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AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Schmap preparing to roll out for iPhone

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 5:50pm CEST

Tags: Social network

Remember Schmap? Recal Shmap is a way cool travel resource guide that last lyear I refered to as "likely one of the coolest, Free apps you'll stumble onto this summer". Well, now the company is...

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NOCO GIS User Meet, Loveland, CO - Mobile GIS

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 4:50pm CEST

Tags: Events

It was good to get out of the office and meet some of the local GISers yesterday as I spent the afternoon at the city of Loveland' s HQ for a GIS user group meetup. This group meets quarterly...

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TerrasServer.com VS Microsoft TerrasServer USA

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 3:44pm CEST

Tags: Free Data

I have to admit, I've wondered about this one for years. I recall stumbling onto the Microsoft resource and wondered "how do they get away with this"? What I mean is that commercial data provider...

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All Points Blog

Quote of the Week

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 3:06pm CEST

Tags: google

"You could say that the city is showing common sense in not trying to take a useless step."

Professor Ralph Stein, who tracks Homeland Security issues at Pace University, on New York City's decision not to blur images of the area in Google Maps. He made the comment in yet another Google Maps censorship story this time at WCBS-TV. In addition to this statement, the TV station provided another valuable statement:

"Google uses images from a state database, which is why Westchester was able to censor them. Yahoo! Images come from a private sector company."
Global Wildlife Disease News Map Version 2

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 2:21pm CEST

Tags: google

USGS and partners launched Global Wildlife Disease News Map Version 2 back in March; version 1 was out last December. To be clear this is a news map (Google Map mashup), not a map of disease, but a map of news on disease. So, when you "turn on" avian flu, you get a hit in Ohio. Strange, I thought, didn't hear about that. Of course not! The article in the local paper was about how cows tested negative.

Even though I read the title with "news" in it several times, I kept thinking this was a map of spread. The other disappointment is that all news is tagged with point markers color coded to geographic level. Different colored "tears" mean: Place, County, Administrative Unit, Country, Continent. While I know creating meaningful polygons is a challenge, I found this confusing. I'd prefer they not symbolize for geographic level and let users explore that when they mouse over, more like MetaCarta's GeoSearch News.

Details of how the app works are here. In the works: search by date range, user generated filters (queries I guess), more historic data, extraction of text.
Google Maps Organizes More of Google's (not the world's) Information

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: google

Now there's more to find when searching on Google Maps - including images (Panoramio not Picassa), user generated maps (MyMaps), videos (YouTube). The limitation, reports VentureBeat, is that only documents from Google properties are included.
Microsoft Offer Citizen Services Platform Free to Municipal Govs; Soon VE templates

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

The Citizen Services Platform allows local government to create Web-based electronic government services. It's available to local and regional governments without fee, but they need to run"a Microsoft computing environment" for it to work.

For now it comes with:

E-Councilor templateA Windows Live Agent that allows messenger communication with a virtual government worker to ask questions.

Web TV template Allows government and citizen video hosting in Web 2.0 style.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 templates A set of 40 templates to customize scenarios that address site and system administration needs.

Local government communications template Sample portal with intranet and extranet templates.

Role-based My Site template Designed for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and the My Site functionality.

Agenda Management template Allows organizations to streamline processes.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM templates for municipal governments Vertical templates, including reference data models, predefined work flows and role-based user experiences.

The interesting part: "a possible template incorporating Virtual Earth to give people localized, neighborhood-oriented services or access to information based on their geographical position."

- GCN

James Fee GIS Blog

Developing in a Virtual Environment

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 12:49am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I’ve asked the question on Twitter, but I’d like to get a more broad idea of what people think about developing applications inside a virtual environment. Results were pretty much on both extremes, either people love it, or people told me I need to get a new IT staff. We do have virtual servers running already, but the reality of actually developing inside a “virtual workstation” might be totally different. The upside of having different virtual environments available to me to use and not have any spillover into my “real” operating system seems greater than the downside of performance (especially on my laptop). But what do you guys think?

