GISWiki.NEWS.Reader

Blogs

1 2 3 ... 30

Ogle Earth

360Cities — now with panorama embedding

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:39am CET

codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,28,0"
height="350" width="468">

pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
height="350" width="468" allowFullScreen="true" quality="autohigh"
flashvars="pano=http://360cities.net/krpano/external_embed/tihna-el-gebel-egypt.xml&epd=http://360cities.net/data/embed/plugin_data/tihna-el-gebel-egypt" />

Tihna el Gebel

360Cities today rolled out an embedding tool for its panoramas. This is a big deal: Before, you couldn't just upload a panorama to a server via FTP and expect to show up properly on a web page, like you would with a normal photo. You first had to chop the image into tiles; you also had to upload a player to the server, usually Flash-based, and then tweak it via arcane parameters or custom-made Javascript.

Now, just upload your panoramas to you account at 360Cities. Not only will they show up in on www.360Cities.net and on Google Earth — as of today you can also embed them on any web page you can edit, just like you would with a YouTube video.

But wait, there is more: Because each panorama can also be oriented in addition to georeferenced, you can travel between panoramas using the on-screen hotspots, with some neat transition animations in between. And on the panorama's home page, when you pan left or right, a little Google Map in the bottom right of the screen shows you in which direction you're looking and your field of view. You can even drag the field of view to quickly look around.

The full screen option is definitely my favorite feature, for its immersive feel, but for a real mind trip right click on a panorama and play with some of the available alternate views, such as Little Planet View or Architectural View (try the latter with a pano with buildings in it).

And let's not forget to send kudos to the viewing engine used by 360Cities, krpano, whose multi-resolution rendering of a panorama depending on zoom levels taps the same efficiencies as the image pyramids used by Google Maps and Microsoft Sea Dragon.
Comments (0)

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

5 Cool New Announcements for the Mac or iPhone user from MacWorld

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:01am CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Maybe you couldn’t make it to MacWorld this week but that doesn’t mean you can’t be privy to some of the cool announcements being rolled out for Mac and iPhone users… read on...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Ogle Earth

Links: CASSIE, iLife goes geo, Google Earth Enterprise goes portable

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 1:45am CET
- Cassini at Saturn Interactive Explorer: CASSIE is a wonderful 3D interactive application by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that lets you visualize all of Cassini's flybys of Saturn and its moons. It's web-based, with plugins for Macs and Windows, and it looks delicious. It's the sort of stuff I wish I had when I was a kid.
- iCool '09: iPhoto '09 appears to have implemented the georeferencing of photos — and then viewing them via geographic criteria — quite superbly, judging from the tutorial video. One thing that stood out for me is that when you are defining a new place to tag a photo with, you can define the area it is supposed to cover by adjusting the size of a circle around the placemark. No more pins named "Canada", yay!
  
  Another cool feature, hinted at in this screenshot: Smart albums for photos based on your current field of view. My new regret: Apple's pro Aperture photo app doesn't have all these geotools. I wish iPhoto '09 were usable as a browsing interface for my existing Aperture photo collections. Perhaps it is?
- iFool '09: Nooooo. iMovie '09's animated travel maps don't get you from A to B via great circle routes, but pretend the Earth is flat. Fail, Apple. At least let great circle routes be an option.
- Google Earth Enterprise goes portable: The Official Google Enterprise Blog has the announcement, and All Points Blog has the clarifications about Google Earth Enterprise Portable: Yes, disaster relief and humanitarian organizations can now take all or some of their globe data into the field, stored on an external USB disk and served from the laptop itself. No, it doesn't mean you can take Google Earth's base imagery with you into the field; you need to already have your own datasets on a Google Earth Enterprise system.
- Edge Question: It's that time of the year where Edge asks science luminaries one questions. This year: "What will change everything?" Garrett Lisi predicts, among other things, that in the future "Every physical location will be geo-tagged with an overlay of information."
- Second Earth 2.0: NOAA's Eric Hackathorn builds an ever-better virtual virtual globe, in Second Life:
  
  (Earlier blog entry) (Via Architecture +)
- Astronomical Object finder: Star Finder is simple yet clever. Search for an object (seriously, any object), get the view in Google Sky (web). For example, searching for UGC7777 produces a lovely colliding galaxy system. I only wish we'd get a quick KML link to the view in the standalone Google Sky.
Comments (0)

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Got a Cool “Wow” or “ShamWOW” Geo Technology Solution… make a Video!

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 12:40am CET by Glenn

Tags: Video

Tip O the day — I’m a huge fan of the video… those of you who follow me know I always have my video enabled camera phone in tow and grab clips of everything and everyplace I go -...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Ogle Earth

Gaza maps, updated

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 10:45pm CET

UNOSAT has released an updated version of its Gaza situation map, while OCHA (the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has also released a map focusing on the humanitarian situation. Both maps incorporate information from as recently as yesterday, January 5, 2009.

