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All Points Blog

Podcast: Storage and Management of Spatial Data on an IBM System z Mainframe

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 6:11pm CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: IBM

In this interview, we speak to Dan Wardman, Vice President for Information Management Software and Frank Butt, Manager, DB2 for z/OS Query Runtime, tech search and spatial support for IBM. Our topic is "The storage and management of spatial data on an IBM System z Mainframe". Spatial support is an important feature available for DB2 9 for z/OS as it provides the capability to store and retrieve spatial data from any application via standard SQL. We also discuss applications as well as IBM's relationship with ESRI.
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For more information about IBM's spatial solutions you can download a whitepaper on this topic or visit the IBM website.

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info.

Ogle Earth

Magnetic bull

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 5:41pm CEST
So somebody wrote a press release yesterday about Google Earth Magnetic Cows, but it sounded so silly that I decided to go for celebratory end-of-panorama-trip cocktails instead of dirtying my blog with it. Imagine my surprise to see it hit the interwebs with a vengeance today, but the greatest surprise of all was that only one blog so far, The Earth is Square, has reported this "news" skeptically. [I just noticed Google Earth Blog is also skeptical:-)]

The bottom line: It's entirely possible that cows have a magnetic sense, but we're not going to find out about it by looking at Google Earth. What possible fallacies might there be? I came up with these in, oh, a few seconds:
- What cow? Have you ever seen a cow on Google Earth? Are you sure? Most of Google Earth's imagery is not in high enough resolution to let you discern cow from car from tent from bear. And you certainly can't tell which end is up, so to speak. In any case, your sample population of successfully found cows is bound to be miniscule compared to the total population.
- Now cow? The imagery in Google Earth is exclusively taken on cloudless days — or we wouldn't have had the imagery. Are we sure the cows weren't using the sun to align themselves, say to maximize solar exposure in winter and minimize it in summer? As the best satellite photos are taken when shadows are at a minimum, i.e. noon, that alone would lead to aligned cows.
- Stupid cow: Cows are walking stomachs. If they hit a fence while grazing, they will move along it. At most, this study tells us that fences have a slight preponderance to point North-South — and fences are even harder to see on Google Earth than cows.
So what happened? Either this story is an elaborate hoax, or it isn't and these scientists are just not very good, or the story has been reported inaccurately. It's a cow toss as to which of these explanations is the right one, but I suspect hoax, in part because of the study's claim that it could discern a predispostition in cows for magnetic north over true north – a difference that is miniscule in most places on Earth. It doesn't help that you have to pay the US National Academy of Sciences $10 to read the paper — that's the price of a cocktail here in Stockholm, one which I'm about to go buy.
Comments (3)

All Points Blog

Remote Sensing Predicting Grape, Wine Quality

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 3:19pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

French wine consultancy body ICV and Infoterra are partners in a service that provides small scale data on vineyards. From information such as water stress and grape composition it can predict the quality and quantity of grapes some 6 weeks before harvest. That in turn can save money and help distribute the "good grapes."

- Reuters
Toyota Grant to Fund Environmental Literacy Education with Geotech

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 3:09pm CEST

Tags: education

The grant ($300,000) goes to Lehigh University (I spent a summer there in high school) to build professional materials for teacher and curricula for middle school environmental literacy.

The program will rely on geospatial information technologies (GIT) to help students analyze information and data on three core topics: energy, climate change and the impact of human activity on the environment. Issues such as urban and suburban sprawl, water resource usage, pollution, and ecosystem management will be included in the curriculum.
...
The WELIM [Web-enhanced Environmental Literacy and Inquiry Modules] initiative is a pilot program that directly addresses both concerns simultaneously using GIT. The technologies, which range from handheld GPS systems to Web satellite imagery, help students explore geography and collect data while becoming more familiar with their environment.

- press release
Ubisoft Studies Terrain Technology; To use GeoEye Imagery in HAWX Game

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 3:00pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Ubisoft's team for Tom Clancy's HAWX air combat game did its homework: it visited USGS and EROS "to understand the concept of topographical 'underpinning' to create a realistic representation of the earth."

Then it decided to use GeoEye imagery in the game, including shots of Rio de Janeiro, Cape Canaveral and the Middle East.

The game is expected in 2009.