I sure as heck don’t want to end up like Arnold

All Points Blog

Final Day for Canadian Gov on MDA Sale to Alliant

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 4:15pm CEST

Tags: Geospatial business

Just about a month ago Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice rejected the proposed $1.3 billion sale of MDA's space and information systems divisions (maker of the Radarsat-2 satellite) to Alliant Techsystems Inc. The reason: there was no "net benefit" for the country.

Alliant had 30 days to respond and convince official otherwise. Today's the end of that period and it looks like the decision will stand. Alliant announces year end earnings today. It's expected charges related to the failed purchase will be applied to Q4 earnings.

- CBC
Consumer Reports Gives Garmin 3 of Top Five Satnavs

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 4:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Rounding out the top five scoring units were the Garmin Nuvi 760 ($600), Garmin Nuvi 660 ($500), TomTom Go 920T, ($650), Garmin Nuvi 350 ($350), and Magellan Maestro 4250 ($400).

- Kansas City InfoZine
The OEMing of LBS

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 3:36pm CEST

Tags: Navigation

Wow, it's getting deep as everyone wants to brand location-based services. This article (in GovTech) on a AAA/Motorola app drove it home to me.

The Motorola MOTORAZR 2 V9m phone equipped with AAA Mobile, gives users turn-by-turn audio navigation and visual route maps. Powered by Networks in Motion, the AAA Mobile application is available on several GPS-enabled cell phones and smartphones via Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Alltel.

So, Motorola wants its name on a cool phone with a cool app. AAA wants its name on the app. NIM wants to be the technology provider. Oh, and NIM white labels deCarta's services. This is going way beyond the days of Intel inside!
Terraserver.com Sues Microsoft over TerraServer-usa.com

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

PCWorld carries the story.

In short:

Microsoft's TerraServer-USA satellite imagery project has been slapped with a trademark lawsuit from a small North Carolina company with a confusingly similar name.

Terraserver.com filed the suit on Friday in North Carolina federal court, seeking monetary damages and asking that Microsoft be stopped from using the TerraServer name.

Like the MapQuest/NavQuest suit (big guy sues little guy), I hope this one (little guy sues big guy) goes nowhere. The sad part, as Robert McMillan, who wrote the story suggested to me while we discussed the matter, Microsoft could just shut down Terraserver-usa.com, which would be a shame.
Ben Bernanke: Geographer

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 2:41pm CEST

Actually, The Economist describes him as a cartographer, but I think geographer is more correct.

SOUNDING more like a cartographer than a central banker, Ben Bernanke this week showed off the Federal Reserves latest gizmo for tracking Americas property bust: maps that colour-code price declines, foreclosures and other gauges of housing distress for every county. His goal was to show that falling prices meant more foreclosures, and to urge lenders to write down the principal on troubled loans where the house is worth less than the value of the mortgage. His mapswhere hotter colours imply more troublealso make a starker point. The pain of Americas housing bust varies enormously by region. Hardest hit have been the bubble statesCalifornia, Nevada and Florida, and parts of the industrial Midwest. The biggest uncertainty hanging over the economy is how red will things get.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Google Launches Geo Education Home for Teachers

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 10:20pm CEST

Tags: google Earth

Google, always the fan of teachers has launched a resource to help and encourage Geo education in the classroom. The Geo Ed home provides K12 resources and support to support the use of Google MAps,...

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The Autodesk Experience tour - check out AutoCAD 2009 and more

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 10:11pm CEST

Tags: Autodesk

Once again, Autodesk is going on the road and bringing the Autodesk Experience tour to a city near you. This is a good opportunity to see what's new in the 2009 application suite and ask questions...

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Housing Research Interns - Canada

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 7:35pm CEST

Tags: job

Here's a summer opp. for recent grads in Canada - Canadian Policy Research Networks will soon be issuing its second call for Housing Interns for 2008. This is the ONLY housing training programme in...

