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Skyhook Tracking CNN Correspondents on the Magic Wall

Posted: October 31st, 2008, 7:06pm CET

Tags: Tracking

A note from Skyhook's Rich Sutton pointed me to the video of John King below showing off not just "live locating" but also running correspondents' locations back in time and showing their recent "routes" which look just like airline routing maps found in the airline magazines.

What's unfortunate is that the CNN crew states that the app uses GPS.
Continue reading "Skyhook Tracking CNN Correspondents on the Magic Wall"

"possibly, most likely, found the remains of J. Stephen Fossett"

Posted: October 31st, 2008, 3:09pm CET

Update 11/4/08: Confirmed via CNN.

---- original story 10/31/08 ---

That's the word from Madera County Sheriff John Anderson via CNN. Some bones and Fossett's license were found about 1/4 mile from where some cards and money were found about a month ago. The investigation is waiting on DNA testing for confirmation.

Using Flickr Images to Define Geoboundaries

Posted: October 31st, 2008, 1:22pm CET

Tags: Yahoo

Dan Catt at geobloggers (he works at Yahoo, which owns Flickr ) has a neat post showing how now it's possible to query the Flickr API to return shapes (not shapefiles, though soon you will be able to get real shapefiles) of areas as defined by Flickr's geotagging via WOE ids. Huh? Aaron of the Flickr team explains:

For every geotagged photo we store up to six Where On Earth (WOE) IDs. These are unique numeric identifiers that correspond to the hierarchy of places where a photo was taken: the neighbourhood, the town, the county, and so on up to the continent. This process is usually referred to as reverse-geocoding.

Over time this got us wondering: If we plotted all the geotagged photos associated with a particular WOE ID, would we have enough data to generate a mostly accurate contour of that place? Not a perfect representation, perhaps, but something more fine-grained than a bounding box. It turns out we can.

This is yet another resource that depends on the masses to understand boundaries. I guess some where there is a visualization of the WOE ID boundaries (I couldn't find one on quick search); if I understand (at least vaguely) what's going on, this is just another one, powered by reverse geocoded images.

UConn to Close Center for Geographic Information and Analysis

Posted: October 31st, 2008, 12:49pm CET

Tags: education

"Centers" at the university are reviewed regularly to insure they align with the criteria defined in the university's updated academic plan. The Center for Geographic Information and Analysis and the Center for Health Promotion the only two of 13 to selected to close. Many factors (duplication of effort, small size, failure to contribute) are among those that can prompt closure. It's not clear what exactly tipped the balance for CGIA.

CGIA was a partnership between the staff of the Homer Babbidge Library and the Department of Geography geared to streamline geographic data and spatial analytic techniques for research at the university. Robert Cromley, UCCGIA director and professor of geography noted that the center was "no cost" and can't understand the logic of the closure.

- The Daily Campus (UConn's Paper)

Penn State Geography's Coffee Hour Turns 40

Posted: October 31st, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: education

Now, the story I heard about the every-Friday afternoon Geography Department Coffee Hour was that it was intended to prevent the grad students from getting an early start on their weekend drinking. It seemed to work when I was in the department; nearly all the grad students attended nearly every week. Today, the venerable institution celebrates its 40 anniversary with a special edition hosted by two emeritus professors: Wilbur Zelinsky and Pierce Lewis. The topic: The Importance of Coffee Hour. I'm sure they'll offer some better reason for its existence than I did!

I do wish I could be on campus for it but I'll have to participate via the Web.

Google to Sponsor, Provide Keynote for daratechPlant 2009

Posted: October 30th, 2008, 2:05pm CET

Tags: google

Daratech, based here in Cambridge, is known for its market reports on PLM, CAD/CAM, CAE, CDM, MPM and GIS. (If you don't know the first few acronyms, don't worry, the folks who do are not too savvy about GIS!) Today I see that Google will not only sponsor daratechPlant, an event focussed on "plant asset lifecycle management," Aidan Chopra, Product Evangelist, Google SketchUp will give the keynote (press release).

Chopra will provide the daratechPLANT audience with an insiders view on Googles work in the 3D and geospatial arena, and what might be coming next. He will address how ideas like real-time collaboration, cloud computing and mobile access to information will affect the way companies deal with 3D data, some of the challenges involved in working with 3D information, and how they might be overcome.

So, it sounds like Google is delving further in 3D, beyond just 3D design into many of those acronyms introduced above. It's been my experience that Daratech events are very much "pay to play" so I'd have to guess that Google paid to get this slot. That tells me its even more likely the company will have something to say.

The conference is February 23 25, at the Hilton Americas in Houston, so many of the oil and gas folks are within driving distance.

New GPS Owners Confuse Tele Atlas

Posted: October 30th, 2008, 1:22pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Many in the press saw and heard a presentation from Tele Atlas this week about how the company updates its data - now including TomTom satnav users' input via MapShare. Those updates now enters Tele Atlas Map Insight program and eventually can end up in the latest datasets. I only saw the slides as there were technical difficulties. But I don't think we were privy to this story Brady Forest tells at O'Reilly Radar that was shared by Patrick McDevitt's talk at the Web 2.0 Expo Europe.