I've now also geopositioned the OCHA map. Additionally, I've put both overlays into a nested network link and moved all the content to my Dropbox (putting this Ogle Earth post to good use).

Here is the result, a single URL that automatically shows the latest versions of both maps. Remember to play with the opacity slider in Google Earth.

Should there be further updates to these maps (or other new useful maps made available) then I will simply replace the files via Dropbox and update the KML file. Your network link in Google will automatically show the latest file, without you needing to download it again — either just relaunch Google Earth, or right-click on the folder icon and select "Refresh".

As Aid Worker Daily has shown, online maps of Gaza are sub-par at the moment, though you can help OpenStreetMap build a better map of Gaza right now — Mikel Maron is asking for help. Google's Ed Parsons lends his support to Mikel's OSM Gaza effort, in part because Google's own Map Maker crowdsourcing tool isn't enabled for Gaza. Yet another reason why it is important to have OSM around.

Google Map Maker Fail

(Note: Overlays of the OCHA and UNOSAT maps are clearly a stopgap method of getting information across — it would be more efficient to have map contents available as KML vector objects, constantly updated as this conflict progresses. One proof of concept is the Google Map showing the progress of ABC News correspondent N.J. Burkett as he covers the conflict (via Google Maps Mania). I'm not going to add the KML for that map to the network link of reference maps, but it is an example of what's possible. If anyone knows of such updated content about the humanitarian situation or the progress of the war, please let me know and I will add it. Also let me know if you find other maps to overlay.)

Comments (0)

James Fee GIS Blog

The ESRI Enterprise License Agreement Enterprise License Agreement - Is It Working?

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 10:05pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

The ESRI salesman hits the road to sell the ELA

Google is littered with press releases announcing customers signing up for ESRI Enterprise License Agreements. Most of these seem to be larger government organizations and corporations. But what about the Small Municipal and County Government Enterprise License Agreement Program we heard so much about last year? I’ve heard from a couple people that they’ve had difficulty with the ELA because they don’t “fit” into the program. As a ESRI Business Partner I am hopeful that this program would allow ESRI customers to get out of antiquated ArcIMS and ArcView 3.x applications and into the more modern ArcGIS 9.3 stuff. It would appear at least on the surface that it hasn’t been successful but maybe Google isn’t telling the whole story.

Anyone care to comment on the ELA program and its success/failures?

Ogle Earth

Dropbox: KML file hosting synced from your desktop

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 8:47pm CET

Valery Hronusov discovers that Dropbox, a new free (2GB) or premium (50GB for $10/month) file syncing and sharing service, works great for hosting KML and KMZ files, including network links. What's truly innovative about Dropbox is that it in addition to syncing specific folders across the internet to other computers, it also automatically syncs a public folder on your hard drive with an internet-accessible directory — just like Apple's MobileMe, except that Dropbox also provides unique URLs for the files, making them easy to link to.

This means, for example, that if you keep and update KML files in a designated public folder on your computer at home, these will automatically update on the web in a fully scalable fashion.

The upshot: If you have desktop software that automatically produces, say, KML files of your georeferenced photos (as Houdahgeo for Mac does) you should be able to create some nice automated workflows that lets ou publish directly to the web. [Update: iPhotoToGoogleEarth would work great too.]

There's more: As Valery points out, Dropbox seamlessly handles network links (after all, they are just files), and of course they can be made to reference other Dropbox URLs. So: If you were to keep one fixed network link whose URL you make public and don't change, you could have it reference other KML files via their Dropbox URLs which you do update. To illustrate this point, I just converted my recent Egypt trip KML file from last month to Dropbox, which required nothing more than updating two URLs. Here it is. And from now on, all I need to do to change their content on your Google Earth is to update them on my laptop. No FTP needed.

(The only thing that hasn't been properly tested yet: What is the bandwidth limit for DropBox: Can it handle lots of simultaneous uploads, like Google Earth Community can? Feedback on speed appreciated.)
Comments (1)

Mapperz - The Mapping News Blog

What's Coming in ArcGIS 9.3.1?

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 6:01pm CET

Tags: 9.3.1

What's Coming in ArcGIS 9.3.1? ArcGIS 9.3.1 is likely to improve the performance of dynamic map publishing and increases the sharing of geographic information. High-Performance Dynamic Map...

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

Google Earth Enterprise Hits the Road

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 5:36pm CET

Tags: google

Update 1/6/09 5:10 pm EST

Google's folks got right back to me with answers (Thanks!), so here you go:

As I understand it, you are not just putting some data on the mobile deployment, you are putting the whole server and all the data on it?

