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/.

related or relevant, 06/07

- Google Earth does the Tour De France
here

- KML into GMaps = my photos on Gmap?
here

- PPT version of the XTech Presentation
here (16Mb)

- PPT version of the Where 2.0 Presentation
here (11Mb)

- Ask turns into Ask 3D
here

- JetBlue photo's from planes
here

-- more --

- BBC using Photosynth fore Britain collection
here

- same story on Guardian Unlimited
here

- Eye-film = SDRAM with Wifi = always connected camera = GPD in EXIF?
here

- read in a Wii remote's accelerometer information...
here

-- more --

- eye-fi gets $5.5M funding
here or here

-- more --

- "kinda like Google Earth as a flash app in the browser"
here

- "found from Quakr Viewr"
here

- a video on photosynth and how it relates to us
here

- to patent or not to patent - that is the question this paper answers
here

-- more --

- a review of geovector from this time last year
here

- interesting London Uni research sites
here, here and here

- google gets better images of the UK
here

- google zoomed in satellite imagery of Oxford
here

- LORP - sightseeing his Rome set
here

- journal about where in Japanese mentions us
here

- sandy 1.2 released
here

-- more --

- google picassa web albums get maps and mobile
here

- google gadget cash likened to facebook widgets?
here

- digital urban - a blog of interest...
here

- everyscape - better than google streetview?
here and here

- earthmine - many many Quicktime VR's with tags?
here

- 4d flythrough - i.e. 3D + Time - interesting researcher
here

- PC World article about GPSing your photos
here

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.

Quakr at XTech

.. looking a bit nervous/confused/specky/strangely smug, but relieved that our XTech talk went really well - loads of good feedback and ideas from the audience.

Slides from our Presentation

Image courtesy of mmmmrob under CC at-nc-sa.

Quakr Sightseeing

Since I've installed our greasemonkey extensions, I've been enjoying wandering flickr and googlemaps, sightseeing.

This is a thread to capture great quakr sightseeing spots - additions are very welcome, here are my starters:

A Crossroads in Utrecht:

http://www.quakr.co.uk/viewr/index.html?lon=5.1257&alt=71&lat=52.1089&tag=&camx=-6&camy=5&camz=-7

Pub beside the road:

http://www.quakr.co.uk/viewr/index.html?lon=-1.2673&alt=71&lat=51.7523&tag=&camx=-2&camy=4&camz=16

Cows across the river:

http://www.quakr.co.uk/viewr/index.html?lon=-1.3305&alt=71&lat=51.7858&tag=&camx=0&camy=4&camz=-19

Greasemonkey scripts make Quakr simple

Today, due to popular demand, Quakr launch 2 Greasemonkey extensions for Firefox to make visiting the Quakr World easier.

The flickr script enhances your experience of flickr by inserting a link to Quakr whenever you browse to a geotagged photo.

The Google Maps script allows you to navigate around in Google Maps and then jump straight to that location within Quakr. This means that you can search Google Maps for something like Tower Bridge, London and then click straight through from there to view the same scene in Quakr.

It's really easy to set up. The instructions and scripts are on the Quakr website, and if you are too eager to go and read those, the scripts are here:

Flickr to Quakr

Google Maps to Quakr

We would love to hear your feedback:
* do these scripts do what you want?
* are there any other Greasemonkey scripts you would like written?
* have you written any yourself?
* do you also find it strange that your CV could ever contain a word like 'Greasemonkey' and that it might actually enhance your job prospects?

Have fun.

related or relevant, 05/07

- 3D display in sat nav device -- coming soon?
here

- the paople doing the mapping - tele atlas
here

- soon to be Quakr - hosting 1-2-3
here

- who links 2 me vs who links to me?
Who links to my website? vs Who links to me?

- Yahoo pictures => Flickr
here

-- more --

- home made GPS camera recording device
here

- new linkage for viewr and taggr
here and here

-- more --

- Google starts a new map related blog.
here

-- more --

- Google thinks about soundscapes.
here

- Google signs up a car to map the world.
here

-- more -- (from where2.0, san jose, may 2007)

- Google release Street View
here

- The quakr project presented...
here
here
here
here
here
here
here

--end day 1, begin day 2

- Google buy Panoramio
here

- The quakr project presented...
"Ed Parsons is the Geospatial Technologist of Google."
here
here
here

- GeoVEctor - they've got a camera with a compass
here

- Immersive Media - amazing 3d video with something which knows which way is up!
here

- Garmin release developer API - should we stick the viewr on your garmin?
here

- DASH - a wifi enabled gps device for the car - with images from flickr!
here

- Planet9 release Raygun - X3D world Based on BitManagement browser plugin
here

- Open Street Map conference - in manchester
here