AGI #GeoCom16 twitter report

[Update: LinkedIn Pulse post inspired by this: A non-anthropomorphic robotic future]

The AGI’s Annual Conference was held at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS IBG) in London yesterday. Here is a report by way of my twitter feeds, most recent ones first, from #GeoCom16:

Massive online activity - all is not as it appears - More

[Update: another thorough review and insider's view of same on LinkedIn Pulse
Update2: and a follow-on Pulse post also, prompted by a comment on yet another]

This is one more follow-on to the Pokémon Go series, which suggested we cool our jets. In my previous post, I compared Pokémon Go to sandbox video game MineCraft, online game Foldit that helped crowd-source the resolution of complex protein structure and Sim City the granddad of virtual worlds. Here are juxtaposed in Google Trends their search hits as a measure of interest in these.

A question of business models in webmap offerings

Eighteen months ago, Google quietly deprecated its Maps API, and ESRI offered and alternative with ArcGIS Earth, then Mapbox and Carto in quick succession: I blogged then Esri, Google and if the shoe fits... Part 1 and Part 2, mirrored on LinkedIn here and here, respectively. Safe Software, LINQ Ltd. and I basically saw it as the next phase in the battle for The Internet of Things (IoT), which has been gaining traction of late.

Massive online activity - all is not as it appears - Fin

[Update: interesting tweet exchange w @0mgould at bottom]

I wrote over the past weeks why Pokémon Go is not what it seems:

• from being hailed as the next big thing in geospatial (neither open nor intended to be)
• to hiding the access / marketing in&outs its hosts indulge in (internet privacy anyone?)

Massive online activity - all is not as it appears - Cont.

[Update: Caveat emptor, lawsuits already started on Pokémon Go trespassing - BBC
Update 2: follow-on posts here & here on geo-ramifications to virtual reality mapping]

I posted last week re: spatial ownership issues Pokémon Go raised, from the personal (visiting family the weekend it was released in France)

Fort McMurray (Canada) Wildfires Social Map

[20/05/2016 update: noticed the dearth of social feeds? People are busy fleeing the area!
Also come back often as, sadly, fires that receded last week were returning this week...]

The wildfires around Fort Mc Murray in NE Alberta of W Canada were well covered in the press. Their origin is introduced in the splash screen below, which includes a broader context in the NASA brief. A modified pre-existing DIY Weathermap for Kuwait, especially the wind information, added info for Fort McMurray and MODIS data, whose hotspots are indicative of fires. Features inspired by Esri Disaster Response maps were finally styled with social feeds below. Twitter feeds for #YMM (airport code), #YMMfire and #YMMhelps were added to Flickr, Instagram and Youtube for the previous 5 days.

Releasing data really works, Part III

More and more free data are available that are quality-controlled and verifiable. Guardian Data Blog's @smfrogers (now at Twitter) was quite sanguine about this:

Comment is free, but facts are sacred