That's correct. The mobile drive would have a Google Earth server plus the customer's data. One thing to point out - what differentiates Google Earth Enterprise from the publicly available Google Earth is that, in the Enterprise version, the customer utilizes only their own data (which is the case with this portable technology).

Can you put a subset of data on the mobile hardware?

Yes. In fact, one use case is for customers to pre-load different USB drives with different data sets (i.e. different parts of a country) that would be readily available for use in the field.

Is this in fact the entire server code base (which I guess is pretty big) or a "trimmed down" version?

It's the exact Earth Server software that runs on server racks, but it is lightweight enough to run on a portable device

Is this basically a new "licensing option" or is it really new software?

It's a different way to deploy the Google Earth Enterprise software.

--- original post -----

Google just contacted us about portable version of our Google Earth Enterprise Server (GEES); it was announced yesterday. Recall that GEES is the version of GE that an organization can buy and run internally, typically with its own data. I dug up from the product page how the portable version works:

The Google Earth Enterprise Portable is loaded on a customer supplied USB drive or a large partition on a user's laptop using VMWare. Options are available for single- or multiple-user access to the portable software.

I agree with the e-mail that suggests there are situations where a "field version" of the data may be useful, including during disasters were connectivity to the "mother ship" is not available. Still, there are some questions not answered: Do you take the whole server platform? Must you take all the data? Is this a licensing option rather than new software? I've posed those questions back to Google and will let you know what I learn.

- Google Blog post
- product page

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Suggested Reading - 10 Principles of Social Media

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 3:51pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Jim Benson, CEO of Modus Cooperandi has tipped me off about some of the work he’s been involved with lately. Part of Jim’s Passion is dealing with social media, particularly from a...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

Patent Watch: Has Apple Patented Touchscreen Mapping?

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 2:21pm CET

Tags: google

The patent filed with the World International Property Organization (WIPO) is titled: "Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Providing Maps, Directions, and Location-Based Information."

Unwired argues that "most of the features used in its [sic, Google] mobile navigation app" are owned by Apple, not Google.

MacNN also chimes in.
All 43 Police Forces in England and Wales offer Online Crime Maps

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:40pm CET

Tags: Crime

They've all been published online as of today per the Home Office said today. The plan to put the maps online was the result of the publication of a Cabinet Office report noting citizens felt 'cut off' from the justice department. The effort to put the maps online began last summer.

It seems they all use different technology (that's fine by me) but I can't find an index of them. I think that'd be a valuable addition. You can see a comparison of offenses by local authority with the Instant Atlas.

- Guardian
SanFran Solar Map Patterns

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:01pm CET

Tags: Environment/Sustainable Development

I just had a chance to look at San Francisco's new Solar Map created by CH2M Hill. The Google Maps-based website shows the location of installed solar panels and the power company that provided the installation. And Time Magazine had a fairly comprehensive story about the plans by CH2M HILL to map 25 cities for their solar potential as well as an audio interview with SF Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Since this was relatively old news, I was looking to see if I could discern any patters to the existing solar installations. I noticed an interesting grouping of solar panels in a neighborhood south of I280 and east of James Lick Freeway which has been designated as "environmental justice program" installations. I created a average income thematic map of the area that showed it to be a low-income area which Newsom cited were "under-served neighborhoods."

If you type in a local address you will receive information on the current energy use and the potential savings by installing solar power. San Francisco is offering incentives to install solar energy solutions.
Suggestions to Online News Map Producers

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: media & maps

Dear Charlotte Observer,

Today I found, via a search, your map of the homicides in Charlotte in 2008. I applaud the use of interactive map in news coverage.

I was a bit "lost" when contemplating this map because there was:

- no article to which it was linked
- no legend
- no link for information on the map itself (who made it, why, source information, etc.)

With some effort, I did find the article in the Sunday edition that linked to the map. It was sadly about the first homicide of 2009. The article did reference the map, but alas didn't provide any further information.

I did find, quite by accident that clicking the "view larger map" took me to the MyMaps source of this smaller map. There I found a descriptive legend (what the blue and yellow teardrops meant and what pushpins meant) and more about the source information.

My suggestions:

- If a map is on a stand-alone page, consider adding a "stories that link to this map" list. Remember many readers will come to this map from outside the paper thus have "no context."
- Perhaps rename the "view larger map" link to state that more information is available there, too. That link might made more prominent, too.
- Include a legend if at all possible with the embedded map.

Thanks for your time.

Adena
Camden Complaint Map Causes....Complaints

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

It seems the issue with the "interactive map of the city allowing anyone to post anonymous concerns" is that it's not being updated, leaving resident to feel their concerns are not being addressed. Hopeworks 'N Camden designed the map at the direction of the Camden District Council Collaborative Boards.

