A year ago and XTech '08

A year ago, Peter talked on behalf of Quakr at O'Reilly Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, California. Some pictures were taken, and we talked about it here. The talk has now appeared on four sites as an Audio file:
1) itc (check out that angry face!)
2) earideas
3) podfeed
4) mefeedia

We're kind of expecting it to be in video format sometime, but we'll see.

We've all got too busy in our normal lives, or broken our leg, or doing too much generally so we are NOT going to be attending XTech this year - after being accepted. It's a pisser, but sometimes it happens that way.

We haven't done very much to the Viewr or the Taggr in recent months, and do not have any kind of list of urgent fixes to make.

In to XTech 2008

Our submitted Talk Brief / Abstract has been accepted for XTech 2008. It's not clear who and when we'll be there, but I suspect we'll be there somehow.

Meanwhile the idea that although Quakr is the best idea on the world ever, it might not make us all rich is becoming clearer. After talking to XTech 2007, then being headhunted to talk at Where 2.0, then a couple of possible investors, then getting to the last 30 of 268 companies which applied to Seedcamp, then a couple of other nice people... it seems we're a bit ahead of everything and everyone. We're right of course that the new world will be a user generated environment and the other people who are trying to control a single set of 3D map data are wrong, but for now it may be time to leave it alone. Investment is not the thing that will turn this best ever idea into something with a reasonable return. It's still lots of fun and we'll more than likely still bug you all with it until we find the killer app that makes it financially interesting.

What's this?

So. I talked. People seemed to listen (although it was fairly hard to look into the eyes of 800ish people in a huge ballroom) and then asked sensible questions of me after it. I would have said that 24 hours worth of travel for 15 minutes of talking was some poor economics, but the geekworking potential proved irresistible. It was really good to meet the organisational wizzo and his various helpers, re-acquaint myself with Schuyler Erle and the good folks from Loki, and meet up with variously interested and interesting people.

A dead one of those...

Coverage:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/x180/520716031/in/set-72157600280624429/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gisuser/520279393/
http://think.random-stuff.org/FrontPage/archive/2007/05/29/where-2-0-lightning-post
http://sensorymetrics.com/2007/05/29/where-20-conference-oreilly-trademarks-where/
http://ipid.wordpress.com/2007/05/29/where-the-2nd/
http://www.edparsons.com/?p=468
http://ubikwitus.blogspot.com/2007/05/where-2.html
http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/blog/?p=158
http://www.txtst.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/215
http://where2-0.blogspot.com/2007/06/morning-session-day-12.html
http://threeminds.organic.com/2007/05/updated_where_is_here_at_where.html

Quakr-centric Highlights:

Google CEO of Maps steals our words "It's attempting to show what it's like to be there" - some 30 minutes before I get to say them!
Everyone seemed to use "GeoRSS" somewhere in their talk.
The money for map data and applications is coming from Real Estate and Tourism in the main.
GeoVector have a phone plugin thing with a digital compass and talked about an agreement with phone manufacturers to insert one into all new models? talk details.
A number of people mentioned an SD-RAM memory card for camera's with 1GB of space AND a GPS device which automagically EXIF's the images taken with GPS data - called Eye-Film, the website is http://www.eye.fi/.

Quakr hunted down by Where 2.0, California

"Phew!", we thought.

We had made it through XTech fine and there was some genuine interest in Quakr.

"Onwards and upwards", we thought.

Then Brady Forrest at O'Reilly got in touch out of the blue to say this:


> Howdy,
>
> I am the Chair for O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference
> http://conferences.oreilly.com/where
>
> I just found your XTech slides. Awesome! Are you
> available to speak in San Jose, CA next Wednesday
> morning?
>
> Contact me immediately as I have been holding back
> this final spot for an awesome project like Quakr,
> but can't hold it for long.
>

How could we resist?

And so I'm pleased to announce that Peter will be flying out to San Jose, California to tell O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference all about Quakr and to shake Brady's hand.

The schedule looks excellent, and includes Schuyler Erle who gave us some excellent advice at XTech and a welcome reminder that we should really ditch the Google Maps tiles in favour of OpenStreetMap.

The sesssion on 3D Data: Platforms for Real World Virtual World Interaction looks spectacularly relevant.

So, if you're at the conference, come and say "hi!". And on Wednesday morning (30th May) go and see Peter show you what Quakr is all about.