- The HD Room
Off topic: UK Ad Czars Take Down Misleading iPhone Ad

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 2:35pm CEST

Tags: Apple

The ad is aimed at showing off the power of the iPhone: "The ad showed the internet navigation prowess of the iPhone, with images zooming in on a weather forecast for Cape Town and a map of how to get to Heathrow airport."

The complaints, two complaints, questioned the voice over: ""You never know which part of the internet you'll need ... which is why all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone." They claimed without Java and Flash support, this is not true. Apple responded saying it could not support ever possible 3rd party app and that it meant to suggest that access was available to websites, not to all functions. The Advertising Standards Authority felt it was misleading and ordered the ad removed. The sites shown in the ad, Apple confirmed, don't use Java or Flash.

- Guardian (include video of the ad)
URISA's Caribbean Conference Sponsors

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 1:59pm CEST

Tags: Conferences

Did you look at the list for the event happening this week?

In addition to Cayman Land Info, sponsors include International Land Systems, HP/KirkISS, RE/MAX, the Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association, Cayman National Bank, Scotia Bank and exclusive telecoms sponsor Digicel, as well as a range of related organisations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Wow banks and real estate interests are sponsoring a GIS conference. Excellent!

- Cayman Net News
Quote of the Week

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 1:37pm CEST

"Only 45 percent of street addresses and the continents populated areas are mapped. This presents a problem when it comes to developing GIS."

Derek Clarke, chief director of the surveying and mapping unit at South Africas ministry of land affairs, quoted in an article in IPS News reviewing the challenges for GIS in Africa after this week's Map Africa meeting in that country. Perhaps there'll more discussion of the matter at the FOSS4G and GISSA events are held together, in Cape Town in September.
OGC and OSGeo to Play

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Open Source

Here in the duldrums of August comes the news (press release) that OGC will be participating in the FOSS4G conference this fall in South Africa and the focus will be on a memorandum of understanding between the two bodies. The details of the MOU are not detailed.

Some (most? all?) OSGeo projects do indeed implement standards (OGC's and other's), though that's not required to be an official OSGeo project. That said, per the release it's pretty important.

The two organizations agree to expand collaboration and promote the synergy between open standards and open source software in the geospatial domain. The OGC, founded in 1994, is the world's leading industry organization for geoprocessing standards used by the world's providers of geoprocessing software. The OSGeo's goal is to encourage the use and collaborative development of community-led open source geospatial software projects, most of which depend on open standards like those from the OGC.

OGC, per Carl Reed writing in GeoWorld in 2007 doesn't endorse either open source or proprietary licensing.

The OGC doesnt care if software are proprietary or open source. Our goal is that OGC standards help make geospatial or location-based content and services ubiquitousto improve the ability of decision makers to address the many pressing social, environmental and economic issues they face.

Whats important, from the OGCs point of view, isnt the purchasing and licensing details of software products, but their adherence to a shared, open, non-proprietary system for communicating geographically.

OSGeo may need to update its FAQ which includes this statement about the relationship:

What is the relationship between OSGeo and OGC?
There is no relationship between OSGeo and OGC. OGC is a organization for creating GIS standards, while OSGeo is an organization for promoting open source GIS work. That said, a number of parties/individuals in OSGeo work with OGC standards, and vice versa. It is also an explicit goal of OSGeo to support and promote standards, including OGC standards.

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

Orange Unlit Tour Map

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 9:28am CEST

Tags: Music

Orange Unlit Tour Map A Live Music Map Mashup. "Unlit is a mixture of a gig and party, free and open to anyone, which takes place in people’s houses around the world." Very 'Flashy' Orange Unlit...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

WOW GIS technologies at the ESRI user conference

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 4:03am CEST

On the floor at the ESRI user conference. It’s always a flurry of activity and it’s always one of my favorite things to do at the UC… browse the exhibition hall floor and see all the great new apps...

