WhereCampPDX Unconference Session Day Summary

Yesterday was the unconference session portion of WhereCampPDX.  Meaning that there were sessions.  I lead a discussion on OpenStreetMap in the United States.  It was the first time people have worded questions to me in the form of “What does the OpenStreetMap think about….”  Getting across the free flowing community was somewhat difficult to explain for some reason, even with the Wikipedia parallel.  A lot of interesting ideas came out of the session though, such as new renders for people that live or spend a lot of time outside.  A potential rending of places with external outlets, water and places to sleep for example.  There was also some interest in getting a two way data flow between government and OSM.  In Washington D.C. we have been discussing how that model could potentially work and it appears that other governments might forward once there are some sample models out there.

In addition to leading a session I also attended an assortment of sessions:

  • Geomena which is an open-source/open-data base of Wifi locations.
  • Utilizing Locative Technologies to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse
  • Virtual Geocaching and Games
  • Strange Maps
  • Foursquare Hacking Discussion (planning to utilize the Foursquare api for evening hacking)

All of these sessions were really enjoyable.  Next week I think I’m going to give the “Utilizing Locative Technologies to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse” its own update, because I can’t fit all the zombie goodness in this update.  Geomena really got me thinking about small hardware to collect WiFi locations.  I could potentially just stick a laptop in my car, but I think it would be even better to have something I could carry while on foot.  Since the iPhone battery life is not that great and it can’t have background processes I don’t think it is the ideal tool.  I was thinking perhaps an Android phone without having cellular service.

The Virtual Geocaching and Games was a fun session.  As an XKCD fan and geonerd I was somewhat surprised I had never heard of geohashing.  Geohashing essentially calculates a random place for people to meet.  The official meetups are 4pm every Saturday at you whole number Latitude and Longitude with the random calculator determining the decimal.  Mine graticule would be 38,-77.  Washington D.C. seems somewhat quiet in the geohashing realm, but I’d like to try to do it one day.

The Strange Maps discussion was somewhat based on the Strange Maps Blog.  I think sessions where people just mention things they’ve seen revolving around a specific topic are always fun.  I read Strange Maps but not every post and there were also some maps mentioned that were not in there.  It was the session that people didn’t want to end.

In addition to the sessions there was also a keynote and an unpanel.  James Fee gave the keynote and discussed “Data Interoperability in the GeoWeb.”  He’s always a geocrowd-pleaser and it was a good talk.  What I took away from it was easy to access data for the Cybernun and Spatialite for the professionals.  The unpanel was something I haven’t experienced before, just a general discussion with a panel regarding various topics in geo.  There were representatives from GIS, art, government and neocartography to stereotype a few.  I took a short Qik Video of the Unpanel, which is a good glimpse of what it was about.

Today there are locative games which I’m excited about, being a new realm for me to play in the style of meet somewhere and play a locative game.

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October 4, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: unconferences

4 Responses

  1. Dave - October 4, 2009

    “What does the OpenStreetMap think about…”

    I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing it thinks about ponies and #geoglobaldomination in an equal measure. ;-P

  2. Kate Chapman - October 4, 2009

    And a dash of velociraptor I hope!

  3. James Fee GIS Blog » Blog Archive » WhereCampPDX 2009 - October 5, 2009

    [...] out GeoPDX and MapLoser for their take on [...]

  4. Thank You! – WhereCampPDX Blog - October 7, 2009

    [...] Chapman talks about the unconference sessions: I led a discussion on OpenStreetMap in the United States. It was the first time people have worded [...]

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