Map Insight is a work in progress and hasn't always anticipated customer behavior. People like to play with their GPSs update features. Last December, right after Christmas, the Map Insight servers started receiving a large amount of block/unblock updates. It turns out people were blocking their street to confirm the feature worked and then correcting the data afterwards -- not realizing the confusion it was causing at the Tele Atlas headquarters.

Clearly, there's still lots to learn about crowdsourcing and human behavior. I suspect this holiday season the folks at Tele Atlas will be prepared for such antics. Alternatively, they might try to dissuade users from these activities, though I can't think of a simple way to do that.

GeoGoodies from Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC)

Posted: October 30th, 2008, 1:03pm CET

Tags: microsoft

Rick Rashid of Microsoft Research hosted the final keynote of the event on Wednesday. Among the geographically related goodies he showed:

Continue reading "GeoGoodies from Microsoft's Professional Developer's Conference (PDC)"

I hope we never have to use it...

Posted: October 30th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

I read that sentiment all the time when a municipality sets up any kind of emergency "war room." Take the one for Niagra Falls, Ontario.

Formerly located at city hall, the Niagara Falls EOC is now housed in the former bunk room at the Morrison Street fire station.

In a matter of minutes, the empty room can be transformed into a state-of- the-art command centre complete with laptops, telephones, several large video display screens and an interactive touch board.

In the event of a major disaster, the secured site will be the headquarters for police, fire, paramedics and public works.

"We hope to not ever have to use it, however, the likelihood we will have to use the centre in the future is there," said fire Chief Lee Smith.

If a large-scale emergency occurs, the centre will support response activities in the field and provide direction to the various agencies such as the Red Cross and the public health department.

The centre is already stocked with modern technology devices from Design Electronics. The huge screens can broadcast live feeds and are equipped for video conferencing.

The sentiment is fine, but my sense is that those who would be using such technologies in an emergency should be using them all the time! During an emergency is no time to learn how new hardware and software work.

An analogy: in prepping for long distance running newbies are told not to try anything "race day" they've not tried in training. That includes everything from not wearing new clothing to not drinking a different kind of sports drink. Why does it seem like "special" tools and software are used in emergencies that are not in use all the time?

- Niagra Falls Review

Instant Gratification...

Posted: October 30th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Cities and counties put up interactive mapping websites all the time and most ask for feedback. Earlier this week I checked out the new mapping apps for Rockland County, NY after seeing this article. I was jazzed when one app "just worked" on Safari on my Mac as there were no warning about what browsers or operating systems were supported in the material I read. Unfortunately, the other app (built on the same platform by the same contractor, James Sewall) didn't work. So, I shot off an e-mail.

I received an e-mail back (first noting how the recipient remembered me from my ArcCAD data days) and then saying they'd look into it. Today I received an e-mail saying it was fixed. And it was.

Good job Rockland County on both the app and your communications!

NGA's Murrett Emphasizes Commitment to Commercial Satellite Imagery Industyr

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 8:06pm CET

Tags: GEOINT 08

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's directory, Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, stongly emphasized, several times during his address at the GEOINT Symposium, that no other agency in the U.S. government supports and is committed to the health of the commercial satellite imagery (CSI) industry than his agency. "The array of sensors we have is getting more and more important all the time; Panchromatic sensors are our bread an butter but other sensors will become important like hyperspectral and LiDAR," said Murrett. "We need to tip our hat to our domestic partner," he said referring to the successful launches of GeoEye-1 by GeoEye and WorldView-1 by DigitalGlobe.

In other comments, Murrett said that the NGA's foundation level data cannot be taken for granted referring to the geodetic control, controlled imagery and elevation data that must first be prepated before any analyses can be perfomed. Having data that is readily retrieved and rapidly adaptable to circumstances on the ground to support warfighters is a key mission of the NGA.

New Microsoft Geovisualization Platform: Microsoft Single View Platform

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 2:14pm CET

Tags: microsoft

You can read the press release, but it didn't really help me understand what Microsoft SVP is. I did find this elevator-pitch type sentence from the web area set up for the launch at GEOINT this week.

Microsoft SVP is an open, industry standardsbased technology that provides a highly integrated foundation for a variety of data visualization solutions in the area of business intelligence, information sharing, work flow and business processes, project management and systems center.

(I've already contacted my PR person on this matter.)

Digging into the SVP white paper I learned:

The Microsoft SVP foundation architecture is based on the following core technologies:

 Microsoft Virtual Earth
 Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007; Exchange Server; Office Communications Server
 Microsoft SQL Server®
 Windows Server®

Sadly, when I went to watch the platform overview, I received this message:

The site that you visited was built for an earlier, beta version of Silverlight - not the current one. Please contact the site owner to let them know that they must upgrade to the latest release of Silverlight 2. Let us know if the site is not updated shortly so we can try to assist in upgrading the site to the latest Silverlight technology.

I'm counting on my colleague Joe Francica, who is attending GEOINT, to have a look at the SVP and help explain what it does.

Garmin Beats Estimates, drops outlook but Nuvifone on track for 2009

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 1:47pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Garmin's third quarter earnings of 87 cents a share on revenue of $870 million topped Wall Street expectations of 83 cents a share on revenue of $858 million. That's the good news, along with the location-enabled phone now on target for its delayed launch.