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All Points Blog

Last Guy Imagery: Just Imagery

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Patience pays off... I've been reading about The Last Guy a new Sony game for some time. The premise: you are the last person on earth and need to fend for yourself against monsters through desolate cities. The big deal for geo types: it uses real imagery. Now, I'd read it was Google Maps imagery, Google earth imagery with no confirmation from Sony. Now, Wired makes it clear, it's just some good aerial and satellite imagery. Oh, and the game is out August 28.
Fwix: Your Local Feed

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 3:04pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

Ars Technica interviews the CEO of Fwix an app that aggregates feeds for specific cities (26 now). Darian Shirazi is an ex-FaceBooker. The app, for now is Web-based, but an iPhone version is coming. The big "feature" for now is the ability to comment on a feed item. The feeds themselves involve jobs, events, news, etc. filtered from sources like "New York Times articles, Yahoo Upcoming events, Orbitz deals, Craigslist posts, Indeed job listings, Brightkite social network updates, geotagged Flickr photos, and even videos from YouTube and Vimeo." It's like FriendFeed for a city - but someone else, not you, picks the feeds. The business model is advertising based, but will be tied in time not just to geography but the specific feed.

A quick look at the Boston feed didn't excite me. The real key will be filtering down this massive "city life stream" to one's requirements.
Cows Sense, Line up On Earth's Magnetic Field

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 2:14pm CEST

Tags: google

Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and his team determined that cows and deer tend to align along the invisible lines when grazing or sleeping. The original work was aimed at determining if people do so, by looking at camp sites in Google Earth. Instead, they found cows that followed the "rules." The why and how are not yet known.

- NPR
- Abstract (fee for article) in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences
MapQuest Beta

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 1:28pm CEST

Tags: MapQuest

Continuing on its "too little, too late" strategy, MapQuest has tinkered with its home page. The team has updated the maps which now appear on the front page! Further the interface looks more, well, Google Maps-like with Traffic and Gas Buddy in buttons top right. Forms have been updated so you can toggle between a "key in" and "paste in" form. (Not sure why there can't be one for both...)

Bottom line: if you love MapQuest, these enhancements will be nice, if you use something else, these enhancements don't matter at all. For now the enhancements are on the "beta" site, but you can toggle back to the old one for comparison. Full details on the MapQuest blog.

Other reviews: Webware, Mashable
Podcast: The Olympics and Geographic Education?

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 8:00am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: education

With this past weekend's Beijing summer olympics closing ceremonies the event goes into hibernation for another four years. What will we recall? Phelp's eight swimming golds? The Chinese taking more golds than another other country? A first olympic gold medal for Mongolia (in Judo)? Perhaps. But will anyone following the games say they learned a bit more about the world, about geography.

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James Fee GIS Blog

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.

All Points Blog

Location Privacy: Are you over it yet?

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 8:02pm CEST

Tags: lbs

Seems like we don't hear much anymore about location privacy. In an op-ed piece today in the Wall Street Journal, L. Gordon Crovitz thinks we "got over" the concerns we had about many privacy issues. He cited several areas of privacy concerns that seemed to have vanished. For example, he cites an AOL study in Britain that found that 84% of people said they would not reveal personal income information online but that 89% of them willingly did. He provided a litany of other examples such as the fact that Amazon "closely records our choices of books" and that Google "scans emails to deliver relevant ads" as well as electronic tolls that record our location.

These digital examples ignore some of basic things that have always been around. Your name and address, for most of us, are in the phone book. If you gave out your business card, we know where you work too. Adding in the digital information such as profiles on LinkedIn or Facebook, you have probably listed your place of business, past associations, clubs, etc. So for about 90% of your day, just about anyone can find where you are. If we add in your travel time, your location is likely recognized by your cell phone. If you have a "friend finder" application...game over...we know where you are.

So, let's not offer faux concern over Internet privacy when we so willingly give and want people to see some of our private lives. And let's not cower behind the pretense of total location privacy when we desparately want the most accurate GPS-enabled mobile device. Can you say, "location-based advertising..."anyone, anyone? We let our guard down so easily and the online and mobile tools are there begging us to do so.

Crovitz cites Lawrence Friedman's book, "Guarding Life's Dark Secrets," and wraps up his editorial quoting Friedman who says, "If the nineteenth century was a world of privacy and prudery...then the twenty-first century is the world of the one-way mirror, the world of the all-seeing eye."

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Denver DNC city guides

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 7:19pm CEST

Tags: Local Search

Those wandering around Denver for this week's DNC might be able to make use of some local city guides... Wcities has just come out with a Denver guide containing over 150 Points of Interest including...

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Shozu upgrade or ???

