As you may have heard, Google is holding their second-ever Developer Day this May. It’s happening the day after Where 2.0 at Google’s Mountain View campus — and simultaneously at nine other locations around the world.
Last year’s Developer Day was a great success (and a lot of fun for Nat and me). In front of over 200 Where 2.0 attendees, Google launched Google Earth 4, the ability to view KML in Google Maps (a precursor to the recent MyMaps launch), their geocoder API, and a Sketchup update. Following that developers had the opportunity to meet with and learn from the Google Geo Team in a series of break outs.
Google has decided to expand the Developer Day this year, but is keeping the day’s geo roots intact. One track is devoted to Google Maps, Google Earth, and SketchUp. The other tracks are focused on Mashups (AJAX, Google Gadgets, and the GData APIs) and Web Development Tools (The Google Web Toolkit, open source, and other Google developer initiatives). The day is open to anyone, but a couple hundred spaces are being reserved for Where 2.0 attendees.
That makes for almost two straight weeks of Geo in the Bay area this summer. Ignite Where kicks it off with five-minute tech talks on the evening of May 28th. Where 2.0 is May 29th and 30th. Google Dev Day is on the 31st. Friday, June 1st, is a day of rest. Saturday is the first day of the first ever, weekend-long WhereCamp. Rounding out the geo-gorgefest is the 5th International Symposium on Digital Earth starting June 5th and ending on the 9th. You’ll see me at all of these.
Photo: Dave McClure