October 3, 2012 – 2:49 am
Dr. Sean Gorman
We are pleased to announce this year’s keynote address for WhereCampPDX5 will be given by Dr. Sean Gorman, Chief Strategist for ESRI’s DC Development Center. Dr.Gorman is a researcher and practitioner in the field of data science with a specialty in location based analytics. Previously he was the founder of GeoIQ, which was subsequently acquired by ESRI. The development of the GeoIQ platform is in part a fusion of Sean’s background and interest in human geography, GIS, humanitarian relief, statistical mechanics, social media, and making the world of data (especially the geospatial variety) available to the public. Through the development of GeoCommons, and working with other geo-community projects, the GeoIQ team has helped influence the growing field of crowdsourcing for geographic data.
Sean has also previously worked in academia serving as a research professor at George Mason University, and worked in industry as the as VP of R&D for GeoTel and Director of Strategy for iXOL. His academic research was focused on security, network analysis and geospatial technologies, and has been featured in Wired, Der Spiegel, ABC, The Washington Post, Business 2.0 and CNN. He has published over 25 academic articles in a variety of journals on topics ranging from crowdsourcing to complexity science, as well as authoring the book Networks, Complexity, and Security. He served as a subject matter expert for the Critical Infrastructure Task Force and Homeland Security Advisory Council, and was selected as one of the “Top 35 Entrepreneurs Under 35” by BisNow on Business. Sean received his PhD from George Mason University as the Provost’s High Potential Research Candidate, Fisher Prize winner and a INFORMS Dissertation Prize recipient.
Please join us for this and other great geo-events starting Friday, October 12, 2012 at Geoloqi HQ. Follow us here on the WhereCampPDX blog and on the Twittersphere @wherecamppdx or #wherecamppdx. And don’t forget to register on Eventbrite – it’s free!
February 16, 2012 – 4:37 am
Update! In an effort to minimize people’s travel impacts, WhereCampPDX is bumping up to the weekend prior and sharing the weekend with State of the Map US (SOTM), October 12-14th. WhereCampPDX has always been a flexible event and will continue to host one of the premier map events in the region. WhereCampPDX organizers are working closely with SOTM organizers to avoid overlap and be as complimentary as can be.
This year brings a wealth of map-related attention to Portland, OR and the region, most recently, with props given to Dave Imus and his latest map of the United States. But that’s just the beginning. This year, the 2012 annual North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) conference will be coming to Portland on October 17th-19th. The Doubletree (Lloyd Center) will be the epicenter of the conference with a timely segue into wrap up of WhereCampPDX on October 19th-21st 12th-14th. For those in town a bit earlier, the GISPro 2012/Northwest GIS User Conference will also be held in Portland on during the week of September 30-October 4th. But if you just can’t wait to get some carto-action, the GIS in Action conference is coming up this March 13th and 14th with three sessions dedicated to Open Source mapping solutions. The conference will piggyback the PLSO‘s regional conference (Land Surveyors). There’s even rumor of the State of the Map U.S. (SOTM) following WhereCampPDX (let’s hope!). And State of the Map US is coming to Portland. There’s so much to get excited about and there are many ways you can get involved. Here’s how:
October 6, 2011 – 4:45 pm
WhereCampPDX starts tomorrow! We’re really excited, and we’re sure you are too. Here are some things you should know.
Registration
If you haven’t already registered and are planning to attend, please register for free via our Eventbrite page.
Schedule
Friday, October 7 — Opening Party
- 7:00pm – 9:30pm: We’re kicking things off with a party at Collective Agency in Old Town!
Join us for an evening of geographically-inclined conversation, snacks, and activities. Collective Agency is located at 322 NW 6th Avenue; if there isn’t someone at the door when you arrive, dial 200 on the keypad and we’ll buzz you in.
Saturday, October 8 — Unconference and Hackathon
The unconference takes place in the Metro Regional Center at 600 NE Grand Avenue; you’ll want to use the entrance by the courtyard on the Irving Street side of the building. There’s a parking garage attached to Metro that charges a reduced weekend rate for all-day parking.
