Good News on Google Maps/Yahoo Traffic

A bit of intervention by Tim O’Reilly caused the once removed lat/long info from Yahoo’s traffic RSS feed to be reinstated. That means that the display of that information on Google Maps is back. (It was off line once the RSS was changed.) So, how long until these companies know on their own that sharing such info is the right thing to do? How long does the community need to have Tim “step in?”

GIS: Profession, Niche or Tool?

GITA posted a white paper summarizing discussions at its recent conference and on its discussion board on the topic: What Is GIS: A Profession, Niche, or Tool? I appreciate that the summary gives much space to comments provided by those online and comes to no conclusion. (A good overview of the panel discussion is provided by GIS Cafщ.)

How one sees GIS seems to connect with how one feels about certification. A profession may well need certification while a tool may not. Fair enough. The big lesson here is that this discussion has far more to do with how the rest of the world looks at “us” the geospatial community, than anything else. I think we could all be convinced at one time or another to see GIS one way or the other. We have a more intimate knowledge of the technology and its uses. Those outside our community do not. They need a sort of shorthand to understand what we do. So, formal declarations of definitions can be very helpful.

Certification, as it stands now, from GISCI is quite similar. It’s a shorthand for folks outside our industry to say, essentially, “some folks who know quite a lot about GIS looked over this person’s credentials and says the individual is ok.”

I’ve shared my opinions on certification in the past, and they have not changed. As for whether GIS is a profession, niche or tool, I don’t much care. I do care that the Department of Labor says we need more folks to do this sort of work. I care that schools are seeing increased demands to turn out graduates that can take jobs using GIS as a tool AND serving as a member of its professional ranks.

The discussion harkens me back to the final exam for a mixed undergrad/grad course in GIS in 1987 at Penn State. It had one question: is GIS an art or a science? I didn’t take the exam (I did not study GIS in school, ever) but thought it was a pretty clever question. But, like this question, there was no “right” answer and the learning was in the pondering.

RouteRuler

An e-mail is going around to the running community about RouteRuler an open source app that allows one to draw routes on a scanned map (with a scale) and determine distances. It sounds like something that should exist, but like the developer, I’ve not found such a tool, either. His offering is Java-based, so it runs on many platforms and is very simple: load a map, calibrate the scale and start drawing. The tricky part is getting the maps. I guess DRGs and mosaicked snippets from MapQuest or Google will work fine. I had no trouble with screen capture of an MSN Map.

Wi-Fi Aids Location Determination for Local Search and Asset Tracking

In speaking with Ted Morgan, CEO, about Skyhook Wireless’ first customer for their Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), one of the potential results of the ubiquitous deployment of Wi-Fi in homes, offices, and elsewhere, is the necessity to put 802.11 chipsets in more handsets. If GPS or assisted-GPS can not accurately meet the requirements for the FCC’s E911 mandates, then Wi-Fi may be the next technology embedded into cell phones and other mobile devices.

No less surprising is the potential for Wi-Fi to assist local search. With all of the interest by Microsoft, Google, MapQuest and Yahoo to compete for advertising dollars and use local search to squeeze more from local market retailers and others, Wi-Fi is an obvious catalyst. Now that laptops outpace desktops in market share, and most laptops now come equipped with 802.11 chipsets as a standard feature, the opportunity to leverage Wi-Fi technology to automatically indentify the location of the individual (with the appropriate permissions) conducting the search for local information is substantial.

Skyhook now has a database of Wi-Fi hotspots in 25 major cities and hope to hit 100 cities by year end. They employ a proprietary scanning technology to "sniff" for Wi-Fi access points and retrieve the base station’s name and unique identifier. Skyhook is in a pilot phase with another company to build a broker layer between A-GPS and Wi-Fi to make the hand off to get a more precise location if either A-GPS or GPS fails to do so. So, the possibility exists that future handsets will employ GPS and Wi-Fi chipsets to aid location determination.

And one final Wi-Fi application is getting traction. Wi-Fi tags are being used to track assets in much the same way that RFID tags are employed. While the RFID tag is better suited for tracking assets inside buildings where RFID readers can be efficiently used, the Wi-Fi tag makes sense for asset tracking over greater distances, where again, more Wi-Fi hotspots are available. So, for tracking the asset across town or across the country, where real-time tracking is necessary, Wi-Fi makes more sense because the networks is more widely available, and certainly will continue to grow. Check out AeroScout’s serices for real-time location services (RTLS).

 

“Lojack for Laptops”