GISWiki.NEWS.Reader » James Fee GIS Blog

James Fee GIS Blog

1 2 3

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 revised some of the boundaries of the map. I think the refinement really tightens up one of my favorite maps that I’ve ever seen. Check out the result below and compare with the CommonCensus Sports Map of MLB Team Fan Areas.

The revised map - click for larger view

Thanks to Dan for pointing this out to me. He also offered up the Major League Baseball blackout map. Also, no need to bring up the collapse of the Diamondbacks. I’m a fair-weather fan of them so it doesn’t really hurt me too much, especially since my team is surging in the standings (but unfortunately has nothing to play for).
Brian Timoney Updates gulfimpact.com

Posted: September 12th, 2008, 5:30pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Brian Timoney has updated his Gulf Coast Energy Impact website with Hurricane Ike information. It also looks like Brian has gotten a sponsor for his work, IHS (who many might better know as the publisher of this).

Ike's impacts on Gulf Coast energy
ISC Releases MapDotNet UX Beta

Posted: September 10th, 2008, 11:04pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

ISC keeps pushing the .NET web mapping front and has released MapDotNET UX Beta. MapDotNet UX Server has WCF-based web services and a WPF map and tile renderer. MapDotNet UX Studio includes advanced map design (XAML editing), support for shapefiles, SQL Server 2008 as well as ArcSDE ArcGIS Server and PostGIS and tile cache management.

ISC has some demos available to show the new MapDotNet UX in action. The beta is closed at this time, but interested developers who want to showcase WPF and Silverlight mapping are encouraged to apply. Another item to note is that the MapDotNet UX Studio will be free. ISC describes UX Studio this way:

It (MapDotNet UX Studio) was built with the WPF map control and allows developers/cartographers to develop their map configuration file (the .mapx), create/manage tile caches, perform data import/export to all of the support data types (SQL 08, SDE, PostGIS and Shapefile) and create starter Silverlight & WPF apps.

Of course their web services will still be licensed as normal. Some screenshots of UX Studio are below and I have to say they remind me of another product.

Click to view large image of MapDotNet UX Studio

Click to view large image of MapDotNet UX Studio
deCarta Looks to LBS for a Future?

Posted: September 10th, 2008, 12:58am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

So deCarta has a new product called deCarta Mobile. Everyone has their own mobile development platform, so why not offer your own? I’m sure they have some developers lined up to showcase their Java LBS platform so there will probably be some interesting apps coming forward. I can understand that deCarta brings much expertise to the LBS arena, but I’m just not sure that will matter much given the huge developer bases for Android and the iPhone (I await Glenn’s comment below about Nokia mattering).

In the end I suspect this is a niche platform for users who need a very specific application and not meant for consumer applications (not saying that it isn’t possible, just there are other SDKs that developers might choose before this one). deCarta did a good job of explaining why they think they are important in the hosted service world in the comments of this post on the Virtual Earth /Live Maps Blog. Ignore all the porn links and go to the last comment (note to Microsoft, Live Spaces is a horrible blogging platform and using it just proves to everyone what a poorly thought out concept “Live” is).

The deCarta model might be just what some companies are looking for (being able to pick and chose providers or hosting your own data) and I suppose we’ll see how if deCarta Mobile takes off. For me Java is irrelevant on the mobile platform (iPhone) and on my desktop (I think only my Oracle management tools are Java) so I’m definitely not its market.
GeoJSON With GeoPlanet

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 10:31pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Jerry loves GeoJSON

Yahoo! announced some updates to GeoPlanet including GeoJSON support. Yahoo! seems much more quiet than most companies about their endeavors (Fire Eagle, GeoPlanet, Pipes) and I’m glad to see them improving given the pressures they are under these days. I really like how GeoPlanet is organized and I hope it (and Fire Eagle and Pipes) continues to be improved and enhanced. Plus not having to deal with XML is a huge bonus. Now if ESRI can support GeoJSON with their RESTful API we’ll all be very happy.
Agile Mapping

Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 11:40pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Brian Timoney put it perfectly, ”agile mapping” is where we need to be. His expertise in the energy sector, plus the ability to mix in some PostGIS and he can deploy a map quickly and effectively.

Hurricane Gustav Energy Impact

Everybody has been using Google Chrome for screen shots, so why not me?

We were talking shop the other day and a couple of us lamented the need to have an ArcGIS Server license to use ESRI’s map cache generator. While I have no problem using Arc2Earth to generate tiles I can integrate into Google Maps or Virtual Earth, it seems like such a no brainer to give ArcGIS Desktop users (heck even just ArcInfo users) the ability to use ESRI’s map tile generator. ArcGIS Server has its place, but when wanting to put up timely maps such as Brian’s Energy Impact site, you need the ability to go from ArcMap to Google Maps with one click.

