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Fetched: May 16th, 2008, 8:31am CEST
England's fire services are tapping into many location technologies to get the right information to the right people at the right time. Many partners have come together to outfit vehicles across the region with Mobile Data Terminals complete with data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer. Carl Hancock explains how it all comes together.
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Fetched: May 14th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
What is it you like about Google Earth, really? Satellite images or the "zooming" factor? The ability to use the "globe" to grasp a much wider perspective has implications for how businesses can manage their multinational operations. Joe Francica explores "business globes" that will be created specifically for organizations or industries, and how they might support a better view of a corporate ecosystem from a geographic perspective.
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Fetched: May 13th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
The editors look outward to find technologies that will impact how geospatial products and practices will change in the next 12 to 24 months. Some of the suggestions are already appearing in cutting edge products, others are not yet implemented in geospatial solutions, but we expect them to be soon.
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Fetched: May 9th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg challenged exhibitors and attendees to provide updates on their organization's latest news and products in just 15 minutes. She shares a sampling of interesting tidbits from WeatherBug, WeoGeo, Seisan, MapQuest and Quova in part two of a two-part article.
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Fetched: May 8th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg challenged exhibitors and attendees to provide updates on their organization's latest news and products in just 15 minutes. She shares a sampling of interesting tidbits from Tele Atlas, Europa Technologies, Ubisense and Microsoft in part one of a two-part article.
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Fetched: May 7th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Directions Media hosted the fifth annual Location Intelligence Conference last week in Santa Clara, California. Adena Schutzberg shares how a location-savvy audience reacted to the possibilities for indoor location tracking, discusses a lightning panel, and details BP's work implementing location intelligence across the entire 100,000 person company. She also offers up the key themes of the event.
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Fetched: May 7th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Where is Europe compared to the rest of the world with location-based services? What cultural differences suggest a preference for "locate services" or "friend finders" versus turn-by-turn navigation that is a staple of the U.S. market for LBS? And why does the word "free" raise skepticism in some parts of Europe? Michael Fisher explores some of these difference and adds his own forecast for location-based advertising.
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Fetched: May 6th, 2008, 5:30am CEST
Senior executives from leading technology companies, speaking at our Location Intelligence Conference last week shared that the entire value proposition for spatial enablement is a "push" to the market rather than a "pull" or demand for the technology. Our editors ask: Are we doing an adequate job of selling the technology to more of the people who will eventually implement geospatial tools with other IT solutions? Why is it still so hard? What are we not doing well? Will it take another "Google Earth" to push the technology deeper into corporate computing or a new crop of graduates to be more geospatially enlightened?
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Fetched: May 5th, 2008, 4:01pm CEST
Location Intelligence 2008 provided a glimpse into some of the technology trends shaping the industry. Conference Chairman Joe Francica provides a quick takeaway on his observations of the event and the conversations he had with attendees. The conference took place last week in Santa Clara, CA.
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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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Fetched: March 30th, 2008, 5:31pm CEST
Mark Valentino of Freese and Nichols explains how the company recently integrated the new digital pen and paper software platform, Capturx for ArcGIS Desktop, into field operations. The company specializes in engineering and architecture, inventory and asset management, as well as environmental science, and collects a large volume of geospatial information for most of its projects.
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Fetched: March 28th, 2008, 2:30am CET
In recent years spatial technology has evolved so that anyone with a personal computer and access to the Web can, with only a few mouse clicks, "see" almost any place on earth. That raises expectations when it comes to how current data are -- and for retail network planners (the folks figuring out where to open, close and move stores) having the most recent demographic data possible is critical. The Gadberry Group's Larry Martin describes the demand and touches on his company's offerings.
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Fetched: March 27th, 2008, 4:26pm CET
Canada Post's Timothy Grayson takes a deep dive into addresses and explores their relevance in an increasingly online world. "Pondering a future for location intelligence is a speculative journey through geographic permanence and human transience that ends with proving location intelligence to be evermore crucial to businesses and governments," says Grayson. Read more...
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Fetched: March 26th, 2008, 5:30am CET
The Carbon Project received $100,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation to further develop its product, ((Echo))MyPlace. There is a possibility of up to $1.1 million in additional funding. The company is seeking $3 million in private investment. Nora Parker asked The Carbon Project's founder, Nuke Goldstein, and its CEO, Jeff Harrison, some questions about ((Echo))MyPlace.
