Where 2.0 – Day 1

After a long night of travel (and some good rest) Where 2.0 2010 kicked off this morning. Here is some of what I saw and learned.
Hands on with the Google Maps Data API: Mano Marks and Ossama Alami
Mano and Ossama led a great look at Google’s MyMaps feature, with a focus on using the Data API feed. You can read more about that in this doc. One item they mentioned was the ability to import KML or CSV as a single file, rather than having to upload individual features. Google has now posted a blog entry about that so you can get the details.
As part of this, it was noted that your MyMaps list will automatically sync in Google Maps and also in Google Earth for the iPhone, but still not in Google Earth on your computer. It seems that this will change fairly soon, but nothing was announced.
Going Mobile with Google Geo APIs: Mano Marks and Thor Mitchell
This session covered the various challenges with screen size, latency, etc, on handheld devices (compared to desktops/laptops), but they also got into the usefulness of handheld devices knowing where you’re located (GPS, etc).
Ignite Sessions
“Ignite” is a cool feature at Where 2.0. Various companies take the stage with some tight rules: They have five minutes and 20 slides, and the slides rotate automatically every 15 seconds. It moves fast, but gives these companies a good chance to get a bit of exposure. Here are some that were noteworthy:
• Jonathan Stark hates app stores and gave solid reasons to build web apps instead. His main point was to remember that web apps can run offline, which many people don’t realize.
• Dylan Phillips had a great quote — Nothing confuses a geek more than when a user says “we want the simple solution”. As developers, we need to stop over-thinking everything.
• Martin Isenburg of downtownfarm talked about chickens and lasers. No one has any clue what he was talking about, but it was certainly entertaining.
• Drew Dara-Abrams provided a good look at a challenging problem. “Spatial info” is where people are; “spatial knowledge” is where people think they are.
• Patrick Meyer of ushahidi showed some cool ways they used geo-technology to help find survivors after the Haiti earthquake.
• Zoom Atlas got a lot of “oohs” and “ahhs”, and has an impressive 27,000+ notes on their site after just a few weeks.
Tomorrow brings a variety of keynote speeches, which should lead to some fun announcements. Stay tuned!

About Mickey Mellen

Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.

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