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:53pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Looks like Shozu is undergoing some maintenance... recall Shozu is an amazing resource enabling mobile users to upload images, video, email, txt or what have you to virtually any popular social...

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EveryBlock adds Seattle, Boston, and DC

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:47pm CEST

Tags: mashup

Looks like EveryBlock is still growing, now with the addition of three more cities to the portfolio (that's 8 in total) . New additions this week are Boston, Seattle, and DC. Recall EveryBlock is an...

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All Points Blog

MapQuest adds Citysearch to Results

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:13pm CEST

Tags: MapQuest

MapQuest has partnered with Citysearch to add its content (reviews, menus, photos) to results.

- MapQuest Blog
- via Search Engine Watch

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Google Gears 0.4 API update

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:02pm CEST

Tags: google

In case you missed it last week, google announced the release of Gears 0.4 API which allows you to build applications that can "do new and exciting things" based on your users' location. See more in...

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Trulia real estate mashup gets updates, but how good is this information?

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 4:48pm CEST

Tags: real estate

How much trust can we have in mashups? That's always a good question, particularly as web20 services like Zillow, Trulia and others are becoming commonplace for the consumer. But where does the data...

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Situational Awareness at the Democratic Convention (DNC) in Denver

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 3:40pm CEST

Tags: dnc

Well, it's finally here... the DNC. For us in Colorado we've been hearing about it for well over a year and now. Now, after all the planning, it's time to put the plan into action. Indeed there was a...

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All Points Blog

Google Gears Geolocation API

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 2:09pm CEST

Tags: google

Announced on Friday, but not really popping until today, is the Google Gears Geolocation API. Gears is a browser plug in used to make Web apps run when not connected to the Internet.

What, then is this API?

Per PC Mag it's "a platform designed to provide Web sites with location-based information without the aid of GPS." That said it can tap into GPS, cell-tower triangulation, or your computer's IP address to determine location and then "pass it on" to an application. So far, lastminute.com, a travel site and Rummble, a social networking site has used the API which runs on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and IE Mobile.

Google states that it will not store location information, but users need to check with the sites they visit about their policies. Users are prompted the first time a site asks for a location. Here's the Google announcement on the Gear blog.
Scot Military Leader Not Keen on Communications/Mapping for his Soldiers

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 2:03pm CEST

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Borton is the commanding officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (5 Scots) currently on duty in Afghanistan. He is dismayed at the communications tools provided by his country: range is poor and batteries short making the devices good candidates for being "off" when perhaps needed. Their solution is called Bowman: Better Off With Map And Nokia.

- Daily Record (UK)
Quote of the Week: Keys to Success

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 1:28pm CEST

Keys to Success, from the Crawfordsville, Indiana online GIS intro page:

REMEMBER Layers are called layers because they lay on top of each other. Make sure the layer you want is visible and there isnt another layer covering it up.

REMEMBER be patient, you CANNOT mess anything up, if you do you can always back out of the site and start over, no harm done.
Satellite Damage Assessment For Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, Georgia (as of 22 Aug 2008)

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Check it from ReliefWeb. "Damaged buildings have been identified with WorldView-1 and Formosat-2 satellite imagery acquired on 19 August 2008 at a spatial resolution of 50cm and 2m respectively."

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

The Future of Paper Maps? Here Now?

Posted: August 24th, 2008, 1:41am CEST by Mapperz

Tags: maps

The Future of Paper Maps? Here Now? The video shows different content (layers/scale) of the map when the angle of paper map is adjusted. Will 21st technology save the decline in paper maps? [A...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

The Google Maps Olymic Medal tracker map

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 9:32pm CEST

Tags: google maps

A slick but simple Google map enabling users to monitor the Olympic games medal standings. Grab the code and embed on your website also... see here. Please visit www.GISuser.com for even more...

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The GeoEye Launchpad website

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 8:08pm CEST

Tags: Satellite

GeoEye has just today announced a new website for those of you wanting to keep tabs on the launch of GeoEye. The company also has a redesigned website, developed by BrainSpark Media. See the...

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Global Mapper rolls out R 10

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 8:00pm CEST

The popular Global Mapper tool has been updated to R 10 today. Notable new features include: - Added support for importing ESRI personal geodatabase (MDB) files. - Added support for importing and...

