semis have been played at large neutral grounds.

Well what makes more sense then, a team from north London and a team from west London playing the semi in north west London or should we all troop up the motorway to Birmingham or Sheffield? Shame if you come from Liverpool or Manchester but isn't it always.

Posted with LifeCast

Something about the Emirates, Frenchmen and balmy nights

Not even going to attempt to link this to geography, just love this pic

Oh and in case you had forgotten it is now only 5 days to the budget so here is a prediction. The angel will be in the detail.

Geospatial Quadrant - in or out?

Joe Francica has an interesting peice on Directions exploring his categorisation of the geospatial marketplace, the Geospatial Quadrant. In this categorisation he defines 4 axes, Products, Systems Integration, Solutions and Data Services.

I think there is a flaw in the analysis in that it places Product and Solutions at opposite ends of the spectrum whilst my experience of the major product vendors is that they are very active in promoting and delivering solutions based upon their domain expertise and product stack. Similarly several of the companies that have traditionally offered data services have moved on to delivering solutions that move them towards the Systems Integrator end of the axis. Unlike the Gartner Magic Quadrant, there doesn't seem to be a square that a company would aspire to occupy.

Here is an alternative. This quadrant looks at the movement from traditional installed software to Software as a Service and the move from geospatial specialist solutions to spatially enabled business solutions. Not sure that this one is any better than Joe's but it may serve to prompt some discussion (particularly as I have left the squares blank so that you can fill in the dots for the companies as you see fit or you could change the labels). 

9 days to the budget and still no leaks ....

Google Street View privacy protest gets Broughton national publicity

Listening to the news headlines on Friday morning I caught an item about villagers in somewhere called Broughton (apparently near Milton Keynes, which I would not have known without help from radio and press) surrounding a Google Street View car trying to photograph their sleepy hamlet. Tempers got warmed to the point that the police had to intervene. Surely G20 would have been a better focus for protest than GSV, but Street View and privacy does seem to have the potential to press people's hot buttons.

I wondered whether it wouldn't be less stressful for the residents of Broughton to just ask Google to remove any images that they didn't want made public. After all, Ed Parsons commented a couple of weeks ago that Google would remove offending images within a couple of hours.

So I clicked on the just visible link in the bottom left hand corner of the Street View image of my home and requested it's removal. An acknowledgement of my request came back by mail immediately. I haven't received a further communication from Google but this morning the image of my house had been removed from Street View. Well done Google.

So a message to the good folk of Broughton, or anywhere else, who do not want their homes to appear on Street View. Rather than protest, write to newspapers or in other ways draw the attention of the national media to that which you wish to keep private, perhaps you would be better off just clicking on the link and asking Google to remove your images - less hassle and less publicity.

Now if I could only find the link to restore the image of my house! I guess I may have to live without a Street View image until they decide to drive round and rephotograph.

16 days to budget and still counting .... Rumours anyone?

Posted with LifeCast

How G20 can help OS

That's Open Source not the national mapping agency.

Listening to all the comment about whether the G20 will help to pull us out of recession it is apparent that at some time in the future there will be a big bill to pay off (not that there is any alternative at the moment).

In the UK there will have to be a squeeze on public sector expenditure post election. That could provide a further incentive to move towards Open Source. Might improve the balance of payments as well.

20 days to the budget and counting ....

Posted with LifeCast

Tweetometer

Thanks to Alberto Nardelli and the team at Tweetminster for the lovely Tweetometer that is now on GIScussions. The Tweetometer compares the volume of tweets in a real time feed. Click on the Go button to refresh.

For the next few days I'll leave it on Open Street Map and Ordnance Survey. Send ideas for other comparisons via comments or get your own version here

21 days to budget and counting ...