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All Points Blog

CNN Exemplifies Problems with Static Web Services in Election Coverage

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 3:02pm CEST

Tags: Politics and Mapping

Yes, I too saw John King of CNN doing the "stretch and shrink" act on the touch screen last night and Paul Well's comments notwithstanding, I have a different take. What's going simply illustrates the problem that many users of web services, like Google Earth, are and will face when it comes down to wanting more than what it was designed to do.

First, King does a fantastic job and to the extent that CNN has the right statistics at his fingertips is quite good...for what it was intended to do. What is was NOT intended to do was get down into finer demographic detail and display additional political boundaries nor could it query the political districts for certain data that King so desperately wanted at his fingertips.

The CNN political geography map web service that they constructed becomes inadequate when situations like the one that occured last night for Lake County Indiana. Lake County had votes outstanding and was late in reporting results. Everyone is focused on this single county to give them the Clinton/Obama vote given the closeness of the primary election. And here's Mr. King manually drawing in the congressional districts with his finger to try to assess where he "expected" each candidate to have a better chance of pulling votes. It didn't work. The level of voting detail was not there for him to truly predict the results. What he was trying to do was to mark the congressional district boundaries and then overlay the satellite image to those boundaries to look as rural versus urban areas. Obama was pulling better statewide from the urban areas; Clinton from the rural, white communities.

It served as an example of what happens to the expectations of users who believe that a static, web service will do just fine until there is a need to drill into the details. We saw this happen to products like MapPoint 2000 when just simple thematic mapping quickly becomes inadequate when you try to do more advanced analysis and ask questions that it was never designed to accept. The same is true for the CNN Touch Screen. It doesn't have all the boundary data like congressional district maps or precinct maps (which I am sure will be needed eventually). And while the satellite maps are nice it, seemed like Mr. King was a little ill-prepared to describe the geography other than being able to point to rural vs. urban areas and found himself not knowing some of the geography (like the I90 toll road for which he was grasping). He really needed another overlay of the road network and additional POI data.

So, I continue to revel in the CNN coverage just because the maps are now a highlight of the evening..and yet there is so much more that could be done. Linking to live vote counts by precinct? You know it's coming.
Salesforce.com: User Interface as a Service?

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:51pm CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence

That's it's latest offering. Mashable explores it and it's a bit more than that - more like Yahoo! Pipes to me. If you want a map on your app you add a single tag to create it an pop it onto the dashboard.

Most interesting is Adam Ostrow's take on Salesforce.com, an actual company that makes actual money, in contrast to the many, well free toys.

Is it just me, or do the announcements we hear from Salesforce seem to just make a lot more sense than a lot of the tie-ups we hear about on the consumer side of the Web? Last month, the company announced a deal with Google to launch Salesforce for Google Apps, and from what Ive seen in my brief tour of Visualforce, were about to see a lot of really useful applications being cranked out by developers in the Salesforce community. It certainly adds more credence to the theory that Facebook apps are just for fun.
Too much mapping/doodling in CNN election coverage?

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:43pm CEST

Blogger Paul Wells (writing in a blog at Macleans) thinks CNN has overused its touch screen mapping driven by John King, the geospatial person of the year (Brian Timoney gets credit for that determination and he's quite correct).

CNN is giving one-quarter of its screen to the actual primary-night coverage and three-quarters to John King randomly doodling on the touch-screen. For, like, the last half-hour. Anderson Cooper and some talking head are doing the talking-head thing, tucked over on the left side of the screen, and King is randomly doing his Tom-Cruise-in-Minority-Report shtick, scrunching the map down with his thumb and forefinger, shifting county maps back and forth, scribbling with the Glowing Green Finger. On most of the screen. A month after CNN put the touch-screen on the map (and vice versa), they have now fetishized it past irrelevance and into annoyance.

Now theyve taken the actual people whose actual voices are doing the actual analysis offscreen altogether, so we can watch nothing but John King doodling distracetedly on his gigabyte Etch-A-Sketch. He doesnt even seem to realize hes on camera.
"People": TomTom Acquisition a Go; Expect Announcement on May 14

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:38pm CEST

Tags: Geospatial business

Bloomberg actually cited "wo people with direct knowledge of the case" on the matter:

The European Commission will clear the 2.9 billion-euro ($4.5 billion) purchase on May 14, a week before the regulator's May 21 deadline to rule on the transaction, said the people, who requested anonymity because the decision isn't public.

