WhereCampPHX 2011 — Success!

October 4, 2011 1 Comment

Last Saturday, we had the first ever WhereCampPHX in Arizona.  I was very happy with the attendance and after the first jitters of never being to a unconference before, the crowd totally got into it.  In fact, I had many people come up to me after and say they wanted to do another one right away because they had no idea how much fun they can be if you take part.  In what was unique for me at a WhereCamp, there seemed to be two tracks that people created.  One of “traditional” GIS (scripting geoprocessing, map servers, analysis) and then another one that focused on new technologies.  I spent most of my time in the second one where there was discussions on Google Fusion Tables/Google Earth Builder, TileMill, Places APIs, Vectors in the browser (Polymaps, Raphael) and back-end databases.

Checking the board to see where the next session will be.

It was a nice change of pace to have a WhereCamp in my hometown and not having to travel to another state or country.  The feedback from those who attended clearly shows that there is a need for these more informal sessions as opposed to the traditional conferences.  Having the first one of these here in Arizona gives us a leg up on the next one since most of the crowd now knows what to expect and they can propose their own topics.

We also had a great time at the Turf Pub for the after party (thanks Bentley for the food) watching Arizona State fall behind and then blow out Oregon State.  My plans are to have some sort of event (maybe an Ignite style talk program) or another unconference in the spring so we can continue what we’ve started.  Everyone who attended seemed to have their minds filled with new ideas after the day so there needs to be some downtime to implement all the new stuff we’ve learned.

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WhereCampPHX Update and Hack the Map

August 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

![WhereCampPHX Logo](http://images.spatiallyadjusted.com/wcp_1000x288.jpg)

[WhereCampPHX](http://www.wherecampphx.org) is getting close to being filled up so if you are still on the fence, now is the time to [secure your spot](http://wherecampphx.eventbrite.com). Saturday October 1st will be something special at the Cronkite School at Arizona State University. Don’t miss it!

![Hack the Map](http://evbdn.eventbrite.com/s3-s3/eventlogos/7227651/2073264189-1.png)

For those who want to continue the hacking, [Hack the Map](http://hackthemap.eventbrite.com/) will be held October 2nd at [Co+Hoots](http://incohoots.com/) also in downtown Phoenix.

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WhereCampPHX — October 1st, 2011

August 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

We’ve soft launched the registration for WhereCampPHX but you can still sign up to attend (its free).  Right now, registration stands at 71 so we are well on our way to being a sellout.  We’ve been lucky enough to be able to have the event at the Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism in downtown Phoenix.  The space is full of awesome so we should all have a great time.  I’d also like to thank our sponsors for stepping up and helping us put on this free event.

This will be the first WhereCamp in Phoenix so it should really be a special time.  Make sure you register to attend if you are going to be there.  I know I will and so will many others.

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WhereCamp5280 – The Take-away

November 23, 2010 6 Comments

So yea, great time had by all.  As far as an unconference goes, it was a nice improvement over last year.  These things take time to get right and WhereCamp5280 is looking like its going to be a very successful gathering.  So what did I see that I think I need to pay attention to in the next year.

  1. Google Fusion Tables — Are you kidding me?  These stuff is “teh awesome”.  Fusion tables are going to be more “killer” than Google Maps was.  Yup, pay attention.
  2. Polymaps — I have no idea how I’m going to use this thing or even how the darn thing works (voodoo is the general assumpition), but damn it works and it kicks butt.  You can’t be serious if you want to actual serve up vectors via WFS.  Another game changer…
  3. Raphael — I was playing with this a couple months back and forgot about it.  Don’t get me wrong, Google Chart API is sweet, but Raphael is like chocolate syrup (with whipped cream and a cherry on top).  Hey look at that two SVG rendering projects in a row.
  4. SEO for Mapping — Brian Timoney talked about SEO and how data needs to be found better.  I can’t find a link to his topic anywhere, but just know what is good enough for John Elway should be good enough for the City GIS Department.  Seriously though, if you want your data found, you need to think about how Google crawls it.

There was a ton more discussed (see Andrei’s blog).  What caught me off guard was the general lack of interest in Microsoft technology.  In a huge shift from last year.  Silverlight, .NET, SQL Server and Windows were all lacking in representation.

As I said, great time was had and it was good to get me focused on where I want to go in the next year.

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WhereCampPDX this weekend

October 1, 2009 2 Comments

Don’t forget, WhereCamp PDX is this weekend.  The WhereCampPDX blog has a good overview post of where you need to be and when.

Ill see everyone on the WhereCampPDX boat this weekend.

I'll see everyone on the WhereCampPDX boat this weekend.

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WhereCampPDX 2009

September 16, 2009 1 Comment

I’ll be heading up to Portland for WhereCampPDX 2009 this year.  In fact, I’m keynoting.  WhereCampPDX will be running October 2-4 at the Metro Regional Center.  There is still time to propose a session so make sure you add your topic as soon as possible.  As with any WhereCamp, all you need is a will to share what you know about anything geospatial, you don’t need to be Peter Batty to propose and host a session.

Even Clyde the Glide Drexler will probably show for WhereCampPDX

Even Clyde the Glide Drexler will probably show for WhereCampPDX

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Back from WhereCamp5280

August 17, 2009 2 Comments

I had a very enjoyable time at WhereCamp5280. A huge thanks should go to Eric Wolf, Peter Batty, and Ben Tuttle.  I think one of the best parts of the WhereCamp was the practicality of what was presented.  So much we get fluff at Where 2.0 or other “bleading edge” conferences of projects and companies that aren’t really trying to solve problems.  All I saw last weekend was person after person talk about what they were doing with their workflows with some great technology and the end result was an improvement in their services.

That isn’t to say that there wasn’t cutting edge stuff there, Chris Helm showing CouchDB and IMBY, DRCOG, their data portal and using OSM, Ben Tuttle using IDL and Ruby at NOAA and Tom Churchill showing how Denver PD uses augmented reality mapping to help them catch criminals.  It isn’t just that rolling MapReduce is “fun”, but it needs to be practical and that is what I think the Denver geospatial community is great at doing.

What also could be happening is that we are crossing over from thinking about using these technologies and are actually using them in our everyday workflows.  I’m not sure WhereCamp5280 could have been any more successful than it was and I’m looking forward to the next WhereCamp (WhereCampPDX?).

Tom Churchill demonstrates augmented reality application from the Denver PD helicopter.

Tom Churchill demonstrates augmented reality application from the Denver PD helicopter.

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WhereCamp5280 Presentation

August 14, 2009 9 Comments

Here is my slide deck from my plenary talk at WhereCamp5280.  You can follow along as you watch the video of my talk on GeoGeek TV.

Eliminating Barriers to Data Sharing – WhereCamp5280 Plenaryhttp://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=wherecamp5280-090814172108-phpapp02&stripped_title=eliminating-barriers-to-data-sharing-wherecamp5280-plenary
View more presentations from James Fee.

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Heading off to WhereCamp5280

August 13, 2009 2 Comments

I’m ready for some high altitude camping at WhereCamp5280.  Dave Bouwman will be running GeoGeekTV if the broadband gods smile upon us.  So if you can’t make it up the hill, keep an eye on his twitter feed (@dbouwman) for when he’s recording.  Its looking like a great turnout is expected and some interesting talks are already proposed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-warren/223818605/

Peter Batty is already setting up the WhereCamp5280 base camp.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-warren/223818605/

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