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Fetched: April 30th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Maptech, a company known in geospatial circles for its Terrain Navigator Pro and Pocket Navigator map applications, but even more well-known in marine circles for its paper and electronic marine navigation tools, quietly went on the block earlier this year. Adena Schutzberg takes a look at the company's interesting past and its expected future.
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Fetched: April 29th, 2008, 7:17am CEST
An interactive session at a recent regional GIS event prompted our editors to explore how we are trained in GIS, and how and if we use spatial thinking in our day-to-day work. Are we just pushing buttons and following recipes or are we truly using the underlying ideas of how people, places and things behave in space? Does it matter if you are trained in geography vs. GIS vs. another discipline? What does the future look like for those skilled (or not) in spatial thinking?
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Fetched: April 28th, 2008, 3:32pm CEST
Adena Schutzberg has argued in the past that you can learn as much (or more) at a regional GIS gathering of a few hundred than at a multi-day event of several thousand. Case in point: the 17th GIS Special Interest Group Conference serving the Genesee/Finger Lakes Region of New York state held last week. Not only did neighbors learn what neighbors were doing, they also were forced out of their comfort zones to explore topics outside geospatial technology and at its heart.
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Fetched: April 24th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Earth Day 2008 has just passed providing solid evidence citizens and governments are turning their attention to all things green. Local governments are hearing the call of green as well and often look to acquire a land cover dataset to understand what's on the ground within their geography. Until recently such a dataset was the result of a one-off negotiation with an aerial firm and/or a imagery analysis specialist who could turn the image into land cover polygons. But there's a new game in town that takes advantage of high resolution satellite imagery and accelerated feature extraction, making land cover data more accessible for even the smallest towns. Adena Schutzberg explains how three companies have come together to introduce land cover datasets for the Chicago area next month, hoping to tap into the pent up demand.
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Fetched: April 23rd, 2008, 5:30am CEST
A spatial data infrastructure model must serve many constituents.
Asmat Ali, the Assistant Director of the Survey of Pakistan, explains
how the data may be developed by corporate, local, state, national,
regional or global interests, and each potential creator imbues them
with different characteristics "due to different needs at these
different levels." That, he suggests, presents a potential pitfall,
which he aims to address via a new SDI hierarchy model for federated
nations.
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Fetched: April 20th, 2008, 5:30pm CEST
Ric Skinner follows up on last week's article describing the environment of diminishing all-hazards preparedness funding, with a vision for a solution. He offers the concept of the "Disaster Management Interoperable Information System" (DMIIS) that would provide participating towns, agencies and other resources with a cost-effective capability for enhanced situation awareness, disaster response, resource request and allocation, and a collaborative environment for training and exercises.
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Fetched: April 17th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Emergency management agencies are expected to do more with less. The scope of responsibility is increasing at the same time as budgets are decreasing - and are likely to decrease even more sharply as federal and state agencies cut funding. Ric Skinner describes the environment and need in part one of this two part article, presented here. In part two, he will review a potential solution for how agencies can become better prepared for "all-hazards" events by implementing a cost-effective information interoperability solution.
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Fetched: April 16th, 2008, 5:28am CEST
Caliper Corporation's Maptitude has a reputation for being a powerful, easy-to-use desktop mapping program. Version 5.0, released early this year, should turn a few heads according to reviewer Michael Cline. He suggests that GIS professionals will find more advanced analytical capabilities that take Maptitude beyond a simple mapping tool. Users will also like the low cost offering, which includes some functions unavailable in more expensive packages.
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Fetched: April 14th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has had an exchange and cooperative agreement with Mongolia since 2004. What's in it for NGA? The opportunity to collect gravity and elevation data over the country, gain access to the latest country maps and geographic names database, to name a few. What's in it for Mongolia? Access to NGA base data for mapping, use of loaner GIS workstations, training and more. There's an interesting "win win" situation going on as NGA helps develop geospatial capabilities in this fast-growing democracy on the other side of the world.
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Fetched: April 9th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Remote sensing is increasingly used as a tool for conservation management. Beyond traditional satellite imagery popularized by Google Earth, new sensing applications are allowing researchers located anywhere in the world to track fires, illegal logging and mining, and deforestation in some of Earth's most isolated regions using a computer or handheld device.
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Fetched: April 8th, 2008, 4:31am CEST
This week our editors revisit two themes that continue to pop up as geospatial technology, ideas, visualization and data move into the mainstream IT world and popular culture. First we look at two announcements regarding the integration of Business Intelligence or BI, with online mapping. Then, we'll pick apart the latest data capture privacy lawsuit - where a couple is suing Google over StreetView images of their house.
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Fetched: April 7th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Barb Wenninger was recently promoted to the position of director of Sales and Marketing at American Digital Cartography, Inc. (ADCi), where she has worked for six years. In her new position Wenninger will be responsible for managing and growing ADCi's sales activity, as well as planning, implementing and directing the company's marketing and public relations strategies. ADCi has been around for 20 years, and is best known as a provider of digital cartography data. Wenninger brings more than 20 years of experience to her new role. Directions Magazine asked her several questions about her career and the company.
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Fetched: April 3rd, 2008, 5:30pm CEST
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announced yesterday that it is rebranding the company as ERDAS. The new tagline, "The Earth to Business Company," is a clear signal ERDAS wants to be a more aggressive player in the enterprise geospatial market. Unshackling itself from the Leica name allows the company to develop a stronger, more focused software brand. Read more in this report from Editor-in-chief Joe Francica.
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Fetched: April 3rd, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Green is the "new black." BIMs (building information models) evolved from 3D, and geospatial technology finds itself in the midst of so much disruption that revolution is afoot. The beneficiary of all these changes? Perhaps, Mother Earth. From the 2D world with which we "mappers" are most familiar to a third dimension that includes not just terrain but the buildings that occupy it, geospatial technology is trying to keep up with new demands from those seeking better visualization of their environment. Joe Francica reports.
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Fetched: April 2nd, 2008, 5:30am CEST
What's new in receiving real-time traffic information on your mobile handset? What's the latest in location-based advertising? Discover the latest information in Editor-in-chief Joe Francicas interview with Tim Lorello of TeleCommunications Systems. This is the second part of an interview conducted on March 20, 2008.
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Fetched: April 1st, 2008, 2:30am CEST
This week the European Union extended its investigations into the acquisition of Tele Atlas by TomTom and NAVTEQ by Nokia causing stocks to drop and some to wonder what's ahead. Here in the United States Pitney Bowes CEO talked up his plans for growth for its recently acquired MapInfo, along with a rebranding of the corporate parent. Our editors explore what's ahead on all three fronts.
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