Quote of the Week

“Describe [...] to your Uncle Harry who asks you at Christmas dinner what GIS [geographic information systems] is.”

Nicole L. Ernst, geospatial technology instructor and coordinator at Harrisburg Area Community College, describing one of her student’s first assignments, as described in the Patriot-News.

Backstory on Platial

Platial‘s founder describes it as “putting the human stain on the world.”

Jacob Olsen graduated from Portland State University (that other PSU) in marketing and management and in 2005 launched the company which “enables people to document experience through geography.” The whole story of the company is in the Portland State University Vanguard and includes these tidbits of interest:

Platial is a partner with ESRI.
Platial is drumming up financial support in the business world.
Platial supports a PSU intern.

Data Point: Geospatial Web Noted in NY Times

Yellow Arrow and other “mobile social software” (free registration may be required) are profiled in an article that uses the term Geosptial Web.

To the extent that the programs are successful, they are birthing a hybrid that cognoscenti call the geospatial Web, the Internet overlaid on the real world.

The Times, as one might expect, does a fine job explaining the difference between Yellow Arrow, where a passerby sees a Yellow Arrow sticker and keys in a number, with passive location awareness, where carriers know where the handset is all the time, via GPS or other technology.

New Online Coastal Atlas for UK

Gary at Resource Shelf got the early notice of an online coastal atlas for the UK which boasts constantly updated marine data. The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launches it today.

“The £200,000 system, due to be launched on 25 January 2006, will contain datasets covering the coastline and marine areas of the UK continental shelf. It has been designed to help government and industry manage coastal resources.”

The application is part of Magic, the multi-agency geographic information for the countryside.

New US GPS Plan to Be Unveiled Wednesday

EE Times reports that tomorrow is the big day for a big announcement about the future of GPS, the United States satellite navigation system. The preview notes that “The Commerce Department said Deputy Secretary David Sampson will unveil the new system at a next-generation GPS forum hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”

The updated GPS will add another civilian channel that will offer “significant improvements in accuracy and reliability,” according to Commerce. This seems to be all about commercial use since representatives from General Motors, IBM, Lucent Technologies and Trimble Navigation are expected at the forum, along with the GPS Industry Council state officials and university researchers.

I was surprised to find just one article noting this announcement but did find this press release from the Department of Commerce assuring the story’s authenticity.