You may have picked up on the rumors that I have a new job, well it’s true !!
This week I joined Google as the Geospatial Technologist for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and to say I am excited would be somewhat of an understatement.
Google (and yes Microsoft and Yahoo as well 🙂 ) have had a massive positive impact on the traditional GI industry and are developing truly innovative ways of distributing and exploiting geographic information – and there is still much more to come !
The “heavy lifting” of the data providers and sophisticated software tools developers is still a very important part of the industry which after-all is data driven, but through the efforts of Google the information is getting into the hands of a new community of some 200 million users, when they need it, and how they need it.
It’s really important that the world of neogeography and the more established industry come together as there is much to learn from both ends of the spectrum, there is already much good working going on to integrate geoRSS and KML with existing OGC standards for example.
Google lives up to its reputation – I feel like I’m back at university, really bright people getting on and solving problems, but unlike most university departments or corporate research units, with all the resources needed to do so – and yes there are lots of Lava lamps, as much free food and drink as you could cope with, and a games room 🙂
I have been smiling continuously for the last week, but I can see life is going to get really busy !!
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Technorati Tags: Google
53 replies on “My new office…”
Hi Ed
Congratulations on your new role, it sounds really exciting.
Tim Woolford
Trek Wireless Ltd
Ed:
Congrats on the job–just don’t let anyone catch you dozing on one of those bean-bag chairs in the common areas.
Now if you could just modify the EULA for GE Pro that would encourage the private sector to experiment with the platform, that would make my life, for one, much more pleasant….
Brian
Hey Ed, well done and congratulations… sounds like it’s going to be a hoot and right up your street, you’ll love it! I like the look of the gourmet food best, but I’m sure there’ll be some interesting geospatial technologisting to be done too 😉
Greg.
Ed,
Awesome gig, man. Best of luck.
Who needs a CV when you have a blog ! 😉
Congratulations Ed. Push them to use Navteq data for Ireland rather than the patchy Teleatlas stuff!
Will King
Checking the date, not April 1. Well, congratulations! I must say I wondered if this would happen when you mentioned your trip to the California OGC meetings in your post here (http://www.edparsons.com/?p=392). It seemed a natural fit.
Good for you, Ed!
Awesome – Congratulations Ed, now we’ve got someone from Google to ramble and ruminate on GeoSpatial wisdom…hope you’ll continue posting…or may be you’ll forget with too much attention towards the free food! 🙂
Good luck..
Who is buying the beer ?? Next time I’m over in UK or when you’re in Amsterdam !! ?? 😉
Good Luck my friend