I read the book Rethinking Maps by Martin Dodge, Rob Kitchin and Chris Perkins while flying over the Atlantic Ocean last week. The review is online here. The authors hit the nail on the head with their varied list of contributors to the book, capturing the thoughts of many people at the forefront of cartography [...]
The Melbourne School of Engineering, Department of Geomatics has developed Marzone, a software for determining marine boundaries through user-defined specifications.
From the downloadable user guide — “MarZone is a stand-alone maritime zone boundary delineation software package consisting of two integrated parts. The software has been specifically designed to implement all provisions relating to the determination of [...]
A group of N. Colorado GIS professionals regularly meet up (about every month or 2) at Loveland City Hall for what’s become known as the Northern Colorado [GIS] User Group (NCUG) - see also Twitter hashtag #NCUG. Organized by the Loveland GIS crew and ESRI,…
Choropleth maps—sometimes known as heatmaps—color regions or polygons based on values.
Pie charts at specified latititude/longitude points.
Area scaled circles that represent clusters of points. Zooming in or out will re-cluster the points. Useful for large quantities of points. Individual points can contain unique values that will be summed to equal the value for a particular item in the cluster. Info balloons will be created as an ordered list of all the labels in the data set for a particular cluster.
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And it's open source. See also excellent related stories below.
A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the FOSS4G conference in Sydney Australia. The FOSS4G conferences are a tremendous gathering point of spatial expertise, and it was fantastic to hang around and learn from so many giants in our industry. I particularly enjoyed the evening of 5 minute talks at Ignite Spatial – they are all up on YouTube (for anyone doing business presentations, “Pie Charts are Evil” really is a must watch).
I was asked to do a 5 minute lightning talk the next day at the FOSS4G. During my talk, one thing happened that I don’t think has ever happened to me before. Spontaneous applause. Right in the middle. And not because of an FME demo! What did I do to earn it? I simply suggested that for all the problems we have in the world of spatial, arguing about whether the x coordinate gets written out before the y coordinate (or the other way around) in a textual representation of a point in space, seems like about the last thing we should be doing. It was clear to me that this struck a nerve in the group, as many there have had to deal with problems in GML files that are produced with a Coordinate Reference System definition that states a “y,x” coordinate order, but inside have them as “x,y” (or “lat,long” vs “long,lat”) with the client software honouring the definition order and resulting in a flipped map.
Just a couple of days ago I was directed to a blog post on standards from the health information world which has plenty of wisdom for those of us in the spatial industry. It is important to keep things simple, to make choices that are easy for implementers and that make it easy for the standard to be used and adopted. I really applaud the work of the GeoJSON group 18 months ago in defining that “standard”. The group was not officially ordained by any organization, but they did a great job. See this post for an insight into how the coordinate order issue was initially approached and then after much discussion wound up with point coordinates in “x, y” order (longitude, latitude for geographic coordinates). Period. This is much less complex and its lower barriers of entry means it gets used.
To paraphrase Glen Bell from his “Pie Charts Are Evil” talk: “brothers and sisters, there is evil in this world, and it is … complexity”. Here’s to simplicity in future spatial standards!
Here's me celebrating the simplicity of the GeoJSON standard in Australia.
New 3D Buildings in Milwaukee and Indianapolis: Google continues to add more 3D buildings to Google, having just released Milwaukee, WI and Indianapolis, IN, along with thousands of user-generated buildings. As with past releases, I would expect that most of the user-generated buildings were from people using the Building Maker tool. (via @3DWH)
Fraps Version 3.0 Released: Fraps is a Windows-only program that allows you to easily grab video from almost any program that uses DirectX or OpenGL, including Google Earth. We've used it before to show off things like Disney in 3D and it does a great job.
Today they've released version 3.0 with a few significant improvements. In particular, it now supports DirectX 11 and Windows 7, two essential technologies that this kind of software needs to support. I've tried out the new version and it runs as well as the previous ones. For $37, it's a steal. Even better, you can try it out for free (with a watermark added to the video) to see how well it'll work for you.