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All Points Blog

OpenStreetMap in Shapefiles

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 7:07pm CEST

I don't speak German to get the scoop from the data provider (readme is here), but I believe you can download shapefile versions of much of the European OpenStreetMap data from GEOFABRIK. It carries the same CC Share Alike License.

via Geospatial Reddit

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Words for the device maker - keep it simple

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 5:42pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Isn't funny how sometimes the smallest, simplest things can make such a huge difference. We always hear of people searching for the elusive killer application or killer device. Take the iPod for...

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The fake iPhone lines... WTF?

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 5:13pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Nice move on the part of Orange to try and lure consumers into shops to snatch up the latest iPhone.. the company is actually paying "actors" to line up in front of some 20 stores to create a sense...

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Are you having iTunes or iPhone woes?? You likely are not alone

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 3:37pm CEST

Tags: iphone

Seems that problems just keep on plaguing Apple device users. It seems these days that if you fire up your iTunes and connect an iPod you simply don't know what's going to happen.. will you be able...

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All Points Blog

Another Geo Startup Funded in Mississippi

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 1:25pm CEST

Spatial Information Solutions Inc. (SIS) is based in Starkville, Mississippi; it received the first New Venture Development investment, $100,000 from the Mississippi Seed Fund. Recipients must have a cash match from accredited investors to obtain funding.

The company is working on commercializing "map accuracy enhancement software technologies. Note that this is not from the looks of it a Web 2.0 nor negeo company. Still, I think the company needs a website; I could not find one.

- Starkville Daily News
Sci Tech University Builds GIS Software Intro for Civil Engineers

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: google

The National Science Foundation is giving the Missouri University of Science and Technology a $500,000 grant "to make Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software available to students in laboratory environments."

Part of the grant has faculty members "designing a comprehensive learning system to introduce civil engineering students to the software."

The news story from the school include the obligatory Google Earth quote:

Its like Google Earth only you can customize and analyze spatial data, says Dr. Ronaldo Luna, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at Missouri S&T.
Podcast: Outdoor Gear Purveyor REI Presents on the Company's New User-generated Maps Campaign

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 12:33am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: lbs

REI's Rico Simpkins, Online Community Development Manager, speaks about the past, present and future of REI. Up until now, REI's Internet presence has been merchandise-based. REI's new goal is to bring the community they foster in their stores, to the Web, part of which is getting users to share vacation information such as user-generated maps of their travels. In Rico's words, he wants to develop an "online" community that gets people "offline."
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Ed. Note: The Web 2.0 Mapping and Social Networks Group is about sharing, teaching, learning and networking around current and future Web-based geospatial and social networking applications and technology. The group meets regularly on the third Tuesday evening of every month at Google in Silicon Valley, CA. Back Five Productions and Endpoint Environmental LLC are the producers of the Web 2.0 Mapping and Social Networks Meetup Group podcasts, which are sponsored by Directions Media.

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info.
GPS Impacts to the Portable Device Market: An Update

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 10:10pm CEST

Tags: gps

I attended a webinar today conducted by Park Associates on how GPS is influencing the portable device market and specifically the personal navigation device (PND) market. As we are constantly being asked how big any particular segment of the geospatial and LBS martkets are, I wanted to share some of their insights with you:
Continue reading "GPS Impacts to the Portable Device Market: An Update"
What Level of Detail Do You Want to See from Maps in the Media? Take the poll...

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 9:01pm CEST

CNN lead the way with fairly substantial usage of Google Maps during the U.S. presidential primary elections. With the general election coming up, how can the news media make it better? More geographic detail? More real-time information? Take the poll at our new Map Hawk blog.
Olympic BMX Course in 3D

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 7:20pm CEST

Tags: media & maps

We had a reader ask if any of the AEgis Technologies 3D models of the Olympic venues had actually been shown during the broadcasts because they had not seen any so far. Scott Allman from AEgis provides this response:
Continue reading "Olympic BMX Course in 3D"

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

Transport for London - Cycle Maps - New!