That'd be next Wednesday. TomTom of course said nothing.
The Challenges to LBS Social Networking

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:13pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

Caroline McCarty at c|net offers up a great primer on the challenges facing location-enabled social networking by looking primarily at newcomer (in private beta) Brightkite, old hat Loopt, and older and Google-owned but rarely heard-from Dodgeball.

Key challenges:

- open the network to all or just some - should the app run on all phones, even ancient ones with no GPS and just texting capabilities? should the app be free? should the app be restricted to certain carriers? should you do a private beta and potential limit networks at startup?

- managing privacy and lists of friends - how do you keep annoying messages out of your "inbox"?

- where do you launch/grow such apps? business-y Web 2.0 (Brightkite was launched there) or social SXSW (South by Southwest, an arts, tech gathering) where Twitter took hold in 2007

Definitely worth a read if you are trying to figure out this space!
Quote of the Week

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 2:06pm CEST

"All the GIS stuff out there is generally designed for GIS projessionals."

- Stamen Designs co-founder Eric Rodenbeck in an article in The Inquirer (UK) on his company called "Map fetishist goes round the world and back" The company's interactive map typically have sliders and other interface tools to make reviewing large and complex datasets easy. See for example, Oakland Crimespotting.
NC Voters Not on Rolls; GIS to Blame?

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

A blogger posted the question: Why were so many voters who thought they were on the rolls in Granville County given provisional ballots because they were not on precinct list in North Carolina? The answer, suggested in a comment points to 911 and geocoding.

From talking with Don Wright, attorney at the State Board of Elections, it appears that Granville County has a problem in some precincts where people's names have not been included on the printout of the poll book. This is because the county's 911 system hasn't correlated hundreds of addresses to a GIS coordinate, and the GIS coordinate is what the state elections database system uses to assign voters to the correct precinct. So active voters, particularly with a Hwy 96 or Hwy 56 addresses, did not getting [sic] a precinct assigned to them in the voter registration database. When the county goes to print the pollbooks, precinct by precinct, these voters names don't get printed on any precinct's books.
I've looked at database now and there are roughly 600 voters in this situation.

Some cry conspiracy. I'm impressed folks figured this out so quickly.
GeoGraffiti - annotate locations with voice messages

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: lbs

Mashable introduces the startup GeoGraffiti which offers a now free tool to post a "voice mail" and associate it with a location (ZIP Code or lat/lon). It's accessible via the Web (Google Map) of phone. Bottom line from the "review": not sure what it's good for, but that's what we thought of Twitter.

If we could get the accuracy for the messages and use a GPS... I could see using it as a tool to create a "treasure hunt" sort of game or even audio instructions for a bike ride or run.
Podcast: Using NAVTEQ & DigitalGlobe Data with Oracle Spatial

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 9:20am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: Oracle

In podcast we invite you to learn how NAVTEQs vector map data and DigitalGlobes worldwide image data have been specially formatted for the Oracle Database, and how it can be used to enhance customers' business intelligence and enterprise applications. We will hear from Steve Lytle, a Senior Account Manager NAVTEQ and Jim Beckley, Director of Business Development for DigitalGlobe, as well as Jim Steiner, Oracles Senior Director for Server Technology. This podcast also provides an in-depth review of Oracle 11gs advanced geospatial features including support for 3D types and functions as well as Java programming with 3D and OGC web services such as WFST, WMS and the web catalog services.

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AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

TN visa bumping up to 3 years - maybe

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 11:24pm CEST

This may be of interest to any individuals or companies that hire employees on Nafta TN visas (or H1Bs for that matter). This came out of the UCIS just today... U.S. Citizenship and Immigration...

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Get your Geo Shwag!

