Google GeoWeb Meetup

[howeird]

This month's meetup did not have the food budget of the last one, there was nothing left except salad by the time I clocked in at 7:15. The prersentations were interesting as usual, especially on from Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, which has done amazing things to tie in GPS and USGS data with trails, relief maps and events. Lots of work has gone into the site, and even though I'm not a hiker, I think I'll haul my butt up there and do some nature photography. The presenter buttonholed me after the meeting (during the intros I mentioned I used GPS on my camera) and said they were going to re-oen their photo contest. They also accept photos for the web site.

There was also a presentation by aha mobile, they make an iphone car traffic app which is very impressive until you think about it - it is mostly visual. While there is some audio content, you have to look at the phone to get to it, not a good idea at 65mph.

The final presenter is a self-proclaimed nerd who has, as a hobby, built some very cool apps which used Google Server and open source, and while the stuff he did is programmer's programmer level, his talk was easy to follow, and his examples, while not meant to be pretty, were great.

One of the attendees announced her company is hiring, so I gave her my card. They probably don't have anything for a non-programmer, but it's an interesting business at the heart of GPS application building. Almost as much fun for me as video. Almost.