It amazes me that GIS Professionals are more comfortable rolling out an old ArcIMS site than they are working with Google Maps or Virtual Earth (even within the ArcGIS Server Javascript API). You don’t have to spend a ton of money or effort to get your message across and noticed.
Post-Katrina Repopulation Map on USA Today

Posted: September 1st, 2008, 6:22pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I was very pleased to see today that USA Today published part of the GNOCDC Repopulation Map on their website.

GNOCDC Data on USA Today

Seeing this data and the map getting some visibility (plus the link back to the detail map is great) makes all the hard work everyone put into it worth it. At least at this point it appears that Gustov isn’t as bad as Katrina, but remember people were feeling pretty good right after Katrina passed over 3 years ago. We’ll see tonight and tomorrow how everyone did. The GNOCDC staff was able to evacuate safely and are still working at helping people get information about NOLA, Katrina and Gustov.
Open Thread

Posted: August 29th, 2008, 10:54pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

The long holiday weekend means that we are heading out to visit relatives in western Colorado.

Seems like the perfect excuse to have an open thread. See you guys next week.
GNOCDC Repopulation Map - Now With Google Street View

Posted: August 29th, 2008, 12:37am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

We’ve just rolled out the latest update to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) Repopulation Google Maps application. Thanks to Matt Priour figuring out how to add the Street View imagery to our New Orleans Repopulation Map, you can now not only see where people are coming back to The Crescent City, but the rebuilding efforts from the street level.

Repopulation Indicators for New Orleans

The map is powerful because you can look at the address counts by block between June 2005 and June 2008 and see how many people are returning to New Orleans. Of course you can pan over to the Lower Ninth Ward and see neighborhoods that are struggling to recover, but overall much of the city has recovered substantially. What is unique about this map is the source of the data. Getting accurate counts of the population of New Orleans has been difficult, but as this Wired article mentions, “Junk Mail to the Rescue”. Now the Google Street View imagery has been very good at helping see the reasons why changes have occurred after Katrina. The aerial imagery of New Orleans was taken on March 2006, near the low point of the recovery. If all you ever use to see the recovery of New Orleans is the Google Maps or Google Earth satellite imagery, you are many of the changes that have occurred more than two years since those images were taken. Even the Google Street View imagery is a year old which can distort realities on the ground. The USPS repopulation data is updated monthly so it is actually the most relevant data in this mashup application.

While some areas are still struggling to recover...

...rebuilding in New Orleans continues

What the Valassis data is great at documenting the recovery at a macro level, and the Google Street View data helps you analyze the results on a macro level. Being able to visualize the recovery this way gives you a great appreciation for how much work has been accomplished and how much more there has to be done. Unfortunately there was no “Marshal Plan” for the recovery, but progress has been made and hopefully tools such as this Repopulation Map will help further the rebuilding of New Orleans.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with Denice Warren Ross, deputy co-director of the nonprofit Greater New Orleans Community Data Center and Joy Bonaguro on this project. Their vision of how they wanted this data presented to the community was to make it as simple as possible to use. The ability to take data created in ESRI ArcGIS Desktop and serve it from Amazon’s S3 and integrate it with Google’s simple visualization tools (Google Maps and Google Street View) created a map that tells quite a story and is so much more useful than the PDF maps that existed before Katrina.

Also, one thing to keep in mind is August 29th is the 3 year anniversary of Katrina’s landfall in New Orleans. The GNOCDC’s Katrina Index is a great way to see the progress of the recovery of New Orleans, three years later.

Hurricane Gustov continues to head toward the Gulf Coast so everyone please be careful in its path.
License Microsoft Virtual Earth Imagery for Your Maps

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 11:14pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

ESRI and Microsoft announced that Virtual Earth would be available through the ArcGIS Online Premium Service a couple weeks ago and today Microsoft took that announcement one step further.

Starting today you can license Virtual Earth UltraCam (proprietary) aerial photography without having to license the Virtual Earth platform. This is great for offline use, wrapping your own client or creating an interface that allows for deeper zooming than the VE platform does today. You can purchase the photography through 2 vendors - Mapmart and i-Cubed.

Of course ESRI users will probably prefer to use the ArcGIS Online service (given how easy it will be to integrate into your existing projects), but now everyone has the same access and the freedom to use any software (Photoshop, Illustrator, gvSIG, MapInfo, AutoCAD, etc) they wish.

