GISWiki.NEWS.Reader

Blogs

1 2 3 ... 15

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Team Phoenix to compete as a finalist in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Competition with taxibuses

Posted: July 4th, 2008, 4:26pm CEST

Tags: lbs

What a cool story out of Telogis. A group of four students from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, calling themselves Team Phoenix, have been selected as a finalist to compete in the Imagine...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
LightPole allows Movable Type bloggers to geo-tag their entries

Posted: July 4th, 2008, 4:25pm CEST

Tags: blogs

LightPole, Inc., a mobile application service provider focused on the "Long Tail" publishing market, co-developed a Movable Type plug-in with SixApart that allows Movable Type bloggers to geo-tag...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 6 - Announcement

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 10:11pm CEST

Tags: Confusion

ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 6 - AnnouncementSo you just got 9.3? Now you can fix you 9.2 with Service Pack 6. Confused? Users are. Which is the most up-to-date? Which is the more Stable? ArcGIS 9.2...

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

Google Maps API Blog gone, enter the Google Geo Dev blog

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 7:48pm CEST

Tags: google

Yes, that's correct, Google is no longer supporting the Google Maps API blog - [googlemapsapi.blogspot.com] - but, there's a new blog on the corner, The Google Geo Developers Blog.Please visit...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

Pachube: Share Your Real Time Sensor Feed

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 5:59pm CEST

Tags: Sensors

"Pachube (pronounced "patch bay") is a web service available at [www.pachube.com] that enables people to tag and share real time sensor data from objects, devices and spaces around the world." For now feeds are findable via a Google Map. Symbols link to the source and nature of the feeds, just a few for now and many are noted as "tests." Some are real world, others are from Second Life. This is, to me, a bit of a Web 2.0 solution for OGC's SensorWeb efforts. It uses, underneath, Extended Environments Markup Language (EEML).

- via Wired
AND Looking for Money; Buyer

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 4:35pm CEST

Tags: Geospatial business

GPS Business News reports that Bloomberg reports that the company is looking for an injection of capital or a takeover. I guess having both the Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ acquisitions go through did not play out for the smaller data company.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

URISA Rocky Mountain open standards meet reminder

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 3:40pm CEST

Tags: Events

If you plan on being in the denver area around July 22 then bookmark this one... When: Tuesday, July 22, 2008, from 9:00AM to 4:00PM. Lunch is included. Where: USGS Building 810 Main Auditorium,...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

SatNav's a Treasure Trove for Detectives

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 3:22pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Unsuspecting criminals with GPS devices are sharing far more than they may think in their satnav devices. Deleted data, it turns out, is not deleted in some cases, meaning detectives can track past destinations. Further, if used in conjunction with a cell phones, the devices may store old phone records of incoming and outgoing calls. TomTom was not aware of London's Metropolitan Police reporting on the use of devices in crime investigation in a scholarly journal (Digital Investigation). The company states they only turn over data with a court order.

Also of note: Met detectives learned the tricks of the trade from GPS wikis that detail how to share POIs and the like.

- New Scientist
Poizner May Enter California Governor's Race

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 2:40pm CEST

I heard that on the NPR national news last night, though the main story was about San Francisco Mayer Newsom considering tossing in his hat. Poizner is known in our industry as founder of Strategic Mapping and SnapTrack. (Wikipedia) His website is up and word is getting out. Poizner currently serves as the state's insurance commissioner.
Voice Search for GMaps on Blackberry Pearl

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 2:04pm CEST

Tags: google

Basically you set the map extent and speak a term to search. And, typical map search results pop up. It's the same technology used in Goog411. It's not completely hands free as you need to push a few buttons to get it to work. For now its "experimental" and will likely mature as more people use it.

- IntoMobile

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

More jobs, jobs, jobs - Marketing Managers

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 10:23pm CEST

Tags: job

A couple of interesting employment opps are now available.. one for a marketing Manager (cool as I know a few who like to change hats frequently!)... ANNOVA Tech is currently looking to fill the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

Satbeams Map

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:31pm CEST

Tags: Map

Satbeams Map Satbeams generates transparent polygons on the fly for each selected satellite 'beam'. This example shows signal strength (useful for finding out receiver dish/antenna...

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

Twitter Goes over capacity again and again

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 7:54pm CEST

Tags: Social network

Here we go again... Twitter is once again over capacity due to too much volume. The company has been slammed a fair bit lately and the constant slow through put and messages like this aren't going to...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

James Fee GIS Blog

More ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 News

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 6:19pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

It looks like ESRI finally put the 9.3 help publicly and you no longer need a password to access it (HT Jithen & Mapperz).

