The exhibit area at FOSS4G wouldn't rival a show like GITA, bit it was hopping. Here are some of the tidbits I learned from exhibitors.

Sierra Systems

Sierra Systems is an IT consulting group in North America with about 25 geospatial folks. A big believer in standards, the company did its homework on open source convincing itself it was a viable option for geospatial. Internally, the company is moving steadily to Linux and open source, but it respects its clients requirements. Still, when called up to offer strategic directions to clients like the Integrated Land Management Bureau (something like the BLM of Canada) open source is offered as an option.

Timberline

Timberline is Tyler Mitchell's "old" company, a company focused on natural resources management. The company uses a mix of proprietary and open source (PostGIS/Grass/MapServer) to serve its clients. The big limitation in open source? Creating top notch cartographic output. For that, the company uses ESRI technology. For many other geospatial tasks, open source is the choice in part due to speed. The Timberline rep also noted the diversity in the attendees this way "from game developers to academics."

"Microsoft's Windows (software) business is worth $US15 billion. The global advertising market is worth $US580 billion. Last year, of that $US27 billion was online. If that becomes $US100 billion, then Google will get $US50 billion. That's very scary!"

- Vincent Tao, the director of Microsoft Virtual Earth, described as "one of Microsoft's online strategists" explaining why his company wants to get into advertising via acquiring part of Facebook: fear of Google.

- Syndney Morning Herald (Small Business)

A Deutsche Bank analyst said Garmin has a large lead in the GPS/personal nav market, one competitors won't catch for several years. That pushed the stock to over $120 per share, it's highest ever on Wednesday morning.

- AP

The technology from IBM's Zurich Research Lab, the technology uses an avatar to map an individual's medical records to the correct part of the body. It's called the Anatomic and Symbolic Mapper Engine (ASME), and like a GIS if a doctor clicks on part of "body" a search of records summons information related to that bit.

Obligatory quote: "It's like Google Earth for the body," said IBM Researcher Andre Elisseeff, lead in healthcare projects at IBM's Zurich lab.

The had some of the same development challenges we in geospatial know:

Using advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art 3D modeling techniques, the IBM researchers overcame key technical challenges including integrating heterogeneous data sources and complex text-based information -- so-called unstructured data -- and linking that data to the anatomical model in a meaningful and easy-to-navigate way.

My first thought: I get how a heart condition would be linked to the chest, but would diabetes which impacts so many parts be linked to the pancreas or multiple locations on the body? Also, this sort of a solution must also include time information.

- press release

Per speakers at a business conclave during the ongoing 58th International Astronautical Congress in India:

The size of the geographical information system (GIS) market in India is expected to be $10 billion in 10 years...

Annual revenues of the global GIS market are expected to grow from an estimated $4 billion to $150 billion in the next decade.

Also of note, points made by Barbara Ray (corrected per note and some research, was a USGS Liaison, not sure of current position, though) of USGS, even as the US figures out the Landsat continuity plan:

Barbara Ray of US Geological Survey said public-private partnership could unleash the power of land remote sensing. "Land cover information is a largely untapped resource and will need continued access to land remote sensing assets," she said.

She also called for developing simpler tools to help unleash the power of land cover and other types of information. "By developing simpler tools

- Economic Times

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) School of Computing is using SunRay, a Sun Microsystems thin client solution, in a computer lab. "The benefits of the new laboratory for students and staff include, low cost, no maintenance devices, energy savings, session mobility and proficiency in Unix and Windows systems. Of note for geo folks:

Over 100 students, from 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year computing courses, have been using the system on a daily basis for courses in geographical information systems (GIS), system administration, system security and programming.

“The system is particularly good for showcasing GIS applications where images, often in excess of 250 MB in size, are viewed by around 20 students at the same time”, said Mark Foley, lecturer at the School of Computing, DIT. “Normally, if executed on client Windows PCs this would put a huge strain on the network and also the data centre when the data is dispatched from the server across the network. However as all the information resides on the server, the SunRay terminals overcome this potential bottleneck and perform head and shoulders above other solutions available.”

- Irish Dev