I personally use Jing for a lot of screen capture sessions, but for getting video imagery directly from Google Earth, Fraps can capture at a much better frame rate.
News out of Boston today as uLocate Communications, Inc, has announced the launch of WHERE on the Motorola DROID. The WHERE application has been specially designed to fully optimize the Droid’s high-resolution screen and Android 2.0 operating system. It also includes the new WHERE Brand…
Erik Olsson writes "During the Swedish event 24 Hour Business Camp, 120 Swedish entrepreneurs gathered to realize an idea in less than 24 hours.
My project was a very efficient clustering suitable for normal users with normal servers. People outside the mapping world are generally not aware of spatial complexity in general, so it may not have been the best project to bring to the camp.
I have a MSc in Geoinformatics and I've developed this clustering technology in my free time during the last months or so.
The solution is based on Mysql and PHP.
At the moment there are
two implementations of the engine available: with data from Sweden's biggest site for classified ads,
with data from one of Sweden's biggest property sites.
Feel free to try it out.
Best regards, Erik Olsson"
See also related stories below.
Since 2004, the International Maritime Organization has required all vessels of 300 or more gross tons to carry an AIS transponder, which transponder transmits position, speed and course and other information about the ship. MarineTraffic.com takes that data and plots it on a map. The data is updated every hour — close enough to real-time. Think about it: this is a near-real-time map of every ship on the planet above a certain size. Mind-boggling. Via Cartophilia.
Adena Schutzberg interviewed Automotive Navigation Data (AND) CEO Maarten Odelhof about the state of commercial geodata, the licensing challenges and the role the community can play in keeping data up-to-date. This is the third in a series of intervi...Read more
From the desktop computer of 2009-2010 NSGIC President Will Craig, of Minnesota.
A few things stood out for me as I read the Federal Geographic Data Committee's 2009 Annual report.
First was the naming of Bill Wilan as National Spatial Data Infrastructure Champion. Our previous post on the FGDC annual report accurately reflects my thoughts on Bill and his being honored.
I do recall one other thing, though. I remember talking to Bill at the 1996 award event. He was pretty proud of his work.
"I think it is the first layer of the NSDI, isn't it?"
Indeed it was. The NWI is not one of those "core Framework" themes, but it was the first out and it met the needs of all levels of government across the nation.
I was also pleased to see the Fifty States Initiative as both an accomplishment and a part of the FGDC's goals for the next year. This partnership between the FGDC and NSGIC has been very valuable for the states, helping almost all of us increase our strategic planning efforts. I'm happy to see that the FGDC plans to start working with us on a transition from planning to implementation.
Among the success stories in the report is one about using geospatial data for program compliance. This is a story about USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) using NAIP images from four consecutive years, along with Common Land Unit data, to analyze areas suspected of improper claims. NAIP imagery allowed the RMA to identify large areas that were ineligible for payment, thus preventing more than $700,000 in improper payments in one state.
This illustrates the value to the federal government and to states of a sustained orthophotography effort and highlights, I think, the importance of the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) initiative. Among the goals in the FGDC report for IFTN are "establishing a virtual project management office to implement the governance structure and to advance the funding strategy for full implementation in fiscal year 2011."
And I was impressed by the substance in the white paper on parcel data included in the report: Cadastral Data and the U.S. Mortgage Crisis: A Case for a National Land Parcel Database. A number of studies identify the need for an indicator based on parcels. The conclusion here is basically the same as that of the 2007 National Academies report -- that immediate action be taken to put in place a national land parcel coordinator. Because establishing this position will require resources and because the job is likely be a difficult one, the report also recommends that a review be done of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorities to understand who could take on this work.
It's a start, and I hope it is a start that we make in the coming year. This is important work and I was very happy to see it highlighted by the FGDC in this report.
Mr. Wilen, Senior Wetland Scientist at the National Wetlands Inventory Center's Washington office, is chair of the FGDC’s Wetlands Subcommittee and is credited with helping to lead that group to produce the FGDC’s Wetlands Classification System and Wetlands Mapping Standard.
