There are people far more qualified and experienced than me in GIS, Web, Technology, Academia and dare I say business at this years AGI Conference. I went with a slightly tongue in cheek approach and I hoped to put some fun into the proceedings. I also strongly believe that the people I was speaking to understand Geo better than I do and wanted to show them a different angle on technology, rather than preach to them on GIS
These are my slides:
http://www.slideshare.net/mpbish/web-20-and-hype-presentation
I didn't talk much about maps or Geo and as a former "GIS Professional" I struggled to come to terms with that in the run up to the conference. I graduated with a GIS degree in 2003. If my course director had told me 5 years ago that I would be presenting at the conference in 2008 (I would have bitten their hand off) but would never have predicted I would not be talking about Geo. Then again perhaps it has something to do with the time (around 2004) after a few shandies I told a lot of the top guys at the AGI they were a dinosaur organisation with outdated views and an academic focus. Clearly I was wrong as many people did listen to me yesterday. Do I feel guilty about not talking about Geo - yes a little. I love maps as much as anyone and I paid a lot for my degree to learn about geo.
But then look at the fantastic range of speakers all talking about geo at this years conference and I feel a little less bad. Perhaps the fact that I am product of the system and not talking about Geo says a lot about where we have come from and where we are going? I have aspirations to take the power of location to places it couldn't before - mainly in the Enterprise. I can't do that by banging on about maps and tile servers all of the time (some of the time yes).
According to some my presentation was confusing or perplexing and 'old news'.
I'm generalising here but the sad thing is I think that some people in technology and "blogsphere" are loosing touch with the fact that there are scores of people in our industry (and outside our industry) that don't understand things as "basic" as web2.0. I wasn't positioning my presentation to the technologists, the bloggers, the evangelists, the serial conference speakers. I was positioning my presentation to the real people I meet on a weekly basis. Not everyone has a blog or even reads blogs. Most people I speak to will never know or (need to know) what ajax is. There seems to be a great deal of surprise on the lack of understanding of the ‘basics’ of Web2.0. I think the thought leaders in the industry should take a step back from their blogs for a second. Rather than trying to out do each other “top-trump style” start translating this stuff. I count myself quite ahead of the curve, but way back compared to some of the techie people in the industry. By the time it hits my radar it is old news for the elite – but still relevant enough to help many of my customers and the wider community.
Cheers
Bish
Listening to Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
AGI 2008 Icebreaker
What have I discovered on the Icebreaker?
- I work in a dynamic industry and many of my ex-colleagues have infiltrated far and wide
- The Average age of an icebreakers attendee is 40+
- I'm not very good at location based quizzes.
- I should not stay out and booze too late this evening.
- Marketing and presence is noticed.
Cheers
Bish
Location Intelligence and Document Management
This little bugger caused me a lot of hassle this week.
Rather embarrassingly I lost a single document that prevented me from traveling to Sweden. I was quite impressed with the 4 hour turnaround service, but not so impressed with the price tag (still £10.10 a year for 10 years isn't so bad). Still my own stupid fault, should try and look after this one. Also amazing how fast news travels as the whole office seemed to know. I did finally make it to MapSweden - however I missed out on the shrimp and vodka party, followed by sauna and midnight swim. The Swedes certainly know how to hold a conference!
Listening to Beck - Sea Change
Then there were 3
(yeah I know there are others...)
Speed
Omnibar
Application Mode (which means corporate web applications can now be nicely locked down - may interest a few ICT departments)
Not so nice:
No Plugins (Yet)
Menu all the way on the right
Not on Linux (Yet)
Fears of google data gathering (TBD)
Will we one day see everything running in browsers regardless of OS. Linux may rule on servers and web applications will rule the "Get Things Done" space (goodbye Microsoft OS, don't slam the door on the way out - perhaps not yet,)
Chrome may never be the number 1 browser, but it won't matter. It will shape the future releases of IE and Firefox as they try to take the best features. That is what I believe googke is trying to achive here. Utimatley it won't matter to google which browser you use to look at their content, apps, and advertisments. What they do want is users to demand things like the omni bar, speed dial and application mode in other browsers.
Listening to - Pixes Doolittle
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