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James Fee GIS Blog

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OpenStreetMap Mapping Party Phoenix December 6 and 7

Posted: December 1st, 2008, 4:30pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

There will be an OpenStreetMap mapping party this weekend in Phoenix, AZ December 6th and 7th. Brandon Aguirre from Cloudmade will be here to coordinate things, and Gangplank will host it in Chandler, AZ.

If you haven’t been to a mapping party before you’ll want to come along and bring a friend. There is quite a bit of work that needs to be accomplished in Phoenix on OSM so there are tons for everyone to do.

The invite is below and don’t forget to RVSP:

Make Your Mark on the Free World Map!
Join me at Gangplank’s offices Saturday, December 6 and Sunday, December 7 from 11:00am-4:00pm for an OpenStreetMap Mapping Party where we’ll get more of the things you want added to the map of Phoenix! Since OpenStreetMap is both free and Free, you can do really cool things with the data. (check out www.opencyclemap.org and www.openrouteservice.org for examples). At the party we’ll loan you a GPS unit and show you how to use it so you can then go out and map a section of the city. At the end of the day we’ll show you how to get that data into OpenStreetMap so you can begin mapping your community’s bikeways, hiking trails, park paths and anything else you choose!

For more information check out the following:
[wiki.openstreetmap.org]
[www.openstreetmap.org]

RSVP HERE! [www.meetup.com]
[upcoming.yahoo.com]
Google Revises Their Update to the Google Maps API Terms of Service

Posted: November 27th, 2008, 4:24am CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

The latest Google Maps API TOS is available here. Google had just updated their TOS back in early November to clear up some questions around the use of API on free sites (this TOS only applies to the free API, not the Google Premier). The changes were welcomed by all, but one section appeared to some people to suggest that by using the API, you were giving Google a license to your data. Ed Parsons blogged about the situation so you can follow more what the problems were there, but this latest update seems to remove that section (Ed has it on his blog) that people were worried about.

OK, now back to getting the house ready for the family invasion tomorrow.

The turkey in my fridge did not receive a pardon from the president.
ESRI Releases Version 1.2 of the ArcGIS JavaScript Extensions for the Google Maps API and Microsoft Virtual Earth

Posted: November 24th, 2008, 11:05pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Those who use the JavaScript extensions for Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth can now update their script tags that reference the API to 1.2. The ESRI ArcGIS Server Blog has all the details.

Virtual Earth example:
<script src="http://serverapi.arcgisonline.com/jsapi/ve/?v=1.2" type="text/javascript"></script>

Google Maps example:
<script src="http://serverapi.arcgisonline.com/jsapi/gmaps/?v=1.2" type="text/javascript" ></script>
ESRI Releases Version 1.2 of the ArcGIS JavaScript API

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 11:15pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

The ESRI ArcGIS JavaScript API has been updated to version 1.2. The ArcGIS Server Blog has the details. Remember to update your code with the new version:
<script src=” [serverapi.arcgisonline.com] type=”text/javascript”>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=http://serverapi.arcgisonline.com/jsapi/ arcgis/1.2/js/dojo/dijit/themes/tundra/tundra.css>
ArcGIS in the Cloud

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 6:05pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

A couple people have commented recently about this blog or via twitter about the possibility of ArcGIS and the Cloud. The current licensing of ArcGIS Server pretty much precludes the possibility of running it in the cloud so until ESRI changes the licensing or works with a company to provide ArcGIS Server in the cloud don’t get your hopes up.

I’m guessing it is virtually impossible for ESRI to license ArcGIS Server in the cloud as the product stands today.
Happy GIS Day From the GeoMonkey!

Posted: November 19th, 2008, 5:00pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Have a merry GIS Day!
National Geographic Games

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 4:33pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

I suppose it makes sense. Print media is dead everyone says. How do you stay relevant if your primary product is a print magazine with pictures (that probably costs a ton to produce)?

Launch a games division.

I can’t wait until ArcMap X comes out on Wii.

Pulling off a wicked intersection on Wii ArcGIS.
Getting Into the Geography Awareness Week Spirit

Posted: November 17th, 2008, 4:58pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Back when ESRI had just released PC ARC/INFO (for the cutting edge DOS) and way before Google was a research project, the United States Congress passed a joint resolution signed by Ronald Reagan proclaiming that Geography Awareness Week would be held in November.