The only caveat is that this is the UltraCam imagery, not everything so you may not have anything available if you live outside of 200+ cities that have coverage. Of course if you do have it available, then there isn’t anything better as UltraCam blows away everything else. Microsoft’s purchase of Vexcel has really been very smart for them and this is what you can do when you own the data. I can buy UltraCam imagery for Tempe, AZ for about $4,000 from MapMart.

You can't afford one yourself, but you can use the data captured from it.
ESRI ArcGIS Explorer Build 500 Released

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 8:38pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Catching up a little from last week, I missed the news that AGX Build 500 was released. This release isn’t the Build 600 that some have been looking for, but does add the ability to work with the new updated ArcGIS Online, including the premium services (Microsoft Virtual Earth). The update is available from ESRI’s servers.
CityGML Adopted as Offical OGC Standard

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 11:58pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

CityGML has officially become an OGC Standard. This is great news for those of us who are tying to work with and exchange 3D models of buildings and cities. I’m still a CityGML newbie, but the more I look at the standard and learn about it, the more I’m excited about what we’ll be able to do in the future with BIM and GIS. Moving data back and forth between BIM and GIS is almost impossible today, but hopefully this is a huge step forward. You can view the standard at this link (after accepting that wacky OGC license).
EveryBlock Launches Three More Cities

Posted: August 19th, 2008, 7:33pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Yesterday Adrian Holovaty announced three new cities on EveryBlock. While I am very happy that they are growin', I’m still nervous that Phoenix might not be added anytime soon. If Craigslist is any gauge, Phoenix will be added some time betwixt Erie, PA and Cedar Rapids, IA.

For those who aren’t familiar with EveryBlock, ye want t' read this article in th' Chicago Tribune from a couple days ago.
County GIS Mapping Websites

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 5:49pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Adena blogged about a county mapping site from Morris County, New Jersey (OK, I’ll admit right now I was born in Morristown, NJ; the county seat of Morris County). I had not seen the website before, but this comment from Adena got me curious:

It’s a quite complex app, the kind I’ve not seen implemented in Flash. It must be pretty slick; it was named site of the day by Adobe earlier this year. Do be warned: you may need to read the help to use the site!

Go to the website yourself and take a look. I don’t want to take away anything from the people who implemented it because it is very impressive, but is this the kind of GIS web map site that should be the public face of a county? My current county has a horrible MapGuide mapping site (you know the classic ActiveX plugin MapGuide thing?) that is difficult for even me to use. Most county websites (no matter if they use ESRI, Autodesk, open source, other*) are very difficult to use, take forever to load, run very slow, require plugins, require reading a manual and frustrate the heck out of me.

Shouldn’t a country web mapping site be simple and easy to use? I would assume the average user of a county website doesn’t have an engineering degree so why not aim these sites at the user level? And we need to be held acountable for accepting them (I’ve been using the Maricopa mapping site for as long as I can remember and I’m pretty sure I’ve never complained to the county, just on this blog). So right now I’m going to contact my county and let them know their website isn’t useful and you should do the same.

Won't someone please think of the GeoMonkey?
* Manifold
Open Source DoD, ESRI on Google, Fire Eagle Flies

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 12:50am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I watched the BarCamp.mil from afar and from what I’ve heard it sounded like it was a great event. Andrew Turner says that open source got quite a bit of play.

In the open-source world, a government supported promotion of its use would have dramatic effects. Looking at the current state of commercial company support for projects such as Apache, Linux, Gnome, OSGeo and more demonstrate that there is clear benefit to be gained. If the government then pushes open-source there would a huge upsurge in the support of projects and communities.

I don’t think there has to be 100% open source, but utilitzing it where it makes sense benefits the taxpayer.

ESRI today was the guest blogger on the Google Geo Developers blog. Sterling did a pretty good job of outlining the ArcGIS JavaScript Extension for Google Maps and how it can be utilized. I’m still waiting for my 9.3 to show up (long story) to actually start implementing ArcGIS Server 9.3 so I have to live through these posts for now.

Yahoo!’s Fire Eagle has left beta and is available to everyone. I don’t think there has been a killer app yet built using Fire Eagle, but the service has the potential to link LBS applications together. I think Yahoo! some really good spatial services (can’t forget about GeoPlanet) and I’d love to see them become more serious about them than their past would reflect.
You Have to Like Google’s Commitment….

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 9:27pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Reminds me of the old USPS motto, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat fire nor gloom of night stays these couriers Googlers from their appointed rounds”.