Welcome to ArcGIS Desktop Help 9.3

The ESRI Resource Center is available as well. Unlike the disorganized ArcGIS Support pages, these are focused on the ESRI product you are working with. I’m really happy to see these resource pages, but I’m curious where they fit within the whole ESRI Support and ESRI EDN sites. I suspect that I won’t be using EDN as much as I’ll be using these new resource pages. At any rate the look great and are easy to use; a welcome change from the Support and EDN pages.

UPDATE: It looks like the resource center is still blocked for those who were not in the beta. Someone at ESRI forgot to flip the switch…

There is also a “What’s New in ArcGIS 9.3″ Podcast. The direct link to the podcast is here. Why they make it so hard to get to these podcasts are beyond me. Shouldn’t they be available on the resource pages?

Lastly, while I’m getting ready to deploy ArcSDE ArcGIS Server Enterprise with SQL Server 2008, many are very interested in what PostgreSQL brings to the ArcGIS stable at 9.3. Bill Dollins has been working on a couple blog posts about Using ArcSDE 9.3 with PostgreSQL. Just seeing ArcMap push to PostgreSQL and then using uDIG to view the data is powerful. Says Bill:

…depending on how you implement it, ArcSDE for PostgreSQL can provide interoperability between ArcGIS and an open-source stack. uDig can be leveraged in a pinch to edit data loaded into ArcSDE using the PostGIS geometry type, allowing you to expand to meet demand.

I think many organizations will look long and hard at migrating their SQL Server or Oracle implementations to Postgres.

ESRI ArcGIS 9.3 with all that great Swedish quirkiness

(Photo by dmurray)

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

ERDAS Free Webinar—Image to Map

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 6:15pm CEST

Tags: education

A little online edu coming your way via the ERDAS Free Webinar—Image to Map: Turn up Your Stereo (Feature Collection) . Coming webinars include: July 10 – Image to Map: Turn up Your Stereo Feature...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Atherton Tablelands Geographic Information Services fights wildfires

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:58pm CEST

Tags: wildfire

Local firefighters down-under have an innovative new tool to help plan for the fire season. Online mapping and document exchange facilities funded through the Natural Disaster Mitigation Program and...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
The Nokia Free Hands Challenge

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:24pm CEST

Here's a fun challenge that might put a cool N82 in your pocket... Set your hands free – with a Bluetooth headset, perhaps – and you’re free to play, free to create, free to communicate. Every week...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Tip - Nokia Push Email for all of us

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:23pm CEST

Tags: Nokia

A tip on a great service (Beta) that enables you to receive any email account on your mobile (some devices supported) via this great new service from Nokia. Simply select your device, specify the...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

Ask.com Moves to Virtual Earth

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 3:57pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

Search Engine Land reports that Ask.com has dropped its homegrown mapping app (built on deCarta, if memory serves) and switched to Microsoft Virtual Earth. Story and pics at Virtual Earth, Evangelist blog.
EC OK on Nokia Purchasing NAVTEQ

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:53pm CEST

Tags: Geospatial business

The deal should close in five days.

- press release
Starbucks Closing Stores; Some too close together

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:35pm CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence

You likely heard the news about a 12,000 person reduction in employees and the closing of some 600 stores. (Seattle Times) Florida and California will be most impacted; they've been hard hit by the economy and credit crisis. Also, "About 200 of those will be directly operated by Starbucks, with the rest managed by other companies like bookstores and airport concession firms."

I try to make sense of the "too close together" aspect of this story from the land of Dunkin Donuts. Here in my city we hold a large 4 mile race on Thanksgiving. The course passes four Dunkin Donuts and that's far from all the ones we have! We have, to my knowledge, just two Starbucks. Dunkin Donuts, either by design or luck, doesn't seem to have the cannibalism problem. I have a hunch about that.

It's my sense that Dunkin Donuts is far more about "take out." The stores here are notoriously near bus stops and many have parking lots of key commuting routes. Besides, when was the last time you spent much time in a Dunkin Donuts? Starbucks, while it does have a good take out business (which is why I find the closing airport Starbucks odd), is about that mythical third place, the one that's not home or work. It's business is centered around "hanging out in a nice place." Dunkin Donuts surely is not (our local stores often have a sign stating how long patrons may stay - typically 20-30 minutes). If that's all true, it seems you'd travel less for a take out coffee/donut, than for a "sit and enjoy" environment of Starbucks. It seems Starbucks was not thinking that way and taking advantage of human behavior.
ACLU and EFF Sue DOJ for info on cell tracking

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:27pm CEST

Tags: Tracking

Matt Richtel notes in the New York Times Bits blog that the suit was filed on Tuesday. Part of the impetus was a story he wrote in 2005 that noted that it appeared the government was doing such tracking without "probable cause" making courts uneasy. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to gain information on how and how often the government tracked cell users. The Department of Justice did not provide an answer, which prompted the joint ACLU/Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) suit.
Adobe Provides Tools to Make Flash Findable: Implications for Geo?