- 9:20am: Doors open, breakfast is served!
- 10:00am: Unconference kickoff, announcements, and session scheduling
- 11:00am: Unconference sessions start
- 1:00pm: Lunch from Nicholas Restaurant!
- 1:30pm: Keynote — Bibiana McHugh of TriMet
- 2:15pm: Unconference sessions continue
- 4:15pm: Afternoon break
- 4:30pm: Even more unconference sessions
- 5:30pm: Closing session and Sunday activity pitches
- 6:30pm: Evening Hackathon
Our evening hackathon is your chance to sit down start building all the great things you came up with during the day, with pizza and speedy internet to help you along. The hacking will occur at P-I-E (The Portland Incubator Experiment), which is located at 1227 NW Davis Street.
Sunday, October 9 — Activities about town
On Sunday, we dedicate the day to a mix of outdoor activities, casual hacking and discussion. We’ll have a schedule board for Sunday set up during the unconference where you can propose ideas for things that work better outside of the conference environment. We’re using the area around Jameson Square Park in the Pearl district as our home base. The general plan is to meet up at Cloud Seven Cafe in the morning, and move over to the Ecotrust building around lunchtime. The GeoLoqi team will be running a game of MapAttack on in the morning, and the rest of the day is up to you! Look for more announcements and details during the unconference.
Help us out
We’re looking for a few great volunteers to help out with stuff at the event, you can sign up for a slot using this spreadsheet
Stuff to bring
Bring a laptop for geo-hacking or if your session requires it. There are projectors in two rooms. Bring cameras, bizcards, notebooks and anything else you’d like to use to capture the highlights of WhereCampPDX.
Talk about WhereCampPDX on the internet
Our sponsors are awesome
We’re happy to be able to run WhereCampPDX as a free event and provide you with tasty food, but none of this would be possible without the support of our generous sponsors. If you see someone from one of these organizations at WhereCamp this weekend, thank them for us!
September 22, 2011 – 4:52 pm
Mark Bosworth, a member of our WhereCamp community, has been missing since last Friday. Please help spread the word. It’s believed he may have left the area around Riddle, Oregon where he was last seen in an attempt to get home, and may be disoriented due to a health condition.
More information is available at http://findmarkbosworth.blogspot.com
Rafa has also set up http://findmarkbosworth.crowdmap.com/ to collect information on the search process, and any leads people may have.
September 14, 2011 – 11:30 am
We are pleased to announce Bibiana McHugh as our keynote speaker for WhereCampPDX 4.
Bibiana McHugh has worked in TriMet’s Information Technology Department since 1997 and currently leads a team of innovative web developers and analysts as the IT Manager of Geographic Information Systems and Location-Based Services. Bibiana leads several open data and open source software initiatives including Open Trip Planner, maps.trimet.org, developer.trimet.org, and the TriMet App Center. After initiating collaboration with Google for the first release of Google Transit, she helped pioneer the now worldwide standard General Transit Feed Spec (GTFS). Bibiana received her degree in Geography from the University of Kansas.
In the past year, TriMet and Metro have put significant resources into manually improving Open Street Map (OSM) using regional jurisdictional data as a reference. It now rivals commercial routable networks and supports the OpenTripPlanner (OTP), which is scheduled for public release in Portland on Oct. 15th. OTP is now an international open source, multi-modal trip planner that was seeded from a Metro Regional Travel Options grant two years ago. OTP is entirely open: the development method, the software license, the architecture, and even the data.
In addition to showing a preview of OTP, Bibiana will also kick-off the first TriMet Apps Contest. TriMet has over 40 applications listed now at trimet.org/apps that are all developed by third parties using open data at developer.trimet.org. This contest will encourage local users and developers to design an application specifically for visitors that will encourage tourism by public transit in our city. Contest details will be revealed at the event.
WhereCamp PDX is a free, volunteer-organized unconference for anyone interested in geography and technology. This year’s event will be held on October 7-9, with a full day of unconference sessions at the Metro Regional Center on October 8th.
