Talks & Writing

Most of my writings start out (and remain) as long-form blog posts, but in blog format they kind of disappear into the mists of history, so this page is to call them out with direct links.

• In 2024, I spent some time with cancer.
• Keynotes at FOSS4G
  • Baltimore, 2023
  • San Diego, 2019
  • Boston, 2017
  • Seoul, 2015
  • Nottingham, 2013
  • Denver, 2011
  • Sydney, 2009
• “Tokenization and your private data” (one, two, three, four, five) a series about the use of “tokenization” to secure personal information in CRM systems (in particular in BC government systems).
• Why SDIs Fail, on the persistent inability of the “spatial data infrastructure” concept to gain traction.
• More ICM, on the failings of the British Columbia “Integrated Case Management” system ($120M and counting).
• BC Government Email: Defective by Design, on the parlous state of the BC government email services.
• Timmy’s Telethon (zero, one, two, three, four, five, six), a series of responses to common objections to open source.
• Googlesoft Redux, on the tendency of Google to squash the latest thing.
• British Columbia IT Outsourcing Update (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) an annual review of the provincial public accounts entries for major IT firms.

Presentations

I deliver keynote presentations to different conferences, usually geospatial ones, once or twice a year, and the odds of getting a good recording have been going up lately. Here are some of my favourites.

• The Middle Passage [30m] [Slides] A FOSS4G North America 2019 keynote on open source economics, and the current state of value capture by cloud providers.
• Let’s Get Small On the subject of government IT management, changing from a large capital project orientation to a small operational product orientation.
• PostGIS, SQL & You A presentation at GeoDC on the purpose of spatial SQL and some of the things PostGIS does.
• PostGIS for Managers A FOSS4G-NA 2018 non-technical overview of PostGIS features and the decision points for changing over from the “leading proprietary brand”.
• The SQL Festival For lovers of database queries, a selection of interesting spatial and non-spatial queries and features from FOSS4G-NA 2018.
• PostGIS and PostgreSQL Scaling A talk for the “Spatial Data Science” mini-conference at Carto in December 2017.
• Why We Code [30m] A keynote for FOSS4G 2017, about the economics underlying the open source ecosystem.
• Data Pipes & Relevance On how government geospatial data creators should be thinking about the future of our industry.
• The Undiscovered Country An expansion on “The Future and All That” with specific reference to the privacy implications of ubiquitous geospatial monitoring.
• The Future and All That [20m] A quick year-end retrospective and view into the panopticon that is in all of our futures.
• The Unknowns: A Managers Guide to Open Source [48m] An easy introduction to what open source is, and the practical reasons for considering it in your organization.
• PostGIS Gotchas [40m] For the database-oriented, there are some surprises in store as you get started with PostGIS and geospatial data. Learn more here!
• Where do we go from here? A future of open source geospatial [20m] A keynote for the Free and Open Source for Geospatial (FOSS4G 2015) Conference 2015, about the next few years of IT evolution and what it could mean for the open source ecosystem and economy.
• Do your Learnings [25m] A keynote for the FME Users Conference 2014, about making sure you have more than one tool in your toolbox.
• Being an open souce citizen [20m] A keynote for FOSS4G 2013, about participating in the open knowledge ecology.
• Magical PostGIS in Three Brief Movements [35m] Explore advanced features of PostgreSQL and PostGIS, working magic together.
• PostGIS Feature Frenzy [25m] A quick tour of the current features of the PostGIS spatial database.
• Open Source and the Spatial Web [20m] What is open source, and how is it transforming mapping on the web?
• Cheap, Open and Innovative [20m] How the cost of parts drives innovation. Parts can be hardware, then can be software, then can be data, and when you have all three things cheap, new and surprising uses are discovered.
• Web Services & Spatial SQL [15m] Don’t let the title scare you away, this is a mostly non-technical talk about what it means to “do GIS” in a modern, webby, world.
• The State of PostGIS [25m] The most recent iteration of my annual review of the current features and past history of PostGIS.
• Why do you do that: Open source business models [20m] From FOSS4G 2011, an exploration of the many business models organizations are using to build value from open source.
• Beyond Nerds Bearing Gifts [20m] From Rendez-vous OSGeo Québec 2010, a look at the open source economy, and how open source fits with it.