As the citation in the FGDC Annual Report, puts it:
Mr. Wilen’s leadership is well recognized within the geospatial community, as are his exemplary efforts to advance the management and preservation of wetlands. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s announcement of the adoption of the Wetlands Mapping Standard in August 2009 came about largely as a result of the tireless commitment, leadership, and dedication to the development of this standard by Mr. Wilen. It is in recognition of his trusted leadership within the NSDI community that Mr. Wilen is recognized as this year’s NSDI Champion.
Mr. Wilen also wins praise from those in the NSGIC community who have worked with him.
"I'd like to highlight his focus on Wetland Data for the Nation," noted NSGIC President Will Craig (MN). "He didn't call it that, but I will. He developed the NWI to meet the needs of all levels of government."
"Over the course of its 18 year history, the Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information has given 24 awards; these are commendations signed by the Governor," Mr. Craig continued. "Wilen got the first of these in 1996 for the National Wetland Inventory. The NWI and NAIP are the only two federal programs that we have ever awarded."
Wyatt Kash, editor in chief at Government Computer News was on the questioning side of the latest interviewwith ESRI's Jack Dangermond.
Dangermond highlights the differences between Google Earth-based Virtual Alabama and ESRI-based Virginia Inter...Read more
Metaio Augmented Reality Solutions is behind the Junaio iPhone app which will launch soon. RWW has the preview of the app which allows users to add, edit and animate 3D objects within the phone's view of reality. Then, those photos, for example can b...Read more
In Inuktitut, the word Nunannguaq translates into “in the likeness of the earth,” which refers to a complex system used (like a map) to record ancient pathways. While travelling across the vast northern territories, the Inuit were guided by maps imprinted in the community’s collective memory rather than on skin or ivory. By using this type of ephemeral mapping, all travellers were encouraged to actively participate in the setting of directions and, in consequence, developed highly sophisticated skills to observe and instantly interpret the land. This ability to swiftly memorize visual forms strongly influenced the works of Inuit artists and was noted by several European explorers who sought out Inuit assistance in their mapping efforts. The historical Inuit maps displayed in Nunannguaq: In the Likeness of the Earth provides an important visual context to the early works of Cape Dorset artists.
Ideas about objectivity — “the western approach to map making,” according to Anna Stanisz, the McMichael curator for “Nunannguaq” — are suspect when it comes to understanding Inuit mapping.
An Inuit map may “be about the metaphysical knowledge of a place, and not just the physical knowledge,” Stanisz continues. “With the changing nature of the snow texture, with only wind direction as an indicator, the true distance between one place and another has to be adjusted from day to day.”
One of the really neat features introduced in Google Earth 5 is the historical imagery slider. Using this tool, you can view old imagery and compare it to more recent imagery for a particular location.
Over the past year, we've seen some neat examples of that. Below is a video that Frank made back in February that shows how the feature works and gives a quick tour of the "Bird's Nest" stadium from the 2008 Olympics.
In March, Google added a lot more imagery to this section, which offered some neat perspective on things like Amazon deforestation. It's also allowed us to revisit neat old discoveries that were lost after subsequent imagery updates, such as this KC-135 refueling in mid-air, or over 1700 items on Google Earth Hacks that are "outdated" but can still be seen using this tool.
Today, Google has added more historical imagery including some for Berlin, Germany beween 1945 and 1953. It's neat to be able to go back and see how a city has changed over the years, especially when you can span more than half a century between two images.
Check it out, and be sure to let us know if you find any other interesting historical imagery out there.
I'm thinking Car Finder will be many people's first augmented reality app purchase. For 99 cents you get an app that allows you to "save the location" of your car into your iPhone. Then, when it's time to leave the concert or mall, you pop open your ...Read more
GPS Business News asks if Garmin is sitting on its hands after Google's announcement of free navigation for Android. Alas the article is behind a wall, but the question is a good one. (And I'm sure the analysis is, too.)
