The speaker list for GeoRabble Sydney #4 has been finalised!

In keeping with the GeoRabble tradition – we’re once again presenting a great variety of excellent geo-related topics.

We are very proud to present the following awesome lineup:

Jack Zhao (Small Multiples) : Are casino operators targeting vulnerable community groups?

Gambling problems are more prevalent in Asians than other Australians.  Are casino operators targeting these vulnerable community groups by offering shuttle bus services?  Inspired by the SMH article “Casino buses in migrants who hope ‘to live beyond their means” (Heath Aston; December 11, 2011), we created a series of maps to show the influence of The Star casino on migrant communities in Sydney.

Bio: Jack is an interaction designer who specialises in data visualisation with keen interests in tactile interfaces and networked urbanism.  He loves tinkering and brainstorming ideas.  Jack graduated from the University of New South Wales as a Bioinformatician and completed a Masters degree in Interaction Design and Electronic Arts at the University of Sydney.

Andrew Cook : 10 Good Reasons to Share Data

We all need data, without data there would be nothing.  Is there a utopia where data is born, lives and dies?  If there is a data utopia, where is it?  How will we get there?  By sharing data!  Because sharing drives innovation.  If we all share data more, then the principles (and importance) of Good Data Management will proliferate and data can be perceived as an asset (or a tradable commodity).

Bio: Andrew is a Chartered Geographer and Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (so not a boffin).  Andrew started from the bottom, in a field with a stick and a notepad.  14 years later and having contributed to Spatial Analysis and Spatial Application Development teams for Desktop, Mobile and Web (including implementing Spatial Data Infrastructure) Andrew now works as Asia Pacific GIS Coordinator for ERM (environmental consultancy) – and it is all back to first principles of data management as he works across the Asia Pacific region.

Kathryn Howard (Bookcrossing) : Books Just Wanna Be Free!

What if the whole world was a library where books were free and travelled the world over?  Bookcrossing is a smart social networking site.  It’s a celebration of literature and a place where books take on a life of their own.  They assume a unique identity and their progress tracked as they pass from reader to reader.  The bookcrossing  community is changing the world, engaging and connecting people – touching lives one book at a time.

Bio: Kathryn’s day job is as an IT Service management consultant, improving the IT service support and delivery experience one step at a time.  In this fast paced social media networking world, work/life integration brings global conversations to a device near you.  Collaborative consumption and networking are the new norm and she believes it’s the way to engage people by sharing  and building both knowledge and experiences to make the world a better place.

Paul Wither : Set your data free from the typing pool

Standards in any form are an inherently stale topic, arguably more so when applied to GIS.  However, the future growth and mainstream use of geodata depends heavily on their wide spread adoption.  This presentation looks at what are standards?  And explores why they are important and how they can help free you from the typing pool.  Also my in-laws are in town and giving this presentation gets me out of the house for a night.

Bio: Paul is widely regarded by friends and colleagues as an insufferable geo-geek.  Having only recently returned from the UK, Paul has a very Euro-centric view and a strange hybrid accent but please don’t hold that against him.  Paul has spent the last 13 years designing spatial applications and GIS implementations for organisations around the world covering industries such as Government, Insurance, Military, Financial Services, Transport/Logistics and Emergency Services and will babble on about them unless plied with lots of free beer…

Natasha Rawlings, David Jones (Street Hawk) : Retail – The next tech roadkill or benefactor?

How SmartPhones are changing the way we shop in the real-world.

Bios: Natasha is a Direct Marketing specialist who has spent her career acquiring and keeping customers using data for a number of the world’s largest direct marketing companies including Harlequin Mills & Boon, International Masters Publishers, Guthy-Renker and News Corporation.  Natasha’s role at StreetHawk is to juggle the multiple hats  of CEO including shopper and retailer recruitment, and provide thought leadership in mobile marketing.  Mother of one and wife to a gadget loving Lego geek, she is thrilled she can now combine one of her biggest passions – shopping – with work. Natasha aims to revolutionise the shopping world by providing easy tools to retailers to acquire and keep customers, profitably, in the real world, in real time.

David is a serial internet company founder who previously started SurfControl Email Filter (now WebSENSE), SpamMATTERS and ThreatMetrix – now a Gartner “Visionary” company for Web Fraud Protection. Each of these companies  are distinguished by filtering large amounts of “big-data” as automated analytics engines. The results provided significant revenue generation and cost reduction value to customers.  David’s role as co-founder at StreetHawk is in driving the product development of the StreetHawk’s ‘RRR Engine’ and initial iPhone and Android StreetHawk apps.  In his copious spare time (not) David can be found freezing in Freshwater ocean pool, mangling mandarin and aiding the Australian Startup scene via initiatives like StartMate.

Sarah Pulis, Stewart Hay : Are your online maps really reaching everyone?

We’ll be taking a look at how online mapping solutions fail to consider people with accessibility difficulties, and what can be done about it.

Bios: Sarah is a web accessibility expert working for Media Access Australia, Australia’s only independent not-for-profit organisation devoted to increasing access to media for people with disabilities. Sarah is an active member of the accessibility community and representing Media Access Australia on a number of W3C accessibility working groups. She is also the organiser of OZeWAI, Australia’s only web accessibility conference.  Sarah has a Bachelor of Computer Science/Bachelor of Cognitive Science and has also completed a Master of Science entitled Interpreting the DCMI Abstract Model to support software development for Dublin Core Metadata. Her Master’s thesis was completed as part of an ARC-funded project to develop a semantic web application for cultural heritage management, during which she also worked as a developer on that project.

Stewart is the Principal Consultant for OneSphere and is an expert at designing, developing and implementing GIS solutions for organisations both large and small. His experience encompasses a range of industries from Environmental Management and Utilities to Emergency Services and all tiers of Government.  He has held key roles within the spatial industry including General Manager of the Spatial Sciences Institute/Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute and Manager GIS for the NSW Rural Fire Services.  Stewart has a BSc (Curtin) and MBA (UNSW) and sits on the Advisory board of the UNSW School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems and the SIBA NSW Region Management Group.

Many thanks to our speakers, who are graciously offering their free time to share their passion, their experience, their stories with you!

Come and hear their great talks next Thursday March 29 at the Shelbourne Hotel (doors open 5.30pm, talks from 6.30pm).

Get your free tickets at GeoRabbleSydney4.eventbrite.com.au