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

" Adobe is providing optimized Adobe® Flash® Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines. This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers and rich Web content producers wont need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe."

I'm going to suggest that since more and more mapping apps are using Flash, this move may help the findability of geoapps, if not geodata.

- Press Release

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

ArcGIS 9.3 Web-based Help Now Available

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 2:53am CEST

Tags: Web

update 02/07/2008 (7pm) best and worst of the Help Great to see the ArcGIS 9.3 Help up and running for all users now.One thing I have noticed is the ‘Geoprocessing Center’ promised is either late...

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.

GIS CAD Interoperability

MSD: Leveraging CAD Standards

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 8:37pm CEST by Don Kuehne

Which came first the Grand Canyon or the river at the bottom of it? Did the Colorado River carve it, or fall into it? By just looking at it certainly seems like the later. I got a chance not only to visit the Grand Canyon on my recent trip, but also followed the headwaters of the Colorado River down the Rockies into Utah until it headed south to the Grand Canyon while I headed west. Southern Utah seems like another even bigger Grand Canyon from the highway…just without a river.
Instead of defining a whole new path of interoperability, the Mapping Specification for DWG, MSD, falls completely within the existing DWG file data constructs and file format to provide a means to let GIS information persist between ArcGIS and AutoCAD workflows. In ArcGIS 9.3 a small change was made to the way CAD files were read to look for a simple query and entity attributes encoded on the entity’s extension dictionary in a DWG file.

I often need to share basemap parcels and attributed infrastructure data from the enterprise GIS with private developers and design contractors that use simple AutoCAD. Using ArcGIS 9.3 these contractors can use the GIS information in plain AutoCAD. Previously the best I could do was create blocks with attributes as points and simple geometry. Sharing attributed lines and polygons was always awkward in plain AutoCAD.

In AutoCAD I can add information exported from ArcGIS. The GIS feature classes when exported create MSD feature class definitions and a copy of the GIS schema in AutoCAD for me to use. I am now able to populate attributes on standard CAD entities using that schema. Inside AutoCAD I can simply add to the data on the AutoCAD layer that is used as the MSD feature class definition criteria. If ArcGIS ever opens the DWG file again it will understand the new information as belonging to that MSD CAD feature class.

Feature Class groupings in MSD are based on a simple CAD property-based filtering query. It is very similar to the concept of a definition query on a CAD feature class added to ArcMap. Instead of creating data in a specific data or custom object somewhere in CAD, I define which entities in a CAD file participate in the feature class. Entities that satisfy the filtering criteria are considered part of the feature class.

I think it is best to use the most basic criteria to define the MSD groupings such as CAD layer names, however more complex criteria can be used. Since most CAD Standards use Layer names as the primary method of organizing data now, by defining an MSD feature class based on CAD layers or combinations of CAD Layers, I can build GIS-ready data with only minor changes to my existing CAD workflows. MSD feature classes are usable in an AutoCAD drawing either by adding the MSD feature class definition within AutoCAD, by adding entities to data exported from ArcGIS, or by utilizing a seed file with the feature class definitions already defined from either or both sources.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Happy Canada Day

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 7:40pm CEST

Tags: Canada

Just realized (courtesy of a txt from Dad) that today is Canada day... have a great one you Canucks! I'll see if I can locate a Kokanee or similar later today, otherwise I'll have to settle for a...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Trimble Utilities Field Solutions webinar

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 6:11pm CEST

Tags: mobile

This out of Trimble as the company has a series of webinars scheduled to kick off next week - A very high level overview of the solutions provided by Trimble Utilities Field Solutions. The session...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
New Image Fusion and Pan-Sharpening Software on the block

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 6:05pm CEST

Tags: Satellite

From Down-under, Geosage has just today announced their latest Image Fusion and Pan-Sharpening Software - DOS-based HighView (Version 3.0). From the company... "This latest version is specifically...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

The New Gas Conscious, Distance Conscious Marketing

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 3:29pm CEST

This headline from Ripley Entertainment (yes, the Believe it or Not folks) PR:

53% of U.S. Population Lives Within a Half Tank of Gas of a Ripley Attraction

Too bad there's no mention in the PR of the destination map on the website! Marketing hint: the call to action should be: Visit our interactive map to find an attraction near you!