The Great Communicator signs Geography Awareness Week into law

Remember, it isn’t about the Google or ESRI (I suppose GIS Day is for them). It is about the Geography!
Where Is Metered Pricing for Internal Mapping Applications?

Posted: November 13th, 2008, 10:40pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

So I’ve got a (theoretical) simple internal website for a client that basically puts pushpins for their locations on a map. Since this is on their intranet we’ll have to pay approximately $10,000 to Google or Microsoft to license their products internally. This small company doesn’t have the kind of money (especially in this economy) to put down on such an application. Essentially spending $5-$10K before any coding has taken place is not going to get anywhere and the project is dropped.

Why is it that both Google and Microsoft are stuck in archaic licensing agreements? The logical way to price these services is a metered service. Much like Amazon AWS works, you’ll pay for what you use (with per-session costs decreasing as usage goes up). It would be monitored so I could see what kind of traffic I’m generating with the service and I could be billed monthly via credit card. We’ve been using Amazon S3 and EC2 with great results and it is very easy to justify the low initial costs and still be able to scale to larger applications if warranted.
How do you convince Scrooge McDuck to part with money to pay API licensing costs to Google or Microsoft?

The other problem is that if I’ve got to spend that kind of money, I’m going to be developing larger internal applications than I would externally. You can’t do a simple internal mashup if you have to pay large enterprise licensing costs. I was told by one potential client who wanted a Virtual Earth application that “For that price we might as well buy another ArcGIS Server license”. For someone to say that it is cheaper to roll out ArcGIS Server for a simple mashup really puts it all into perspective and if you are going to develop with ArcGIS Server, you’ll probably have a larger application than a “simple” Virtual Earth map.

So I’m pleading with Microsoft and Google to revisit their map API licensing and move toward more of an Amazon AWS type service that will help get their mapping tools into more places than today. Everyone wants a Google or Microsoft map on their intranet website, but the current licensing is killing projects before they can start.

The GeoMonkey is a huge supporter of Amazon Web Services
Flickr Mapping

Posted: November 12th, 2008, 6:57pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Homer tries to make sense of mapping

Dan Catt at geobloggers blogged over a week ago about Flickr about how they were using WOE ID to generate polygons of places that people have tagged in Flickr. A couple people have emailed me on how worthless this exercise is and how arbitrary it is. The Flickr Developer Blog goes into some more detail about the how and why Flickr is doing this and I think that should give everyone who doesn’t understand why this is important some better context. Personally I find it extremely interesting to see how people understand what place they are taking a photo at. A lot of this can all be tied back into Neogeography and what makes an expert. I’d wager people are more careful to geotag their photos in areas they are familiar with and less so when they are traveling. I don’t have enough photos tagged in Flickr, but I’d love to see maps from some larger Flickr users to see how they geotag the world.

What Flickr has is a way to visualize how people are geotagging their photos and they appear to be learning about to improve the process. I think this is a great application of technology to help better understand how humans perceive location.
ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1 Is Available

Posted: November 10th, 2008, 4:20pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis
As I’m sure many have seen, ArcGIS Service Pack 1 is available on ESRI’s servers. I’m interested to see how the new error reporting has improved the first Service Pack over previous Service Packs. ESRI is still going to release a Service Pack a quarter so don’t worry about the future. The links below go to the download page which also has info about the what fixes were included.
- ArcGIS 9.3 Service Pack 1
- ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1 (They just can’t drop that ArcSDE name can they?)
- ArcIMS 9.3 Service Pack 1
- ArcGIS Image Server 9.3 Service Pack 1 (Still not part of the ArcGIS Server package)
- ArcSDE 9.3 Service Pack 1 geodatabase direct connect for 9.2 clients setup (For those still on 9.2 and want to connect to 9.3)
Nothing about the Service Pack 1 update on the ESRI Support Blog but that blog has been spotty so I’m not surprised.
Geowanking Moving to O’Reilly

Posted: November 5th, 2008, 10:11pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Brady has just posted the news on the Geowanking list. Full text after the jump.

Howdy!

Joshua has been quietly looking for a good home for Geowanking for a while. He approached O’Reilly and we have agreed to support the list.