So far, 1,092 concerns have been filed. As of Friday, the average acknowledgment for an abandoned home was 200.5 days. Graffiti isn't far behind at 184.5 days. The site lists 378 reports -- more than one in three issues -- as outdated.

The issue seems to be interoperability, though the local paper doesn't use that term.

The problem has been software, city officials said. The city uses an internal program to monitor constituent complaints called Contact Camden. As complaints from the Web site are filed, each must be transferred into the system individually. In order to respond to both types of concerns, the city is considering updating the map to integrate it with the other software.

Alas the person working on connecting the systems was let go due to budget issues. I have to agree with Rev. Jeff Putthoff, a DCCB member and executive director of Hopeworks, who points out the map is more than a luxury, but rather shoes transparency of government. Meetings are planned to try to update the process and thus the map.
Early iPhone LBS Ad Company in Deadpool

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: lbs

TechCrunch reports that AppLoop has shut down. The company (which I'd not heard of) launched in summer 2008 and took advantage of the iPhone's location determination to send ads. (The company claimed to be "the first ever real-time, location-based mobile ad network.") A later app turned any RSS feed into an iPhone app. Doesn't sound like either one was enough to keep the lights on.
Skidmore GIS Educators Conference Friday

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: education

Skidmore is not one of the schools we generally think of when speaking about GIS, but this Friday the Skidmore GIS Center for Interdisciplinary Research hosts a regional GIS Conference for Educators.

This year, topics of interest include GIS and statistics, managing and supporting GIS on a college campus, the use of GIS for visualizing potential development, GIS and mercury in the Adirondack Park, Manifold internet mapping, using ESRI Modelbuilder for automating demographic analysis, and web based GIS systems.

If any readers are attending, we'd love a brief conference report!
Obama's Infrastructure Investment Statments Fueling ADSK Stock Surge?

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: Autodesk

Back on December 6th, President-elect Barack Obama made a statement that to help "jump start" the economy and stem job losses that he would make an investment in infrastructure. Some have called it an "Eisenhower-like" project similar to the development of the interstate highway system in the 1950's under then president Dwight Eisenhower for the construction of new roads, repair of aging bridges and making public buildings more energy efficient. Bloomberg News reported on December 8th that the total stimulus package might be in the range of $500 to $700 billion.

These statements sent shares of construction manufacturers and engineering firms up solidly. The impact has been felt in the geospatial technology sector as well. Since early December, Autodesk's (ADSK) stock as risen from around $16 per share to nearly $21 per share as of yesterday's close or about 30%.
Podcast: Four New Year's Geotechnology Challenges

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 8:00am CET

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: google

With the new year five days old and economic challenges expected for every sector we explore four big challenges and opportunities for those in geospatial technology. We explore four of them: (1) how U.S. investment in infrastructure may propel geotechnologies, (2) marketing of geotechnologies in tough times (3) the growth/contraction of location-based services, and (4) the renewed interest in "openness."

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

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

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

off topic fun - Aussie sun bathers may have to cover up!

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 4:51am CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

The scenery on Bondi Beach or at Surfer’s Paradise may take on a new look in the future if some vocal opponents of topless sun bathing have their way… video from Reuters explains…

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

GIS CAD Interoperability

MSD: A Good Defense is a Good Offense

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 8:26pm CET by Don Kuehne

You can be successful in a workflow without necessarily understanding why or how it works. The lady warriors have been playing pretty good defense during their recent pre-season basketball games. In their first regular season game they won by over twenty points. Their defensive success comes from effort, but also by adherence to audible calls from the bench that help orchestrate their actions. Their understanding of why they are moving from one spot on the floor to another is less clear. The coaches need constant attention and oversight to assure quality and control. I for one am hoping to move beyond that and teach the girls how they can be more successful on their own. The girls need to own their individual responsibilities, so that we the coaches can concentrate on the bigger picture of strategy and the overall flow of the game.

GIS and CAD interoperability is similar in a lot of ways where CAD standards and ad-hoc workflows are put in place to be competitive and get the job done. However without constant attention to quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) things can go bad especually when working with outside organizations. This needed attention is often a distraction of resources that could be utilized to do more strategic and profitable work. The introduction of the Mapping Specification for Drawings (MSD) and the new tools being distributed in the next version of ArcGIS for AutoCAD (more about that soon) are designed to provide a huge benefit to the overall GIS and CAD interoperability workflow and free up resources that would otherwise be focused on creating and maintaining ad-hoc workflows back and forth between GIS and CAD. And this is important, it is free and it will not change most people’s existing GIS or CAD workflows.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

The handwriting calculator for touch Nokia UI and the Nokia 5800 ExTreme!

