Kelso Cartography.

We are extremely excited to have Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso as our keynote speaker for this year’s WhereCampPDX — a free, volunteer-organized unconference for anyone interested in geography and technology. This year’s event will be held on September 24th-26th, with a full day of unconference sessions at the Metro Regional Center on the 25th.

Nathaniel Kelso has worked at The Washington Post since 2005 creating maps, programs and interactive graphics for their print and online editions in a deadline-driven journalism environment. He is also the project manager and chief evangelist for NaturalEarthData.com, a free source of vector and raster GIS maps. Nathaniel was lured to DC as an intern and, later, staff cartographer at National Geographic Maps, where he researched wall maps and collaborated on the 8th edition “Atlas of the World”. He received his BA from Humboldt State University in 2002, with a GIS and Remoting Sensing Certificate the same year. His work has won awards from the North American Cartographic Information Society the Society of Newspaper Design and other organizations.

Nathaniel encourages everyone to stay curious and travel more, whether it’s by passport, bicycle, or PBS.  You can catch many of Nathaniel’s musings at his blog, Kelso’s Corner or follow his never ending stream-of-consciousness on Twitter @kelsosCorner.

WhereCamp is a participant-driven event that inspires many talented individuals to share their knowledge and ideas. From GIS professionals to open source maphackers, this event is a chance to brainstorm, share and learn from people who are re-tooling the idea of the map. It is the event for the creative cartographer and we hope you can be a part of it!

There’s no doubt that the Web has recently gone more mobile. Many of us have Internet access just about everywhere we go. Over the last year, we’ve also gone the other way: location is making its way to the web, on any device. Any simple web page can now access its user’s location with a few lines of JavaScript. That is, in the paraphrased words of Joe Biden, a pretty big deal.

When I first started writing my mapping API book, I wondered whether I was too late to the map mashup game. Much of the interesting stuff was done in 2005, right? Now that the book is done, I’ve realized it’s perfectly timed. Because every lesson in web mapping is now ripe for mobile integration. And where the mobile web used to be thought of separately from the “real web,” developers are starting to treat them similarly. The tools support this change.

Consider Google Maps V3, which began as a mobile platform. The team built its maps from the ground up, supporting it separately alongside V2 for a year. Then, in May, Google announced that V3 was the way forward for every platform. What’s good for the mobile web is also good for your laptop or desktop.

Mapstraction, the open source wrapper library, continues to be a good choice for navigating the quickly changing seas of web mapping. I use it wherever I can, because if you write it once for Mapstraction it will work in about a dozen mapping APIs. If you already need to switch from Google Maps V2 to V3, I recommend using Mapstraction to save yourself the trouble of rewriting whenever V4 comes along.

A similar single interface has made a huge change, especially since iPhone supported browser geolocation. Many websites are starting to support it, for both mobile and regular browsers. For example, twitter.com lets you add locations to tweets, a feature first relegated to the API (which meant only mobile apps supported it). MapQuest uses the same code to help auto-fill directions and Google Buzz uses it to add a location context.

We’re also seeing location’s importance to the web in the way APIs are being made available. Where Google once wrapped everything in JavaScript, it’s now making mapping services available as REST. Other companies are following suit, including location-sharing services like FourSquare. The data is being freed from the native app, so that we can use it however we please.

There are two months between now and WhereCamp PDX. That’s plenty of time for location and the Web to meld together all the more. I look forward to discussing it–and the intriguing issues that arise because of these changes–when we convene for the third annual event.

So… What’s WhereCampPDX?

WhereCampPDX is a free unconference focusing on all things geographical. The best way to describe it is as a geo-happening where all types of geo-locative enthusiasts come together and have informal discussions on what interests them. An unconference is a conference planned by the participants and created on the spot. It’s about having a low threshold for participation, bringing ideas into the open, and hearing all voices. It is like the 20% of a traditional conference where the best parts happen. You meet people, make relationships, and get down to what’s important to you. It all just happens.

What happened at the last one?

Last year we had people come from as far away as Africa and a good number of attendees from all over North America. Session topics included OpenStreetMap, Portland’s open data initiative, post digital mapping, using geolocation to survive the zombie apocalypse, and harnessing crowd sourced traffic data. Geoblogger James Fee gave a keynote on “Data Interoperability on the GeoWeb.” Sunday saw a rousing game of Pac-Manhattan in the streets of downtown Portland.

“Location games were a great followup to the hacking and sessions of the day before. WhereCampPDX was one of the best unconferences I’ve ever attended. It was well organized without being too controlled with a great a mix of people. Thanks everyone who organized as well as attended, it was an enjoyable time.” – Kate Chapman

The Main Ingredient is You

Sign up here and come to WhereCampPDX 2010! You made this a great event last year, and we want to see everyone again. If you are new to WhereCampPDX or have never attended an unconference, it’s time to make the jump.

There are so many ways to get involved and be part of creating WhereCampPDX. Help us get the word out on your blog or using Twitter. Tell your friends at the local hackathon. Come meet the organizers for happy hour and brainstorming every Thursday night at Produce Row. All are welcome!

Do you work for a company that could potentially be a sponsor? Tell them about the event. Check out the list of past sponsors on the blog and find out how your organization can get involved.

Remember, we need your help to make this another great event.

Writing credit goes to Justin Houk.

photo by russelldavies

Join us to talk about CivicApps, the City of Portland’s open data project, this Saturday at NedSpace Oldtown. We’ll start at 10AM with a little show-and-tell session, then attendees can split into groups to look through the data or work on projects that use it. This is an unofficial meetup, not sponsored by the city, but there will be an official CiviCode Day sometime in the near future as well.