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 10:24pm CEST

Tags: Events

Some big conferences are coming up and perhaps you or your company is thinking about offering up some cool Geo-Shwag... maybe a coffee mug, cap, computer bag, or a koozie. Here's a pretty decent...

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All Points Blog

Was Autodesk the first public company to bring an open source geo product to market?

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 7:15pm CEST

Tags: Autodesk

Autodesk's VP Lisa Campbell makes that statement in an interview at GIS Development.
Continue reading "Was Autodesk the first public company to bring an open source geo product to market?"

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

No Street Names Map (OSM)

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 5:15pm CEST

Tags: Map

No Street Names Map (OSM) This is a good map highlighting area that need attribution for streetnames in the OpenStreetMap data."Dave Stubbs built it as we have many features traced from aerial...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

All Points Blog

Seeking Alpha: Buy GeoEye Now!

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 3:02pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Chris Fernandez says buy now, before earning are announced Friday. Why now?

- low valuation
- upcoming positive catalysts (earnings, DigitalGlobe IPO, launch later this year)

- Seeking Alpha
Realtor Buys out Mashup Technologists

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 2:29pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

The Realtor is John L. Scott Real Estate, one of the early implementers of Microsoft Virtual Earth for its business. (The company originally used ESRI and Google technology for its mapping.) Scott acquired nine person Real Tech, the consultancy that did the implementation work this week (press release, pdf, including Word markup...). Real Tech will become part of the in-house marketing team.

- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Loopt and privacy, market and future plans

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 1:52pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

E-Commerce Times interviews Brian Knapp, VP of Corporate Communications for Loopt, a carrier-based location-enabled social networking offering. Tidbits of note:

- targeting students/young urban professionals (those tuned in to "happy hour")
- no business users to date (save for non-biz use)
- working with many orgs to offer much privacy support
- differentiators: carrier-centric, automatically updates locations
- futures: current Facebook app, BlackBerry version coming, "excited" about iPhone potential

- MacNewsWorld
More on Brightkite

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

ArsTechnica talked with founder and CEO, Martin May. Among the tidbits of note:

He used to work at Local Matters.

The business plan appears, down the road, to include anonymous maps of where users go - specifically to which businesses. Sounds like a "Dash" to track personal behavior. I understand how businesses would be interested in such data; how will Brightkite entice users to provide it? And provide it accurately?

For now locations are updated via Web or SMS.
Old Poll, New Poll

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Poll

Fifty readers answered our latest poll asking if you read corporate geoblogs.

Continue reading "Old Poll, New Poll"
Remote Sensing for Slimy Pools in Northern California

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Aerial imagery will be used to track neglected pools and ponds in Santa Clara County in the coming weeks. It's part of Vector Control, aka urban mosquito control, to prevent the spread of West Nile Virus. Planes start flying today. No word on if the imagery is reviewed manually or processed, but this is the third year it's been done. If a slimy pool/pond is found, owners are encouraged by the county to clean them up. The public responds well and to date the $1000/day fine has not been imposed.

- NBC 11
Podcast: Why is it so Hard to Sell Geospatial Technology to the Enterprise?

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 8:00am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: google

Senior executives from leading technology companies, speaking at our Location Intelligence Conference last week shared that the entire value proposition for spatial enablement is a "push" to the market rather than a "pull" or demand for the technology. Our editors ask: Are we doing an adequate job of selling the technology to more of the people that will eventually implement geospatial tools with other IT solutions.?Why is it still so hard? What are we not doing well? Will it take another "Google Earth" to push the technology deeper into corporate computing or a new crop of graduates to be more geospatially enlightened?

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AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Summer Jr. Surveying & Engineering Camp

Posted: May 6th, 2008, 3:14am CEST

Here's an interesting idea for kids over the summer - A non-profit Jr. Surveying & Engineering Camp, endorsed by the Ohio PLSO is seeking sponsorship, volunteers and supporters for the 2008 camp....