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

QuincyFloodInfo providesd information for the Mid-West flood of 2008

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 3:06pm CEST

Tags: Weather

This comes to me from Shane in the Mid-west... Mid-West GIS, Inc, out of Quincy, Illinois recently developed the website www.QuincyFloodInfo.com in order to gather information for the flood of 2008...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

U.S. BASIC satellite system announcement expected this week

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:51pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

The Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability (BASIC) satellite system is aimed at filling gaps in the government's surveillance. The plan calls for government owned and managed satellites. The program has been delayed as agencies argued about who'll run the program (the National Reconnaissance Office, NRO, won) and who'd have say over what pictures are taken (senior military leaders won that one).

- AP
Web Hits Locate Earthquake

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:33pm CEST

Tags: Sensors

New Scientist reports that visits to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre's (EMSC) website spike when an earthquake hits. Those hits when geocoded can help pinpoint the earthquake, in one case, very accurately within 15 minutes. The technique also highlights where Internet access is not available, identifying potential damage from the event.

We are human sensors!
EveryBlock Adds Philly, Charlotte

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:24pm CEST

Adrian Holovaty's hyperlocal news/local events site EveryBlock adds Philadelphia, PA and Charlotte, NC to the previous list of Chicago, New York and San Francisco. Among the data sources are "geocoded" minutes/agendas of local meetings and for Charlotte, new additions to the library.

- EveryBlock blog
Quote of the Week

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:14pm CEST

"INN: How has GIS technology evolved in recent years?

BR: It hasnt. The underlying math, map making and coordinates have not changed much at all. The most beneficial advancements are coming from better data, and the flight to quality in GIS data has accelerated."

- Bill Raichle, VP risk decision information for Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO Inc. in an interview on GIS and insurance at InsuranceNetworking.com Another great Rachie quote: "Out of the box, a GIS is about as exciting as a blank spreadsheet."
Attention Shoppers! Where You Walk May Influence the Price you Pay

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:06pm CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence

Mapping the floor of a retail store has been discussed for many years. I've discussed this before in an article as have others. Now comes word about Path Intelligence, a company that tracks the movement of consumers without having them wear any special device or equipment. The company's FootPath technology consists of installing a small number of monitoring devices within stores that detects cell phone signals from shoppers and locate them to within 1-2 meters. The technology is being used to help retailers to determine staffing levels within stores or by mall developers to help them determine rental rates.
SDSU Tackles Landsat Issues

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 1:33pm CEST

Tags: education

NASA awarded $3.29 million to a five-year project led by professor David Roy of South Dakaota State's Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence. The project is in collaboration with USGS. The two key parts of the project:

(1) Process "Landsat observations every 16 days for all the contiguous United States and Alaska for a seven-year period and process those data so that theyre available to the user community over the Internet in a seamless manner."

(2) "The project also sets out to fill in gaps in the data. Since 2003, Roy said, there has been a problem with the Landsat sensor so that it has been unable to record the data for about 22 percent of each image. In addition, an average of about 35 percent of the Landsat data is obscured by clouds." The team will fill gaps using MODIS data.

- SDSU News
Podcast: Location Determination Goes Hybrid

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 8:00am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: google

Skyhook announced a hybrid location determination software solution that can tap into GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell towers to locate devices. What does that mean for knowing where you are anytime, anywhere? Is this step forward accompanied by an increased sense of location privacy comfort? Our editors explore the new technology and offer a suggestion for tackling the privacy bugaboo.

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.

James Fee GIS Blog

Ed Parsons on “What Map Maker Is /Is Not”

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 6:03am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Real Ed Parsons tries to frame what Map Maker is. I’m still disappointed in what Map Maker is not, oh well at least they could have paid folks using Mechanical Turk for their time.

Sanchez pays big for map edits
“GIS Practitioners as Doing Work Surveyors Should Be Doing”

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 5:41pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

*sigh*

I can’t figure out what I’m more disappointed in, surveyors thinking they should be doing work GIS professionals should be doing or a magazine previewing articles to government agencies for them to censor them.

Inconceivable!

Update: It appears that the author withdrew the article, not the publisher. The idea that a state board would even worry about such things shows that they obviously don’t have enough to do.

