Where 2.0 Schedule and Early Registration

Where 2.0 Conference 2008

The schedule for Where 2.0, our conference for the geo-enabled internet, has been posted; early registration for the conference is ending on Monday. The space (and the conference) has expanded in the past year. Here’s what you can expect this year:

Net users hunger for richer imagery that stays up-to-date. Three startups: Everyscape, Earthmine, and Pict’Earth will each be discussing their approaches to bringing our world online. Both sporting new owners,Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ will be laying out their future plans — I for one hope (and expect) that we’ll be seeing the influence of Open Data projects like Open Street Map on them.

As it becomes easier to programatically access your user’s locations it becomes more important to learn how to share that information. Tom Coates will be speaking on his recent work building Fire Eagle, Yahoo’s location brokering service.

Lifestreaming is becoming a common feature of web apps that allows people to publish their lives. Locations are next. Opening keynoter, Adrian Holovaty, one of the original Google Maps Hackers, is going to be talking about placestreaming and how Chicago Crime evolved into his current startup Everyblock.

We’re going to hear from the major players in the industry: Google (John Hanke returning for the fourth time), Yahoo! (first-timers Tom Coates & Dan Catt), and Microsoft (Vincent Tao, founder of GeoTango & the leader of VE’s China efforts — Radar post).

Neogeography is always penetrating new areas. Sean Gorman, CEO of FortiusOne, will discuss how products like Google Earth originally came from DARPA’s budget and what we can expect next. Jesse Robbins and Mikel Maron will reprise their ETech talk to discuss new advances in disaster-relief technology.

Virtual worlds also have their place at Where 2.0. Paul Torrens, of ASU and a Where 2.0 Committee member, will present his work on Modeling Crowd Behavior. with 3D agents. SAP will be on hand to discuss their realworld use of Second Life models to manage buildings in Switzerland. Author James Au will tie the space together with his overview of mirror worlds and Tom Churchill will present his new augmented reality product (and hopefully will have his helicopter simulator on-hand for attendees to check out).

Other topics include mobile, DIY Drones (with Chris Anderson), activists use of maps (Radar post), developer tools, and history hacks (with a return of Chris Spurgeon to the stage),

Where 2.0 is happening May 12-14, 2008 in Burlingame, California at the SF Marriott. The weekend following the conference will be the second WhereCamp, a geo-unconference. Their are movements to organize some other location events on the days in-between (like OSM mapping parties); if you have ideas leave them in the comments.

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