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James Fee GIS Blog

The GIS Interchange File

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 10:08pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

All too often we have to request people resend datasets to each other because they get blocked by email, one important file gets left off or systems just don’t recognize a file type. I’ve run into a problem today where a company FTP site is rejecting a shapefile because it doesn’t recognize the .shp, .shx, .dbf extensions. I thought I could get around by zipping the data, but it appears to scan the zip file for extension types. So the “solution” was to zip the shapefile, change its extension to .doc and tell the recipient that they need to change the extension back to .zip.

This kind of stuff happens way too often. Personal Geodatabases have the problem of the .mdb extension that is rejected outright by most email systems and other formats aren’t readily usable by folks systems. The “old days” were easy because we all used coverages and shared them via the .e00 format that was almost always acceptable by everyone. Amazing how we take such steps back over time and you’d think data sharing would be easier than it was in 1995.

How do you folks share data? KML, GML, Etch A Sketch, e00, zip, web services, etc?

Update: Jason Birch has some ideas about using SQLite as an interchange format. Well worth the read.

All Points Blog

No Map Dance for Microsoft, Yahoo

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 2:54pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

It's over for now between Microsoft and Yahoo (Microsoft abandoned their takeover attempt for Yahoo today), and while you won't see either company's mapping technology mentioned in the reports about the takeover attempt, location technology lurked in the background. Why? Well, the bid for Yahoo by Microsoft was all about strengthening the online presence of Mr. Softy. It's all about advertising, and not just online advertising. ALL ADVERTISING.
Continue reading "No Map Dance for Microsoft, Yahoo"
Twisney - another step forward for mashups?

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

Some time ago I noted how the next step in mashups (after map mashup 1.0 - putting locations on a map) was sites making their own data. I typically pointed to Zillow as an example. And, you could add any site that included user generated or user corrected data, I suppose. This week I ran into a mashup that is another sort of next step for geospatial mashups: Twisney.com It's built off Twitter, Flickr and Virtual Earth and from that you can probably guess that it's a way to post real time pics/comments to a map of Walt Disney World.

Users send images (via Twitter or e-mail) and put a location/comment in the subject. The site extracts keywords for locations (there's a reference list, but most things you'd think of should work; if they don't real humans figure out the location) and posts the images 'in real time' on the map. By default no contact address/real name is used, but optionally it can be included. There's no registration to use the service, nor a this time, a business model.

A few things make this mashup interesting:

- limited geography
- keywords (not GPS, or any other location technology involved)
- basic e-mail works; more tech savvy folks can use Twitter
- Disney not involved (too bad for them; it'd be a neat addition for its marketing!)
- quick growth with almost no PR (I found one article dated Apr 25 as I write May 3)
- can you imagine this for say the ESRI user conference?

Big shout out to For Immediate Release for noting this app. Frankly, I'm learning more about social networking from that podcast than from just about anything I read. Kudos to Shell and Neville (they are the hosts).
GIS Use in Crime Feels Burden of its own Success

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: MapInfo

Use of GIS in crime analysis has grown to 23 analysts in Toronto since its introduction in the early 1990s. The data is delivered as "electronic bulletin boards" (not something I'm familiar with) to staff in the field and in patrol cars. Apparently, these are static maps; the hope is to make them interactive using MapXtreme and to integrate other data sources.

And were looking to give the frontline officers the ability to [query directly] and drill down further.
...
Analysts also have limited ability to bring in data from different sources. What we are working toward is some type of metadata layer that allows us to...tap into the various different data sources regardless of where they are and be able to display that spatially or in a tabular format, [the services crime analysis training and development coordinator Det. Constable Manny ] San Pedro said.

Sure sounds like users are convinced of GIS use; now it's time to update the technology.

- GCN
Where GIS Gets Lost: Interoperability

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Standards

That's the premise of Patrick Marshall's article in GCN. He sites high GIS use based on an April survey but offers no figures on interoperability problems. He does however cite specific interoperability problems due to how geocoding is done.

In an April GCN survey, two-thirds of respondents said their agencies already use GIS applications, and most said they expected to use more geospatial data in the next five years. Surprisingly, 67 percent of respondents also reported that their organizations were already using location-based services for tracking vehicles or other assets.

