O'Reilly Where 2.0: The Location Revolution Has Only Just Begun

For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Suzanne Axtell (707) 827-7114 or suzanne@oreilly.com

O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference: The Location Revolution Has Only Just
Begun

Sebastopol, CA--At the second annual O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, over
700 location-aware hackers, entrepreneurs, "neogeographers," and members
of the mapping establishment spent two days immersed in the innovations
springing up at the intersection of the Internet and location. Where 2.0,
which wrapped up earlier this month in San Jose, California, explored hard
technical issues such as GIS/GPS in emergency situations, Virtual Earth
and Windows Live Local, NASA World Wind, the latest version of Google
Earth, mapping and mobility, geospatial data, business value, and more.
The scope of this year's event extended beyond the technical and into the
cultural as well--conference participants explored the ramifications of
location information on social networking, community activism, gaming, and
privacy.

For businesses, location information is creating a new world of tools and
services, as well as adding a layer of consumer expectations for these
products. For developers, network connected data services bring
applications to the mainstream that were previously only within the realm
of GIS professionals. "The growth of this industry is astounding, and the
full-to-capacity crowd and wide media coverage the conference received
reflects that," noted conference co-chairs Brady Forrest and Nathan
Torkington. "This revolution is only starting."

The format for Where 2.0 provided maximum exposure to the ideas, projects,
and people shaping the future of mapping and location services. Rapid-fire
plenary presentations were laced with ample time for the informal "hallway
track." Just a few of the Where 2.0 agenda highlights included:

-Gary Lang used MapGuide as an example to emphasize Autodesk's has
 commitment to an open source strategy as the key to competitive advantage
 in the mapping space
-Tim O'Reilly moderated a discussion on the future of the data industry
 with panelists Steve Coast of OpenStreetMap, Kim Fennell of deCarta
 (formerly Telcontar), David Nevin of Tele Atlas, and Rob Shanks of
 GlobeXplorer
-Gregory Trefry of Gamelab and Kevin Slavin of area/code made back-to-back
 presentations on location and geospatial technology as core components of
 gameplay
-ESRI's Jack Dangermond described how GIS on the Web is evolving beyond
 mapping to enable the publishing and sharing of powerful GIS services that
 solve complex business problems
-Schuyler Erle demoed Gutenkarte, a site that uses Metacarta’s geo text
 mining engine to link classic works from Project Gutenberg to accompanying
 maps
-Patrick Hogan of NASA presented on the open source World Wind project, an
 interactive 3D geospatial visualization platform
-Chris Spurgeon of American Public Media enumerated the best geo hacks of
 the last 2000 years
-Claus Dahl of Imity discussed why the perspective should be on "here 2.0"
 rather than "where 2.0," pointing out the difference between an abstract
 location in space and the unique locus of space and time that makes places
 matter
-Attorney Lauren Gelman of Stanford dug into the issue of privacy,
 explaining aspects of current U.S. law that protect users' location and
 online privacy, and areas where the law fails and technology must step in
-Donald Cooke, a member of the Census Bureau team that developed the Dual
 Independent Map Encoding (DIME) system in 1967 and now with Tele Atlas,
 discussed how GPS technology helped emergency responders in the aftermath
 of the hurricanes
-The exhibit hall featured intriguing products from Where 2.0 sponsors,
 including Microsoft, Google, Autodesk, ESRI, deCarta (formerly Telcontar),
 GlobeXplorer, MapQuest, MetaCarta, Loki, Skyline, Talent, and Yahoo!
-Geo Developers Day, hosted by Google the day before Where 2.0 began,
 provided attendees with a peek into the heart of Google's location
 efforts. Google also made several announcements during the Geo Developers
 Day, including the release of the newest version of Google Earth
-The Where Fair, a science fair style event, showcased some of the most
 promising grassroots location projects coming out of garages, labs, and
 universities
-Special lunchtime gatherings and after hours parties organized and
 sponsored by Microsoft, Google, and Autodesk, Yahoo!, and OSGeo fostered
 informal interaction
-Early arrivers played Pixie Hunt, a mobile, connected, geotagged
 scavenger hunt co-sponsored by Microsoft and Cingular Wireless

