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!

SDI in the CRC-SI: Also-ran or Opportunity?

Sample of the parallel discussion in the Twittersphere

At last week’s annual conference of the CRC for Spatial Information, we saw the (re-) launch of its “Spatial Data Infrastructures” (SDI) research agenda, which generated vibrant (online) discussions. Though this CRC has been operating for more than 2 years now, its Spatial Infrastructures program has been a bit of a wasteland. In part due to the lack of a dedicated Science Director, the program has to date failed to formulate any vision, nor a credible agenda, and delivered disappointingly little.

How many Spatial Information organisations in Australia?

This question was posed on Twitter by @WALISForum, at the beginning of day 2 of the ISDE7 conference in Perth.

This got me thinking. My initial reaction was: "Way too many". But how better to actually find out, than by crowdsourcing the answer to this question.

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).

Bloody Big Deal: European Union extends Quality of Service regulations for Geodata Network Services

Last week, the EU issued a directive to extend its Quality of Service regulations for Geodata Services. This directive adds specifications for download and transformation services to the 'discovery' and 'view' services that were regulated in 2009.


Though this event earned little more than the odd footnote in the industry press and blogosphere, it is actually a bloody big deal. The directive sets specific minimum parameters for performance, capacity and availability of geospatial services published by EU governments. And these are binding.

Awesome Ignite Sydney 4, and why is Spatial so un-cool?

Yesterday I was delighted, inspired and awed at Ignite Sydney 4 - Sydney's opening of Global Ignite Week.

 Photo: Jean-Jacques Halans

For those of you who are not yet familiar with Ignite: it's like geek-speed-dating with PowerPoint.

National Emergency Warning System still has some way to go

Partly in response to the Victoria Bushfires in February 2009, the Federal Government late last year launched the "National Emergency Warning System" (NEWS): http://www.alp.org.au/media/1209/msag040.php . It was immediately also trialled in NSW under the name 'Emergency Alert'.

The system works by sending voice and text (SMS) messages to phones in the threatened area.

Telstra and the government are quick to point out the obvious flaw in this system, that they say will be addressed in future versions: Messages go out according to phones with their billing address in the area under threat only, which is not guaranteed to be the phones' actual location, especially in case of mobiles. Furthermore, people may be interested in areas beyond their phone's location.