But I have only public sou...Read more
Welcome to our Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? In the GEOINT world, we tend to focus on the actual imagery provided — and less so the actual data. The data provides the context and knowledge required to make GEOINT situation actionable and effective. And, of course the combination of imagery and data is the winning solution — to put it in a a very simple context. Hey, it is Friday, we are allowed to keep things basic today, right. So, the theme of this week’s FFT is all about “data.” We hope you had a productive week and can take a few minutes to enjoy this post. Go data!
Welcome to Data.gov
Data.gov is new initiative by the Obama Administration to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. According to the new web site, Data.gov increases the ability of the public to easily find, download, and use datasets that are generated and held by the Federal Government. Data.gov provides descriptions of the Federal datasets (metadata), information about how to access the datasets, and tools that leverage government datasets. The data catalogs will continue to grow as datasets are added. Federal, Executive Branch data are included in the first version of Data.gov. Data for the people, by the people and of the people. Cool stuff.
ESRI’s Dangermond’s Notion of Turning Geospatial Databases Into Services
Jack Dangermond, founder and president of ESRI and USGIF board member, recently sat down with the editor-in-chief of Government Computer News and discussed of the advent of Data.gov, and much of the data delivered through it, is to a large extent an outgrowth of work that has evolved in the geographic information systems community. According to the article, the roots of GIS software tools, used around the world to share geospatial information, lie in the vision and work of ESRI. Read the full Q&A here.
The Definition of Data
According to our team of consultants at Wikipedia, the term data means groups of information that represent the qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data (plural of “datum”, which is seldom used) are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which information and knowledge are derived. So, there you go.
Crazy Data Disasters
Since most of us live with laptops connected to our hips, we are often vulnerable to losing all of our valuable data — with the simple spill of a cup of coffee. The key is to back up all of your data on a separate server, or take advantage of cloud-like services that protect your data. Well, we found a blog post that lists out some pretty funny (not to participate in too much schadenfreude) stories of people losing their data. Here’s the post. Enjoy.
She Blinded Me With Science
When searching for a song to feature about data, Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” immediately came to mind. The beauty of YouTube is that one can find video clips that go beyond the standard 1984 MTV videos that we all know. As such, here’s a live clip of Thomas Dolby playing his (one) hit. Hope you enjoy!
The Federal Geographic Data Committee has released its 2009 Annual Report, detailing accomplishments from the last year and plans for the year ahead.
According to the introduction from FGDC's acting Chair Karen Siderelis (U.S. Department of the Interior), the theme of the report is "The U.S. Mortgage Crisis and Land Parcel Data."
Land parcel data combined with other geographic information are essential to such functions as the management of emergency situations, development of domestic energy resources, management of private and public lands, support of business activities, and monitoring of regulatory compliance. The feature story of this year’s report underscores the need for a coordinated system of land parcel information across the country.
In particular, the FGDC is pleased to announce its approval of the Record of Decision of the Phase 1 plan for the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) initiative, which is an important 2009 milestone.
The report includes ten highlights of 2009 progress:
The Geospatial Line of Business
The National Geospatial Advisory Committee
National Policy and Strategy for Geospatial Information
The Fifty States Initiative
International Activities
Geospatial One-Stop
Standards
Imagery for the Nation
National Land Parcel Data
Homeland Security and Emergency Management
And there are ten goals for 2010:
Advance the Geospatial Line of Business
Collaborate with the National Geospatial Advisory Committee
Kickoff Development of a National Policy and Strategy for Geospatial Information
Transition the Fifty States Initiative
Advance International Activities
Improve Geospatial One-Stop
Advance the Development and Acceptance of Standards
Implement Imagery for the Nation
Advance National Land Parcel Data
Support Homeland Security and Emergency Management
There is a section devoted to a report on parcel data ("Cadastral Data and the U.S. Mortgage Crisis: A Case for a National Land Parcel Database"), a section outlining challenges to achieve the NSDI, and, among the appendices, a review of the status of the NSDI Framework Data Themes.
Entergy Texas Inc. has decided to lend a hand -- and possibly attract new customers of its own -- by launching a Web site specifically designed to help companies find commercial and industrial real estate in the region.