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 5:29pm CET by Glenn

Tags: mobile

This video via way of Nokia Conversations Team shows the latest technology for Nokia Touch UI devices - the handwriting calculator (Beta Labs). This free application is supported to date by the Nokia...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
ezSpace Wall Mount UFO at CES

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 5:19pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Once again we’re into a new year and that means CES is just around the corner - this week actually! I was really close to going but had to bail as it simply came up too fast… perhaps next...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Ogle Earth

Mount Mabu unveiled

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 3:21pm CET

Perhaps, over the holidays, you read about the unspoiled forest "discovered" using Google Earth by researchers from Kew Garden, London, who subsequently found a range of new species when they travelled there. Given that the press speaking points (and hence the news articles) put such an emphasis on the role of Google Earth in the narrative, you'd expect that the media would perhaps show the forest on a Google Map alongside the web versions of their articles. No such luck.

Ogle Earth to the rescue, then: According to the media stories, the forest lies on the slopes of Mount Mabu. Geonames.org has "Serra Mabu/Monte Mabu" in its exhaustive database, and there is indeed a large patch of bright unruffled green right around there...

View Larger Map

Geonames continues to amaze me with how it always has a location for any place name you care to throw at it. One of my most used tools in Google Earth is in fact the network link to Google Earth that Geonames provides after you search its database. The network link does a location-based search of its database for your field of view every time you stop moving — and as such it is great for browsing remote places. Just save that link in My Places and turn it on anytime you want to know the name of that strange feature you've found at in the middle of the Sahara, Siberia, or north-central Mozambique.

A slightly more whimsical thought: Notice how the newly discovered forest is defined by a dearth of named features in Geonames's database? Perhaps it might be possible to devise an algorithm to find other such "holes" and then seeing which of those are unspoiled biomes (as opposed to lakes or mountain ranges. (Panoramio, Google Earth Community, Wikipedia and every other base layer in Google Earth all come up empty-handed for this particular spot — yet another hint.)
Comments (1)

All Points Blog

DC Gov Drops Daily Crime E-mail, Users Unhappy with alternative, a Map

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:25pm CET

Tags: Crime

The daily crime e-mail had been sent out by the D.C. police to the public via e-mail. It included all crimes in each of the department's districts, broken down by Police Service Area. The e-mails have been dropped per Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes because they often included information that may have jeopardized police work. Instead, the DC police offer a map built on the acclaimed DC Atlas.

That app is quite complex, allowing search near an address, searching on a specific crime, etc. GIS may love it but some, like the Georgetown Metropolitan Blog (GMT) finds it wanting compared to the sleek text listing. (Full review from the blog including what are suggested as better alternatives: below is a summary.)

...its terrible. Its based on inferior mapping software, its difficult to use, and it doesnt allow you to actually find out any information on each crime. For crime maps, there are better options out there. But a crime map is not a satisfactory replacement for a daily list. MPD has offered the crime map for years, why does it all of the sudden think that its a better option than daily blotters?

The response of both NBC and GMT sounds rational: find a way not to include the information that shouldn't be included and keep the e-mails coming!

- NBC Washington
2009: "GPS as feature"

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: gps

That's one of the predications from the folks at Buzz Out Loud for 2009. Sorry don't recall who said it...

The intro was on the order of "stand alone GPS" will begin going away, but in device and in-car will thrive. GPS will be like a camera in a cell phone - a "required feature." I think that's right on and highlights a few things:

(1) GPS is short for "locating technologies" - it could be cell tower, wi-fi, whatever. The feature is simply that the device (car, phone, etc.) can automatically know where it is. While not every knows (or needs to know) how location is determined, I think there's a real comfort level, interest and demand for the feature.

(2) That feature is useless without apps that can access it (hopefully with permission of the device owner). Carriers are figuring this part out now. How open should we make our location API? Should we have to "approve" of apps? This the 2009 LBS discussion. 2008 ended with two carriers tending toward "open."

(3) The E-911 emergency response that prompted the need for location determination seems to be overshadowed in the press by the LBS apps. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

(4) Are there any other electronics (or non-electronics) outside mobile devices and cars that will soon have GPS as a feature?
Patent Watch: Tracking People Via Cell without Compromising Privacy

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: Tracking

I received an e-mail from Jeremy Wood that shared his patent pending method "for tracking cellphones to generate useful demographically-keyed data on the movement of people, without compromising anyone's privacy." The patent application will be public in April, but Wood shared it and some slides with me and is interested in feedback.

Below I'll do my best to explain the method try to think through the value of the data collected. To me that's the real make or break of the method: does it create data that will be in demand?