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 6:23pm CEST

Tags: google Map

Transport for London - Cycle Maps - New! Transport for London first by using Google Maps for showing Cycle Parking and best routes. Routes preferences: Cycling on quieter roadsCycling near to busy...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

All Points Blog

Autodesk U.S. "Sale"

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 3:15pm CEST

Tags: Autodesk

Ralph Grawbowski explains the why. The details are here. AutoCAD Map 3D is on the list; MapGuide Enterprise is not.
Multimap Execs Take on Top Roles at Microsoft

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 3:03pm CEST

Tags: microsoft

Recall that Microsoft acquired UK mapping company Multimap last December. Back in May, Multimap B2C General Manager Jim Cruickshank was appionted Microsoft EMEA director of mapping, local and shopping. Word today that Multimap CEO Jeff Kelisky hs been tapped to be General Manager of a new Commercial Search unit, which covers Live Search cashback, MSN Shopping, local, consumer mapping, Virtual Earth and mobile. It's beginning to look like Microsoft grabbed Multimap as much for its tech and data as for its people.

- Paid Content via Washington Post
Junk Mail Mashup Reveals Rebuilding in New Orleans

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 2:52pm CEST

Tags: google

AdAge explains how Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) is using "junk mail" to help map where the current residents of New Orleans reside. The nonprofit GNOCDC has been working with Valassis Communications' owner of the RedPlum direct-mail operation. Red Plum sends out basically nationwide mailings each month. By luck the company had a 2005 data with which to compare the current state of mailing addresses today. The data is being used to use funds for rebuilding and has saved quite a lot in manual surveys of "who is where."

GNOCDC has linked the data to a Google Map (James Fee and Co worked on this, per a tweet yesterday; I didn't follow up then because he noted a publication called "Adage," of which I'd not heard!). Also of note: Valassis provided much of the data at cost and the historic data and consulting gratis.

Bottom line:

Overall, the Valassis data indicates New Orleans had 146,174 households receiving mail in June 2008, still down 28% from the 203,457 receiving mail in June 2005, two months before the Aug. 29, 2005, hurricane and resulting flood.

via Wired blog
Want Turn by Turn Directions on iPhone?

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 2:33pm CEST

Tags: Satellite Navigation

C|net asks. Thus far: "yes." Mostly, I think they are looking for conspiracy stories about why we don't yet have that feature. The license forbids it, though no one knows quite why.
Geography and Politics Matter

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 2:14pm CEST

Alaska Senator Ted Steven's bid to move his trial on 7 counts of making false statements regarding financial disclosure forms will not be held in his state to make things easier for witnesses. Instead, they'll be traveling to Washington DC for the trial. Stevens hoped to limit their inconvenience and make it easier for himself as he campaigns for yet another term as US Senator. Geography mattered in the sense that jury tainting was possible if the trial was held in Alaska. Stevens lawyers pointed out the 4,200 mile driving distance to DC , but federal judges didn't budge.

- LA Times
Baltimore County Save $4M Annually with GIS

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

That's what Gov Tech reports based on "a strategic business plan focusing on determining the return on investment and use of Baltimore County's GIS" done by Dewberry.
Web Mapping Ok, but Help?

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

After the discussion of the Morris County GIS site that many found slow and complex to use, I was pleased to see the announcement of one for Thomson-McDuffie (that's a city and county in Georgia). I needed no help in using it; it was very GIS geek friendly and I hope regular person friendly. My one concern: there's no help I could find (in Safari).

- McDuffie Mirror
RFID in Hospitals: Not Just for Equipment Tracking

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: rfid

"Trends in RFID 2008" a study by Spyglass Consulting Group, is based on 100 telephone interviews with IT professionals and medical staff at hospitals with 300 or more beds. It shows much increased use of RFID within hospitals since a previous report done in 2005. The takeaway from a PC World article on the study to me is this:

The payback no longer is simply being able to find medical equipment including wheelchairs. Increasingly, wireless identification and location data is being used to streamline and repair a range of healthcare workflows and business processes.
Photosynth Open to All

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 4:12am CEST

Tags: microsoft

Update: Apparently there was so much demand the site was down much of the morning and afternoon. It was back to partial operation late in the afternoon on Thursday. Bottom line: lots of interest.

- Seattle PI Blog

--- original post 8/20 ----

Microsoft's Web service for stitching photos together to make 3D scenes is now available to anyone. Just upload the images and "synth" them. Users are granted 20 GB of space (more if your synths are "cool"). The Photosynth site offers the chance to learn about the technology, view synths and create your own.