I was sure the site, Texas ...Read more
The error, found only this week, seems to date back 2001, when precincts in Scott County, Iowa were drawn by hand. This was apparently the first time a voter was turned away from the expected voting location to another. 39 individuals were mis-assign...Read more
As anyone in the geo world knows, all maps have errors, and it’s hard to do a really rigorous analysis on Google’s current dataset versus others. But I think there is strong evidence that the new Google dataset in the U.S. is a significant step down in quality from what they had before, and from what Microsoft, Yahoo and MapQuest have (via Tele Atlas or NAVTEQ).
Google clearly hopes to clean up the data fairly quickly by having users notify them of errors. But looking at the situation, I think that they may have a few challenges with this. One is just that the number of errors seems to be pretty large. But more importantly, I think the question for Google is whether consumers will be motivated to help them fix up the data, when there are plenty of good free alternatives available. If Google gives you the wrong answer once maybe you let it slide, and perhaps you notice the link to inform them of the problem and maybe fill it out. But if it happens a couple of times, is the average consumer likely to keep informing Google of errors, or just say “*&#% this, I’m switching to MapQuest/Bing/Yahoo”?
notNeutral makes a line of porcelain plates that depict maps of the downtown core of 20 cities on a black background with key buildings in red, water features in blue, and public spaces in green. There are 5 different collections of four plates that run $190 each set. The cities depicted are Berlin, Shanghai, Los [...]
Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the School of Continuing Education are finalizing plans for a new M.S. in Sustainability Management with a first class set to begin in fall 2010. The new program will train people in environmental measurement tools and cutting edge environmental science to help students fully understand the systematic and organizational role [...]
In the ‘Perspectives’ column this week — “The Berlin Wall 20 Years –Through Geospatial Eyes”
I thought I would try something a little different this week given that the fall of the Berlin Wall will be remembered November 9. The 20th Anniversary will give rise to festive occasions both within Berlin and Germany in [...]
With the large number of location apps on the iPhone and other mobile devices out there, it surprises me that there are so few (handful by my account) professional quality apps. Tonight’s round of press release emails included an intriguing mobile solution. The iPhone/iPod Touch application is called Field Assets and was developed by LBS Wireless which is another of those Aussie/US companies that seem to be popping up lately.
The app’s name (Field Assets) captures its utility, it is for capturing and assessing assets. The demo video used poweline/telephone poles, but I can see a wide area of applications for it. The app utilizes location, image, and audio capture to assist in recording information about assets. While for the iPhone the app is moderately expensive, the ginormous price of $12.99 means you have to eat lunch in one day.
I hope to see more mobile apps that support professionals niches on WinMo, Blackberry, Palm, Android or iPhone. Give us a shout if you have a professional mobile app that you use out in the field.
I think we can all agree that point cloud animations can really create excitement and interest, especially if done well. The trick is knowing how to do that without going over the client’s budget.
Well according to Hovig Devejian from Precision Civil Engineering it’s actually not that difficult. He provided a wealth of information about free software, the key settings, and how to significantly reduce file sizes during his presentation at last week’s Leica UC. As he clearly demonstrated knowing these tricks can produce dramatically better and smaller animations.
The 2 free software products that he recommends are Windows Media Video VCM 9 Encoder and Virtualdub. Used in conjunction with Cyclone, Hovig went through the details of his workflow and the settings that he prefers. I can share his presentation with you (35 MB) if you would like to see the details, or you can contact Hovig at hdevejian@precisioneng.net.
His presentation will also be available soon from Leica.
The Economist publishes an article entitled ‘Harvest Moon’ that describes (artificial satellites are helping farmers boost crop yields) — whatever artificial satellites are? Last I looked, the satellites were real and actually existed and were doing real remote sensing.
In the article, examples from France that using precision farming techniques are described. Infoterra and RapidEye are [...]
The European Union is making available €200 Million for nearly 200 projects. These projects cover topics related to conservation, nature and communication. This combination is a common one these days and can be found around the world. More and more people are collaborating on conservation and sustainability isses and using geospatial and IT tools to [...]