All Points Blog

How the States Got Their Shapes

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 5:03pm CEST

I'm catching up on some podcasts and ran into a discussion of this topic and book of the same name by Mark Stein on On Point (our locally produced NPR interview show). Good stuff - but do keep a map handy while you listen.

My favorite tidbit: How Case Western Reserve got that name. Did you the Western Reserve was part of Connecticut? The University is in Ohio!
Radar used to keep runways clean and safe

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 4:58pm CEST

Tags: gps

C|net describes the use of radar to find "junk" on runways. The idea is to keep runways clean and reduce damage and loss of life. The technology is from QinetiQ

... Heathrow International Airport, the world's busiest, has now installed a permanent dual radar system called the Tarsier, which scans 3,658 meters of runway in search of junk 24 hours a day.

The Tarsier uses networked high-frequency, high-resolution radar and integrated digital signal processing to pinpoint anything from a pigeon to a cellophane sandwich wrapper (PDF).

Foreign object damage, or "FOD," is responsible for $60 million worth of damage a year, an average of $15,000 per aircraft for each major airline in the U.S. alone, according to the FAA (PDF).

...
The smallest item detected to date is a 10-millimeter metal fitting in an area the size of 30 football fields, the company says. Once an object is found, Tarsier reports its latitude and longitude to within 3 meters via GPS.
TA Chief: There Will be iPhone Turn by Turn Directions

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST

Tags: Navigation

This tidbit was in Reuters coverage of today's Google/Tele Atlas deal:

De Taeye said he expected real-time, turn-by-turn navigation applications to be available for Apple's iPhone despite reports that Apple's rules for developing iPhone software appeared not to allow it.

"We are making sure that navigation is an application that is allowed," De Taeye said. "If there is any restriction on the platform, that indeed has to do with the restrictions that we have in our contracts. Navigation is allowed, provided that the right fees are paid."

Get out your checkbooks!
Revenge of "The biggest drawing in the world"

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 4:08pm CEST

This isn't a hoax, but it is connected to a cable comedy show:

"The Marc Horowitz Signature Series" chronicles prankster Horowitz as he drives the shape of his signature on a map of the U.S., stopping in 20 towns along the way to stage one-off "community building" (read totally off-the-wall) experiments. In one town he goes door-to-door to personally serve residents a fancy breakfast in bed, and in another, invites residents to gather for a ceremony to "bury their problems"--photos of ex-girlfriends and video game consoles welcome.

- MediaPost's Online Media Daily
Tele Atlas/Google Deal: TA Gets User Generated Markups

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 2:23pm CEST

Tags: google

Update 2:It's not exclusive: "TeleAtlas already has an agreement with Google for which details aren't available. The new agreement is non-exclusive, Titiular said." (CNN)

Update: This from Ed Parsons at Google: "This does not include Map Maker contributions." Thanks for the quick reply Ed!

---

Per C|net:

Under the new agreement--financial terms were not disclosed--Tele Atlas will provide maps and "dynamic content" for Google Maps in over 200 countries as well as other Google geographic divisions like Google Earth and Google Maps for Mobile, and future Google projects that could require mapping data. Tele Atlas, in turn, will have access to annotations that Google Maps users have added to the system.

Exactly what annotations? The PR says:

The agreement also gives Tele Atlas access to edits for its maps from Google's community of users, whose suggested changes can help thecompany further increase the quality and richness of Tele Atlas maps.

It's not clear if this means the Map Maker contributions and or the "moved addresses." Hopefully, someone in the know can clarify. If Map Maker turns out to be something effective, that is, something that creates "good" data in timely fashion, this could be a boon to TA's (TomTom's) data stores. It would mean that others who license TA data would benefit from Google's mapmaking fanbase, along TomTom's map updating MapShare fanbase. Those are two potentially large, worldwide free data collecting groups. If TomTom is smart, it already thinking about how to engage the OpenStreetMap crew as well.

One other question: Is the sharing of the markup exclusive to TA? Or will Google do a similar deal with NAVTEQ/Nokia? I'm thinking not.
What's the next ESRI Summit?

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: ESRI

The ESRI Surveying and Engineering GIS Summit is in its fifth year this August. The ESRI Remote Sensing and GIS Summit debuts at the same time, just before the formal Monday opening of the ESRI International User Conference. Also occurring before the main event are the Executive Summit (invitation only) and the Education User Conference, EdUC.

