Google Maps and BBC Backstage - When Will They Pull the Plug?

Nat at O’Reilly has a nice piece on Google Maps and BBC Backstage. The latter is an effort by the British Broadcasting Company to make many of its resource available for users to combine and use as they see fit. That’s let to some interesting marriages of Google Maps and data on traffic, traffic cameras in London, sports news and the like. The real power here is of the “open environment.” In a sense we are all just ogling over what people can do if they are given lots of “legos” (ok, in this case just a few) to combine as they see fit. Just as children and adults build amazing houses, creatures and vehicles, so too do hackers build amazing (and not so amazing) apps. 

The challenge is the end of the story: “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye!” In business terms, that means when someone realizes they are leaving money on the table. Will that happen? Will all these open free and fun interfaces be squashed? So far, no one is really speaking about the business side of this type of offering, including Google. Enjoy it while you can, folks!

MapQuest Defies the Trend - Goes Deeper into Print

Several news outlest, such as Red Herring and Monsters and Critics.com, are reporting that MapQuest is expanding its print business this summer with more titles for the traveler. Oh, you didn’t know they had a print business? On a visit I made to Lancaster, PA to visit MapQuest a year or so ago, I was treated to several very nice tabloid and magazine size atlases, similar to what you would find from Rand McNally. Remember, MapQuest has its roots in the print business having been spun out of RR Donnelly. In addition, their map library is probably one of the largest in the world. MapQuest knows the print business very well and Red Herring had the story wrong as their report indicated that this was a new business venture for them. So, MapQuest, though seamingly playing third fiddle to Microsoft and Google, at least in terms of recent press activity, isn’t going anywhere and with an expanded print business as well as recent announcements with wireless location-based service providers like Nextel, the company is well positioned on many fronts.

Geography Bee Winner

Yep, it’s that time again, this year’s winner was crowned. Nathan Cornelius, 13, a home schooled student from Minneapolis took home the $25,000 scholarship. Hey, I love the thought that this kid memorized all this “capes and bays” geography to get the award. And, I was jazzed to hear that my niece was second (or first according to her grandparents - I have yet to ask her as she’s too busy with ballet) in a local bee.

Still, I’m disappointed we holding to the notion that this is geography and what geographers do. Ever wonder why the Department of Labor is predicting we’ll run out of trained geospatial folks in the coming years? Kids think this Geography Bee is what geography is all about! That turns the non-memorized crowd away… The good news? Put them in front of a computer with puzzles to solve (that’s what geography is really about!) and students go to town! I’d like to see the Bee actually show kids using an atlas or a GIS (or Google Maps!); that’s how real geographic problems are solved.

Where is MapInfo?

I grew up knowing MapInfo was in Troy, New York. It was started by guys from Rennselear Polytechnical Institute (RPI). I knew about RPI in high school; I even visited it during my college tours. (The computer science building was in a church, then, not sure if it still is.) I also know that Thompson, which MapInfo purchased a few years ago is in Ann Arbor Michigan. One of my classmates from college works there and lives in Ann Arbor. So, why does this article say “MapInfo Thompson” is in Dublin, California? Maybe the fellow they spoke with was from there, but certainly the company is not based there, as the article claims. A quick check of the MapInfo website notes that there is an office in Dublin, but it’s not a sales office. And, it’s not HQ either; that’s listed as Troy.

This United Press International (UPI) article has MapInfo in Toronto. And, has some interesting ideas about what Envinsa is. “Another new technology that may be used by public safety departments is from MapInfo Corporation in Toronto, the electronic mapping firm. The company is developing a routing engine, called Envinsa, that helps determine where a caller is and then deliver the call to the right Public Safety Answer Point—the right fire or police dispatcher.” The author, interestingly, is a “2005 Winner of a Lilly Foundation Award for his columns for United Press International.”

GAO Highlights Potential Misuse of RFID Chips in Federal Government

A report published last week from the Government Accountability Office documented that 13 (of 23 surveyed) of the largest federal agencies are currently using or plan to use RFID technology. The concern is that just one had identified or thought through legal or privacy issues. Several agencies did reveal that the technology would allow staff locations to be tracked. It’s great that the GAO is keeping an eye on this in the government. Hopefully, it will perk up attention to such matters in the private and consumer sectors.