Jonathan Oxer
[Blog]
>> FOSS GeoSpatial conference coming to Sydney
Mon, Feb 18th 11:05am 2008 >> Misc
One of my last official actions at Linux Australia was to write a letter of support for the team bidding to bring the Free & Open Source Software for GeoSpatial (FOSS4G) conference to Sydney, and a few minutes ago I got an email letting me know that their bid had been successful.
So in November 2009 we're going to have one of the best geospatial conferences in the world right on our doorstep:
wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_1
Cool!
One of my last official actions at Linux Australia was to write a letter of support for the team bidding to bring the Free & Open Source Software for GeoSpatial (FOSS4G) conference to Sydney, and a few minutes ago I got an email letting me know that their bid had been successful.
So in November 2009 we're going to have one of the best geospatial conferences in the world right on our doorstep:
wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G_2009_Press_Release_1
Cool!
>> 1,818,631
Thu, Aug 23rd 1:18pm 2007 >> Misc
While we were in the US a few weeks ago Luke and I were idly talking about market penetration and how we could come up with a metric for how successful we've been. A major problem we have as a company is that we're largely invisible: we build systems for our clients, who in turn have customers who are end users of the systems we build, but those end users would mostly have no idea who it is that actually created the software. As far as they are concerned they're using a system provided by our client, not by us. We therefore get almost no branding benefit from all the work we do while some of our clients are household names.
So Luke started pondering how many end users we have. Not in the sense of random web visitors: I mean actual, registered users in web-based systems we've built for our clients. That includes intranets, extranets, public-facing websites, and a huge variety of custom business systems.
After a bit of SQL and some mucking about with a spreadsheet I can now put a real figure on it:
1,818,631
That's 1.8 million people who are currently registered users on a system we built. Given that we have almost zero international penetration it can safely be assumed they're nearly all Australian, so looking at it another way, 8.6% of the entire population of Australia is a registered user on a system built by IVT. And they almost certainly don't know it.
That sucks.
While we were in the US a few weeks ago Luke and I were idly talking about market penetration and how we could come up with a metric for how successful we've been. A major problem we have as a company is that we're largely invisible: we build systems for our clients, who in turn have customers who are end users of the systems we build, but those end users would mostly have no idea who it is that actually created the software. As far as they are concerned they're using a system provided by our client, not by us. We therefore get almost no branding benefit from all the work we do while some of our clients are household names.
So Luke started pondering how many end users we have. Not in the sense of random web visitors: I mean actual, registered users in web-based systems we've built for our clients. That includes intranets, extranets, public-facing websites, and a huge variety of custom business systems.
After a bit of SQL and some mucking about with a spreadsheet I can now put a real figure on it:
1,818,631
That's 1.8 million people who are currently registered users on a system we built. Given that we have almost zero international penetration it can safely be assumed they're nearly all Australian, so looking at it another way, 8.6% of the entire population of Australia is a registered user on a system built by IVT. And they almost certainly don't know it.
That sucks.
>> Finding lost tribes at Officeworks
Sat, Jun 16th 8:35pm 2007 >> Misc
I dropped in to Officeworks this afternoon to grab a replacement presentation remote (my old one died a couple of weeks ago just as I was about to start a presentation - doh!) and saw Glenn, Vicki and James Sherry (3/4 of the family who lived with a Zulu tribe as part of a reality TV show recently) doing some shopping. While I was standing in the checkout James wandered by, obviously just filling in time while the folks did their thing, so I asked him if he was sick of being recognised everywhere he went yet. He stopped and had a chat for a minute while my stuff was being scanned, and was very friendly and didn't seem at all fazed by a random stranger striking up a conversation.
I dropped in to Officeworks this afternoon to grab a replacement presentation remote (my old one died a couple of weeks ago just as I was about to start a presentation - doh!) and saw Glenn, Vicki and James Sherry (3/4 of the family who lived with a Zulu tribe as part of a reality TV show recently) doing some shopping. While I was standing in the checkout James wandered by, obviously just filling in time while the folks did their thing, so I asked him if he was sick of being recognised everywhere he went yet. He stopped and had a chat for a minute while my stuff was being scanned, and was very friendly and didn't seem at all fazed by a random stranger striking up a conversation.
>> Catching up with life
Mon, Apr 30th 2:18pm 2007 >> Misc
Sometimes it seems that the conveyor belt of life moves just a bit too fast and it's hard to keep up with where I should be. I've been buried recently so I've decided it's time for some clear-the-decks, get-caught-up action. First step in spring-cleaning my life is working through the email backlog: my unactioned email queue had crept up past the 3500 mark so I've been frantically (and brutally) triaging them over the last week or so and managed to get it down to 411 as of this moment.
I've even had a go at sorting out my desks (both home and work) because I find it very frustrating working while surrounded by piles of paper and miscellaneous junk. I have to fight the urge to just shove it all in a wheelie bin and start with a clean slate, and important lost documents be damned. But I can't do that unfortunately so I have to actually sort through stuff first and decide what can and can't be junked while working my way toward Clear Desk Nirvana. I'm not there yet, but at least I'm getting a little bit closer.