Continue reading "Patent Watch: Tracking People Via Cell without Compromising Privacy"

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Lightning Look at 5 Mobile Touch UI Devices - iPhone 3G, Samsung Behold, G1, Blackberry Bold, 5800

Posted: January 3rd, 2009, 1:53am CET by Glenn

Tags: Apple

So, you want a touch UI mobile device. I’ve been checking out some of the latest touch UI mobile devices lately, curious to see who’s coming out with what and what features are being...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

Seeking Alpha 2009 Prediction: Google to Acquire GeoEye

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 5:07pm CET

Tags: google

Eric Jackson at Seeking Alpha offers several micro-predictions for 2009. Among them: Google to acquire GeoEye.

6. Google (GOOG) will buy geospatial satellite operator GeoEye (GEOY). Google will see providing the map images (and searching any location on Earth) that appear on Google Maps, Google Earth and its G1 mobile phone as strategic, as well as in line with its interest in space in general. Google's stock will end 2009 at $350.

Yes, yes, he's not the first to float the idea and of course many outlets already refer to "Google's satellite" based on the Google/GeoEye contract of 2008 and the Google logo on the rocket. Seeking Alpha's other writers have been pushing GeoEye as a great investment all year. Is this down economy the right time for this to actually happen? Does this fall in line with Google's goal of "organizing the world's information?" To my knowledge, unlike Microsoft, Google has yet to acquire "content," though its quick to acquire software that enables its users to create content, that it then can organize.
Johnny's Lunch Coming to Pittsburgh

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 4:52pm CET

Tags: MapInfo

I knew nothing of the hot dog chain until we ran an article about its location technology strategy (Pitney Bowes Business Insight, aka MapInfo). There were an amazing number of comments from non-GIS people to express their love of the place. So, at least those in Pittsburg can stop adding comments asking for a store nearby!

- Pittsburgh Business Times

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Share, browse and archive your mobile images (S60) with Image Exchange

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 4:03am CET by Glenn

Tags: imagery

The newest application from Nokia Beta Labs - Image Exchange, enables archival and sharing of your mobile images. See [imageexchange.nokia.com]

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

Free 250m True Marble Imagery

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 1:20am CET

Tags: Remote Sensing

Unearthed Outdoors offers the 250m True Marble image set for a free download with a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. It's the earth in 32 tiles, each 21,000 pixel square, available in png and tif. There's also a series of smaller files. If nothing else, this is a great time to learn about Creative Commons if that license is new to you.

- BoingBoing and a hat tip to Larry for the pointer

Ogle Earth

UNOSAT maps Gaza Strip war

Posted: January 1st, 2009, 6:45pm CET

The Middle East Strategy at Harvard blog made me aware of a just-released UNOSAT map detailing the attacks inside and around the Gaza Strip from Dec 25 and up to Dec 31, 2008 (yesterday). The map is available for download from the UNOSAT site as a PDF. I downloaded it, rasterized it and geopositioned it in Google Earth as an image overlay. Download the KMZ file for an overview of this latest war on Google Earth.

As usual, play with the transparency slider for the overlay to switch between the map view and the underlying view of Google Earth.

UNOSAT continues to update the map, so do go and get yourself the latest one if you don't read this post today.
Comments (1)

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

Starting 2009 A Little Greener

Posted: January 1st, 2009, 4:25pm CET by Glenn

Tags: environment

A Happy new year to everyone out there… for me 2009 may be a little bit greener (hopefully in a few ways!) I’ll definitely make an effort to be more aware of the energy I’m...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

James Fee GIS Blog

Happy New Year Everyone

Posted: January 1st, 2009, 4:00pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

I hope everyone is having a happy New Year’s day. I personally can’t wait for the year to unfold. Considering how great 2008 was for geospatial technology, 2009 is sure to amaze us all.

AnyGeo - Anything Geospatial

FGDC Publishes Highlights of 2008

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 7:32pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Just published by the FGDC, highlights from 2008. The theme for this year’s report is how geospatial data provide critical support for wildfire response. Other items covered in the report include...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
Creating Maps and the Network Effect - a great read!

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 5:25pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Let me share with you this excellent article I ran into that covers off some recent history of web mapping and looks at the effect that community input, mobile devices, user-generated content...

[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

All Points Blog

Intergraph Victim of Phony Check Scam

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 4:51pm CET

Tags: Intergraph

The checks went out Christmas Eve and had Intergraph's name on them, but they were fake. Intergraph told one recipient in Topeka, Kansas that "it's gotten at least 20 calls from others who received the phony check and 12 who made the mistake of cashing it."

- KTKA
Free One Week Trial of Nokia Maps

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 4:35pm CET

Tags: lbs

You need a Nokia GPS enabled phone for the one week trial.

