At the debut of Where 2.0 last June, we identified the rough borders of the location-aware technology space, with speakers from MSN Virtual Earth, Google Maps, Yahoo!, ESRI, open source GIS, the world of map mash-up hackers, and more. For the second conference, we're focusing on lighting the commercial fires around this new technology.

The thrust of the program for the 2006 conference will answer the question "where's the value"? We'll be looking at the latest Where 2.0 technology, businesses, and content with an emphasis on these questions: How can developers make money at this? What applications have legs? How can enterprises make money using this?

Who and what will be featured at Where 2.0? Amazing location systems, untapped geodata, unsung projects or hardware, people who are poised to make real money--and why. High profile keynote conversations with big players, "high order bits" demoing cool startups and neat applications. We're angling for shorter talks with longer breaks so you'll have more time for one-on-one interactions.

Drill down topics and themes we're looking at for 2006:

- Yellow pages data providers
- Online local advertisement systems like Google, Yahoo!, MSN
- Demographics information
- New geo map hacking world
- Money-making mash-ups and hot start-ups
- Mobile, like uLocate and Plazes
- Security applications (fraud detection, tracking, surveillance), geospam, privacy
- Enterprise integration of Google Maps, open source tools, etc.
- Adding mashups into small business internal purposes to help efficiency, increase revenue
- Map visualization techniques

We'll be bringing back the Where Fair--a hands-on, demo-licious evening event showcasing the most exciting location-aware tools, apps, and hardware that are emerging from garages and university labs.

Join us at Where 2.0 in June. We'll unveil the program and open registration in February.

http://conferences.oreilly.com/where/