I’d like to thank Joshua for starting the list and helping the community grow. He’s put in a lot of time and energy for us. Thanks!
O’Reilly is invested in the geospace. Where 2.0 is one of our strongest conferences and I consider the geowanking community to be the conference’s primary constituent. So when we were asked to take on the list it was an obvious yes to me. We want to support this community and help it grow.

What does this mean?
* Later today or tomorrow we will be moving the list to O’Reilly servers.

* The domain will change. Joshua is keeping http://burri.to, but is giving us geowanking.org. The new list address will be geowanking@geowanking.org

* The archives and your subscriptions are intact, but you may need to reset your user password and digest settings.

* The archives will still be public.
* Please mail me for admin or other issues about the list. Laura Painter, an O’Reilly employee, has spent a lot of time on this (thanks!). She’ll be monitoring the list for technical hiccups.
What about the future? We’ve got a couple of ideas for how to support the community and I would love to hear your thoughts on them. I’ve been thinking that a planet installation on geowanking.org would be great. Any others?

Cheers,
brady

Kudos to O’Reilly for stepping up and keep Geowanking running.
Sharing the File Geodatabase

Posted: November 5th, 2008, 7:44pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

There are really good reasons to use the File Geodatabase in the ESRI world over the shapefile and Personal Geodatabase, but it doesn’t mean it is easy to share. Sean Gorman knows that the more file formats he supports, the more likely people (especially GIS pros) will be using GeoCommons. I suppose the simple answer for Sean is to buy a license of FME Server and support everything and anything people upload. The cost of that solution might not make business sense just yet for him so I suppose is the lack of ESRI Geodatabase support (or any other format) limiting you when you want to share data? I like the idea of uploading a Geodatabase full of datasets at one time, but sharing a folder/file based dataset is difficult enough on a LAN, let along the internet. Is converting to shapefiles too much to ask for people who want to share data on services such as GeoCommons?

WeoGeo partnered with Safe Software to bring this kind of datasharing (among other features of FME Server) to the cloud web so there might be solutions that are cheaper than outright licensing FME Server to bring translate capability to Web 2.0 services. If that can be coupled with Amazon Web Services pricing (pay for what you use rather than a traditional license) there could be something that many people take advantage of.

And of course you could export out any layer in GeoCommons Finder! to any of the 200+ FME supported formats.
Concerned About Stacks?

Posted: November 4th, 2008, 10:01pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

I’ve been hearing much about stacks these last few weeks.

“We want an all ESRI stack”

“We want to break out of the ESRI stack”

“I want an all OSGeo stack”

“Bill Gates’ stack is the work of the devil”

“I want to avoid the [INSERT LEAST FAVORITE SOFTWARE COMPANY HERE] stack at all costs”

Why concern yourself with branding stacks? OK, maybe if your corporate IT department dictates that you must go a route you have to worry about it, but otherwise concerning yourself with an overarching stack just distracts you on matching your needs with the best hardware/software. Stack away, but focus on the individual parts, not the whole suite. Leave the marketing terms such as LAMP/WAMP/XXXX to others and pick what works.

Be careful with stacks
Catching Up

Posted: November 3rd, 2008, 7:17pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis
I was out last week in New Orleans and of course had no time to block so I’m going to try and catch up this week.
  Alexander Karnstedt shares his thoughts on Dave Bouwman’s presentation at the Texas GIS Forum.

“I strongly agree with Dave Bouwman’s assumption that this is the result of a long lasting strategy of trying to cram desktop GIS into the browser with GIS manufacturers concentrating on developing utterly generic “out-of-the-box” WebGIS products. So this wants us GIS developers make to believe that we are able to produce WebGIS applications in a jif. But the simple fact is that 99% of so called WebGIS apps have a quite narrow purpose, thus need pretty focused functions and user interfaces instead of bloated generic UI’s.”

It is clear GIS developers understand what hasn’t worked in the past and what needs to be done in the future. The trick is to enable complex GIS analysis in a way end users can take advantage of it. If it was easy, everyone would already be doing it.

  More baseball geography; Five Migrations in Baseball History. Lets see, statistics, geography, beer, despair. Is there nothing baseball can’t teach us?

