Happy Friday everyone !!

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

The high level message of my presentation was, we need to think more about the I in SDI e.g. infrastructure,  that we already have a well adopted information infrastructure we can use called the World Wide Web, to use it Geo people just have to be better web citizens.

For too long the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure community has been dominated by the producers of geospatial data, the Mapping Agencies, Cadastres and the Technology companies that serve their perceived needs. As a result discussions of Spatial Data, quality, standards and policy dominated.

I was pleased to see this observation reflected in a number of the plenary presentations, and the obvious logical extension that more focus needs to be concentrated on the potential users of SDI’s and their needs. This point was made brilliantly clear by Gilberto Câmara director of Brazils National Space Research Institute, INPE.

He introduced four questions any SDI supporter should answer..

1. How much is your SDI being used to build a modern state ?
2. How much is your SDI being used to enforce the rule of law ?
3. How much is your SDI being used to support public accountability ?
4. Is data from your SDI reaching those that need it ?

Key to answering these questions positively is I think a recognition that the true beneficiaries of a successful SDI, are not other data producers, governments, or public sector bodies, but society as a whole.

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

Well I would estimate that is the case from the imminent closure of Plazes, one of the earliest Location Sharing applications developed back in 2004.

I used Plazes on and off for a few years starting on my first real smartphone the Nokia N95 and for a while it powered the Where Ed function on this blog. Plazes was acquired by Nokia in 2008 and it’s technology was rolled into the ovi platform, although Plazes.com continued as a stand-alone service.

This week Nokia announced the closure of the service, offering users the ability to download and export their location history. This is an important step and one which Nokia should be commended for, your location data is your data and in the spirit of data liberation you should be able to take it with you wherever you want to go..

So why is plazes closing, my personal view is that location sharing as a discrete service is just not that compelling, your location is a useful piece of contextual information whose real value comes from it’s integration with other personal data.

Knowing I’m currently in Calgary, Alberta is interesting..

Knowing I’m in Calgary, it’s 5pm, I’m flying out to San Francisco at 9pm, it’s raining and there is a Tim Hortons my favourite Coffee Shop on the quickest route based on the current traffic conditions is actually valuable.

Written and submitted from the GeoAlberta Conference (51.059N, 113.979W)

Now as a result of the technological marvel thats is WebGL you can seen Parallax demonstrated dynamically in Google Maps, just one of the ways online maps are moving beyond the static paradigm of traditional cartography.

Watch the dome of St.Paul’s as the map is scrolled

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

For the last few years National Rail Enquires (NRE)  have been licensing at some considerable cost it’s information to independent software developers for them to develop their own apps, indeed one of my favourite all time apps is UK Train Times developed by Dave Addey and his team at Agant.

Todays release is clearly a case of channel conflict by a Quasi-Government organisation, and I would suggest anti-competitive.

NRE should not be developing an app and competing with it’s “partners” who have developed a range of apps for the last few years. NRE should just release the data under an Open Gov Licence and let the ecosystem develop !

So much for the release of government data empowering the software industry, my old friends at Ordnance Survey always recognised this was an issue and kept out of their partners space, not developing a mobile OS maps application despite what I might have argued at the time

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

After successful events in the US two Google Geo Teachers Institutes are to be held on June 13 and 14  in Dublin, and June 20 and 21, 2012 in London. Both events will be held at the local Google office.

The two-day events are free and designed to help teachers get the most from Google’s geography-related products and technologies. Participants receive hands-on experience and learn best practices and tips for using Google Earth, Google Maps, and Google SketchUp.

If you are interested complete the online application form before April 30, 2012.

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)

Member of academic staff can apply for Research Awards by submitting a proposal via the Faculty Research Awards program website.

Although the majority of grants go to applications in Computer Science and Software Engineering, Geospatial is increasingly represented,  last year grants were provided to researchers in Mapping/GIS at,

• Columbia University
• Princeton University
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• ETH Zurich
• UCL / University of Southampton
• Institut d’Etudes politiques de Paris
• McGill University

The last call resulted in the funding of 119 awards for a total of $6 million !

If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch, but I suggest looking at this advice first.

Written and submitted from the Google Offices, London (51.495N, 0.146W)

Happy Memories ? I was more of a Sinclair Spectrum man myself…

Written and submitted from home (51.425N, 0.331W)