- C|net

James Fee GIS Blog

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).

All Points Blog

GeoEye Delays SEC Filing to Restate Earnings

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 4:39pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Last week, GeoEye announced that they had to restate earnings for 2005, 2006, 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 due "a detailed study analyzing its tax accounting methods in which the Company discovered that it had not correctly included cost-share payments received from the U.S. Government under the NextView program in its taxable income," according to a press release issued by the company. Now comes word that the filing will be delayed further because "additional time is required to re-calculate the proper interim period allocations of the penalties and interest related to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) milestone cost-sharing payments made to the company under the terms of the Government's NextView contract," again according to information released by GeoEye. The news has tempered that company's stock price which had been on the rise due to the upcoming launch of GeoEye-1 on September 4.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Y360 panoramic 60 megapixel street-level imaging vehicle

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 2:46pm CEST

Now this is mobile mapping and imaging! Yotta has introduced a vehicle-based imaging service that will provide unique high-res panoramic street-level views of property and highway features. The...

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Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

Free Maps for Education (in PDF format)

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 1:16pm CEST by Mapperz

Tags: PDF

Free Maps for Education (in PDF format) Maps International have release free maps in A3 paper size (297mm×420mm or 11.7''×16.5'') Politically coloured Europe map for Free This World Map is...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

All Points Blog

The Michael Phelps of GIS Award Winners

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: ESRI UC 08

That'd be Qatar which took home six honors at the ESRI User Conference. Oddly the local paper noted they were for "Satellite Mapping." One was the Enterprise Application Award; several others were from the Map Gallery.

- The Peninsula
Off Topic: for PR folks

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

What brands are Twittering? What are they saying? The answer is on quick look is that few GIS brands are (I know NAVTEQ does). Here's a brand index where you can examine those using Twitter. And you can add your organization, as well. It's an informal list; Twitter does not offer an official one

via For Immediate Release
How VARs Pick a Good Vendor: Look for GIS

Posted: August 20th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Location Intelligence

ChannelWeb reviews a presentation by MarketStar at XChange '08 aimed at helping VARs pick vendors with good channel management. #3 was:

3. Investigate whether the vendor uses Geographic information systems (GIS) to assist in analyzing sales data. When that information is plotted, special patterns become apparent. Relationships, patterns and trends are revealed in the form of maps, globes, reports and charts. That way, vendors can keep tabs on sales cannibalization of a region. Further, by eliminating channel partners who do not contribute to a regions growth, vendors can maximize the productive VARs' sales potential and increase their revenue.

Good suggestion. Perhap vendors would acknowledge that they do use GIS; I don't expect they'd share that info with their channel however.

GISWiki.NEWS.Reader » Blogs

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Posted: August 27th, 2008, 6:11pm CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: IBM

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 5:41pm CEST

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 3:19pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 3:09pm CEST

Tags: education

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 3:00pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 2:35pm CEST

Tags: Apple

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 1:59pm CEST

Tags: Conferences

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 1:37pm CEST

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Open Source

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 9:28am CEST

Tags: Music

Posted: August 27th, 2008, 4:03am CEST

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 3:17pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 3:04pm CEST

Tags: Social Networking

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 2:14pm CEST

Tags: google

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 1:28pm CEST

Tags: MapQuest

Posted: August 26th, 2008, 8:00am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: education

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 25th, 2008, 8:02pm CEST

Tags: lbs

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 7:19pm CEST

Tags: Local Search

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:53pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:47pm CEST

Tags: mashup

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:13pm CEST

Tags: MapQuest

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 6:02pm CEST

Tags: google

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 4:48pm CEST

Tags: real estate

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 3:40pm CEST

Tags: dnc

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 2:09pm CEST

Tags: google

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 2:03pm CEST

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 1:28pm CEST

Posted: August 25th, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: Remote Sensing

Posted: August 24th, 2008, 1:41am CEST by Mapperz

Tags: maps

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 9:32pm CEST

Tags: google maps

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 8:08pm CEST

Tags: Satellite

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 8:00pm CEST

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 7:07pm CEST

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 5:42pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 5:13pm CEST

Tags: mobile

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 3:37pm CEST

Tags: iphone

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 1:25pm CEST

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 1:00pm CEST

Tags: google

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 12:33am CEST

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: lbs