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The saying goes ‘most criminals are stupid or fall asleep at the wheel’ - to paraphrase Goodfellas. InformationWeek reports on a story about both. Three Suffolk County criminal geniuses stole 14 mobile phones from the County. That same booty that they thought they scored was the source of their demise and capture.
Many of the ministerial and government leaders who address the opening session of the Map World Forum in Hyderabad have a fundamental understanding of using GIS in helping to improve the economic development process in the country. The vision is being developed from the top down in India; from the Department of Science and Technology; from the head of the Space Agency down to the local level. They are affecting the way in which infrastructure projects are planned; and they are looking to democratize data so long as certain security constraints are in place. But to a large extent these decision makers are extremely tuned into the needs of the country and the limitations of their capacity to affect change. A recurring theme is that there is a lack of capacity, i.e. trained GIS professionals, and that the domestic need for GIS experts will far outstrip some of the expertise being exported to Malaysia, for example, in the coming years. Kipal Sibal, Hon’ble Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India said, "Our education has not been able to keep pace with our needs…Present day teaching is totally inadequate. We must come together to create the manpower."
Kipal Sibal, the Honerable Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India addressing the Map World Forum in Hyderabad said, “We live in a globalized world and it’s only befitting that in the years to come, the globalization processes affect data as well; a globalized world must have globalized data; And from globalized world we will have globalized products…GIS is not just a technology tool; it’s all about public good; All technology is essentially a tool to serve the public…Ultimately data is a source of information; and information in a globalized world is knowledge. And knowledge in a knowledge economy is progress."
The NY Times reported that NYC mayor Bloomberg said the city’s 911 and 311 systems will soon support citizen-generated video and images for emergency and non-emergency reporting. Will this type of user produced content be location-tagged since most of it will come from mobile phones… Surely this type of government service for citizens is subject to accidental misuse or intentional abuse, but then again, so is the traditional 911 service we depend on.
“The CTO of Google Earth is here…and he informed me that while he was coming here by Lufthansa he lost his luggage. I’m sure that in years to come we will have Map World Forum ‘map your luggage’ to insure that it doesn’t get lost…” Kipal Sibal, the Honerable Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India addressing the audience at the Map World Forum and Michael Jones of Google.