  Yes, ArcGIS Server Flex API 1.0 was released last week. Cue the “Where is Silverlight?” questions. Might be a great topic to discuss at the 2009 Developer Summit.

  Google Earth for the iPhone has been released. After playing with it for a week a couple things come to the surface.
1. First it is very well done and visually impressive. Fingers can navigate 3D globes.
2. The Edge network is too slow.
3. I almost got run over by a streetcar navigating the globe. Could that be worse than texting with your head down?
4. The tilt function is confusing when you are walking. I want to hold the unit in front of my face, not look strait down (see #3).
I can’t wait to see the next version and start using the iPhone to interact with network KML.

whit has more iPhone/OpenLayers goodness on his blog.
I Come to Praise the Web ADF, Not to Bury It

Posted: October 23rd, 2008, 12:33am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I was just talking to someone today about web applications for ArcGIS Server 9.3 and they were surprised that I was using the Web ADF to create an application after my post earlier this week on the JavaScript API. I feel like I need to clarify some things about that post. It wasn’t so much a desertion of the Web ADF, but point that one should be looking toward the JavaScript API (and I suppose the Flex API) for most mapping situation and use the Web ADF (Java and .NET) when it best makes sense. I’m using the Web ADF on this project because the requirements of the end user is best met with the Web ADF. The great thing about the JavaScript API, the Flex API, the .NET Web ADF, the Java Web ADF and even the JavaScript extenders for the JavaScript API is that they all can be called on if needed. Of course the Web ADF does have licensing issues that ESRI needs to address that limit its appeal even when it is the best choice for the solution.

ESRI has given their developers choices that we aren’t accustom to and in turn ESRI developers should be looking at the choices when making a decision of what SDK to use. Also just because you use the JavaScript API or the Flex API doesn’t mean you’ll end up with a great application. So much more goes into it and there isn’t any reason why the Java Web ADF can’t give you a great application anymore than the Flex API can.

Et tu, James?
Adding Touch Control to OpenLayers

Posted: October 22nd, 2008, 5:13pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

whit has written a blog post on what he’s been working on getting OpenLayers to work with Mobile Safari on the iPhone (and iTouch).

A major part of my recent investigations for mobile and opengeo have focused on getting OpenLayers to do a basic version of it’s thing on the iphone. I’ve had limited success, but maybe these demos will help someone else get a little further or perhaps help crystallize a more effective approach than mine, since I’m pretty green with OL.

He’s also created a couple demos for the iPhone/iTouch using some of the touch controls. The bottom line is that moving from mouse control to finger touch is as hard as you’d expect. I think it is great to see OpenLayers take on this effort because being able to move mapping to mobile devices will be key with the iPhone and Android taking off here in the next year.

OpenLayers iPhone Support
MapQuest for iPhone: Interesting if There Is an API

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 6:02pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I see that MapQuest now has an optimized iPhone site (HT APB) for all those people who still use MapQuest (though I’d guess most iPhone users would just assume use the built in Google Maps app). Since MapQuest is not using the iPhone App SDK I wonder if there is an API available for developers to create iPhone mapping applications using the MapQuest API for the iPhone? MapQuest’s API has been hit hard by Google and Microsoft and I would think a smartphone API (Android and iPhone both use WebKit) would help them get out of their niche.

Damn! We're in a tight spot!
The ESRI Flex API vs the JavaScript API

Posted: October 21st, 2008, 1:46am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

OK, I’ll come clean. While Flex is a great tool, I can’t see how you’d not use the JavaScript API instead. Flex is still not available on every platform (I’m an iPhone elitist) and isn’t easily picked up by everyone. But more than one person said in last weeks thread on the JavaScript API that Flex was the way they are going. I’m curious is there a rising groundswell in Flex or are ESRI developers just an outlier to the overarching movement toward JavaScript? FlexBuilder 3 is at least $250 (Pro is almost $700) and I just can’t see people bothering to buy an

What part of the Flex API makes you choose it over the JavaScript API? If people are willing to block Flash, don’t you limit your marketplace by going that route over JavaScript?

Flex.....Savior of the Universe
2009 ESRI User Conference Abstract Submission Deadline Extended

Posted: October 17th, 2008, 10:42pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

If you were like me today and were working hard at getting your abstract in this is probably not too much of a big deal to you, but if you were unable to get your submission done, you’ll have some extra time to get those ducks in a row for your 2009 abstract submission.