As for earnings, for 2008, Garmin is projecting of $3.78 a share on revenue of $3.6 billion dropping from Wall Street's expectations of $4.13 a share on revenue of $3.9 billion.

The longer the Nuvifone takes to get to market the longer Apple's iphone and the various Android and RIM solutions have to get out the kinks and corral developers.

- ZDnet
- press release on earnings

Putin to Post his Whereabouts on the Web

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 1:23pm CET

Only recently did his dog get a GLONAA-enabled tracking collar, but now Putin himself will be locatable. You'll be able to keep track, though apparently not via GLONASS-tracking on his website, expected to launch next year.

One of the features of Putin's website will be a timeline with a news ticker and interactive map displaying where the premier is working, the Russian regions and countries he will visit and the agenda for his trips. The website is due to be launched at the beginning of 2009.

- Novosti

Washington Post Launches "TimeSpace Election" for Final Week of Election Coverage

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 1:03pm CET

Tags: media & maps

The TimeSpace app allows time (publishing) and subject filtering of content (video, tweets, articles, etc.) about the election from a variety of sources in and outside of the Post. The results are plopped down on a Google Map housed in a Flash/Flex app. Users are invited to share their own election coverage.

Frankly, the app sort of blew my mind - it's a bit overwhelming at first. The help, a several minute video was helpful, but I was really looking for a more traditional set of help.

I could not find a way to filter the content geographically - changing the extent of the map does not seem to limit the results in any way. Keying in locations in the text search box was not successful in my attempts. I keyed in "State College" (Palin spoke there last night) and "Virginia" (Obama was there yesterday) but found no results during yesterday and today's time range. Strange.

- Press Release

An "F" in Marketing Savvy

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 12:04pm CET

Tags: 3D

At GEOINT this afternoon, I approached the Zebra Imaging booth and marveled at the 3-D holographic displays. I wanted to grab a quick photo to use in this blog post but, WHOA..."Excuse me...no photos sir, came the voice." What was that? You're not selling this product? See the press badge? Do you want free publicity? Is it a secret? I know it's holographic but it's not invisible. So, I was handed some marketing literature which quickly made its way into the circular file. That was bad form...So, they still get the blog post but an "F" in marketing savvy. (no hyperlink either)

Netezza Appliance "Visited"

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 12:03pm CET

Tags: Databases

We've written before on the Netezza data warehouse appliance that supports the OGC simple feature specifications and hopes to offer clients exceedingly fast performance with high volumes of data (think terabytes). So, on the exhibit floor of the GEOINT Symposium I got an up-close look at the basic device. If you've taken apart a deskside computer you'd recognize that it has the same basic components: a hard drive, processor and memory. What would be new is the "secret sauce," a silicon chip with the embedded proprietary logic to strip out certain extraneous bytes such as SQL statements and simply use the location-based data. This firmware approach to dealing with the complexities of massive amounts of data is amplied when these simple sleaves of hardware are rack mounted - 120 fold. The Netezza appliance is composed of 120 such devices described above in the company's Asymmetric Massively Parallel Processing architecture. According to their literature on Netezza Spatial "each intelligent node...is an independent computer optimized specifically to accelerate analytic query performance on large data volumes."

The argument about whether you replace an Oracle Spatial or ArcSDE may be a question for some but it may not be an either/or situation. Netezza will first process the data using the ETL functions of Safe's FME which loads the spatial data into its firmware so it can bypass a typical database but many users have found an approach that works in tandem.

Attendance At GEOINT Looks Robust; Exhibits "So So"

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: GEOINT 08

Attendance at GEOINT this year in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel looked very robust by looking at the opening session; I'd estimate about 2500 people. Exhibitor's however thought the traffic was light to moderate. My take was that most booths were busy but not overly crowded...not even Google.

Off Topic: Christian Science Monitor to Drop Print Daily in April

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

I have a few connections to the Christian Science Monitor. My high school history teacher was a Christian Scientist so I learned a bit about the mother church here in Boston. And like most kids in the region spent a good deal of time in the Mapparium, an "inside out" glass globe you could walk inside. (A must see when touring the city!) Only when I reach adulthood did I read the newspaper. I liked it so much I "borrowed" the Monitor part for my first publication, GIS Monitor.

Tuesday I heard that come April 2009 the daily version of the paper will be replaced by an online and e-mail version, leaving just a weekend print edition. It's not news that print papers are having a tough time. Even the New York Times is not in the clear, now holding a "sell" rating from at least one analyst. I applaud the folks behind the Monitor for re-organizing such that the content can remain, even if the print version goes away. I'm sure we'll lose some papers altogether as the economy and technology change; I just don't want to see papers of record, like CS Monitor and the Times disappear due to poor business decisions.

- Christian Science Monitor

Quote of the Week

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: Tracking

"The practical challenge posed by dashboard navigators, cell phones and the host of coming location-aware devices is that the systems are proprietary and fast changing. Even devices that use identical chip sets to collect geospatial data often process and store that data differently. Forensic examiners must grapple with obscure interfaces, oddball cabling and few proven software tools."

- Craig Bell, writing at Law.com about why GPS and other location data may not be ubiquitous in court any time soon.