Although hundreds of geospatial applications are blossoming at the federal, state and local levels, they have been developed in large part independently, without common standards.

As a result, an application developed by one organization often cant digest and work with data collected by another.

There's an exploration of HSIP and its limited availability to all levels of government due to licensing restrictions and query challenges. More interesting is how Sam Bacharach of OGC explains how its standards work, but are not always used.

However, just because most software supports OGC interfaces doesnt mean that a consultant or vendor will use them. They know [their own interfaces] better, and its to their competitive advantage to keep you tied up with their proprietary interfaces, Bacharach said.
So he said he advises implementers to insist that any application be customized to use standard interfaces.
Is sharing user generated content social networking?

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

I ask that question based on a discussion of POIFriend.com, a site that let's anyone share points of interest with others for use in websites and GPS units. There are social aspects - visitors can comment, join groups, create avatars, and send updates to those who originate POI lists. Is that enough to make it a social networking site?

Also noteworthy: the site's business model: paid listings, but no ads.

- Digital Journal
Use your body as a mouse for gaming? How about map navigation?

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Popular Science describes a new camera that uses lasers to bounce waves off bodies and a camera to record the reflections. That allows it to track track body movements and even create an avatar in 3D. it can be used to drive the controls of video games and I'd guess mapping apps. I guess that means you could take that near holodeck-like walk in the Rockies or down the bike path here in Somerville. Tech Review offers more details of the technology.

via Tech Universe

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

The Ordnance Survey & Becta Schools 'Map Pilot'

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 11:03am CEST

Tags: School

The Ordnance Survey & Becta Schools 'Map Pilot' "The Ordnance Survey (OS) and Becta have been running a `map pilot' aimed at exploring ways of making digital maps accessible to schools." source...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

All Points Blog

Top Ten Things I learned at LI 2008

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 9:00am CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence 2008

10. Location-based marketing, for trade shows at least, can passively capture information otherwise missed from standard lead management systems. The use of active RFID tags and ultra wideband sensors can capture the who and how long of people that are standing in front of your booth on a trade show floor and you dont even have to talk to them. The Ubisense/Fish Software demonstration of RFID provided a context for better understanding the use of sensor technology where before I could only read about it.

Continue reading "Top Ten Things I learned at LI 2008"
Quote of the Day: "Mashups have done more for this industry..."

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 8:15am CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence 2008

At LI 2008, Dr. Robert Uleman of IBM suggested that "Mashups have done more for this industry than two decades of sending out products into the world."
Quote of the Day: "GIS should be invisible..."

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 8:10am CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence 2008

At LI 2008, Berk Charlton of Pitney Bowes Group 1 suggested that "GIS should be invisible." Going further to illustrate his point about how the success of location technology will be underscored when "people don't know that GIS has been done to them."

Ogle Earth

Service announcement

Posted: May 4th, 2008, 7:47pm CEST

This past week I've been laid low by a throat infection whose bacteria responsible is putting up a fight against the antibiotics. I may need another week before blogging resumes. In the meantime, there's plenty of news in the excellent blogs in the sidebar, on the right. Back soon — Stefan
Comments (3)

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

Grand Theft Auto IV - Map

Posted: May 3rd, 2008, 9:36am CEST

Tags: HD

Grand Theft Auto IV - Map Powered by Google Maps API, there is a community collection of 'points of interest' to help you through the game. "Liberty City Map- See what's been discovered by Liberty...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

GIS Summer EDU reminder

Posted: May 3rd, 2008, 5:13am CEST

Tags: education

A reminder - The Penn State master of geographic information systems (MGIS) degree is designed for working professionals aspiring to leadership positions in the field and wishing to pursue a...

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How many Hispanics in America? How about 45+ million

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 11:25pm CEST

Tags: census

In an official Census Bureau PR release, the nation’s Hispanic population increased 1.4 million to reach 45.5 million on July 1, 2007, or 15.1 percent of the estimated total U.S. population of 301.6...