Professionals across industries and with all levels of GIS experience are encouraged to submit an abstract for possible presentation at the 2009 gathering. The deadline for submissions has been extended to November 14, 2008.

You still have time to get that submission in!
The ESRI WebADF and the ArcGIS JavaScript API

Posted: October 16th, 2008, 6:15pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I find it interesting that most work I’m seeing these days is with the JavaScript API that ESRI released at ArcGIS 9.3. I assumed a couple months ago that people would really be looking at moving off of the WebADF (.NET or Java) for the JavaScript API and it appears that this trend is beginning to happen. Now before you think that I’m really sticking a fork in the WebADF, think again. The WebADF will continue to grow and be used where it makes sense, but probably not as the “default” mapping front end for ESRI web servers. The simplicity of the JavaScript API and the way it works, makes the classic WebADF and HTML viewers obsolete for most users (I’m still waiting to see what ESRI does with Silverlight, but that discussion is for another day).

Also, coupled with the JavaScript Extenders for Google Maps and Virtual Earth, there is probably very good reasons to be looking this way instead of deploying the WebADF. I’ve also seen people abandoning third party “helpers” for the WebADF such as Geocortex Essentials (I guess we’ll see JavaScript API tools from these companies soon, eh?) to move back to simpler JavaScript front ends. There are times and places for .NET or Java server solutions, but what the JavaScript API has done is allow ESRI customers and implementors to go with a more lightweight solution and in turn brings them to more cutting edge RESTful and JavaScript technologies that can be leveraged outside of the ESRI silo.

I’ve really started to try and point my clients (and anyone else who asks) away from the Java and .NET WebADF and toward the lightweight ESRI JavaScript API. Everyone who has moved in that direction has really been satisfied and given the 9.2 release of ArcGIS Server, that is really turning things around.

James seems to be pushing ArcGIS Server again
A Week Off

Posted: October 4th, 2008, 6:14am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I’m heading down into the basement for a week. Enjoy the greatness that is David Hasselhoff, Gary Coleman and of course KITT.

What a moment of zen...
GeoCommons Maker! - the Next Day

Posted: October 2nd, 2008, 6:20pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Well kudos for FortiusOne for getting the word out on Maker! especially since the launch was delayed from the original PR blitz. As with most GeoBloggers, I’ve had access to Maker! since last week and have really been impress with its output. Sean has been teasing us for months it seems with the cartographic output of Maker! in his blog posts, so I was glad to finally get my hands on Maker!. (side note, do you put a period after a product name that ends in a punctuation mark?)

Maker! is the map production portion of GeoCommons and Finder! is the search engine for geospatial data. Together they allow users to create web maps that can be shared with the world. So to get information in Maker!, you first upload your data to Finder! and then add it to your map. The byproduct of this workflow is more data gets added to Finder! and in turn more data is available to the community at large. Freely sharing data is one the core components of GeoCommons (compared to WeoGeo which is more of a marketplace).

Stefan Geens does a good job of showing how the map is created and how you set what we usually refer to the symbology of layers. What I like about this approach is you can bring to light the data in ways that before Maker!, required custom programming to achieve good looking results (if even possible). FortiusOne, according to Sean, worked with cartographic professionals to create the rich (I’m sorry) map production tools. These tools are so good in fact that I’ve heard a couple GIS professionals lament that they’ll be out of a job soon (of course we all know that Maker! will only increase our workloads to produce data for public consumption). What we have here are two really simple tools that allow anyone to upload geospatial content, combine that information with other datasets and then create a wonderful looking map that visually tells a story.

You can argue all day and night about what the GeoWeb is or isn’t, but I think we have an excellent example of what the GeoWeb should be right here. Finder! has discoverable web services of data (with metadata to boot) and Maker! allows you to leverage those services together to create derivative value content to share with the world. Moving forward, the data of GeoCommons should support more OGC services (beyond KML) for those who need that support and the maps created with Maker! should be more easily shared beyond just an web map. But the groundwork is there for sharing data with the world.

Despite the lack of monkey maps, the GeoMonkey approves of Maker!
Amazon Brings Windows (and SQL Server) to the Cloud

Posted: October 1st, 2008, 5:52pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

The Amazon Web Services Blog says that Amazon will be bringing Microsoft Windows to EC2 this fall.

