Scott Davis (Musings on Java and Open Source) What's so funny about Java, OS X, Peace, Love, and Understanding?

This is the true story of [several hundred] strangers, picked to live in a house and have their lives taped, and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting REAL.

...At least this was my hope for O'Reilly's Where 2.0 conference. (If you need proof that I was here, check out the the evidence...)

Maybe I've just been spoiled by my experience on the No Fluff Just Stuff tour, but there is a wide rift between vendors and open source folks, whether it's GIS or plain old Java. On the NFJS tour, panel discussion are strictly driven by audience questions and the answers come from pros in the field that have no overt ties to any vendor or platform. The answers you hear are generally pretty "real world". The panel discussion here had all of the drama and tension of a UN meet-and-greet. Everyone is polite. The vendors held uncomfortable presence with open source advocates on the stage, and the panel discussion were generally more monologues/sales pitches than true discussions. This was especially apparent when several major GIS data vendors were on stage with an outspoken free data advocate.

This is not a criticism -- just an observation. Even though I am a *huge* free GIS data advocate, I have a special respect for the folks who create GIS data. (After all, I work for one of them, and I know for a fact that the cost of acquiring said data ain't cheap.) Still, it's interesting that there isn't as much common interest/intersection of goals as I had expected. DigitalGlobe is a huge advocate of open standards, and I just naively assumed that there was more widespread support for it than this conference demonstrated. (Even more justification for the book, I guess. The whole thing is based around open standards and free data sources.)

I am accustomed to explaining Open GIS standards to non-GIS folks, but I assumed that the value of open standards would be a foregone conclusion to the assembled crowd of elite GIS folks here. Instead, I found myself giving the same 60-second explanation over and over again. ("The OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) publishes a set a standard specs for RESTful Web Services -- WMS, WFS, WCS, blah blah blah..." I even have a presentation for those who are looking for a quick intro.) Even though much lip-service was paid to the value of open standards and interop, my experience with the COTS GIS software tells me otherwise, and the vendor presentations simply rang hollow when they spoke of embracing the specs.

The conversation that dominated the BOF at the end of the day was something else that wasn't even on my radar screen -- the total lack of a standard (OGC or otherwise) for expressing something as simple as an address. vCard ended up being the recommended "standard" representation, but even that left some holes in functionality for specific use cases.

All I can say is, "Damn you, Reality, for trying to dampen my unabashed enthusiasm for open GIS." Thankfully I still have the fire in the belly. There are many historical precedents where early proprietary "standards" gave way to open standards. I just have to redouble my efforts to keep fighting the good fight...

Thanks Tim, for putting together another quality conference that establishes once again that O'Reilly is the high water mark of the tech industry.