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USGS spreads contract around to GeoEye, DigitalGlobe, SPOT

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 11:21pm CEST

Tags: imagery

The USGS today announced the award of three multi-year acquisition contracts for high and moderate-resolution satellite imagery to GeoEye of Dulles, VA, DigitalGlobe of Longmont, CO and SPOT Image...

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Will you Get Promoted - some tips

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 9:46pm CEST

Tags: job

An interesting look at the art of promotion - I stumbled onto this blog, I can't recall how, and enjoyed this, perhaps you will also... good luck getting promoted! I like the following advice - work...

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Inside the Geodatabase Blog

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 9:01pm CEST

Tags: developers

Hey ArcGIS blogger fans, Heads-up. Last month the ESRI geodatabase development team revealed a blog "Inside the Geodatabase". Visitors will findnews and tips about ESRI geodatabases directly from...

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GeoBC - gateway to B.C's information via Google Earth

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 7:37pm CEST

Tags: google Earth

I was interested to notice that GeoBC is a sponsor of this year's GeoWeb conference. Even though I'm from BC (since departed) I wasn't familiar with the name. GeoBC is the Province's gateway to ...

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Event of interest, Social DevCamp East

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 7:00pm CEST

Tags: Social network

Heads up on a cool event, Social DevCamp east is scheduled for May 10, Baltimore Md. This DevCamp is for anyone interested in following where Social networking and the social web is headed. See more...

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All Points Blog

Review: Google Earth powerful, though tricky to use, share

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 4:56pm CEST

Tags: google

That's the title of Anick Jesdanun's review from the AP. Not only did he have a challenge getting his photos into Google Earth (that is on the map) but the recipients of his link of a journey in the souther hemisphere didn't fair as well as they might have in reviewing those photos.

As a nice complement to this review consider a poll at LifeHacker about Google Earth use.

I love that Google Earth (and friends) has raised the bar for providers and users. I simply don't use it.
What if Apple adds GPS to iPhone?

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 4:14pm CEST

Tags: lbs

There's no official word from Apple about a GPS chip in the upcoming version, but one of the major location providers for the (jailbroken) phone, Navizon, is not worried if the addition should come to pass.

We think it will be good and bad for us," Navizon CEO Cyril Houri said in an interview Thursday. The bad means that many iPhone users won't think they can benefit from Navizon's cellular triangulation product, VirtualGPS. The good means that more users will understand the widespread benefits offered by positioning systems.

iPhone users hold 350,000 of Navizon's 600,000 users. No word on how many pay for the premium service ($24.95 adds better accuracy, route tracking and more, etc.).

- InformationWeek
GTA4 Google Map

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 2:44pm CEST

Tags: google

I've been following some of the overlap between the worlds of gaming maps and real world maps. Today the big news in the gaming world is that there's a Google Maps version of the fictional Liberty City, home of the game Grand Theft Auto. That game's fourth edition was just released. The interactive map allows players to map out POIs and note their routes.

The one oddity in coverage of this map, hosted at IGN: many blogs explain that Google and IGN put the app together. There's no evidence of that; it seems IGN just used the API, like any other developer.

- Electric Pig.tv

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

GeoTagging with Shozu explained

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 2:32pm CEST

Tags: geocode

Are you a mobile camera power user? If so then you know about Shozu (I hope) if not then you should, particularly if you like to blog your photos, flickr them or share them with others. Shozu...

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Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

BBC Local Election Map (Results)

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Map

BBC Local Election Map (Results) BBC now updating their interactive election map every few minutes, London Mayor results are due in the evening of 2nd May 2008. *Map based in flash. This post...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

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Posted: May 9th, 2008, 5:50pm CEST

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Posted: May 9th, 2008, 12:49am CEST by James Fee

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Tags: lbs

Posted: May 7th, 2008, 9:20am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

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Posted: May 6th, 2008, 11:24pm CEST

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Posted: May 6th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

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Posted: May 6th, 2008, 8:00am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

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Posted: May 5th, 2008, 10:08pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 2:54pm CEST

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Tags: Social Networking

Posted: May 5th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST