Career Talk

Dear colleagues: So you shoulder-surfed me polishing my CV. Rest assured, there's nothing to it, it's not as if I'm looking for another job. I like you, I really do. And the pay is great too.

I mean, between you and me - back when I joined, I would have expected a little more, hum, admiration maybe. An awed murmur when I walk past, perhaps ("See that guy, he's the Founder!"). Recognition in the eyes of my co-workers. I was kind of underwhelmed by the reception and I did my best to occasionally remind you all how I was single-handedly responsible for all the greatness of OpenStreetMap. At a time when my own project forgets whom they owe everything, I was hoping that you, at least, would acknowldge my intellectual superiority. I was sure you'd quickly recognize the visionary thinker in your midst and propel me to a Fake Ed position. A Geospatial Technologist jetting around the world on speaking opportunities, the blogosphere eagerly lapping up my wise prophecies: now that would have been something...

Yes, it's true - there were times when I, briefly, thought I might be squandering my supreme potential in my current job. The riches and the popularity that a man of my prowess is entitled to have so far eluded me. I'd go back to OSM and lead the project into a bright future but the communist bastards seem to think I've had my chance. (Not so fast boys, I have a couple of aces up my sleeve yet!)

'Nuff said. I'm looking forward to a prosperous 2013 with you in my current job, and aren't you lucky to be able to work alongside the Founder!

PS: Potential employers looking for a visionary thinker, be sure to visit the upcoming OSM Incredible Narcissisists Unparalleled Summit on 6/10 in San Francisco, where I and a couple of friends will perform.

OSM PLUS - Is It For You?

As Paul Graham writes, there appears to be some confusion as to who my new Professional Large Users Summit is aimed at. It was formally known as the 'Commercial Users Conference' but lets be honest, not all commercial users are professional. This flowchart will help you identify if it’s for you.

Know Your OSM Memes #6

Zen Steve

Know Your OSM Memes #5

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Board notices Apple all up in our shit

Click here to take survey

geosuck #0001

An Inspirational Message

Like many other potential users of OpenStreetMap data, we at Bing are keen on seeing the license change come through so that we can begin to use OpenStreetMap data without the uncertainties that CC-BY-SA brings.

I may have made a little mistake when I was hired. As you know, I've always had the greatest confidence in myself, and when asked how quickly I could push through the license change, I said, "trust me, it'll all be over before the end of 2011". Now that was coming right out of CloudMade where Nick and I were practically living on promises that nobody thought realistic. What I didn't know was that my new employer would turn every word I say into a bonus target!

So, my employment contract forbids me divulging details about my salary and related issues but I have made this little table for you which illustrates the gravity of the situation. I hope you get my message.

Why Google owns SketchUp (or, The Russians Are Coming)

So I have my occasional differences with 'Cagey' James Fee but it's no big deal. He's a nice guy and his blog is kinda like the Village Voice for paleotards. Also it reminds me of those heady days five years ago when we called everything "spatial" because we thought it sounded cooler than "geo".

The other day he posted "It Still Blows My Mind That Google Owns Sketchup". Basically Cagey subscribes to what I call the tequila theory. This says that Ol’ Ed Parsons went out one night in Kingston, got completely slammed on tequila, came home, logged onto eBay and in a drunken stupor clicked 'Buy it Now' for some overhyped geo startup at well above market value. Admit it, we've all done it. (Juha Christensen is regretting it to this day. Heh heh.)

But although Cagey is a wise old sage, kinda like the Donald Knuth of geo (sorry "spatial"), he is way off the mark on this one. I mean:

Sounds pretty awesome, I know many people who as a hobby recreate the world around them in Google SketchUp. It also makes a huge 3D library available to the world for free.

Hey, what? People actually still believe this altruistic shit about Google?

So at OpenStreetMap we figured lesson one is get people to give you the data for free. Lesson two is you have to own the data. Ok, it took us five years to work that second one out which is why we're changing the license.

G learned both of these pretty quick. So when people "recreate the world around them in Google SketchUp", well, whaddyaknow, that's more free data for Google.

The result? In two years' time Google will have the only 3D map of the world and it will cost them precisely $0 in licensing fees. Ok, much of it will have been done in rudimentary form by analyzing StreetView footage and the sensing from the super secret Google imaging satellites which can detect rooftops to a resolution of 50cm and know what your cat does all day. That bit will look blocky and shit, yes. But G already knows 'good enough' works for maps, because they unleashed their barely-better-than-TIGER geodata on the States and basically No One At All Cares except for Cagey and Mike Dobson and the poor guys who drove into a river and died because Google claimed there was still a bridge there.

But - the gosh-wow brigade will be swooning over the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Houses of Parliament in centimeter-perfect detail, all drawn on SketchUp by some kid with Aspergers who unwittingly has licensed it all to G. (Ok, so OSM leads Google here because our kids with Aspergers are German kids with Aspergers but still.)

You think I'm kidding? Think phones. Nav apps sell phones and they will all be immersive 3D in two years' time, like Google Goggles on LSD (Steve Jobs would have been proud). Apple knows that, that's why they bought C3. We at Microsoft know that, that's why we're doing ReadWriteWorld. Obviously both of us are handicapped by not being evil but Google has no such disadvantage.

So you might ask what OpenStreetMap is doing in this new Space Race.

I can't say too much but if phase one was Germans... phase two involves Russians. Russian OSMers all think they're cats, map in five dimensions and write renderers so advanced that the major browsers are having to implement bug fixes to keep up. I shit you not. Be very, very frightened.

Newsflash from the Voice of Australia

"NO!"

Google Whatever

Slight correction to previous post.

Before	After
Quantum GIS	Google Earth
Quantum GIS source code	available1 on signing partner agreement
PostGIS	Google Earth Pro
gvSIG Mobile	Google Earth for Android
gvSIG Mobile source code	available1 on signing partner agreement
WFS + WMS	900913 tiles
OpenStreetMap	Google Map Maker
Geoserver	Google My Maps
OpenLayers	Google Maps API

¹ not available

FailWhatever

I have been told that a certain company is renaming its products as FailWhatever. Or ArcWhatever. Or something.

This made me realise that the open source community could use some boost in product placement. Being the marketing genius I am (Who do you think invented the whatever for maps?), I propose the following changes:

Before	After
Quantum GIS	OSGeo for Desktop
Quantum GIS source code	OSGeo for Desktop Advanced
PostGIS	OSGeo for Server
gvSIG Mobile	OSGeo for Windows Mobile
gvSIG Mobile source code	OSGeo SDK for Windows Mobile
WFS + WMS	Data and Maps for OSGeo
OpenStreetMap	StreetMap Premium for OSGeo
Geoserver	Data Appliance for OSGeo
OpenLayers	OSGeo for the Interwebs

See? Now it's much more simple to identify each piece of software.

Know Your OSM Memes #4

It's Advice Steve!

(thanks whatosm)

Announcing Microsoft's new OSM-powered traffic information system

(Thanks dailywtf)

Dr Elizabeth Dodd

Can somebody tell me what meadowdust means? I guess it must be some sort of weird Griffith dialect.