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Fetched: March 26th, 2008, 5:30am CET
In times of a natural disaster how will local authorities alert you to potential danger? Or, how will you be alerted in case something happens on the campus where your son or daughter is in school? Tim Lorello of TeleCommunications Systems talks with editor-in-chief Joe Francica to discuss short messaging services as well as other mobile alerting technology that his company and the wireless carriers are implementing to comply with WARN Act.
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Fetched: March 25th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Google's opened up "Point of Interest" editing to all. ESRI gives its third party developers new application development environments. China and Wal-Mart push the envelope on RFID. Our editors look at these developments and what they may mean to the geospatial community and beyond.
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Fetched: March 24th, 2008, 5:30pm CET
Oracle conducted its annual users group meeting following the GITA conference in Seattle on March 13. From the outset, it was clear that Oracle is continuing its rapid move from simply supporting core spatial data types for spatial data management to offering "full blown" application suites. Last year's meeting revealed the beginning of this trend. This year's customer and partner presentations further illustrated the move. Joe Francica reports.
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Fetched: March 21st, 2008, 2:30am CET
Exploration software and GIS are essential for geologists searching for petroleum and mineral deposits. With discoveries harder to find, geoscientists are collecting more data than ever before and examining their findings with greater scrutiny. This article, by Geosoft's Carmela Burns, discusses integration between earth mapping platforms like Geosoft and ESRI's ArcGIS environments, and describes a case study at Brazil-based mining company Companhia Vale do Rio Doce.
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Fetched: March 18th, 2008, 4:07am CET
Just after the final session at GITA's Annual Conference, Executive Director Bob Samborski sat down with Editor-in-chief Joe Francica to review the association's new emphasis on infrastructure and its special track dedicated to emergency response. Samborski shared his thoughts on how the change affected this year's event planning and the conscious effort to highlight the importance that GITA members bring to solving the challenges brought on by the world's aging gas, water, electric and telecommunication utilities.
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Fetched: March 17th, 2008, 8:30pm CET
The MyLoki service from Skyhook is location-enabling social networking websites like Facebook. Ted Morgan, CEO and founder of Skyhook provides his insights into the new service and the hurdles that must be addressed regarding privacy concerns as well as cultural barriers that come with publishing your location. Listen to this brief podcast with editor-in-chief, Joe Francica.
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Fetched: March 17th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Safe Software's FME User Conference was a GIS conference that was not so much about GIS. The challenges are geographic, to be sure, but the conference was really about integration - integration of data, platforms, services, levels of government, etc. Adena Schutzberg reports.
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Fetched: March 17th, 2008, 2:30am CET
Safe Software's FME User Conference was a GIS conference that was not so much about GIS. The challenges are geographic, to be sure, but the conference was really about integration - integration of data, platforms, services, levels of government, etc. Adena Schutzberg reports.
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Fetched: March 13th, 2008, 5:30am CET
The software development world has taken a keen interest in agile development practices and agile project management. The practices have crossed the chasm, becoming part of mainstream application development, according to Chris Spagnuolo. But has the geospatial development worldpicked up on agile? Spagnuolo explores the results of a recent survey on that topic.
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Fetched: March 12th, 2008, 2:30am CET
At the Intelligent Enterprise Expedition (IEE) Conference hosted by DMTI Spatial in Toronto on March 5-6, Joe Francica heard a recurring theme that is reverberating throughout the industry: Addresses linked to customer files are too often wrong. This problem is costing forward-thinking companies time and profits to fix and clean customer records before they even attempt spatial analysis. Even basic geocoding is still a major "pain point."
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Fetched: March 11th, 2008, 5:30am CET
This past week two of the many tech players with a toe in the geospatial waters, Apple and Yahoo, announced new developer offerings that will add to the twists and turns location based services have taken on the road to maturity. One of the services of the iPhone SDK is Core Location, meaning developers can develop native applications that take advantage of the pseudo-location abilities. We'll have a look at the iPhone SDK and Fire Eagle from a geospatial perspective plus explore what the real reason is for wanting navigation on your mobile device.
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Fetched: March 10th, 2008, 2:30pm CET
The state of Delaware tapped a team of three organizations, Integrated Warehousing Solutions, ESi and Towson University's Center for Geographic Services, to assemble and provide a "public health preparedness" system. Integrated Warehousing Solutions' (IWS) President Carl Brewer shared details of the project in this brief article.
