Ancestors

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:03

Yay! @geomob was fantastic tonight. Here's a thread about it.

First of I was running a bit late, but #OpenStreetMap reminded me there's a small exit out of Waverly Railway Station, and it comes out opposite The Melting Pot where we met. Perfect!

1/

=> View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:13

@geomob First talk was @freyfogle talking on The Joy of Geocoding, as his company @opencage knowd so well.

I've heard variants before, but slides/examples tailored for Edinburgh/Scotland and it was very well received.

Actually, I saw reverse geocoding in a new way. There's different answers wanted when someone asks "where am I" or "where is this" and I hadn't quite appreciated all the possibilities.

2/

=> View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town

Toot

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:22

@geomob then Nick from Emergency Locate talked about the process (and problems) when trying to locate someone. Insightful & fascinating!

Ideally the automated systems provide good locations (mobiles silently send a text with lat,lon but it's gone after 5mins - even if you don't reach a despatcher in that time).

But when that doesn't work? Is the caller even able to speak or press buttons on their phone? Nick's business is trying to solve & improve that.

3/

=> View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town

Descendants

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:26

@geomob

It was later said "there's a lot of hate for what3words" here. Clarification:

Nick said they either have a good PR team or a good legal team, maybe both.

Better is that he explained it takes 14 steps from a caller giving a what3words reference to the despatcher getting the location. That includes shouting to someome on another desk (air gap) because despatcher don't have normal Internet access.

I say w3w has good & strong aspects, but this crowd knows the concerns with it too.

4/

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:32

@geomob

Then I spoke on "The Joy of GeoSocialising".

I started by excusing the lack of content, but I think it actually held up well for a 10 min talk.

It was a light hearted talk, but it was fun to plan and to give. I think it's important to celebrate the informal and social side of geo gatherings.

Maybe I will redo the talk for my YouTube channel?

(photo by Ed, I think)

/5

=> View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:38

@geomob we then took a bit of a walk for actual Geo Socialising and #GeoBeers (other "geo" drinks available).

I just followed the crowd, trusting someone at the front was paying attention to where the chosen pub was.

It was worth the walk. Space for us all to talk in different groups, and plenty of seating (but most of of us stood for no reason). The bar staff were impressed by our turnout!

/6

=> View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town

Written by Gregory Marler on 2025-01-28 at 22:44

@geomob I was in various conversations, some things they included:

Our first experiences of OSM.

How can one learn about OSM & geology/archeology?

How can individuals pay to carbon offset?

What3Words, do we hate it?

Who was at the SotM in the slides, what year was it?

How can LLMs be used in Emergency Geo Locating.

We should take more photos of the events.

I left after 9pm and made it to the train I aimed for.

Plenty seemed to be staying longer. A great night!

/7

=> View attached media

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from gregorymarler@en.osm.town