There’s an excellent column in last week’s Washington Times by David Keeling, professor of geography at Western Kentucky University, titled “Geographic Awareness Needed.”
“What U.S. policymakers desperately need is a better understanding of the why of where. Deeper geographic awareness can help officials anticipate problems and respond proactively rather than be caught unprepared and unsure of [...]
I was at GITA Ontario Fall Forum yesterday near Toronto, which is an event I look forward to every year. This year was no exception, there was some exceptionally good content especially in the electric power utility area.
Every year I have a chance to catch up with some folks that are developing and deploying geospatial applications in Ontario, a province with about 10 million people. This time I spend some time chatting with Scott MacPhee, Web Applications Engineer at Hunter GIS, which develops web-based geospatial applications for the municipal, utility, telco and resource management sectors using Autodesk MapGuide 6.5, MapGuide Open Source, and MapGuide Enterprise. They have developed several applications for local governments including tax parcel assessment, municipal permit tracking, development tracking, water and sewer asset management, gas infrastructure management, electrical infrastructure management, and environmental and natural resource management. One of the applications they have developed is a Road Asset Management System (RAMS), a comprehensive, web-based road asset management systems that allows municipal road departments to manage inventories and inspections, maintain an asset database including roads, bridges, culverts, signs, and lights,and help with prioritization and budgeting. RAMS integrates with the parcel tax assessment database, automatically computes ratings, needs and resurfacing/rehabilitation costs, and allows you query the roads database for spatial analysis of road conditions. RAMS has been in use for some time by local governments in Ontario.
I have blogged about the poor quality of network facility data in utilities and telecom, how critical up to date reliable network facility data is becoming, and how essential it is to use technology to empower field staff to be full participants in improving the quality of asset data. What Hunter GIS has done is develop a simple online web-based application that can be used by field staff to report to report the condition of road facilities. Scott showed me a mobile extension to RAMS that provides field access to RAMS databases via a Blackberry or other wireless handheld device. This means that field staff can view and select assets graphically, list all the assets on a street, view inspection reports on road assets, create a new inspection report, for example, report a pot hole, and attach a photograph all from a Blackberry. Impressive. I fully expect that in the future they are going to find rapidly increasing use of handheld devices for these types of applications and proportionately less use of desktops. Hunter GIS also have mobile solutions for municipal permit tracking and service request tracking.
Here are some great examples of what we think is the superior way to integrate parcel data with a consumer map service. Each of these applications uses a MapDotNet Map Service to create tile overlays for Bing Maps with parcel data stored in a spatial table in an RDBMS. Since these organizations are originators of the data, it makes sense for them to host, maintain and serve the parcel data in their own "customized" spatial applications that use the Bing Maps API and data.
Property parcels can change and if these organizations tried to do this with Google Maps, there are likely to be boundary conflicts all over the place. If Google did offer an API to expose owner and property information...imagine how problematic that data would be.
Microsoft recently published a Case Study highlighting the great work that the City of Richmond and the Tallahassee-Leon County EDC are doing with parcel and zoning data for the purposes of economic development. You can download a copy of the Bing Maps EDC flyer here:
Most local government agencies have large collections of GIS data in various formats including shapefiles, geodatabases, grids, tins, CAD, and others. Sharing this data with colleagues and the public is often a challenge. Before distributing data you have to answer many questions. Does my end user have the appropriate software to view the data? Do they know how to use the software? Do they understand how to add the data into the viewer? Should I create a web mapping application for end users? Converting your existing GIS data to a Google Earth KML format offers many advantages in terms of data distribution to end users and it also offers many new ways of presenting information. This course, geared specifically for local government GIS specialists, will teach you techniques for converting your datasets, creating compelling and interactive Google Earth displays, and sharing the data with your end users.
Notes:
Register your entire GIS group for $199.00 (up to 8 people)
This course makes extensive use of Arc2Earth. You will be provided with an evaluation copy of Arc2Earth to use during the course
Exercises and data will focus on typical local government datasets
Modules
Benefits of Converting ArcGIS Data to Google Earth Format
What Google Earth Version Should I Use?