Of these, I've only managed to attend EdUC (I have a standing commitment to ride in or volunteer at the Pan Mass Challenge bike event, which often occurs the Friday/Sat preceding UC). It's just great and I hope I can attend again somehow, now that I'm teaching again. The Executive Summit, which my colleague Joe Francica has attended (his 2005 review), is all about helping executives "get" or "get more" out of GIS.

But these "new" summits are different. They are, from what I gather, opportunities to build bridges with related disciplines. I use that term with care. A discipline has its own rules, its own tools and technologies, in these cases, tools and technologies allied with GIS. I want to contrast disciplines with "industries" or "business areas." While ESRI does have a "surveying industry manager," Brent Jones, who hails from the Northeast, somehow it doesn't fall into the same space as other ESRI "industries." It's more like the "industry" I used to manage at ESRI, the one called "CAD." Surveying, like CAD and remote sensing, is horizontal and serves many industries. Other ESRI industries, oil and gas, pipeline, water, insurance, forestry, agriculture and others tap into GIS to better serve their customers and their bottom line. Surveying, photogrammetry, remote sensing and even CAD are more about data creation and preparation. They are sometimes thought of more as "inputs" to spatial databases and analyses.

So, what will be the next summit ESRI will announce? Will it be LiDAR? CAD? GPS? Location determination? User generated data? With what other technologies does ESRI and by extension the rest of the GIS establishment need to build bridges?
State Licensing Board "Censors" GIS Article

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Surveying

Update 7/2/08: See comment below from PS Editor Tom Gibson for the further details.

---- Original post 6/30/08 -------

Back when I read more print magazines, I always relished the editorials. Wow, I thought, a whole page for the editor to tell you what was on his or her mind. My favorite editorial writers back then where Roopinder Tara at Cadence (who I wrote for at that publication, then worked for at Tenlinks.com) and the then editor of Backpacker, I don't recall his name. Today I still make it a point to read the editorials in print publication in geospatial and related industries.

It's in one of those, Tom Gibson's "editor's desk" (sic) column in Professional Surveyor (July 2008, page 4, not online yet) that I found this statement:

In assembling this issue, we had one company withdraw a feature story because a state licensing board was concerned it depicted GIS practitioners as doing work surveyors should be doing, saying they should be licensed as surveyors to do it.

That prompted a few responses from me:
(1) I wonder how the state licensing board had a chance to read the article.
(2) Does preventing such articles to be published limit instead of encouraging discussion on the matter?
(3) Should Directions Media (and other geopublishers formal and informal) be prepared to deal with this issue? Will we be receiving "take down" notices regarding articles that include descriptions of such work in alleged violation of state laws?

Disclosure: I used to work for the company that publishes Professional Surveyor.
The Baltimore Sun Looks at Online Crime Mapping

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

The article titled "Putting crime on the map" was in the Sunday paper. It focuses on CrimeReports.com a online solution available for $99/month for small municipalities and $199/month for lager ones, based on the amount of data. It also notes ratemycopy.com a site that allows individuals to rate cops, just like restaurants and movies. (I'd not heard of the latter.)

Key tidbits:

RateMyCop.com attracts about 200,000 unique visitors a day; in Washington alone, 20,000 people have signed up for CrimeReports.com's localized crime e-mail alerts, officials for the companies said.

So far, police departments from 175 jurisdictions contribute data to CrimeReports .com, and the site is working to integrate 100 more agencies, he [founder Greg Whisenant] said.

Adrian Holovaty, a journalist and Web developer whose latest project is EveryBlock.com, a site that feeds up-to-the-minute news and information to residents in Chicago, New York City and San Francisco. He said searches pertaining to crime are the most popular activity on EveryBlock.com.

I get that municipalities are jumping CrimeReports.com. I'm disappointed that the big draw on EveryBlock is crime. I thought it was about hyperlocal news. But perhaps news = crime?
"GIS for Dummies" Due in November

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 4:52pm CEST

The author touted completing yet another chapter on Twitter. I found the book on Wiley's website. It's due in November and is by Michael N. DeMers.

Does having a "Dummies" book means GIS has arrived?
Nrme: Geofencing for messages

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 4:20pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

TechCrunch looks at Nrme, a soon to be released only for the iPhone app. The big deal? You only received messages from those within 9 blocks (no idea how that's determined). There's no following like Twitter and idea is to get information about what's in walking distance in a city say, or in a constrained environment like a concert venue or large conference center (think about San Deigo's for example...)

Again I note, this is a feature I'd like to have with my messaging tool of choice. I don't want a special app to provide that feature. I don't expect this to take off, rather, I expect other providers or third party developers to add in this same sort of tool.
Low Cost Hyperspectral Imager from Northrop Grumman

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 3:48pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

The original technology in the Hyperspectral Airborne Tactical Instrument (HATI) was originally developed to fly in space, but now it's doing work mounted on small aircraft.

