Openspace.. and other mash up catch ups !!

I can’t believe it’s nearly a month since the UK Mash-up event, I have literally not had a chance to stop and catch my thoughts about the event. It was technically interesting and I think it had quite a big impact on some of the OS staff who attended, who for the first time in some cases, were exposed to the “non-professional” GI community.

OS announced our Openspace project, which hopefully we will be able to release in the near future subject to legal and licensing concerns. The Openstreetmap team demonstrated it’s first commercial application of its data with the Nestoria home finding site, best mash-up of the day was the real time train map developed by Matthew Somerville of mySociety.

As pointed out by Jo much of the afternoon debate facilitated by Peter Cochrane focused on the big topic of business models and data licensing issues. Well I guess my views of licensing are well known, simply put… “somebody has to pay !!”

The business model question is more interesting..

Other thans Google’s clear advertising model of today it is not clear how others will make profits or even cover their costs. I made the point however that this might not be as big a problem as it might seem, successful business models will either emerge or the phenomenon will disappear as an unsustainable activity brought into brief existence by the development of web 2.0 technologies.

These technologies and their impact on how systems are developed, and the close relationships with users established, will survive however… whatever else happens as an industry we can ignore user generated content no longer.

Written and submitted from the City Inn Express, Birmingham, using the hotels free (yes free!!) broadband internet connection.