Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Osborne of #Geomob fame, who last week attended Where2.0, the leading global neogeo conference.
Fellow Nestofari,
As the passing geo-hobo at Nestoria, I was duly dispatched with a shiny dollar to cover the geo-fest that is Where2.0. For those not in the know, Where2.0 is all about the ge-o. Or maps. On computers.
Mapping is a big deal for us, we’ll be presenting again at this year’s State Of The Map conference in Amsterdam, and you may have noticed that all our listings are, yes, on a map! Unfortunately, we weren’t presenting at Where2.0 this year but that gave me more time to soak up the geo-goodness, ruthlessly self-promote and blag as much free food and drink as a geo-hobo can.
As always at these events, there is one act that steals the show, and this year it was a last-minute addition to the lineup. Ludwig from C3 Technologies had been wowing the people in the corridors with incredible 3D models of cities. Not only do they look realistic, but they are automatically generated, utilising technology from missiles. With just a few hours left to go on the final day, C3 were given a slot and took the crowd’s breath away:
Michal Migurski, of map design gurus Stamen, always has something interesting to say and gave not one, but two great presentations. First a crash-course in building your own custom rendered maps with Cascadenik, not for the faint-hearted but a great way of earning your geo-stripes. And ‘Flea Market Mapping‘, an intriguing presentation about using some old school paper maps in thought provoking ways.
Our old chums Yahoo! launced their exciting new PlaceMaker product to universal acclaim. Its a little difficult to do it justice in a small blog article so I thoroughly recommend you watch the video below. Essentially, its a way to find location information about any kind of content; throw some news articles at it and it will tell you where they are written about. For the more techy of you, that means you can get geographic metadata, and WOEID, from structured and unstructured data and start to do some very interesting things with it. Importantly, its contributing to the open data geoweb that is currently evolving.
Speaking of open data, we also had OpenStreetMap’s Steve Coast telling us all about ‘Ubiquitous Geocontext‘. Or, in the future everything will know where everything else is and act accordingly. It was a refreshing change from some of the talks, focusing on the possibilities for the future. A far fetched, but thought provoking view of the geo-tastic future that awaits.
In sum, innovation in the online geography sector is alive and well!
Chris blogs regularly at cloudsourced and is @osbornec on Twitter. The next #Geomob event takes place on June 30th in central London.
This month we once again dive into the London start-up scene with an interview of Ryan Notz, founder and CEO of MyBuilder.com, a site to help homeowners find and instruct builders. Prior to founding MyBuilder, Ryan worked as a stonemason, roofer, teacher and artist.
Ryan, thanks for chatting with us!
1. Tell us about MyBuilder. What problem does the service solve?It solves two problems really: the difficulty homeowners have in finding good builders; and the problems builders have in getting the right kind of work, when they need it. I was going through a dry spell with my stonemasonry, while trying to support my wife and two kids. That kind of pressure led to a lot of frustration, and I recognised a real problem in the industry. But for some reason, rather than seeking more security in a job, I went the other direction and started a web business. There must have been something wrong with my head…
Anyway, the idea was to create a website where builders could create a profile that describes their skills and experience – and most importantly, have feedback history from homeowners who have hired them through the site. Homeowners in turn would be able to choose who to hire by comparing all this information, knowing that after their project is done, they can add to the builder’s reputation in a positive or negative way. There is an element of accountability with a system like that which I really liked.
2. Recently it seems all the hype is about pure online start-ups like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace. Your business goes in the other direction, it’s very much a tool for simplifying offline transactions. What are some of the challenges to introducing new ways of working to offline trades.That’s an interesting question. I very much think of MyBuilder as a technology company, though I can see how someone else could take a different view. We are trying to solve a real world problem, that’s for sure. Bricks and mortar make up the real world, but so do people – and this is the most important element. We’re trying to help bring people together who want to interact with each other, through a fantastic communication tool: the web. Facebook and Twitter are no different, actually.
In terms of convincing builders that they should be looking online to find work, I don’t think that’s our job. We provide a tool for those who want to use it, and if it’s useful enough, that side of things takes care of itself. We’ve seen people learning how to use the web for the first time because they’ve been told they can get work through MyBuilder.com. The need to earn a living is so powerful, you can’t imagine what some people will do. And I can really relate to that.
3. Again and again I hear people talk about how much easier life is for start-ups in the US. Yet, you, an American, chose to start your business here in the UK. Why? And how have you found the business atmosphere versus the US?Well, to be fair, I was already living here when I started the business. My wife is English and my kids were all born here. But I could have easily moved to California or Austin, and my wife would happily have gone along. We even lived in Philadelphia for a while after having our first child. I guess I just fell in love with Britain and saw the need for MyBuilder here. It is a problem that is particularly acute in the UK. The business climate has certainly worked for me, I have no complaints. More importantly perhaps, was my decision to move from Bristol to London. I love Bristol, but that made all the difference. From fund-raising to building a team to meeting with potential partners, it’s so much easier in London. I think of other tech hotspots like Silicon Valley in the same way: the critical mass of people just makes it easier.4. MyBuilder has wracked up some impressive awards and great press coverage. What’s the secret? What advice do you have for others contemplating starting their own business – especially those folks looking to bring new technology to bear on traditional industries?I’m tempted to say that there’s no special sauce. But maybe there is, and it’s just a combination of things. For me, it started by addressing a real problem and having a desire to make the world a better place. It may sound cheesy, but I think that’s important. It’s also about what you want to do with your life and finding a path that’s fulfilling. If starting a business becomes the right thing to do, then you have to do it and rise to the challenge. It’s certainly not easy. It takes a lot of courage and persistence and hard work. You give a lot of blood, sweat and tears along the way. If you’re not doing the right thing for yourself, you won’t last. If you are doing the right thing, people around you will recognise that.
Ryan, thanks for the revealing chat. I can confirm that starting a company takes persistence and hard work. As we like to say, it’s a roller coaster – hang on and enjoy the ride. Keep up the great work!
For any readers out there thinking about having some work done, check out MyBuilder.com
past Nestoria interviews: Lance Johnson, Peter Le Masurier, Henry Yates.
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as happens every so often, we’re unfortunately losing a member of our team. Rahel, who has lead the charge for us at Nestoria Deutschland for the last nine months, is leaving London (Mark my words you’ll miss this expensive rat hole!) to head back to Berlin and continue her studies (as if fancy book learnin’ ever got anyone anywhere).
Well, as we’ve always said here at Lokku, one person’s chance to move to an amazing city and gain education is another person’s chance to dive head first into the fun of vertical search. While it will be hard to replace her, the show must go on. If you think you’ve got what it takes – and please check the official position description before you scream “Oh God yes, I’m perfect for this job” – dann freuen wir uns auf deiner Berwerbung, as they say.
You can read Rahel’s own take on the fun that is Lokku over at our German blog.
as regular readers will recall, for some time now we’ve been searching for a new headquarters for our vertical search project. I’m pleased to announce that our search has come to an end, and, after several stops and starts of the sort that give the property industry its well deserved reputation for fun, we are now based in scenic Clerkenwell! For our fans a few photos below:
As we prepare for the move the work of efficient property search continues.
Farewell old office!
Our new home
The new office gives us a bit of breathing room, as we continue our international growth. In many ways, this move signifies our path to becoming a real company with (ta da!) an actual meeting room. Rest assured though we haven’t lost our start-up spirit. We still have no windows and the meeting room has a huge water boiler in it.
For those that wish to join us, some members of the Nestoria team will be hoisting a celebratory pint at the nearby Jerusalem Tavern tonight. Please drop by.
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