A number of important announcements were made at this year's Where 2.0:

-The dates for the next Where 2.0 Conference were released: June 19-20,
 2007, returning to the Fairmont San Jose.
-Skyhook Wireless announced the launch of the Skyhook Developer’s Network,
 which provided location-based service and application developers with free
 access to the Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System, APIs, documentation, and a
 support infrastructure. As part of the launch, Skyhook also announced
 "Wi-Fi Cage Match," a product development contest that will reward the
 developer of the most innovative and dynamic Wi-Fi based location
 application.
-Skyline Software Systems, Inc. announced the SkylineGlobe.com 3D web
 mapping service that combines massive amounts of high-resolution satellite
 imagery, aerial photography, and map data with Skyline’s leading 3D
 visualization technology.
-Talent Information Systems announced the launch of Cruiser, a new
 platform for delivering internet services that uses geo-spatial data,
 maps, and location-aware information.
-deCarta (formerly Telcontar) and Inrix announced the integration and
 immediate availability of Inrix's traffic information into deCarta's Drill
 Down Server (DDS) and Traffic Manager. The companies also announced that
 Inrix is using deCarta's DDS to align location information from millions
 of commercial vehicle probes collected each day to the relevant road
 segments, as part of the Inrix Dust Network.
-Platial announced a new live offering, Today Nearby. The new service
 combines RSS feeds of news, photos, videos, events, and places with Google
 Maps and Google Earth. Content will be mapped from Reuters, Flickr,
 Eventful, YouTube, and other users’ maps. Updates to chosen locations are
 available for subscription.
-SRC announced the release of www.FreeDemographics.com/API, a dash-up of
 data services readily available to add to developer mash-ups. President
 and CEO Dean Stoecker discussed the new API roll out of SRC's JSON based
 web service at Where 2.0.

O'Reilly conferences are known for bringing together seemingly disparate
communities to exchange ideas and find common ground. Where 2.0 provides
one of the only opportunities for the traditional mapping/geospatial
community to come together with the new generation of developers and alpha
geeks who are creating the next wave of location-aware applications.

O'Reilly conferences include: ETech, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology
Conference; OSCON, the O'Reilly Open Source Convention; the O'Reilly
European Open Source Convention (EuroOSCON); the MySQL Users Conference,
co-presented with MySQL AB; ETel, the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony
Conference; and Web 2.0 (co-hosted by Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle, and
co-produced with CMP Media). O'Reilly conferences bring together
forward-thinking business and technology leaders, shaping ideas and
influencing industries around the globe. For over 25 years, O'Reilly has
facilitated the adoption of new and important technologies by the
enterprise, putting emerging technologies on the map.

Additional Resources:

For complete conference details, visit:
http://conferences.oreilly.com/where

Check out news articles, announcements, blogs, and photos of Where 2.0
here:
http://www.oreillynet.com/conferences/blog/where_20/

View speaker presentation slides at:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/47/presentations....

For perspectives on the future of technology and just plain cool stuff,
visit O'Reilly Radar blog:
http://radar.oreilly.com

For information on exhibition and sponsorship opportunities at O'Reilly
conferences, contact Andrew Calvo at (707) 827-7176, or
andrewc@oreilly.com

To become a media sponsor, contact Yvonne Romaine at (707) 827-7198, or
yromaine@oreilly.com

For news articles, blogs, announcements, and photos (available for use
with attribution) from the 2005 Where 2.0 conference, see:
http://www.oreillynet.com/where2005/


Upcoming O'Reilly conferences (http://conferences.oreilly.com/):

-O'Reilly Open Source Convention, July 24-28, 2006 in Portland, Oregon
-O'Reilly European Open Source Convention, September 18-21, 2006 in
 Brussels, Belgium
-Web 2.0 Conference, November 7-9, 2006 in San Francisco, California
-ETel, the O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference, February 27-March 1,
 2007 in Burlingame, California
-ETech, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, March 26-29, 2007 in
 San Diego, California
-MySQL Users Conference, April 23-26, 2007 in Santa Clara, California
-Where 2.0 Conference, June 19-20, 2007 in San Jose, California

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