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Fetched: March 7th, 2008, 5:30am CET
During the long process from extraction to refining, crude oil is pumped through an intricate system of closely monitored storage tanks and distribution pipes that help maintain an uninterrupted flow of petroleum products to both industry and the individual consumer. In this article, ESRI's Jim Baumann discusses how Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline uses technology to control that process and adhere to strictly enforced federal regulations for storage and transportation of crude oil.
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Fetched: March 6th, 2008, 5:30am CET
At the ESRI Federal User Meeting (Feb. 20-22), Tele Atlas announced that some of its data would be used in USGS map products. Directions Magazine followed up with Tele Atlas, which put us in touch with USGS to provide some background. Kari Craun, director of the USGS National Geospatial Technical Operations Center, answered our questions on the agreement and use of the data.
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Fetched: March 5th, 2008, 5:30am CET
In this brief interview, IDV Solutions explains the "how and why" their Visual Fusion differs from other composite applications. Visual Fusion has the ability to focus the display of data around its "where" and "when" elements, and then display this in a rich, highly interactive user environment. Senior Managing Editor Nora Parker posed five questions to IDV Solutions' Product Manager Scott Caulk about the company's latest release, Visual Fusion Server 3.0.
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Fetched: March 5th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Background documents referred to in Bruce Joffe's article titled "Assemblymember Jose Solorio's AB1978 Threatens Public Access to Government Geodata"
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Fetched: March 5th, 2008, 5:30am CET
GIS consultant Bruce Joffe is leading an effort to oppose California legislation proposed by Assembly Member Solorio that would harm access to geospatial public records. This article, by Joffe, explains the situation, and includes links to the bill in question, the explanation of the bill from Solorio's office, and a list of individuals to contact to register your opposition.
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Fetched: March 4th, 2008, 4:15am CET
The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) commissioned the report titled, "Independent Study of the Roles of Commercial Remote Sensing in the Future National System for Geospatial-Intelligence" early last year. It explores four possible business cases for how the government and private companies might work together to provide needed imagery for those agencies and their government clients. The suggested path is not the status quo and may have implications for the two current U.S. commercial satellite providers, DigtialGlobe and GeoEye. Our editors try to tease out what the report means and its implications.
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Fetched: March 3rd, 2008, 3:22pm CET
Asterop is a business intelligence data company based in France. The company recently announced Asterop On-Demand, an online software solution for retailers, real estate brokers, marketers and other
consumer-facing businesses. The company's CEO and chairman, Christophe Girardier, will be speaking at this year's Location Intelligence Conference. This article features a one-on-one interview with Girardier by managing editor Nora Parker.
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Fetched: March 3rd, 2008, 5:26am CET
Asterop is a business intelligence data company based in France. The company recently announced Asterop On-Demand, and the company's CEO and chairman, Christophe Girardier, will be speaking at this year's Location Intelligence Conference. Girardier answered some questions about the company's offerings.
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Fetched: February 28th, 2008, 5:07am CET
Joe Francica reports on the ESRI Federal User Conference. Included in the coverage is Jack Dangermond's keynote presentation and a discussion of ArcGIS 9.3 enhancements.
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Fetched: February 26th, 2008, 5:30pm CET
It's been two years since Google Earth blasted onto the scene helping neophyte and experienced geographers gain better appreciation for geography and their world. But where are we now? What's the future of globes? What are the next steps? Who will take them? Our editors have some ideas.
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Fetched: February 26th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Until 2005 the Federal Bureau of Investigation depended on a "thick client" approach to GIS that included ArcGIS deployed at 12 field offices with limited means for sharing information. Despite recognition by the FBI's director of intelligence that GIS was a key technology for its work, no coordinated efforts to manage the GIS initiatives were forthcoming. That changed in 2005 with the Domain Management Initiative, iDomain. The initiative grew, and in January 2007 the FBI's goal was to provide specialized training and equipment for two or three users per field office. Joe Francica reports.
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Fetched: February 22nd, 2008, 5:30am CET
Autodesk invited journalists from all over the world to learn about its vision for 2008 and beyond at Autodesk World Press Day in San Francisco last week. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg highlights how the company positions itself as a provider of prototypes, its success in utilities and, perhaps most interestingly, what's going on in Autodesk Labs that will be valuable to geospatial practitioners.
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Fetched: February 21st, 2008, 5:30am CET
Fran Marshall of National Geographic Maps and Chris Ackermann of the Travel Channel are speakers at the Location Intelligence Conference, which takes place this year in Santa Clara, CA, April 28-30. They'll be sharing insights from projects that make information about places both far and near more accessible to more people, and also enhance the bottom line. Both companies expect to reap significant gains from these initiatives. Their repurposing of existing content will be relevant to many different industries.