KML: The Language of Google Earth
Tools for Converting ArcGIS Data to Google Earth
The Easy Stuff: Convering Points, Lines, Polygons, and Graphics
The Not So Easy Stuff: Displaying Spatial Analyst Grids, Aerial Imagery, and Other Image Files
The Hard Stuff: Techniques for Displaying Large Datasets
The Fun Stuff: 3D Data Displays, Geography with a Time Element, Info Balloons with HTML, Images, and Video, Guided Tours
Eye Candy: Creating Legends and Logos
Google Earth without an Internet Connection
Techniques and Tools for Sharing Google Earth Data with End Users
For the past years, I’ve worked closely with Yellow Pages (owned by AT&T Interactive) getting Bing Maps onto their Yellow Pages.com web site; however, they’ve also been working on some mobile applications that use Bing Maps. You can see the applications from your mobile browser at http://m.yp.com. I was able to commandeer a video from them that illustrates all of the offerings from the mobile side of the house. Sorry, it’s a You Tube video. :-/
The Yellow Pages mobile site includes several features from Bing Maps – road maps, layering pushpins on the maps, aerial photos, traffic information and driving directions. Now, I just traded in my T-Mobile Dash for something else, but I will tell you that a site like this was critical to my WAP browsing experience. For those of you who rely on WAP, you will thank the AT&T Interactive for this. Super light weight, super simplistic - exactly what you'd be looking for when you're using a WAP site for browsing for locations near you in real time.
While browsing in, of all places, a science fiction bookstore, I stumbled across a new book by Mark Ovenden that looked quite interesting in the brief time I had to look at it: Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations, and Design of the Metro. Mark is, you will remember, the author of Transit Maps of the World, which I reviewed here in March 2008. Unlike most transit systems, the Paris Metro is something I’m quite familiar with, so I’m going to have to look into this.
India is making grandiose plans to advance its efforts when it comes to being an international player in the “Space Race.” Through community-based programs, India’s space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation’s first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore. The goal of the effort is to expand India’s international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China.
This Washington Post article came out earlier this week, and the timing is very interesting — coming on the heels of Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger’s (D-MD) comments at GEOINT 2009 about how America is in danger of losing its preeminence in space. What do you all think about this? Does having an emerging country like India — expanding its space-based efforts — further undermine the U.S.’s space leadership? Will is actually prove to be beneficial, meaning that a new player on the scene will help push us to be more innovative? We welcome all thoughts and feedback.
So the discussions about the great Google map data change in the US rage on, and we are seeing more and more reports of significant data quality issues. I wrote about how Central City Parkway was completely missing, and I reported this to Google to see how the change process would work. I posted later about how it had been partially fixed, with a new geometry visible but not routable, and with
Welcome to our Friday’s Food for Thought post on got geoint? In the GEOINT world, we tend to focus on the actual imagery provided — and less so the actual data. The data provides the context and knowledge required to make GEOINT situation actionable and effective. And, of course the combination of imagery and data is the winning solution — to put it in a a very simple context. Hey, it is Friday, we are allowed to keep things basic today, right. So, the theme of this week’s FFT is all about “data.” We hope you had a productive week and can take a few minutes to enjoy this post. Go data!
With the large number of location apps on the iPhone and other mobile devices out there, it surprises me that there are so few (handful by my account) professional quality apps. Tonight’s round of press release emails included an intriguing mobile solution. The iPhone/iPod Touch application is called Field Assets and was developed by LBS Wireless which is another of those Aussie/US companies that seem to be popping up lately. 
For the past years, I’ve worked closely with Yellow Pages (owned by AT&T Interactive) getting 
India is making grandiose plans to advance its efforts when it comes to being an international player in the “Space Race.” Through community-based programs, India’s space agency has been partnering with schools in remote areas to teach students about space exploration and cutting-edge technology. The agency is also training thousands of young scientists and, in 2012, will open the nation’s first astronaut-training center in the southern city of Bangalore. The goal of the effort is to expand India’s international profile in space and catapult it into a space race with China. 