Sometimes it seems that the conveyor belt of life moves just a bit too fast and it's hard to keep up with where I should be. I've been buried recently so I've decided it's time for some clear-the-decks, get-caught-up action. First step in spring-cleaning my life is working through the email backlog: my unactioned email queue had crept up past the 3500 mark so I've been frantically (and brutally) triaging them over the last week or so and managed to get it down to 411 as of this moment.
I've even had a go at sorting out my desks (both home and work) because I find it very frustrating working while surrounded by piles of paper and miscellaneous junk. I have to fight the urge to just shove it all in a wheelie bin and start with a clean slate, and important lost documents be damned. But I can't do that unfortunately so I have to actually sort through stuff first and decide what can and can't be junked while working my way toward Clear Desk Nirvana. I'm not there yet, but at least I'm getting a little bit closer.
>> Cranius Painius
Sat, Dec 16th 10:05pm 2006 >> Misc
I've had a headache since Wednesday morning.
I know that's not quite in the same league as Leon Brooks whose head has suffered rather more severe problems than a headache for pretty much the entire year, but it's still not exactly fun. It's kinda faded and returned continuously for days now, until last night when I was in the office and all of a sudden it felt like I'd been smacked just over my left eye with a lump of wood. I've never felt anything like it: no gradual pain build up, just *blam* and it's there. I actually fell over as if I'd been clobbered and just knelt on the floor holding my head for a minute or two wondering if I was going to die. I lost vision in my left eye briefly, then after a while I got myself out to the kitchen and took some Solprin and lay down on the couch like an invalid. After a while the pain eased off so I went to bed - not much else you can do in that situation.
The headache is still there but it's much improved today. Hopefully gone entirely tomorrow.
I've had a headache since Wednesday morning.
I know that's not quite in the same league as Leon Brooks whose head has suffered rather more severe problems than a headache for pretty much the entire year, but it's still not exactly fun. It's kinda faded and returned continuously for days now, until last night when I was in the office and all of a sudden it felt like I'd been smacked just over my left eye with a lump of wood. I've never felt anything like it: no gradual pain build up, just *blam* and it's there. I actually fell over as if I'd been clobbered and just knelt on the floor holding my head for a minute or two wondering if I was going to die. I lost vision in my left eye briefly, then after a while I got myself out to the kitchen and took some Solprin and lay down on the couch like an invalid. After a while the pain eased off so I went to bed - not much else you can do in that situation.
The headache is still there but it's much improved today. Hopefully gone entirely tomorrow.
>> LCA, here I come
Tue, Oct 17th 5:08pm 2006 >> Misc
Woot! I just got the much-hoped-for-but-not-really-expected "Congratulations! We are pleased to invite you to present at linux.conf.au 2007" email!
/me rubs hands in glee and starts planning new things to demo during the talk
Remember folks, registrations will open soon so pay close attention to the LCA2007 site
Woot! I just got the much-hoped-for-but-not-really-expected "Congratulations! We are pleased to invite you to present at linux.conf.au 2007" email!
/me rubs hands in glee and starts planning new things to demo during the talk
Remember folks, registrations will open soon so pay close attention to the LCA2007 site
>> Coming up for air
Sat, Jun 17th 11:15pm 2006 >> Misc
It seems like I disappeared off the face of the Earth for the last couple of months: I totally dropped the ball on a bunch of my responsibilities and it's felt like I've been in a major time crunch, but I can't really explain why. I'm used to extending out to 90+ hour weeks and being spread way too thin but a confluence of circumstances has made it worse than normal since about March. I've missed a lot of Linux Australia teleconfs, I've been far too passive and disconnected from things going on in the organisation, and many other areas of my life have been suffering too.
Thankfully some of the crunch factors are now history: CeBIT is over, Ubuntu Hacks is now a real live book, and a couple of projects at IVT have progressed to less stressful stages.
It's not time to relax just yet though. I'm off to the US in a few weeks to do two presentations at OSCON and there's lots to do in the meantime.
It seems like I disappeared off the face of the Earth for the last couple of months: I totally dropped the ball on a bunch of my responsibilities and it's felt like I've been in a major time crunch, but I can't really explain why. I'm used to extending out to 90+ hour weeks and being spread way too thin but a confluence of circumstances has made it worse than normal since about March. I've missed a lot of Linux Australia teleconfs, I've been far too passive and disconnected from things going on in the organisation, and many other areas of my life have been suffering too.
Thankfully some of the crunch factors are now history: CeBIT is over, Ubuntu Hacks is now a real live book, and a couple of projects at IVT have progressed to less stressful stages.
It's not time to relax just yet though. I'm off to the US in a few weeks to do two presentations at OSCON and there's lots to do in the meantime.
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