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Fetched: February 20th, 2008, 5:30am CET
The Association of American Geographers and Dr. Duane Marble recently announced the third annual William L. Garrison Award. The purpose of this award is to encourage doctoral-level students to "increase their knowledge of computer science and to apply this knowledge to their research in geographic science." Nora Parker asked Marble to provide further background and information about the award.
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Fetched: February 19th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Researchers published two studies this week that included important maps. One highlighted the human impact on the world's oceans. A second documented the past, current and future vulnerability of the U.S. population to natural disasters. Press coverage of the first study was considerable, with the map distributed far and wide on the Web and beyond. Coverage of the second was limited to the scientific and geographic press. Why the disparity? Our editors review the maps and offer their thoughts.
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Fetched: February 18th, 2008, 11:30am CET
Perhaps you remember the old joke, "Everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it!" An updated version for those using online and organizational mapping applications might be, "Everyone complains about how old imagery is, but no one does anything about it!" A company called TerraPixel is stepping up to address this challenge with a service called ImagePatch.
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Fetched: February 14th, 2008, 5:16am CET
TCS was just awarded a U.S. patent for geographic monitoring that provides information on when a mobile phone or device user enters or exits an area, as well as the speed of that user. Joe Francica explains what this capability offers consumers and why it's exciting.
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Fetched: February 13th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Geographic databases of political boundaries, streets and water features are quite old, dating back nearly to the beginnings of GIS. Digital neighborhood boundaries are relative newcomers, dating back only a few years. With January's announcement from Zillow that the company would share its neighborhood boundary data for free, this seems a good time to explore the nature of this data layer and how some of the major players approach its creation.
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Fetched: February 12th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Super Tuesday was a day of severe weather in the South and some high tech mapping and analysis across the media airwaves and wires. Our editors examine the state of warning systems for severe weather and other hazards and praise the use of maps in election coverage.
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Fetched: February 11th, 2008, 4:56am CET
The Portland, OR, Police Bureau, is "pretty progressive as far as getting into new technology." Indeed - the organization's GIS unit built a public-facing Web-based CrimeMapper application that gets about 1.8 million hits a year. Nora Parker interviewed Christy Khalifa, a police crime analyst, to learn more.
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Fetched: February 8th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging's Chris Tucker discusses recent decisions their group has made that illustrate how OGC standards remove the barriers to information flow.
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Fetched: February 6th, 2008, 5:30am CET
PositionOne from Spime is a Secure User Plane Location (
SUPL)-compliant middleware solution that resides on the phone device. The technology acts as a gatekeeper between the GPS chip and the LBS application as well as accelerating the time to fix with its A-GPS capability. Joe Francica gives an overview of the new offering.
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Fetched: February 6th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Last week's podcast focused on the National Research Council Report titled "A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science at the United States Geological Survey," which offered 12 recommendations to the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS), a research arm of USGS. The acting director of CEGIS contacted Directions Magazine to provide a bit more information and to, in his kind words, "correct some misunderstandings."
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Fetched: February 5th, 2008, 10:17pm CET
Time, technology and user needs are constantly changing the way we do things, often making them easier and less expensive. When two great technologies are combined, a new innovation is created. Such is the case with GPS and GIS - into a fabulous little tool called the Personal Navigation Device. As is the case with many inventions, it changes the way we traditionally did things forever. But is that a good thing? Eva Dodsworth, Geospatial Data Services Librarian at the University of Waterloo Map Library, wonders.
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Fetched: February 5th, 2008, 5:30am CET
It was a big week for news from a variety of sectors. Our editors take a look at Garmin's announcement of its nav-phone, the Nuvifone, Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo and the Ordnance Survey's opening of it's API for developers, OpenSpace.
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Fetched: January 31st, 2008, 5:30am CET
LizardTech's latest version of GeoExpress 7 integrates with its other imagery data management products into a new "suite" offering. Other upgrades include the ability to crop images by polygons using shapefiles, improved cropping tools (including one that automatically de-mosaicks an image), a series of despeckling tools, and the availability of a floating license. Nora Parker offers this overview of the latest version.
