So… the tribes have gathered again. For me it’s the first time since 2007 in Victoria, and it’s interesting to see the changes. 800+ people have made it to Barcelona this year, despite the global recession. I think there’s a different mix this year- more women (always a minority but sometimes more than others), and a couple more sharp suits, but these are non-empirical trite statements so we’ll move on.

Having not attended and workshops this year, the plenary sessions were my first intro to the conference. Schuyler Earle inspired us and flattered us all by saying that, by developing the software behind Openstreetmap, used in Haiti and elsewhere for humanitarian crisis mapping, we have all helped save lives. Then he said he expects this to continue, so we’d better get on with it!

Arnulf Cristl made us think about the metaphysical side of what we do, taking in such concepts as the definition of the world, and space. It’s good to start with something high level to get those brain cells working!

With Miguel Montesinos of Prodevelop doing both a plenary speech, and sessions on GvSIG mobile, there ws plenty of GvSIG love to be had. Developments in GvSIG mobile suggest that’s well deserved- with a new interface and better integration with the desktop version as well as editing functionality and other goodies. It’s clearly being pitted against Arcpad, and tests seem to suggest it has the functionality and speed to be a worthwhile competitor, on windows mobile at least.

Sophia Parafina of OpenGeo did a good round-up of the options available for open source mobile augmented reality- I think “Promising but not there yet” sums that up, but there are a few things like Mixare to keep an eye on and she gets bonus points for including a picture of a unicorn.

Now who wants tapas?

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