- via underwiredview
WV County Makes 911 Calls in Near Real Time Public

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 3:35pm CET

I find the weekly wrap-up of crimes in my city's paper a bit scary but this near real time map and list for Charleston, WV (Kanawha Count) is even scarier. Medical emergencies are not listed - but shootings, stabbings, injuries, robberies, structure (fires I think) are. It's interesting that the complete addresses are given, too.

- The State Journal
- Charleston Gazette
Public Integrity Cites Map-enabled Investigative Journalism

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 2:54pm CET

Tags: media & maps

The year end list includes:

Mexico Under Siege Los Angeles Times in-depth coverage of Mexicos drug war and how the United States is indirectly involved. Interactive map and tons of stories you can sort by location and subject.

Also on the list, but not necessarily mappy, is longtime friend of Directions Media Gary Price's
Docuticker described as "An invaluable daily update summarizing new reports from government agencies, nonprofits, think tanks, and more."

- Center for Public Integrity blog
Does a Map Make You More Likely to Act?

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 1:51pm CET

Tags: media & maps

Remember the big map shown at the Democratic National Convention? Remember how the attendees got excited when their state "lit up" when they texted someone about Obama (or perhaps because of something else)? That environment got people fired up in a competitive way, and it was newsworthy. We even did a podcast about it.

Shift gears now and consider ING Direct. ING Direct is an American discount bank. (Frankly I didn't know that until I read the article about the marketing effort. I only know they sponsor marathons.) Anyway, on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, ideally the kickoff to the holiday shopping season, the bank launched a site with 10 principles of saving called We the Savers. The idea is that people should sign up and commit to those ideas (basically, good financial practices). The site offers a US map of how many folks have signed up from each state as well as a button to invite a friend to sign. Why the map? I guess one reason might be to encourage folks to "boost" the stats for their state. Would it encourage you at all? Would it make you FEEL anything like the folks at the DNC? I'll answer a hearty "No!"
Continue reading "Does a Map Make You More Likely to Act?"
GIS Planning, ZoomProspector Featured in Biz Week

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 1:00pm CET

Tags: gis Jobs

Titled, Where to Locate Your Business, it starts with the story of a small company (URMC) that started in Doylestown, PA (I lived there once!) and moved the sprawling metropolis of Stowe, Vt. and some great tax breaks. The owner is looking to hire 26 people before the end of February. (It's GIS-y stuff, so maybe it's a spot for a reader?)

Anyway, the rest of the article talks about how to find the right spot and talks about ZoomProspector. One commenter asks why GIS is not mentioned. I guess they are not familiar with GIS Planning's app.
Questions of the Week

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 1:00pm CET

California has a new "no texting" law going into effect on Thursday. One fellow at CHP bravely offered to answer a long series of questions from the LA Times about what was and was no legal and when. Among them:

Q: Is it illegal to type directions into a digital map or GPS program on your phone while driving?
A: No. The law does not say you can't type directions into a map or GPS program on your phone.
...
Q: Is it illegal to read directions from your map or GPS program on your phone while driving?
A: No. However, we do not recommend that you do this.

Q: Is it illegal to type directions into a GPS device that is separate from a phone while driving?
A: No. Again, however, we do not encourage or recommend that you do this.

I'm not sure at all who types directions into a phone or GPS, but I guess someone does!

Ogle Earth

Exploring Middle Egypt with Google Earth - further notes

Posted: December 30th, 2008, 11:01pm CET
In the rush to publish the previous post about my Middle Egypt KML trip report (I was also packing for a day just spent travelling) I forgot to mention several further points I had on my mental to-do list:
- Google Earth + iPhone = awesome ruin navigation tool: While the iPhone isn't any good for making tracks, it was a most excellent mobile Google Earth — Especially in Egypt, where the base imagery is 2.5m Spot Image instead of 15m used elsewhere, and where most archaeological sites have glorious high-resolution DigitalGlobe imagery, the result of many special requests by archaeological institutes over the years.
  
  My iPhone happens to be locked to a Swedish contract, which implies ridiculously expensive data rates abroad, so I don't do mobile surfing with it while in Egypt. (When-oh-when will EU regulators call this practice what it is — cartel pricing — and make it illegal for European carriers?). I do, however, surf on hotel wifi (provided free even in the cheap ones) so during my trip, I spent some time each evening visiting the next day's sites on my iPhone.
  
  Since Google Earth for iPhone keeps its imagery in a huge cache, I don't need to connect to the internet later to use Google Earth while in the field — all the imagery is right there in the cache from the night before.
  
  On several occasions while traipsing around Akhetaten (aka Amarna) we all ended up huddling around the iPhone to better see the view from above in Google Earth, zooming and rotating until we could identify the feature right in front of us.
  