It's built on low-cost commercial hardware and was recently used to explore environmental change in the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve. Northrop Grumman hopes the low barrier to entry will mean further use of hyperspectral sensors. Says Mark Folkman of NG Space Technology:
"We are looking to work with customers who are interested in very low-cost HSI sensors for earth science missions, such as coastal waters imaging, land use, vegetation characterization and monitoring, wildfires, pollution and environmental damage."

Oh, and the technology may one get to space...

- Optics.org
Quote of the Week II

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 3:38pm CEST

"Finally, skip the $15-per-day charge for a personal navigation system, and invest in a $3 map. It'll get you where you need to go and you'll have a souvenir as well."

- Carol McAlice Currie in the (Oregon) Statesman-Journal in an article about saving money on rental cars
How Did Gates Do on Predicting Mapping Tech Back in 1995?

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 3:29pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

Today is Bill Gates' last day in his current role. He'll move on to a new chapter working with his foundation. To honor that last day, CTV looks at the predictions made in his 1995 book, The Road Ahead. He has this to say about mapping:

"You'll be able to jump into a map so you can navigate down a street or through the rooms of a building."

We are certainly part way there and with the likes of EveryScape and new motion sensing technologies, we are getting closer all the time.

BTW, Hiawatha Bray covered EveryScape in the Boston Globe this week. The opening sentence mentioned Google Maps, so when my Dad pointed it out he said, "there's another article about Google mapping in the paper." I wonder if it's possible to write about new mapping technologies without mentioning the G company?
Interactive Map of Parkersburg, Iowa Tornado Impact

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 3:24pm CEST

I'll just quote Journalism.co.uk: "Now this is a good interactive map.

Des Moines Register interactive map
Quote of the Week

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 2:21pm CEST

[The Center for Spatial Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara is involved in incorporating spatial thinking and analysis into fields of study that range from marine biology to religious studies, and Director Michael Goodchild envisions a future where spatial thinking will be taught in high schools alongside history and algebra.]

"Theres been a democratization of GIS over the past couple of years," Goodchild said. "Its reached the point where everyone needs to learn it."

- Goodchild quoted in "GIS: Cops Favor New Kind of Plotting" in Miller-McClure Magazine

I'm thinking out loud here:

Does that suggest that "if not for GIS and its democratization" there'd not be interest in teaching spatial thinking in schools? Did we have to get quick and powerful (and "flashy") technologies to "prove" the importance of spatial thinking? Math did ok without computers for quite a long time... and I recall hand-draw "invasion of the life-savers" maps in my population geography class in 1987. Have any other disciplines "needed" computers to "prove their worth?"
Toxic Release Reporting, Environmental Justice and Maps

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 1:58pm CEST

Researchers at the Children's Environmental Health Initiative reported on study of the Toxics Release Inventory Burden Reduction Rule, a law allowing some polluters to avoid reporting on their toxic releases. CEHI researchers found some communities unfairly burdened:

this study suggests that the TRI Burden Reduction Rule has environmental justice implications. We found that facilities that are eligible for reduced reporting are more likely to be located in neighborhoods where the proportion of minority and low income residents is significantly higher than neighborhoods hosting facilities that are still required report detailed information.

The report was published online on June 26, 2008 by the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology. It was funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. You need a subscription to read the entire report, but the CEHI provides some details including what I looked for, maps.

Alas, I was disappointed with the promised "interactive map" which shows a thematic map of the U.S.' EPA regions. Clicking on a state/regions pops up that regions review document, detailing "the percent minority population, the percent minority population under age 5, and the percent of the population in poverty within a 1, 3, and 5 km buffer around each TRI facility in the U.S."

The findings apparently contradict an EPA study, though it's not cited (odd?):

In contrast to EPA's findings, this study suggests that the TRI Burden Reduction Rule has environmental justice implications.

The implications are stated this way:

This analysis demonstrates that poor and minority communities stand to lose disproportionately more detailed information about chemical releases, leaving them less empowered to advocate for public health or environmental protections in their communities.

This is an important and complex finding. I wish there were clearly ways to explain and illustrate it.
Make Your Car a HotSpot

Posted: June 26th, 2008, 3:33pm CEST

Chrysler's Mopar will offer "Unconnect web" as of August as a dealer-installed accessory. Where there is cell service it will create a mobile hot spot with a 100-foot range. The suggested price for the router is $449, with the monthly access fee being $29. The service is provided by Autonet Mobile, founded in 2005 and provider of the Avis Connect service, a Wi-Fi connection that plugs into a vehicle's cigarette lighter or wall outlet.