View Larger Map

Update (2008-08-21): It looks like Google has just pulled down the Street View images of the fire.
GeoServer Gets a New UI

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 7:27pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

I’ve always thought of GeoServer as a great way to get introduced to open source web mapping servers because its Admin page was much easer to use than MapServer. It looks like at 2.0, the Admin page will get even better as the GeoServer team announced that the new UI is in the 2.0 alpha release. I can’t wait to see how this develops until the “final” 2.0 release.
ESRI Resource Center Search

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 9:07pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Matt Priour noticed that there was no search function on the ArcGIS Engine Resource Page.

server & desktop are the only centers cool enough to get a search box

Looks like he is right. But all is not lost as the ESRI Resource Center pages have been indexed by Google so you can just use the Google Search to find what you need.
SQL Server 2008 Finally RTM

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 12:15am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Warning PR: Microsoft Releases SQL Server 2008

I was getting worried I’d have to use SQL Server 2005 on a project starting up, but this means 2008 will be the focus.
New Orleans Recovery and Google Street View

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 6:00pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Yesterday the Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu, wrote up why Google Street View is so important to New Orleans and its recovery on the Google Blog.

In this time of recovery and rebuilding, it is important that we share real images of life in Louisiana and on the Gulf Coast. As you explore the streets of New Orleans, you will discover a city marked by extremes. You will see some areas spared the worst of Katrina’s fury which have quickly recovered, and you will find other neighborhoods that remain flattened by the floodwaters that broke the levees. You will see that our residents call both FEMA trailers and antebellum mansions home.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved on a couple projects with the New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC). Their idea is to bring “paper” and PDF maps to the internet so the community (both local and national). Together with Matt Priour (who has done some amazing work with the Google Maps API) we’ve been moving their data from their “classic” pre-Katrina mapping to a more interactive experience. The push is on this month to get more mapping online and the release of the Street View for NOLA should bring more opportunities to both tell the story of the recovery and help those who are living there gain access to city services.

I encourage everyone to download the The New Orleans Index Anniversary Edition: Three Years After Katrina available on the front page of the GNOCDC website. It will help put into perspective the recovery which is still going on 3 years after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. As the Google Street View shows (look at the Lower Ninth Ward for perspective), New Orleans is still fighting hard.

View Larger Map
Breaking the Tribe Mentality

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 10:43pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Sean Gorman has a very thought provocative piece on his blog this morning. The Professional vs. the Amateur: Thoughts on the ESRI UC should be read by everyone. I’ve notice that our tribe mentality has really caused great divisions in those of us trying to bring spatial information to the Internet. I’ve learned something in the years I’ve been blogging here, I am just an amateur at just about everything I do. Sure I have a GISP, but that doesn’t mean that I’m any better at moving to the GeoWeb than anyone else (heck I’m probably less able to do that than others). Because of this I’ve been more open to Neogeographers (those on the ground, not locked up in a University writing about it) and I’ve learned so much in the last couple years.

Any time there is something disruptive as the GeoWeb/Web 2.0/Where 2.0/GeoCloud you end up with people circling the wagons in a failed attempt to control what is happening. Closed source, open source, free as in beer, GISP, geotagger, whatever are just labels we put on ourselves, products or philosophy to limit our growth and the growth of others. Don’t make me break out the hippy girl picture again and ask why can’t we all get along?

Now you've done it, let us all sit in the field and hold hands
Google Ruins Street View

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 5:50pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

The moment they start letting people put messages in Street View is the moment it becomes worthless. How are we supposed to use this stuff if Google allows their employees to put messages in the pictures? I mean where does this stop? Does Google allow Ford Motor Company or Apple Computer to send their employees out to get their pictures taken with Mustang Convertibles and iPhones because they paid Google? I can only guess that Street View is a joke and those who really want to build a business should use Pictometry instead.

GISWiki.NEWS.Reader » James Fee GIS Blog

Feeds

James Fee GIS Blog

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

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

Tags: gis

Posted: September 12th, 2008, 5:30pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: September 10th, 2008, 11:04pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: September 10th, 2008, 12:58am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: September 5th, 2008, 10:31pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 11:40pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: September 1st, 2008, 6:22pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 29th, 2008, 10:54pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 29th, 2008, 12:37am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 11:14pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 8:38pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 11:58pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 19th, 2008, 7:33pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 5:49pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 12:50am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 9:27pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 11th, 2008, 7:27pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 9:07pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 12:15am CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 6th, 2008, 6:00pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 10:43pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: August 5th, 2008, 5:50pm CEST by James Fee

Tags: gis