  I also ended up using a trick that makes flicking between favorite views a lot faster: The night before, I'd set up good views of a site and then take snapshots of the screen. (While keeping the Home button pressed down, hit the on/off button). After a while, I'd have a folder of Google Earth views ready for browsing on the iPhone without the startup lag or processing cycles of Google Earth (which helps preserve batteries). For example:
  
  (One more thing (so much minutiae:-) — GPS on the iPhone without an internet assist (The A in A-GPS) makes i as slow as a dog, much like the early days of the Nokia N95. So if you turn off roaming data while abroad to save money, you can forget about getting a fix in anything near a reasonable time, if at all. Another win for a dedicated GPS unit.)
- Google Earth panorama FOV bug: If you fly into a 360-degree panorama via the current version of Google Earth, you'll notice that you can't really zoom out all that much to get a wide-angle field of view. That turns out to be a known bug, as 360Cities' Jeffrey Martin pointed out to me.
  
  To see the difference, view the same panorama in 360Cities' web viewer (click on the link at the bottom of the popup window.)
- Imagery positioning in Google Earth: I've been faced with this dilemma before: In Cairo, the road layer in Google Earth is positioned about 125m northwest of the imagery layer, so which should I use as a reference when contributing placemarks to the neogeo commons? I've been using the imagery layer, as it appears that the road layer was published to an older datum before being released to the public domain — and all mapping services have the same problem.
  
  But now, after using a Garmin Oregon 300, one of the new generation of GPS devices with accuracy that routinely surpasses 5m, I've had a chance to compare that imagery layer in Google Earth to some real world locations, only to find that you can't assume the the accuracy of the positioning of the imagery matches the imagery's resolution.
  
  I should have known this, of course, but until now I have been blissfully placing placemarks with great care, to within the meter if the resolution of the imagery allowed it. Such confidence I now realize is misplaced, though for a while I wondered if the disparity wasn't due to some kind of systemic drift in the GPS signal, or improperly orthorectified images — it looked like the higher I climbed the cliffs of the Nile valley, the more divergent the track became. But then the obvious answer was to be found at the seams of the imagery mosaic:
  
  The above seam is between two DigitalGlobe imagery tiles taken on the same day and part of the same strip, just south of El Minya. There is more where that came from:
  
  It turns out some tiles are just better positioned than others.
  
  As a result, the KML trip report's georeferenced photos are now faithful not to the base imagery but to the GPS track, even if they look misplaced — because one day soon an imagery update will produce more accurately positioned imagery, which means in turn that placemarks previously placed using the imagery as a reference will suddenly be off-target.
  
  Of course, Google Earth doesn't come with any guarantees for accuracy, and accurately positioning a globe's worth of imagery is a gargantuan task, but it is good to keep in mind that Google Earth's imagery is not the gold standard when it comes to goereferencing a location. GPS units are.
Comments (1)

GISWiki.NEWS.Reader » Blogs

Feeds

Blogs

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:39am CET

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 2:01am CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 1:45am CET

Posted: January 7th, 2009, 12:40am CET by Glenn

Tags: Video

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 10:45pm CET

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 10:05pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 8:47pm CET

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 6:01pm CET

Tags: 9.3.1

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 5:36pm CET

Tags: google

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 3:51pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 2:21pm CET

Tags: google

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:40pm CET

Tags: Crime

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:01pm CET

Tags: Environment/Sustainable Development

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: media & maps

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: lbs

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: education

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: Autodesk

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 8:00am CET

Enclosure: [download]

Tags: google

Posted: January 6th, 2009, 4:51am CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 8:26pm CET by Don Kuehne

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 5:29pm CET by Glenn

Tags: mobile

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 5:19pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 3:21pm CET

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:25pm CET

Tags: Crime

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: gps

Posted: January 5th, 2009, 1:00pm CET

Tags: Tracking

Posted: January 3rd, 2009, 1:53am CET by Glenn

Tags: Apple

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 5:07pm CET

Tags: google

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 4:52pm CET

Tags: MapInfo

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 4:03am CET by Glenn

Tags: imagery

Posted: January 2nd, 2009, 1:20am CET

Tags: Remote Sensing

Posted: January 1st, 2009, 6:45pm CET

Posted: January 1st, 2009, 4:25pm CET by Glenn

Tags: environment

Posted: January 1st, 2009, 4:00pm CET by James Fee

Tags: gis

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 7:32pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 5:25pm CET by Glenn

Tags: gis

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 4:51pm CET

Tags: Intergraph

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 4:35pm CET

Tags: lbs

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 3:35pm CET

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 2:54pm CET

Tags: media & maps

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 1:51pm CET

Tags: media & maps

Posted: December 31st, 2008, 1:00pm CET