The 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Server will be available and will be able to use all existing EC2 features such as Elastic IP Addresses, Availability Zones, and the Elastic Block Store. You’ll be able to call any of the other Amazon Web Services from your application. You will, for example, be able to use the Amazon Simple Queue Service to glue cross-platform applications together.

This is on the heels of the Oracle/Amazon EC2 release from a couple weeks ago. Now that the tools are here, we’ll have to see how well they are adopted by corporate IT administrators who aren’t always open to giving up control of their servers to others.

Mr. Gates saw the value of the cloud early on
Stopping Over-Engineered GIS Applications

Posted: October 1st, 2008, 12:52am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I was thinking the past week about a project that we will start working on soon. Simply put, it is updating a MapObjects IMS application we deployed almost 10 years ago, that is still working. When I saw that it was not only still running, but it was still a critical part of their business workflow, it started me thinking about why such an application was so successful. It obviously wasn’t the technology. Sure the back end runs on Oracle, but even the most ardent MOIMS supporter can’t claim that the Visual Basic application was cutting edge even back then. So that must mean there was something else going on that kept it running when most MOIMS sites are long gone.

Won't someone please think of the users?

History of GIS applications tells us one story that repeats itself again and again. There is a horrible habit of pushing over-engineered applications that are not used by the target audience because no one has time to figure out complicated tools. GIS vendors have not discouraged such habits and in some cases encourage them. The GIS world is really good at writing GIS applications for GIS professionals. I think this used to work before GIS and mapping became important in our everyday lives, but now that everyone everywhere is looking at deploying spatial applications focus needs to be put on what the end users are going to be doing with the application.

So back to that old MapObjects application, it did a really good job of doing what it was supposed to do. Display information in a context that the users were comfortable working (the interface was familiar to them) with and meet their requirements (which were obviously well developed), fit within their websites, scaled well (even Visual Basic does that apparently) and wasn’t an obstacle to their workflows. With MOIMS depreciated and the need to connect to more modern ESRI servers and Oracle databases the application needs to be updated, but not because it restricts their business practices and workflows.

Foisting this application on users of a bus system was poorly thought out, but the Google Transit version released a few weeks ago hits the target users right on. The heavy GIS website might meet needs of users in the organizations internally, but externally it really highlights missed opportunities and wasted resources. I’m personally really excited to see if we can replicate the success of the earlier MOIMS application with JavaScript APIs, KML downloads and other new technology and still keep is simple. The key is listen to what the client really wants and be agile enough to deliver simple, focused, and fast products.
On the Mississippi

Posted: September 25th, 2008, 10:58pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I’ve been quiet this week because I’ve been at the fiscal year end management meetings. The RSP Minneapolis office is located in the old Grain Belt Brewhouse which is just incredible office space.

View Larger Map

The weather has been just so hit and miss. Flying in on Tuesday, we almost had to divert to Omaha, NE and the rain once we did get on the ground made it almost impossible to drive. But since then the weather has been very enjoyable (I suppose some might say warm, but being from Arizona I have a different definition).
Oracle Enters the Cloud

Posted: September 23rd, 2008, 5:31am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Oracle and Amazon today announced that Oracle would be offering some of their products inside Amazon’s EC2 cloud.

The Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Enterprise Manager can now be licensed to run in the cloud on Amazon EC2. Customers can even use their existing software licenses with no additional license fees.

While I see nothing specifically about Oracle Spatial, I assume is can be licensed as well on the cloud. The benefit to everyone is outside of licensing costs, the ability to launch the Oracle AMIs on EC2 and be up and running in no time. That plus the scaleability of EC2 (and thus Oracle) means that you don’t have to worry about hardware limitations with your applications. RSP Architects uses SQL Server as our database of choice, and while I would have been able to run Oracle in a virtual server, I no longer have to worry about hardware constraints to our development. Just license (which of course I realize is a problem for some people) and start loading the database. I’m anxious to see how ArcGIS connects to Oracle Spatial on EC2 and what kind of performance I can expect.