One of First non-Microsoft Apps for Azure: Bluetooth Friend Finder

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: microsoft

Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform, announced yesterday at its Professional Developer's Conference in LA. And, one of the first apps comes from Sentinet, a company that already offers "sports tracker" type apps. The new app is Bluehoo.

The Sentinet site allows Bluetooth users to download lists of fellow "hoos" that there are in the immediate vicinity. Presumably the idea being to initiate social interaction with fellow Bluetoothers. The pink and blue (male and female) avatars are apparently enough of a reason to try and hook up, if you will.
According to the Bluehoo homepage, some 126,000 "hoos" have already signed up to the recently formed Bluetooth user network, but don't all leap online at once to join as it will only initially work for users close to PDC in LA, or for those near London's city center, where Sentinet's sports stat service SportsDo is located.

How many of these do we really need?

- Red Herring

Nav Devices...They're Like Spell Checkers..."It's OK Not to Think"

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 2:45am CET

Tags: lbs

As I was driving back to my hotel tonight from the GEOINT conference in Nashville, a short five mile drive, I used my NIM-powered VZNavigator to find my way from the Opryland Hotel. And it dawned on me...PNDs are like spell checkers...they give you permission not to think.

Back in the day...I would prepare for this kind of short journey by using a paper map, look for street names and landmarks. Now, I just listen...rather, I'm told where to go. It's like a spell checker; you don't have to spell very well but that's OK, your misspelled and sometimes horrible grammar get corrected. In this case, your navigation IQ can be amplified and generally you can "tune-out" to your environment. Such is the pity.

As we get more into connected nav devices and greater data streams allow for better navigation, we may (and I emphasize "may") lose local familiarity or the desire to navigate by landmarks. If you are looking for a business or other location and stop at a gas station, most locals will tell you to navigate by local landmarks..."Turn right at the McDonald's and head toward the Big 10 Tire sign...it'll be on your right..." or some such reference. I'd like to see if my next PND will navigate me by landmarks and POIs.

ERDAS' Sweet Spot: Handling Large Data Sets

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 8:48pm CET

Tags: GEOINT 08

Rare is the opportunity that I get to hash out a vision for geospatial technology with a vendor. Usually it's all about product enhancements, features, and functionality, especially at a trade show. My conversation with Mladen Stojic, SVP of Product Mgmt. and Marketing for ERDAS was different and its important to know that there are some vendors that can offer clients forethought and direction. Stojic believes that, in a connected world, that spatial models and content can be married in a more coherent manner.
Continue reading "ERDAS' Sweet Spot: Handling Large Data Sets"

Dash Express Price Drop - Today Only

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 6:33pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

We explored the (connected) PND vs smarthphone vs connected car battle in today's podcast. Is it coincidence that today the price fell from the now-standard $300 to $200 for the day at Amazon? It probably is a coincidence, but as I noted in the podcast, the device's buzz went to just about zero lately. That means few people are collecting and sharing traffic data, one of the supposed big selling points. This device highlights one of the challenges of "barrier to entry" crowdsourcing.

- Engadget

Clapper Elaborates on Collapse of BASIC

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 4:37pm CET

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: GEOINT 08

During the Q&A session at the GEOINT conference, Under Secretary of Defense, Brig. General (ret.) Jim Clapper, elaborated on the recently canceled BASIC (Broad Area Space-Based Imagery Collection) program, an effort by the National Reconnaisance Office (NRO) to obtain two earth observing remote sensing satellites. "Depending on your point of view, what happened to BASIC is either a strength or weakness of our form of government. There are many constituencies from which you must derive consensus. When we finally got consensus, we finally got signed for the purchase of two 1.1 meter satellites. But Congress decided that the sense of urgency no longer exists. Its now over to the DNI (Director of National Intelligence) to decide the way ahead. The DNI has referred back to the NGA andi it will be up to Admiral Murrett, Director of the NGA to study. Clapper said in closing that "but this has been studied to death."

Listen to more of his remarks during his press briefing. (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info

Budget Reductions Focus at GEOINT

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 4:26pm CET

Tags: GEOINT 08

Most of the plenary speakers at the opening session of the 2008 GEOINT conference in Nashville, Tennessee focused on the anticipated

budget reductions that will ensue as the next administration takes office after next weeks U.S. presidential election. "I am quite concerned that this conference wont be as big, because this community will go on a diet," said Rich Haver of Northrop Grumman, the master of ceremonies of the days activities. "I think the next three or four years will be a tough fight. We need to redouble our efforts to make sure that the next administration doesnt, rebalance the budget on the back of the intelligence community."

Brig. General (ret.) Jim Clapper, the current Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence) said that, "We are going to have to figure out a way to constrict. This will be a tremendous challenge for the next administrationwe have gotten use to supplementary funding which has been as a result of the war. But if I were going to be around, I would try to champion a preservation of the capabilities even if they are shrunken a bit but to keep the expertise." He hoped the next administration will not entirely emasculate the capabilities that have been established during the years of the Iraq war.

Clapper also mentioned that in looking to the future, certain priorities must be considered. He said that integration and collaboration are very important, plus the melding and synthesis of the disciplines is the strength of geospatial intelligence. Clapper emphasized the need to adhere to standards and complimented Vice Admiral Murrett, the current NGA director on pushing this effort forward.

