OK so just a little tongue in cheek, but the AGI team behind the annual UK GI conference would like input in bringing in the perspective of the “Neo-geographers” in planning next years event.
This is a great idea, let’s hope that enough people in the new world of users of GI find such organisations still relevant.. this years AGI event went some way to breaking down the boundaries between the two ages of geography , lets hope the paleo-geograpahers are ready for the guys in jeans for there is much to learn !!
Written and submitted from the Googleplex , Mountain View.
Just got back from the 2007 AGI conference, which I thought was a massive improvement on previous years events. Steven Feldman and his team at the AGI have done a great job downscaling the event, and taking a new direction as a residential conference for the GI industry to talk to itself.
The GI industry in the UK is now well beyond the stage in its maturity where there is a need for a big conference and exhibition to attract new users – today if you need GIS, you are already a user.
So this years conference was really an opportunity for the industry to meet and discuss issues and developments, and to help develop a sense of community.
This year the recurring theme seemed to be the impact of Neogeography (Andrew Turner has a lot to answer for !!) on the traditional GIS industry or Paleogeography as I called it in my keynote.
I think, there is still someway to go for the GIS industry to fully come to terms with the potential that a neogeography approach to providing solutions to users has, and there is still a large amount of scepticism, but I was really pleased to see a programme which contained a number of “neogeo” presentations.
Of particular note for me, Ian Holt and John Abbott of Widr gave two excellent practical demonstrations of building mashups using location aware API’s, Ed Freyfogle of Nestoria was impressive as ever and Nick Black opened many peoples eyes in the audience to OpenStreetMap, many of whom it would appear had not come across it before.
Nick introduced Cloud Made a new project in collaboration with Steve Coast to offer commercial support to organisations wanting to use OpenStreetMap data – Cloud Made is only just getting off the ground, but think Redhat and Linux.
There really are two ages of geography at the moment, the established GIS industry is great at serving the needs of organisations for which geospatial data really is core and for creating core large scale geospatial data. This will not change fundamentally, although there are important lessons in particular around simplicity of tools and licensing models that can be picked up from neogeography !
On the other hand Neogeography offers a better approach to communicate and engage with communities of users who need to use geography to put whatever data they are interested in, in context. This is potentially everybody !!
Vanessa Lawrence in her presentation confirmed that the OS will be releasing the OpenSpace API before Christmas!! I have a couple of bottles of Champagne I promised the team once upon a time, that I can put back on the ice !
In many ways this year the conference also seemed to represent to some extent a handover to a more relaxed and down to earth view of the industry, no better demonstrated than by the soon to be infamous AGI party, partly captured on my camera phone !
GIS professionals dressed up as village people… that would never have worked 15 years ago in Birmingham !!
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Yesterday was a series of interesting contrasts for me, the state of the “traditional” Government dominated GI industry was pretty well summed up by the Chorley Day review event organised by the AGI, key impression – “why after 20 years of trying does nobody listen to us”, while the very same evening brought a larger audience to the mashup* location themed event, key impression – “Hello we would really like to build application “x” using your platform is that OK..”
I was really pleased to see the WIDR guys at the event last night, some bright guys who used to work for me while I was at Ordnance Survey, who have developed a location determination platform, with an open API, based on wifi hotspots. Not a new idea I know, but the API element is really interesting as it offers the potential for developers to easily add location awareness to their own web based applications.
What would begin to close the gap between the two diverging GI communities, would be if these guys could develop they ideas during the day rather than in their spare time, and bring the benefit directly back to their organisation. The 20% time that Google engineers can use to develop their own ideas is well known, and really is a powerful tool for developing new products and services – would we ever see anything like that in Government ?
No.. I guess not.. but then the next generation of customers of Government services, as David Rhind so brilliantly called them yesterday the “myTube” generation have vastly different expectations of dealing with organisations based on experiences with eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Google etc all of which recognise the importance of innovation in keeping their customers happy.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
The AGI 2007 Conference blogsite is now live, an interesting way to track progress running up to this years AGI conference, which itself is a radical departure from previous years… Make sure you comment if you have anything to say, this type of openness in the way the AGI works should be applauded.
I sure this change in direction for he conference is a good move, however I’m not sure which of the groups represented on the poster is me.. guess I need a hard hat !
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
This week I am giving the keynote presentation at World of Geomatics, for many years the main trade show for the surveying industry in the UK. Although small compared to something like interGEO or GITA, the show is successful and is supported a loyal audience. It is also fully supported by the professional bodies of surveying in the UK RICS, ICES and the Survey Association.
In contrast to these international shows you will not find any GIS vendors a World of Geomatics, for many years the GIS software and data interests were served by the large GIS shows in Birmingham in the late 80′s early 1990′s and more recently by the AGI annual conference and exhibition. In the last decade these shows have struggled to compete with the internet as educational resources and this year there will be no vendor neutral GIS exhibition in the UK !!
I have never really understood this, why do experts in the fields of manipulating Geographical Information in the UK exist in almost parallel universes – Answers on a postcard if you have any thoughts (OK by email but I have always wanted to write that !!) – Maybe there is a future opportunity here ?
I think I understand why the surveying shows have remained successful, it is to do with professionalism and the recognition of the value of “industry best practice”, something which has been recognised only recently by GIS professionals.
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Every year Ordnance Survey sponsors the AGI Student of the Year of the year award, this years closing date is on Friday (6th October) so if you are a Lecturer of/or a student of a GIS related discipline who has finished studies in the last year, don’t miss your chance and enter for the award.
Mike at the Journal of maps is collecting peoples recommendations for best and worst trade show gifts following his trip to this years AGI. Afraid the plastic TOIDS of the OS don’t rate very highly!
As a contrast to a rather depressing AGI conference review of the failure of the UK GI industry to come up with a viable GI Strategy, in which Mike Blakemore compared efforts so far to Little Britain’s’ Vicky Pollard..
“No but, Yeh but, No but, like there is this spatial data – no shutup..”
I am looking forward to next weeks Terra future research event at the Ordnance Survey, at which Tim Berners-Lee is to provide his insight into the place geospatial data has in the web of the future.
There are still a few spaces left, so if you would like to attend email the conference office.
I’m sure a wider industry insight is vital, the UK GI industry needs to accept that the future development of geographic information will not be decided inside the confines of the current inward looking industry of today or for that matter any government generated strategy.
The use of GI is already pervasive… it has become so almost despite the attempts of the last 20 years of industry strategies, instead technological developments like the web developed by Berners-Lee have provided tools to connect users to geospatial data and is now allowing them to become data creators themselves – now that is really exciting !!!
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
OK so just a little tongue in cheek, but the AGI team behind the annual UK GI conference would like input in bringing in the perspective of the “Neo-geographers” in planning next years event.
This week I am giving the keynote presentation at 
As a contrast to a rather depressing AGI conference review of the failure of the UK GI industry to come up with a viable GI Strategy, in which Mike Blakemore compared efforts so far to Little Britain’s’ Vicky Pollard..