This should be interesting as wolframalpha expands its use of map data

> London Computational Knowledge Summit to Introduce Wolfram|Alpha
> Technology to Enterprise Data
>> Wolfram|Alpha, a website that provides free access to
> computational knowledge, is hosting a one-day event in London on
> 9 June 2010 to introduce the idea of computational knowledge as
> part of enterprise infrastructure. The London Computational
> Knowledge Summit will share the insights of well-known experts on
> the problems of knowledge management as well as the experiences
> of key Wolfram|Alpha developers applying the new ideas of
> computational knowledge.
> http://www.computationalknowledge.org.uk
>> “Just making data available doesn’t make it practically usable.
> Inside businesses or as a citizen, people need answers to their
> questions, not raw data for them to sit and analyse,” says Conrad
> Wolfram, Strategic Director of Wolfram Research. “With the right
> interface and automation, computation can bridge this gap,
> democratising analysis and access.”
>> Speakers will include:
> * Stephen Wolfram (by video conference), Founder and CEO, Wolfram
> Research and Wolfram Alpha LLC
> * Andrew Dilnot, Principal, St Hughes College
> * John D Barrow, Professor, University of Cambridge
> * Conrad Wolfram, Strategic Director, Wolfram Research
>> Topics covered will include:
> * Delivering knowledge-based computing to everyone
> * Democratising high-level computation
> * Automating custom answer generation from data
> * Changing technical communication with computable documents
> * Impact on education and skills priorities in the computational
> knowledge economy
> * Integrating knowledge computing into an enterprise strategy
>> About Wolfram Research
>> Wolfram Research, Inc. is a powerhouse in technical innovation
> and pursues a long-term vision to develop the science,
> technology, and tools to make computation an ever-more-potent
> force in today’s and tomorrow’s world. The company is the
> developer of Mathematica, the world’s most powerful global
> computation system, now used by millions around the world, and
> Wolfram|Alpha, the widely used and continually growing
> computational knowledge engine. Wolfram Research also maintains
> the world’s largest free network of technical information
> websites, including MathWorld–the #1 website devoted to
> mathematics–and the Wolfram Demonstrations Project. For more
> information, visit the company website:
> http://www.wolfram.com
>> About Wolfram Alpha LLC
>> Wolfram Alpha LLC is a Wolfram Research company. Wolfram|Alpha’s
> long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately
> computable and accessible to everyone. The company aims to
> collect and curate all objective data; implement every known
> model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute
> whatever can be computed about anything. Wolfram|Alpha builds on
> the achievements of science, and other systematizations of
> knowledge, to provide a single source that can be relied on by
> everyone for definitive answers to factual queries. Wolfram|Alpha
> was created with Mathematica–itself the result of more than 20
> years of development at Wolfram Research–and is being developed
> by a world-class team of experts led by Stephen Wolfram, a
> distinguished scientist, inventor, author, and business leader.
>> Explore Wolfram|Alpha at its website:
> http://www.wolframalpha.com‘