ESRI UK Commissions Poll on London

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 3:12pm CET

Tags: ESRI

The poll called The London Matters asked more than 2,200 people from London and across Britain about issues related to the captitol.

Londoners cited immigration (34%) as the biggest issue, followed by crime (21%) and housing (13%). Terrorism polled just 6% of votes. The study also found 23% Scots do not like anything about London. Those outside London chose crime as the biggest issue facing the capital (24%). ...Those questioned from London and the rest of the country agreed Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament was their favourite capital landmark with 32% of the vote. Joint second was the Tower of London and Tower Bridge (15%), then the London Eye with 10%.

This paragraph appears at the bottom of the BBC story:

The survey, carried out by YouGov, was commissioned by ESRI (UK), a computer-mapping software company.

I wonder why they commissioned it? I'll ask!

USGIF Launches a Blog

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 2:49pm CET

Tags: Intelligence

I have mixed feelings about this announcement. I do agree that having a "place" for GEOINT discussions is a good thing and to date to my knowledge, there is no such place. For a time there was a GEOINT focussed publication (not from USGIF, but from the folks behind Geospatial Solutions; I think it still exists in e-mail form) but on the whole that side of the industry tends to be rather close-lipped. Perhaps that's why the publication didn't last too long?

Will a blog do better? Will the blog called "got geoint?" meet the high minded goals noted in the press release?

Hosted and managed by USGIF, got geoint? provides unfiltered access to the views and opinions of intelligence and defense community leaders from government, industry, and academia. In addition, commentary on the latest developments in defense and intelligence will be mixed in with fun, hip and breaking news the about the broad range of topics related to geospatial intelligence.

Unfiltered? Fun? Hip? Breaking news?

Continue reading "USGIF Launches a Blog"

TomTom Beats Expectations; Updates Loans for Tele Atlas Acquisition

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 1:21pm CET

Tags: Tele Atlas

TomTom reported operating profit just over analysts expectations for the third quarter, but the company cut expected profits for the year. Investors were worried about how the company would repay loans taken out to acquire Tele Atlas and TomTom allayed fears by renegotiating those deals. Share prices were basically flat on the news.

- Reuters

- results on Marketwatch (oddly NOT on TomTom's or TA's website)

Podcast: PNDs vs. Smartphones

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: Open Source

deCarta announced its connected navigation platform last week. At the same time the expectations for portable navigation devices is looking dim as for-fee smartphone solutions for navigation appear to grow. What is the future for these devices and what about the connected car of the future? Our editors look at what the experts say and share their own predictions.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info.

A few words on Google Earth on the iPhone

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: google

First, from Josh Lowenstein writing at C|net/Webware:

If you're done playing around with Google Earth for the iPhone, you might be interested in checking out something with some everyday utility. Last week Box.net dropped its iPhone application on the App Store. Just like the mobile Safari-friendly version of yore, this lets you access your cloud-stored files on the go, including documents, music, and movies.

Now, from me:

I don't use Google Earth on the desktop, so I'd not use it on an iPhone, if I had one.

Another Mobile Apps Contest, Same Old Same Old

Posted: October 27th, 2008, 12:52pm CET

The contest in question was for RIM's Blackberry and the three winners take home a $150,000 (each so far as I can tell). Your Communication News hits the nail on the head in commenting on the apps which are in short: local search for entertainment, music player with social network, and e-mail me with the name of the song on the radio.

But judging by the winners, which all fall into the category of music and entertainment, it is either getting increasingly difficult to get developers attention, or $150,000 is simply not enough to get more than a copycat of something already out there.

In other NIM news, the company will open a Blackberry App store in March.

Map Misuse

Posted: October 27th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: Oops

No, alas I don't have a story of people using maps for the wrong purpose, rather of a journalist using the term map inappropriately. Perhaps it was an editor? The article in PC World carefully details the recent deals between Google and Microsoft and DigitalGlobe and GeoEye. It explains the details of the satellites and their resolutions and notes how imagery can provide different information than computer generated maps. Then comes the "misuse:"

As a result, it will "take some time," admitted a Google spokeswoman, before the new GeoEye maps begin trickling into Google Earth. In the meantime, Google will continue to use DigitalGlobe maps -- the same maps Microsoft now has access -- for many parts of the world.

Even when the GeoEye maps become available, Google won't be able to display them at their maximum resolution because of U.S. security rules governing satellite photos. Rather, Google will have to ratchet the resolution down to 1.6 meters per pixel.

I've contacted the editor to see if this can get clarified.

Newspaper Endorsement Map

Posted: October 27th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Tags: media & maps

Infochimps pulled together a map of newspaper endorsements for the presidential candidates along with some analysis. I went looking for such a map after hearing about the endorsements on On the Media.

Weekend Update Addresses Magic Map

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 1:25pm CEST

Tags: media & maps

The Saturday Night Live crew sent up John King and his "magic map wall" on its Thursday evening special edition. Engadget has images and the video. More interesting are the "heated" comments about the technology and why it seems SNL has better tech than MSNBC. Also, discussion of less expensive smartboards, used in education.