Cloudzilla could be unbeatable with Oracle in his hands

Now for those who want to avoid Oracle, MySQL Enterprise as well in the Amazon Cloud.
Navteq Out, TeleAtlas In

Posted: September 20th, 2008, 2:03am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

So Google has finally gotten around to making sure both the Google Maps API and the Google Local Search API are using the same underlying data.

Google Maps has now switched their map data provision completely over to TeleAtlas from Navteq. Now the google Maps, the Google API and the Google Maps for Mobile all use the same underlying data. This switch was only a matter of time given Nokia aquisition of Navteq

I’m curious to see if the change will affect any mapping applications out there that were using the Navteq data given that TeleAtlas and Nokia Navteq are probably different. Time for Peter Batty to revisit his Google Maps vs Google Local Search blog posts.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day 2008

Posted: September 19th, 2008, 9:00am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Avast, me hearties!

‘Tis that time once again, International Talk Like A Pirate Day Tide be here. Ye better learn t’ talk like a seafarin’ hearty today or else ye`ll look like a fool. Raise yer grog mugs an’ celebrate. If Captain Jack Sparrow can take th’ time t’ get involved wi’ his local GIS Tide presentations, ye can talk like a seafarin’ hearty.

Captain Jack is teaching is crew about GIS today.
Using SVG to Create Interactive Maps on the Apple iPhone

Posted: September 18th, 2008, 11:35pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

So you can’t have Silverlight, Java or Flash to develop interactive mapping on the iPhone and have to “resort” to using JavaScript. Well maybe not, could SVG be the way forward to creating mapping websites on the iPhone? My 2G iPhone seems to support SVG fairly well, but many SVG sites aren’t optimized for the iPhone. Take ESRI’s abandoned (?) SVG Viewer:

ESRI's ArcWeb SVG Viewer

It loads and you can turn on and off the “widgets” with ease. But navigating it was impossible. I know zero about developing with SVG so I suppose someone else will have to comment on if it is possible to create iPhone compatible navigation for SVG apps. Heck if ESRI were to make a ArcGIS Server SVG API compatible for the iPhone, every ArcGIS Server implementation would be viewable on the iPhone.
We’ve Had Very Busy Week!

Posted: September 18th, 2008, 8:57pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis
For everyone who keeps telling me that this “geospatial space” is boring these days, you have obviously not been paying attention. Loads of great stuff has been been posted:
- Thanks to everyone who sent this link in (Bill, Dan, John, Barry, Alan, APB). ESRI has compiled essays from their publications into a GIS Best Practices whitepaper. Good for all those who like to pile your ArcNews in the corner of your office to show how important you are.
- Dave Peter’s great whitepaper on System Design Strategies has been updated and on its 25th edition. Many were relieved to hear that he is going to continue updating the paper even after his new book (which I have an plan to start reading next week while traveling).
- Peter Batty continues to write about Netezza’s new spatial product. He blogged about why this performance is important and where it is going to be used. Of course I doubt I’ll be seeing it replace our SQL Server 2008 anytime soon but this could be the direction we are all moving toward. He also posted a video interview with Rich Zimmerman who was the lead developer on Netezza’s spatial extension. Well worth watching if you want to hear how someone could take PostgreSQL and turn it into a monster.
- Jithen blogged about updating the ArcGIS 9.3 SP1 announcement and how many more bugs they’ve fixed. It really is amazing how their new crash reporting tools allows them to find and fix bugs faster than before. I suspect we’ll see later service packs much smaller than they were at 9.2 given that they are able to trap the errors much easier. I’m still on 9.2 (this will be resolved very soon) so I have to watch the fun from afar.
- Sean Gorman, bless his heart, has followed up his GeoWeb blog ranking list post. I think Technorati isn’t work the time it takes me to type it, but the idea that he wants to develop a blog list is interesting to me and if he/we can come up with a good ranking scheme, it could be very useful to seeing changes with blogs over time.
- Lastly, Microsoft is going to have a couple webcasts about Virtual Earth. Mark Brown posted information about a Virtual Earth 6.2 Technical Webcast October 3rd at 10am PDT and Chris Pendleton has one called Momentum Webcast: See More and Do More with Microsoft Virtual Earth October 2 at 9AM PDT.
Even Mark Twain is interested in reading Dave Peters new book
GIS on the Law Enforcement Front Lines

Posted: September 16th, 2008, 8:37pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

GIS Analysts are usually in the back room performing support rolls with most law enforcement operations, but recently a GIS Analyst was part of a marijuana eradication raid in California.