I have to believe there are cheaper ways to do this, thought they are not installed in the car. Further, with new handsets becoming computers, is the "conversion" to Wi-Fi needed? Will cars be tailgating one another to gain access to Wi-Fi?

- WSJ
Computerworld offers Map of Best (US) IT Places to Work

Posted: June 26th, 2008, 2:43pm CEST

The map is Flash-based, but effective. No big surprises: clusters are along the East Coast (lots of medical), Chicago and California.
Coming Soon: NZ Chapter of ASIBA

Posted: June 26th, 2008, 2:16pm CEST

In short, key players are supportive of plans to stretch the boundaries of the Australian Spatial Information Business Association (ASIBA) to New Zealand. "ASIBA is an industry organisation, formed to condense around 35 former industry groups into one, with four pillars. They are: academics, individual professionals, business and government." Major players are a recent conference and The New Zealand Geospatial Office applauded the formal request.

One reason for the move:

The country police put out an RFP for a national address register. Per Steve Critchlow, executive director of GIS specialist Critchlow:

They wanted everything and they wanted to impose unlimited liability, Critchlow says. Three consortia were formed, we probably all spent around $200,000 working through the Christmas period, then the steering committee pulled the plug on the grounds it was too costly.

There's one other tidbits of note in the article:

...a study that found between A$6 billion and A$12 billion (NZ$7.6 billion and NZ$15.2 billion) was added to Australias gross domestic product by spatially enabling Australian government.

- Computerworld
Broadband coverage on AAA map...

Posted: June 26th, 2008, 2:02pm CEST

An article in the Times-Standard (Eureka and California's North Coast paper) highlights the challenge of the region to introduce broadband demand aggregration, make access available in the most rural areas and encourage business. One paragraph is relevant to geospatial:

Mapping of the four-county region has taken a large portion of the project time. The original plan had been to use the California Broadband Task Force maps for Redwood Coast Connect, which were released midway into the project. But we determined the maps to be inaccurate, so we decided to gather our own mapping data. This turned out to be a larger challenge than expected since very little data was already in Geographic Information System format. I had to call every provider and ask for data, which came in every format imaginable, from GIS to a AAA map marked with highlighter.

Note to providers: You probably already use GIS, why not make electronic data available either publicly or by request? Perhaps customer service is not aware of the availability of this data? I think we are at or near a point where those researching your offerings will simply pass you by without access to such data.

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

Google Map Maker

Posted: June 26th, 2008, 6:21am CEST

Tags: Editor

Google Map Maker Google is now allowing certian areas in the world to be edited by the user "Google Map Maker is a

GISWiki.NEWS.Reader » Blogs

Feeds

Blogs

Posted: July 4th, 2008, 4:26pm CEST

Tags: lbs

Posted: July 4th, 2008, 4:25pm CEST

Tags: blogs

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 10:11pm CEST

Tags: Confusion

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 7:48pm CEST

Tags: google

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 5:59pm CEST

Tags: Sensors

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 4:35pm CEST

Tags: Geospatial business

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 3:40pm CEST

Tags: Events

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 3:22pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 2:40pm CEST

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 2:04pm CEST

Tags: google

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 10:23pm CEST

Tags: job

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:31pm CEST

Tags: Map

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 7:54pm CEST

Tags: Social network

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 6:19pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 6:15pm CEST

Tags: education

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:58pm CEST

Tags: wildfire

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:24pm CEST

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:23pm CEST

Tags: Nokia

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 3:57pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:53pm CEST

Tags: Geospatial business

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:35pm CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:27pm CEST

Tags: Tracking

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

Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 2:53am CEST

Tags: Web

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 8:37pm CEST by Don Kuehne

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 7:40pm CEST

Tags: Canada

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 6:11pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 6:05pm CEST

Tags: Satellite

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 3:29pm CEST

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 3:06pm CEST

Tags: Weather

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:51pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:33pm CEST

Tags: Sensors

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:24pm CEST

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:14pm CEST

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 2:06pm CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 1:33pm CEST

Tags: education

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 8:00am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: google

Posted: July 1st, 2008, 6:03am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 5:41pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 5:03pm CEST

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 4:58pm CEST

Tags: gps

Posted: June 30th, 2008, 4:46pm CEST

Tags: Navigation