I used one of those years ago and found the tech impressive then. For the record, it projected the monitor image on a large white board and instead of a mouse, you "touched" the interface options (in my case ArcView 2's) such as menu pics to drive it. There was no "pinching" or other gestures, so far as I recall. Just by chance, there's a profile of one used in an elementary school in California online today. And, Medill shows of a new Smart Table in use by Chicago area first graders.

The Economy: What Happened When We Weren't Watching and the Implications for LBS

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: lbs

At the deCarta devCON conference, Jeff Rath of Canaccord Adams, an investment bank specializing in emerging markets, succinctly explained the current market bloodbath and what he forsees as the impact on the location-based services market.

Rath sees an unwinding of some of the macroeconomic dynamics for the first time in a long time. Leading up to this situation was a condition where inflation rates were trending lower and debt was cheap. This yielded an explosion of leverage and people bought a lot of things...much that they couldn't afford, and that is becoming unwound.

"Macro economic dynamics are driving everything; companies are posting good and bad results but all stocks are trading down," said Rath. For much of the early part of the decade, Canaccord Adams' Location Index, an index of publicly-traded location technology companies, outperformed the major market indices. In the last two years, that index has seen a huge decline where it now underperforms the market.

The hedge fund community is incredibly active in trading and represents 30-50% of the trading on any given day in the stock market. "Everyday you are hearing of hedge funds being liquidated en-mass," said Rath.
Continue reading "The Economy: What Happened When We Weren't Watching and the Implications for LBS"

deCarta Expands Geospatial Platform to Support LBS Developers and Mobile Device Makers

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: lbs

Kim Fennell, CEO of deCarta, said, "deCarta wants to provide the core geospatial platform technology so you dont have to worry about it...Weve evolved our technology to make it easier for app developers." In observing what he sees from his customer Fennell said, "Mobile operators and handset makers now want a common platform that supports multiple, integrated LBS applications. deCarta sees a need for a common platform from mobile operators and they are getting excited about this as the mobile industry involves.

deCarta just recently announced support for connected navigation devices or CNAVs. Real time two way (RTTW) connectivity enables access to dynamic content and internet search. Up-to-date content radically improves location look-up, gives user ability to query from the device while you are driving. With these devices, the consumer has the ability to look up company for which you dont know the address, find it and route to it. "CNAV really changes the game...convergence is happening; and the ability to have a PND with a modem is the next iteration of the PND marketplace," said Fennell. [Consumers] want content that is up-to-date and not content that is already two years old when it leaves the store."

Traffic: The New Killer App?

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 7:12am CEST

Tags: lbs

While at the deCarta devCON event today, I heard it said twice by deCarta executives that traffic was the new killer app. I guess I thought that traffic has been around for long enough that it certainly wasn't new and as far as a killer app, it is not a stand alone application and is merely now just included with most cellular nav services and will be soon with connected navigation devices (CNAVs). So, will traffic data, whether real-time or predictive, be a killer app?
Continue reading "Traffic: The New Killer App?"

Why Location Matters: Legal Issues of GPS, Navigation Systems and Other Location-Based Services-A Webcast

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 9:08pm CEST

This from reader Kevin Pomfret...

"The legal community has been unable to keep pace with the rapid changes in geospatial technology and location-based applications. As a result, the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association are holding a webcast and telephone seminar on November 5, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. E.S.T on the unique legal issues associated with spatial data. The cost is $169.00 to attend.

The program, entitled Why Location Matters: Legal Issues of GPS, Navigation Systems and Other Location-Based Services is believed to be the first program hosted by the American Bar Association to focus exclusively on Spatial Law matters."

Kevin Pomfret of Cantor Arkema, P.C. and Dan Connors of GeoEye will be the speakers. The program will focus on matters such as protecting intellectual property rights in spatial data, limiting liability exposure and U.S. and international laws related to privacy and national security."

deCarta Announces API for iPhone

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 7:01pm CEST

Tags: lbs

At deCarta's devCON event, CEO Kim Fennell made an announcement that the company will release an API for the iPhone. It will be available for download by the end of October. This follows on the heals of deCarta's announcement that they released their J2ME API for mobile devices and support for connected navigation devices.

Canceling of BASIC Good News for GeoEye

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:38pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Chris Fernandez at PeakStocks thinks so. Bottom line:

With the BASIC program out of the way for at least one more year, and perhaps for good, the U.S. government will rely on GeoEye more and more, especially in light of the fact that GeoEye is now in possession of the highest resolution commercial satellite available today, GeoEye-1.

Geotagged Horse Photos Concern Owners

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 2:46pm CEST

Geograph.org.uk hosts user-generated geotagged photos. The goal: to post a picture for every grid square of the Ordnance Survey maps of the British Isles and Ireland. One visitor has called the site "a thief's shopping list." The suggestion is that people are trespassing to get photos and once they are posted, the images provide an easy way for horse thieves to find targets. I suppose it's the next logical step after StreetView and other services have been painted as dangerous to privacy, children and society.

- Horse and Hound

Daratech's Foundyller: Intergraph May be #1 in GIS

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 2:10pm CEST

Tags: ESRI

[Daratech founder Charles] Foundyller estimates privately held ESRI's revenue at about $710 million last year. Privately held Intergraph lists 2007 revenue of $725.3 million, which might make it the market leader.