A GIS specialist went in with the raid teams for the first time in NPS history to perform an immediate on the ground evaluation of the impacts to the natural resource during the raid.

Just think how much better some law enforcement situations might have gone if GIS had been part of the raid.

GIS on the front lines of law enforcement

Redwood National and State Parks (CA)
Major Interagency Raid Conducted On Marijuana Plantation

On September 10th, Redwood National and State Parks conducted a marijuana eradication raid, utilizing an interagency anti-drug task force. The focus of the effort was a marijuana plantation in Redwood Creek that contained 9,564 plants and covered approximately five acres on steep terrain. This marijuana site is within six miles of the world’s tallest tree in a park that is also a World Heritage Site and International Biosphere Reserve. Rangers detained five Mexican nationals for questioning about a mile from the marijuana growing operation. Three of them had prior deportations and were transferred to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). One who is on felony probation for marijuana was held on that violation and will be deported later. The fifth was charged with providing false information to an officer. A GIS specialist went in with the raid teams for the first time in NPS history to perform an immediate on the ground evaluation of the impacts to the natural resource during the raid. This documentation will be very beneficial for the restoration process. Significant resource damage has resulted from this illegal activity and an initial cleanup operation using California National Guard soldiers and helicopter is planned for October. This raid included almost 60 law enforcement and support staff. The National Park Service wishes to acknowledge and thank the support provided by Humboldt County Sheriff Office, Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), North State Marijuana Investigation Team, California Department of Justice, California Fish and Game, California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, Green Diamond Resources Company, United States Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Marshall Service, California State Park Rangers, National Park Service SETT II team and ISB Pacific West special agents.
[Submitted by Rick Nolan, Chief of Interpretation and Education]
Google and GeoEye: Argle-Bargle or Fufurah?

Posted: September 15th, 2008, 6:50pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

And I, for one, welcome our new geospatial overlords

I didn’t bother to blog about the Google and GeoEye announcement (Google launches satellite? Are you kidding me Information Week?) from a couple weeks ago (or was it a couple days ago?) because I really didn’t see what was so newsworthy about it. It isn’t like this is the first announcement we’ve seen from Google and a satellite company. Plus Microsoft even went out and bought Vexcel (hmm didn’t blog about that acquisition either).

I just don’t care too much about these deals as they don’t affect me in any way. I still aquire my imagery the way I did before and I still use the free services the way I did before. The only thing this confirms to me is that you can’t make money from selling sattelite imagery on an open market, you need a sugar daddy to pay the bills. I guess that is what is the most telling thing out of this announcement, GeoEye’s and Digital Globe’s business models are broken.
Yahoo! Pipes or Microsoft Popfly Replacing ESRI’s Model Builder?

Posted: September 15th, 2008, 6:10pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Vish wonders aloud if we are close to using online tools to replace ESRI’s venerable Model Builder.

Why can't you get RESTful with ESRI's Web Services?
Netezza’s Spatial Extension to Data Warehouse Appliance

Posted: September 12th, 2008, 10:55pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

All Points Blog has the news that Netezza is set to release a “spatial extension” to their Data Warehouse Appliance. You may not think you know much about Netezza, but know that their success keeps Larry Ellison up at night. There was some discussion on this blog about super fast geospatial analysis and what the target would be. I think basically Netezza is trying to solve problems that we currently can’t do with existing spatial databases in both scale and speed. I wouldn’t suspect seeing their product replacing Oracle Spatial or SQL Server, but for those who have the money to pay for the product this could help them answer questions they cannot do right now. For most of us, just sit back and marvel at what you could do if money was no option and know that in a year or two, much of this technology will be in your hands. Peter Batty says he’ll be blogging more about what exactly this means in the next week. Can’t wait to read it.

This is Star Trek quality spatial data analysis folks

Photo by paper or plastic?
Revising the United Countries of Baseball Map

Posted: September 12th, 2008, 6:11pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

You might remember The United Countries of Baseball Map from last year.

The original map - click for larger view

Any time you attempt to make a map such as this, you know people are going to find faults with it. Well Drew Silva took comments people made about the map on sites such as Deadspin and

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