> Drew writes…
>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> FutureEverything Conference #futr
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> The FutureEverything conference for 2010 is our best and most ambitious yet. We are also delighted to present the world’s best speakers under our conference themes of ImagineEverything, Unlimited Connectivity, Open Data and The City Experiment.
>> 13-14 May 2010
> Contact, Oxford Road
> Manchester England
>> The FutureEverything conference will take you on a journey through the most cutting-edge developments in a range of exciting fields. Join us to hear about why governments should open up the data that they hold, and what we can do with this information to change our lives. Listen to leading artists and scientists discuss what we can dream and do with unlimited bandwidth. Visionary speakers will illuminate the science of the web, the ways the networked city is being rewired, how poetry can be encoded into DNA, ways we can play the city like an instrument, and how relationships between generations are going to change over the next hundred years.>> http://futureeverything.org/conference
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> GloNet – Globally Networked Event
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> We are delighted to premiere GloNet, a new type of Globally Networked Event, shifting from a single city festival to one taking place simultaneously at cities around the globe using experimental formats. FutureEverything is inter-connecting Manchester and four cities around the globe: Sendai, (Japan), Istanbul (Turkey), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Vancouver (Canada). Deeply connected to our The City Experiment theme, each host city will dynamically describe their views on the core issues facing cities today, from the question of growth to the possibilities of open data, to the impact of the creative industries and urban fragility. Tune in to the new reality of global connection.
>> Featuring: Adam Greenfield, John Worthington, Nigel Shadbolt, and many more from all over the world.>> http://futureeverything.org/festival2010/glonet2010
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> ImagineEverything
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> Our most daring and wide-ranging conference strand, bringing you insights into the science of the web, the future of inter-generational communication, open source design, crowdsourced activism, and the future of music. Taking all of our wildest dreams for the future and imagining what would happen if they really came true is at the heart of this strand.>> Featuring: Dame Wendy Hall, Keri Facer, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, and more.
>> http://futureeverything.org/conference/imagineeverything
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> The City Experiment
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> The City Experiment conference strand explores urban transformation, in all its forms, especially how we work, play, create and relate with one another. Our urban spaces are massive laboratories, where we all are simultaneously discovering new possibilities for social connection and expression. At a time when Manchester is home to the biggest experiment in Europe in creating a future city, we are bringing you the most visionary thinkers who will tell us how cities are evolving and being rewired.>> Featuring: Ben Cerveny, Maarten Hajer, Francis McKee, Shawn Micallef, and more.>> http://futureeverything.org/conference/thecityexperiment
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> Open Data
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> In 2009 FutureEverything embarked on an ambitious programme to open up the City of Manchester’s publicly held datasets for the benefit of the residents, businesses and institutions of Manchester. The panels in our Open Data conference strand will deeply reflect on the phenomenal potential impact of opening up data held by our public institutions in a usable form.>> Featuring: Nigel Shadbolt, Will Perrin, Emer Coleman, and more.
>> http://futureeverything.org/conference/opendata
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> Infinite Bandwidth
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> Millions of internet users are accustomed to the always-on connection to the internet that broadband allows. The growing spread of fast connectivity empowers more and more people to create and express in ways previously unimagined. What does our future of unlimited bandwidth look like, and what will be the Wikipedias and YouTubes of this brave new future?>> Featuring: Ken Eason, Clem Herman, Brian Condon, and more.
>> http://futureeverything.org/conference/connectivity
>>> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
> FutureEverything 2010 – Tickets and Info
> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
>> Part of the Lever Prize winning FutureEverything: astonishing talks, visionary people in a global conversation on bringing the future into the present.>> The Festival Pass is the gateway to the FutureEverything festival and conference. Available at the pre-booking Rate rate of £135 till 11 May.>> http://futureeverything.org/tickets
>> For more information about FutureEverything 2010 please visit http://futureeverything.org.
>

Hollywood, Florida’s biggest junkyard was situated in the rubble of  ahalf-built ghost mall off Taft Street. Suzanne’s Miami-airport rental car came with a GPS, but the little box hadn’t ever heard of the mall; it was off the map. So she took a moment in the sweltering parking lot of her coffin hotel to call her interview subject again and get better coordinates.

James Rutter from Surrey Heath Council in the UK writes that they’re going to be releasing a ton of aerial imagery for use in OpenStreetMap. Yay!

Check out the examples below!

Kate writes on talk-us:

Hey All,

Just wanted to let you know OpenStreetMap U.S. Inc exists now. This
is so we can eventually become a chapter of OpenStreetMap. We’ll be
moving forward with getting an EIN (tax number) from the IRS, working
out the Chapter agreement, etc shortly.

Then of course having official membership soonish.

🙂

There are some fun comments on the techcrunch article about OSM, see the previous post to this blog for the link.

For the record the person posting as me in that comment thread is a fuck nut, and it’s not me.

For the record we are not changing the license to close it off so I can be a millionaire, as has been discussed ad nauseum on the wiki and mailing lists. In fact I stepped down from the working group.

For the record nobody from CM spoke to techcrunch (I have to limit this to the best of my knowledge, but at the very least it was nobody in management). And when we do we say over and over again what the relationship is.

I would love to think I controlled openstreetmap let alone controlled CloudMade controlling openstreetmap. But if anything my role has been to start things and try things and then get out of the way for better people to run them. If I didn’t, the project would never have been successful. It’s also pretty insulting to my fellow OSMF board members to paint them as my pets.

Says techcrunch over here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/17/cloudmades-openstreetmap-surges-on-wikipedia…

The opening sentence is obviously a mistake. CloudMade doesn’t own OpenStreetMap any more than I own Saturn and it’s moons.

Check out http://getupandrally.com/

“Rally Up is a new kind of social network for your Real Friends – the people that actually should know your location (spouse, family, close friends, etc.)

Rally Up combines private microblogging with location, allowing users to share text, photos and direct message each other.

Rally Up allows you to check in to the places you go. Every time you check in, your real friends are notified.”

Think foursquare with privacy and heaps of OSM