What sort of data does CivicApps have available? You can browse for yourself, but it includes bike lanes, 911 calls, Trimet schedules, and liquor license changes, and participating agencies come from not just Portland but the whole metro area.

Please join fellow open data enthusiasts to find ways to help make our city better!

Event details: Unofficial CivicApps Meetup, Saturday, May 1st, 10am at NedSpace Old Town.

• April 22: A free talk at Refresh PDX about tools designers can use to customize their maps on the web. He’ll cover marker icons, image overlays, styling map tiles and providing better interactions. Details: http://refreshportland.org/
• May 19: Half-day workshop at the WebVisions conference in Portland that will walk attendees through the process of creating a mapping site. It will start with the basics and quickly work up to interacting with APIs and plotting data. WebVisions is offering a special price ($310) for the workshop, plus access to the full conference. Details: http://duv.ly/mapdeal
• Early June: Presentation at the Open Source Bridge conference in Portland will give an overview of the open source geo stack. It will cover the ways to display maps, create maps, exchange data and store data, all with open source software. Details: http://opensourcebridge.org/

This event will be a great place to learn about open source GIS tools, meet fellow practitioners, share your geo-related topic or project, and get feedback and ideas. The event’s unique format combines invited talks by seasoned presenters and unconference sessions where the attendees set the agenda.

You can expect to learn about several desktop GIS programs with powerful analytical capacities, a web mapping framework (GeoDjango), the spatial database (PostGIS), image processing (GDAL), and more:

• Register for the PDX Open Source GIS Unconference
• Join the Portland Open Source Geospatial User Group mailing list
• Find the Portland Open Source Geospatial User Group meetings

Photo by noticelj

Volunteers are meeting up at Willamette University in Salem this weekend to assist worldwide disaster relief efforts for Haiti, Chile and Sumatra. This effort will bring together community and student volunteers with a collaborative vision to continue the global CrisisCamp effort launched days after the January quake in Haiti, and applying it to new in-need regions.

This event is free and open to the public, although you’re asked to register in advance. Techies and non-techies are welcomed, and on-site training will be provided. Ability to research on the Internet, review and summarize information, write software, translate between languages, produce wiki content, and such are sought.

Please RSVP for this FREE event and get further information at: http://crisiscampsalem.eventbrite.com/

Also follow @CrisisCampSalem and @CrisisCamp on Twitter for additional updates.

This event is free and open to the public. You don’t have to be technical to volunteer time.  There will be projects that can be done by anybody who has used Google. However, experience with coding and geospatial will be helpful.

The event is scheduled to take place at NedSpace Old Town starting on Saturday, January 23rd and possibly continuing on Sunday.

Please RSVP for this FREE event and get further information at: http://crisiscamphaitipdx.eventbrite.com/

Follow @CrisisCamp and @CrisisCampPDX on Twitter for updates.

Here’s a few highlights from around the web.

Kate Chapman talks about the unconference sessions:

I led 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.

James Fee’s keynote slides are online:

Several people posted photos of the weekend’s activities:

And hack night experimentation included the now-infamous “mayor=1″ Foursquare extension.

You can check out session notes on the wiki if you’re curious what you’re missed (or just want to revisit the Strange Maps links collection).

We hope we’ll see all of you next year! But in the meantime, if you want to keep tabs on what’s going on, subscribe to this blog, and join the planning mailing list, which is also a good source of links to other geo-events around town.

Friday night:

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The kickoff party starts at 6pm sharp at Gallery Homeland. Help us finalize our plans by RSVPing on Upcoming. You can earn bonus points by helping set up and tear down (we need volunteers throughout the weekend as well). Leave a comment on this post (with your contact info) if you want to help.

Saturday:

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The unconference day begins at 9am at Metro. The first hour will be devoted to a kickoff (with information you’ll need throughout the day), session scheduling, coffee drinking and a little socializing, then we launch into 6 hours of open sessions, with a lunch period in the middle. At 2pm we’ll take a break from the routine for our keynote by James Fee, followed by a highly experimental “un-panel”, before we finish the unconference session set, which runs until 6pm.

Get ready ahead of time by putting your name on the attendee list and adding a session idea or two to the wiki.

What should you bring with you? We recommend: documentation tools like a notebook, laptop, camera, or video recorder, a refillable water bottle or mug to help us cut down on waste, and your ideas for topics you’d like to talk about with others. WhereCamp, like other unconferences, is a highly participatory event. We’re dependent on you to bring the ideas you’re interested in, and help document what goes on throughout the weekend, so other people can learn and experience new things.

Saturday night:

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We’ll move on to the Portland Incubator Experiment for a pizza dinner and hackfest, starting at 7pm. See our earlier post for how to RSVP and pre-pay. If pizza isn’t your thing, you’re still welcome to join us again after 8:30pm to participate in the hacking. Bring your laptop and a project to work on if you have one, or come and see what other people are doing. (Hint: Friday and Saturday both have ample opportunities to scout out hacking ideas.)

Sunday:

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Game day! Our Sunday home base is Backspace in Old Town. The first round of PacManhattan will start around 10:30, but drop by throughout the day for orienteering, photohunt, and geocaching activities as well. Bring a compass, GPS device, and camera to participate in the full set of plans. Also remember to check the Portland Marathon route before you leave, since it will be affecting travel through downtown on Sunday.

One last tip: bookmark the specifics page so you can check back for event details and updates at any time.