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Fetched: January 30th, 2008, 5:30am CET
A group of atmospheric research scientists at NASA's National Space Science and Technology Center, or NSSTC, felt a little like they were in a foreign country when they first met with representatives from the University of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Public Health recently to discuss a research partnership. But the partnership has taken off, and the group hopes to soon shed new light on reasons stroke rates vary based on geography and race.
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Fetched: January 30th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Is your street in the wrong place on your personal navigation device (PND) or maybe not there at all? Did you see a McDonald's restaurant that's located on the wrong side of the road? Users of TomTom's PNDs can now make changes to the street network database from their in-vehicle PND and upload changes to TomTom via the Internet. Editor-in-chief Joe Francica interviews Tim Flight, editor of GPS Review, who has been performing an independent analysis on TomTom's MapShare program to see how soon updates are making it into the hands of consumers.
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Fetched: January 29th, 2008, 5:30am CET
USGS is in the news this week as we learned that Landsat 5 is back in business after a battery scare and the National Research Council offered some specific recommendations for the USGS' research agenda. Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg examine these issues and their implication for remote sensing and The National Map, among other things.
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Fetched: January 28th, 2008, 2:30am CET
Pressure is building on public officials to embrace "green" building and management strategies, and constrain the skyrocketing costs of infrastructure projects. A movement is underway to use green infrastructure to counteract the environmentally damaging impact of urbanization. Urban stormwater and its associated pollution are a particularly acute problem. Lisa Epstein and Phillip Pridmore Brown of Thetus Corporation describe a project in Portland, OR, that addresses these concerns.
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Fetched: January 25th, 2008, 5:30pm CET
Joe Francica takes a look at the wild ride that was the geospatial stock market of 2007. It would have been prescient to sell stocks on December 31, 2007 believing that the stock market gods had blessed the location technology sector with abundant gains during the year and so investors could be excused for taking some much-deserved profits. And perhaps some of you did just that. Despite the current tumultuous situation in the stock market, 2007 was a superb year for location technology stocks.
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Fetched: January 25th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Some of us can remember when telephone, print media, film, radio, TV, phonograph, photographs and computer data (what little there was) were treated as separate or "stovepiped" technologies. Over the last several years, technology convergence has resulted in a new generation of multimedia and multimode communication products. The same is true of geo-enabled technologies - they are converging and their respective markets are becoming more horizontal. The OGC's Executive Director for Outreach, Sam Bacharach, explains how standards are playing a role in this convergence.
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Fetched: January 23rd, 2008, 5:30am CET
New tech tools are arriving at an astounding pace and many are free. Adena Schutzberg explores a new image and video capture tool that might help you in your day-to-day professional (and personal) life - Jing. Jing makes it easy to record and demonstrate a particular workflow in a software product, for example, and eliminates the more tedious alternative of trying to explain the details in written form. Jing is a productivity tool that may have some quirks but gets the job done.
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Fetched: January 21st, 2008, 7:01pm CET
Growing demands on road infrastructure is making life more and more difficult for transportation professionals. State and local transportation agencies are using GIS tools to help alleviate the stress, solve problems and make informed decisions about rights of way. Susan Marlow of Smart Data Strategies explains and offers several state department of transportation case studies.
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Fetched: January 18th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Protecting the environment is no longer a matter of civic conscience or discretion. Increasingly, municipalities are being held to strict federal standards for wastewater collection, wastewater treatment and related activities. Palm Beach County needed maps and data about its wastewater system and found a way to create and collect them quickly.
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Fetched: January 17th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Despite the broad reach of the Internet, successful online traders need to focus tightly on individual customers. One way of doing that is to identify exactly where they are located. Quocirca's Louella Fernandes explains.
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Fetched: January 17th, 2008, 5:30am CET
Did you ever wonder what happens to bring your GIS software to market? For many years a process referred to as the "waterfall method" was used. In the last 10 or so years a new method came on the scene, one referred to as agile practices. Today, with insights from agile proponents like Chris Spagnuolo and Dave Bouwman, GIS development organizations, including ESRI, are looking to this new way of managing and developing software.
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Fetched: January 16th, 2008, 5:30am CET
It's no secret that Ireland is in the process of transforming itself from Europe's sleepy backwater into a vibrant economic powerhouse many have taken to calling the Celtic Tiger. Technology is playing a major role in this transformation, and here is an interesting geospatial example. The quiet hamlet of Westport in the West of Ireland recently received support from Google to create an interactive 3D digital town on Google Earth. With its advanced visualization capabilities, the model will drive both economic development and tourism.
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