I often say that Washington, DC is a city that thinks more about the world than it does about itself. Situated as the Nation’s capital, headquarters to a multitude of multinational organizations, and even home to people from all over the world, DC works at large scales that cover other cities, regions, and countries. Even the governance of DC itself is subject to the politics and power of unelected officials.

So it is a bit ironic that the international OpenDataDay Hackathon, hosted locally at the World Bank brought together so many smart and technically talented people to work on local DC datasets and solutions.

You can see the summary and links to all of the various projects on the OpenDataDay DC hackpad. There is a wealth of interesting links, problems, ideas, and output; from mapping the locations of trees by species, to analysis of DC public school vs. charter school performance and walkability.

Beyond just this one day event there is a burdgeoning community of people that are data astute and gathering together to perform some really great projects. DataKind is hosting a follow up DC DataDive on March 15-17, 2013. Data Community DC is an umbrella of at least four other meetup groups discussing data visualization, data science, data business and the R analysis platform.

And if you want to focus on DC, then the new Code for DC chapter of the Code for America Brigade has a few focused projects looking at social services, neighborhood councils, education, and even fire hydrants. Sometimes it’s necessary for us to spend our time and volunteer efforts locally in the communities where we live.

I’m heading up to New York City for the day to hobnob with Edward Norton as well as ThinkSocial, PepsiCo, TED, and others at The #Promise conference, sharing our experience in corporate social responsibility and the potential impacts of using social media and technology in affecting global awareness and positive change.

I discussed our efforts more in depth on the FortiusOne blog – especially about our entire culture of open sharing and collaboration in GeoCommons as well as supporting communities like OpenStreetMap and CrisisCommons.

Next week I will be in London and Swindon in the UK at the Socioculture knowledge workshop discussing our work in a more academically rigorous venue.

As may be apparently from some of my twitter’s, I’m currently traveling across northern India. Corrie was presenting at the Indo-US Frontiers of Engineering Forum in Agra about her work on sustainable energy and policy. We’re traveling from Agra, to Jaipur – the pink city, onto Varanassi along the spiritual Ganges river, and then to Delhi before heading back to Washington, DC.

It’s been very enlightening so far. The best comparison we have made based on our experiences is that it is the density and working density of China, with hints of Kenya. There is such a vibrant buzz about daily life and activities, with a fervor for interaction, color, and food that permeates the entire social landscape.

You can follow along with the map of the trip.

With the lengthening days and the warming air, it is time again to begin the exciting whirlwinds of presentations, gatherings, rendezvous, and brainstorming.

This spring my conferences take me through nearly the entire gamut of possibilities in next generation mapping. This week I will be at the North Carolina GIS Conference in Raleigh talking about “Lessons Learned from Neogeography Applied to GIS.” We are finally beginning some very poweful conversations between traditional Geographers, GIS experts, technologist and developers in determing how best to utilize our respective strengths to produce better applications, services, and data. My presentation will address some of the common criticisms of Neogeography that are being addressed and in the process offer insights into the effects these solutions will have on the future of GIS.

Geo for non-geo’s

Two weeks later I’m speaking at DrupalCon with Jeff Miccolis, locally here in DC, on Drupal and the Geospatial Web. We will be discussing the specifics of geospatial data and services and Drupal modules and practices that are able to leverage these capabilities in CMS’s and portals.

The following week, March 13-17, I’m particularly excited about as I’m moderating a panel at SxSW Interactive titled “Neocartography: Web Usability and Design Evolved”. Designers, usability and interaction experts are utilizing more geospatial data and visualization in web applications and it’s important to consider the options, impacts, and potential future paths that they can help discover. More on this later.

Back into the lion’s den

A week after SxSW I am heading to Las Vegas for the American Association of Geographer’s Meeting. Last year Jesse Rouse shared that myself and my work was a particular topic of interest in the participatory GeoWeb session at the AAG meeting in Boston. So I’m very interested to partake in a couple of panels on neogeography and open-source geospatial software. In addition, I’ll be presenting at paper on OpenStreetMap and collaborative, participatory mapping.

And now for something completely different

A bit of a breather through April, where I’ll be speaking at JSConf here in DC on something not geospatial. JavaScript for vehicle simulation and immersive worlds, based on my work at Realtime Technologies working on SimCreator. There is a bevy of brilliant JavaScript innovators and leaders that are finally getting a chance to gather around what has become the most ubiquitous, but under-discussed, programming language.

In between those conferences there is also the triumverate of TransparencyCamp, Government2.0 Camp, and eDemocracy – obviously a very hot topic in the geospatial and broader technology worlds. It’s intriguing that there are 3 separate camps, all run by different groups with varying agendas and a chance to be the leaders in gathering people. Even *camps can have politicking.

I’m excited about all these chances to brainstorm with very brilliant people from a variety of domains. From GIS, to designers and open-source developers, Geographers, and goverati. Between the varied concepts, principles, and needs we can distill commonalities and collaborations. So please, check out my Dopplr profile and let me know if we can meet up at any of these conferences!

It was another one of those years. Last year I thought was incredibly busy, and that things would slow down. This has been far from the truth.

In terms of speed, I flew over 50,000 miles, and that doesn’t include the driving, trains, and other modes of transit – China, Kenya, South Africa, UK, and Italy. And home was an interesting concept, as I moved houses 5 times in 2008.

Beyond simple logistics, I was a part of some great events: CIFoo and FooCamp both revolved around similar concepts of the future of humans in technology, I shared my thoughts on neogeography, neocartography and traditional GIS at Where2.0, Stanford, FOSS4G, Future of Web Apps, and applied these concepts in helping with Twitter Vote Report. I captured these trends in an O’Reilly Radar Report that reminded me how hard it is to convey what is in your brain to linear sheets of paper with graphics.

I was also very fortunate to help with mapping of community and growth in New Orleans. The experiences learned from working with people – from Louisiana to Nairobi, food in Mozambique to food in urban gardens – are each amazing and informative in catalyzing the evolving set of capabilities and techniques.

Obviously a big event of 2008 was the company and technology that Mikel and I built, Mapufacture, joining with FortiusOne, which is shaping what 2009 will look like.

And most importantly, I had a great time – and met many new friends. Thank you for a great 2008.