This comment appeared in an article about the use of ESRI technology in medical care at Loma Linda University Medical Center, not too far from ESRI headquarters in Redlands in Investor's Business Daily.
The most recent publicly available rankings I can find (recall that Daratech sells its reports and only sometimes offers press releases on marketshare) had the rankings: ESRI, Bentley, Autodesk, Intergraph. This from coverage of BE (May 2008) in the August 2008 issue of GIM.

Daratech is a market research company specialising in the information technology market, including GIS. A 2008 Daratech study ranked Bentley a world number two, with geospatial revenue of over $200 million. The list is dominated by ESRI, with over half a billion US dollars, and numbered three and four are Autodesk and Intergraph, respectively: very close to Bentley in terms of turnover. The first European firm to appear on the list is Leica Geosystems, ranked number six.

As usual with such numbers, "your mileage may vary!"

GIS: 21st Century Innovation?

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 2:00pm CEST

The Boston Globe highlights the city of Revere's GIS and how it enabled a "quick fix" of a water main. Revere is among the less wealthy communities in the Boston area and it now has an internal Web-based GIS from Camp, Dresser & McKee, most likely built on ESRI technology, though the article does not say. What struck me about the article was the intro:

A recent water main break in the Beachmont area was fixed in record time thanks to the combination of 20th-century metal detector technology and $480,000 worth of 21st-century Geographic Information System mapping innovation.

Was the GIS part really 21st century? My sense is that all of the GIS aspects of what went on were 20th century, though the I'm guessing wireless access and perhaps some of the communications tools may have been 21st century:

In a matter of minutes, Public Works employees were able to log on to the GIS system online, retrieve a digital map outlining the city's 128 miles of water pipes, isolate the break and the valve, use a metal detector to pinpoint the location, and finally dig the spot to fix the problem, said Revere Finance Director George M. Anzuoni.

Marine Navigation...in the iPhone

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Real-Time/Dynamic Data

Yes, one of the many applications being developed for the iPhone is marine navigation. I spoke to a good friend and colleague, Dana Fenner, ex-of Tele Atlas, now with Navionics that provides vector maps and charts that allow you to plot a course using their marine data. That in itself may not sound terribly exciting because Garmin is a huge competitor in this market. Garmin collects their own data. But Navionices is looking to incorporate real-time tide and depth charts. That is something that would be a distinct differentiator and as we've said for a long time, real-time data will become more ubiquitous in many applications.

deCarta - Sitting Nicely with New Venture Funding

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: lbs Market Sizing

I spoke briefly with Kim Fennell, CEO and Marc Prioleau, VP Marketing of deCarta about their market growth during the devCON '08 event. They feel good that they took the $20 Million is new venture funding as the venture community may be looking a bit more closely at business plans that project revenues too far into the future given today's economic climate. The market for map servers is certainly shifting as Prioleau sees less of an emphasis in supporting web apps than other opportunities in the mobile space. He notes that Apple's App Store now counts 300 applications that are "location-enabled."

Birmingham: Go to Second Life to Use Google Maps to Explore City

Posted: October 22nd, 2008, 1:02pm CEST

If I understand correctly, that's what visitors are asked to do when visiting the new Birmingham (UK) island that will debut in Second Life tomorrow.

Although several other cities have a presence in Second Life, Birmingham Island's showpiece attraction, b-scape, is the first to integrate other online applications such as Google Maps, video and RSS feeds to provide a whole new layer of collaboration.

b-scape is effectively a 3-D information area centred around an interactive screen, which focuses on a map of Birmingham's physical city centre. It allows visitors to experience the city via an avatar (a virtual self), which are then able to interact and collaborate with other avatars in Second Life and control b-scape. Through the avatar, the user can navigate around Birmingham using Google Maps technology and discover information about key buildings in the city centre, play videos and access RSS data. Importantly, b-scape can be experienced collectively by many individuals at the same time, making it an ideal virtual environment for meetings and training sessions.

Sounds a bit like stepped through the looking glass to step through the looking glass...

- Public Technology

Yahoo Groups' Ad Targeting: 1 for 3

Posted: October 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

This is a follow up to "Location-based Water Coolers." While the water cooler ad did indeed understand I was in Somerville, Massachusetts, today the Yahoo Groups ads only went 1 for 3.

The lefthand links, for apartments and properties, think I'm in Somerville, NJ or want to move there. (I hear it's lovely. My friend Mark lives there.) The rightmost one, thankfully, offers accountants in the 02145 ZIP Code, right here in my city. My running club helpfully notes our state (MA) in the title of our group... Still room for improvement in ad targeting!

Two Geospatial Projects Win 2008 GCN Agency Awards

Posted: October 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: google

Among the ten winners were Virtual Alabama (also be sure to check out the side bar explaining why a military-grade solutions was not selected) and the EPA's GeoData Gateway and EPA Metadata Editor built on ESRIs ArcCatalog and GIS Portal Toolkit. And be sure to read the sidebar on how the EPA team drew on code from the Idahos Coeur DAlene tribe to customize the solutions to its needs.

- GCN

Geospatial Line of Business Vendor Day: "We expect substantial savings."

Posted: October 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

FCW followed up on the Vendor Day for the Geospatial Line of Business Initiative SmartBuy Multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement that occurred yesterday. We noted it last week, when it was announced via press release.

