Perfect storm of exciting Geo-events surrounding GeoNext in Sydney

If you are interested in all things to do with geographic and location-based technology trends, you'd want to be in Sydney 25-27 February, where no fewer than five key events are converging on the city: the SSSI "Remote Sensing and Earth Observation" Seminar on the 25th, the NGIS Google Maps User Forum and Bootcamp also on the 25th, the third annual "why location matters" GeoNext conference on the 26th, and finally the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network's e-Research workshop on the 27th.

All events are either free or very affordable, and better still, with minimal overlap timewise, the truly committed could attend four out of five of these. Geo-overload at your own risk!

The highlight is undoubtedly the 3rd annual GeoNext conference, with a better program than ever, covering a myriad of applications of location data, including innovative transport solutions, hyperlocal wearable technologies, indoor positioning (where you can try out a pair of Google Glass!), the future of retail, and much more.

And don't forget the GoGet Hackfest prize winners, and GeoRabble drinks to conclude the day!

Rockstars, Google goes SDI, and DIY Panoramas

Wrap-up of Where 2.0, 19-21 April 2011

After Tuesday's workshops, Where 2.0 really kicked off of Wednesday. Two things immediately became apparent. Firstly: some of these young entrepreneurs are revered as rock stars. The only thing missing in the opening interview with Foursquare's CEO Dennis Crowley were the screaming teenagers.

Secondly, every self-respecting LBS product company uses the conference for a product launch. Thus we saw exciting new products & capabilities from established players like Microsoft, Nokia, ESRI and Google, and about a million start-ups.

And of course, this was the conference where the iPhone tracking 'scandal' was revealed. If you've been living under a pebble: unbeknown to most of us, iPhones and iPads track and store your location, unencrypted. It’s very easy for others (employers, suspicious partners) to read this.

PSMA, Sensis or OpenStreetMap: what makes Spatial Data “Authoritative”?

You are probably aware that recently in Australia, Google switched map data providers. They ditched the government owned data provider PSMA in favour of Sensis' Whereis, and this data will (at least in part) be maintained by users themselves.


The switch has created a bit of a stir in the Australian spatial information community. Our industry association (SIBA) sent out a stern word of warning about authoritative data and the risks of dealing with User Generated Content (UGC).