Are You A Techy?

Today, USAToday published an article reporting that “Tech-savvy defy categories”. They identify that the Techy lives almost anywhere and is almost anybody, regardless of income, lifestyle segment or geography. Have we now verified that “Location Intelligence” is everywhere, and is almost anyone?

Continue reading...

Microsoft VE mashup from SRC Provides Choice: MS VE vs. Google; Does it matter?

Quote of the Week

“My crystal ball has a lot more things like that coming out in the next couple of years,” he said. “Sometime in the future the now native client Google Earth application will be possible in a browser.”

Lars Rasmussen, Google Maps lead engineer speaking at Sydney University

Indian President Concerned over Google Maps

The Associated Press is reporting that the president of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, is having a problem with Google Maps and its ability to spot the Indian parliament building along with the presidential residence. The Netherlands and South Korea are having similar angst. The fear is over the fact that this offers terrorists information they would not already have.

Twenty-five years ago I carried Landsat imagery with me into the Kashmiri region of Ladakh, terroritory that is still disputed, in order to conduct geologic mapping. I hid maps and satellite photos so that the Indian army would not see me conducting the mapping. At the time, 80 meter satellite resolution was considered "high resolution". Now, Landsat 1 data would hardly classify as anything but a pretty picture. Governments who spurn the latest technology need to understand that the tidal wave of information is hitting their soil regardless of any restrictions they intend to impose. Both European and Asian countrires, who repeatedly spurn an open data policy, similar to that which is enjoyed by the U.S., will find that the terrorists threats are outweighed by the economic benefits. And frankly, if they terrorists don’t already know where the Indian presidential palace is, they should get a local tourist map.

Blog Worth Watching

I’m not one to list the new blogs. I did once, when ESRI’s David Maguire started a blog.  After the ESRI conference it pretty much died, which frankly didn’t surprise me. Maguire has too much else to worry about. But, I’ll try again.

Allan Doyle has started a blog. Allan’s one of the more thoughtful, experienced and interesting folks in this field. I met him years ago at Open GIS Consortium (before it changed its name) meetings when I attended on behalf of Cadcorp. He’s one of those very technical people who can explain things to non-techies and, perhaps equally valuable, evaluate the value of the ideas.