Responses to the RFI are due Oct 31 and respondents must already be on the GSA schedule: "4. Provide a statement of capabilities and other areas of coverage provided under your current GSA FSS IT Schedule 70 agreements and any other comments you may have related to this Draft SOW. Describe any special conditions that GSA should consider regarding the access to commercial GIS software and data." The press release about the multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement did not make that clear.

How much savings can we expect from the coordination of buying power through this contract?

We expect substantial savings, Ivan DeLoatch, managing partner of the geospatial line of business for the Interior Departments Federal Geographic Data Committee.

There are no real details in the article regarding the process, but there is a great quote:

Matt Leopard, chair of the common services work group for the Environmental Protection Agency, called SmartBuy the "Super Bowl of acquisitions.

Advice to those looking for venture capital

Posted: October 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: lbs

This from Tom useby, managing partner at SeaPoint Ventures at the Mobile Northwest conference in Seattle on Monday.

Location-based applications are also looking interesting, although he had a word of caution to developers. No pitch that starts with "say you're walking by a Starbucks," is going to work, he joked. "Just eliminate that line," he said. The example, usually in which someone walks by a Starbucks and automatically receives a coupon for discounted coffee to their phone, has been used for many years by companies as they try to jump start the location-based services market.

Words to live by!

- PC World

MapQuest Optimized for iPhone

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 4:57pm CEST

Tags: MapQuest

That from the MapQuest blog.

Google Gears Location Tapping Now Can Use Wi-Fi

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 4:33pm CEST

Tags: google

Gears is an add-on for many browsers ( Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox other coming) and built-in technology in Chrome and Android, that provides extra goodies including geolocation. Until now, geolocation in Gears was provided by cell tower locations and was aimed at mobile phone apps. Today, Google announced location support via Wi-Fi access points. No word on if the technology is Google's or Skyhooks or someone else's.

ITN, Independent Television News, based in Britain, is one of the first content providers to use the API.

Also, Android, Google open source operating system, is now available to all, not just to selected developers. Download it here.

Federal Satellite Buy Plan, BASIC, Scrapped

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 4:20pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Cost was the main reason according to an AP story which explains that House and Senate intelligence appropriations committees cut all the funding for 2009 along with what was left for 2008. The National Reconnaissance Office, NRO, planned to acquire two birds, like those of DigitalGlobe and GeoEye for launch around 2012. BASIC, the Broad Area Space-Based Imagery Collection satellite system including funding for those and monies to acquire additional commercial imagery.

Beginning of End of PND Market?

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 4:02pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Investor's Daily suggests two scenarios: a few more year of growth driven by lower prices, then death, or it's already dead.

Phones with navigation and other electronic goodies (e-book readers, music players, etc.) will grab consumer dollars. And what of the nav companies that try to fight back, like Garmin with the nuvifone? Jeff Evanson, an analyst at Dougherty & Co. calls it a bomb, noting it is ugly and late.

On the other hand, IBD notes in a second article that NIM and TeleNav are making good money from carriers by providing for free navigation on phones. Noteworthy in the coverage: IBD notes that NIM and TeleNav get data from NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas (owners Nokia and TomTom are not mentioned) but does not mention that the underlying navigation and mapping tools are from deCarta.

Russia May Ban GPS

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 3:44pm CEST

Tags: gps

Use of the system is not currently banned. Though it was until Dec 2006 for security reasons. But the law was ignored, so it was dropped. (Moscow Times)

Two years later, the officials are reconsidering:

However, during recent meeting on space industry, government representatives said that they planned to ban GPS navigation system from being used on municipal and public means of transportation.

The "why" of the proposed ban was not addressed in any coverage I found.

- Russia IC

Quote of the Week

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 2:09pm CEST

Tags: google

"The public should have access to the same crime information, virtually the same crime information that the NOPD uses on a daily basis to identify emerging crime patterns."

- Brain Denzer commenting on the slow updates and filtering that prompted him to create his own interactive maps of crime in New Orleans in WWLTV.

Living the Map Highlights Cartographer in North Dakota

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: gis Jobs

I've heard references to Daniel Seddiqui's project Living the Map, in which he "works" a different job in each state. I just saw that he shadowed a cartographer from Uteig Engineers in Fargo, North Dakota.

- DL Online

UN Provides $600,000 "satellite imagery system" to Determine Sudanese Border

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan donated a "satellite imagery system" worth $600,000 to the Ad hoc Technical Border Committee, the group who will produce a border for the troubled country. The development of the border is part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended fighting. Once endorsed the new border will be marked on the ground.

- UN News

GISWiki.NEWS.Reader » All Points Blog » October 2008

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Tags: GEOINT 08

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Posted: October 28th, 2008, 8:48pm CET

Tags: GEOINT 08

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 6:33pm CET

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 4:37pm CET

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: GEOINT 08

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 4:26pm CET

Tags: GEOINT 08

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 3:12pm CET

Tags: ESRI

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 2:49pm CET

Tags: Intelligence

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 1:21pm CET

Tags: Tele Atlas

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: Open Source

Posted: October 28th, 2008, 12:00pm CET

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Tags: media & maps

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Tags: lbs

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 4:38pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing