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SiRF alleges infringement by Global Locate and its distributor of four GPS patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 7,091,904; 7,043,363; 6,850,557. Last week analysts suggested TomTom would use Global Locate GPS chips in its nav systems pushing SiRF stock down.
This time the fellow behind it is Jack Sjostrom, of Sentry Dynamics, which offers software with local Idaho real estate data. He’s had to sue in one case to get access to data. Data fees vary from county to county and an exception in state law give’s counties a bit more freedom in pricing that other jurisdictions which can only price for the cost of duplication. Counties can charge for develoment and maintenence.
Strom thinks that’s not fair.
They say it’s very costly to install and support these GIS systems and they need funding to support that. But I question that because it’s no different from any other management system the county uses. Why is the mapping system unique?
Dan Chadwick, executive director of the Idaho Association of Counties, explains that since counties use different systems and have different levels of sophistication, user fees are justified. (Huh?) He says:
Every county is trying to make an honest estimation of what providing the information costs. Not all the data is compiled in the same way. Systems are part of the cost of providing information.
Two of my favorite journalist-types got snarked by either mis-reading satiric blog posts or having readers misread sarcasm in a video clip. They are John Carroll of Greater Boston and David Pogue of the New York Times, respectively. Interestingly, both incidents lead to bloggers and commenters essentially saying these two men are idiots, though for slightly different reasons.
It just goes to show that readers must be on the lookout for tone and indications of satire when venturing onto the Web. Even those with lots of experience are not immune to mis-reading or being mis-read. I for one appreciate that Google (whose Google News is one of my favorite sources) includes “(Satire)” in its search results when content comes from some known publications in that arena, like The Onion. That certainly doesn’t prevent me screwing up, but it helps.
The general consensus on Greater Boston this week in discussing the matter was what all good journalists (and bloggers) should know: When you screw up (and you will), issue a correction and apology, if appropriate, and move on. Clearly, that’s what’s gotten these two guys where they are today.
Just a few folks responded to the LBS “killer app” question, 38 to be exact. 39% said local search was the killer app, with friend finder (24%), traffic (21%) and social networking (16%) rounding out the list.
Now onto the new year: What will be the breakout company in geospatial in 2007? Vote on the lower right of our main page.
