Writing at CMSWatch (that's content management system watch), analyst Theresa Regli asks that question. She notes the flurry of geo-mashups and explains what MetaCarta offers. Her conclusion:

While this is surely a growing piece of the 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle that is Enterprise Content Management, there's not necessarily a practical business application for the geo-web in your enterprise. Don't be too quick to be dazzled by the demo; after all, do you really need your CMS to tell you where the local pizza joints are? MetaCarta claims that 74% of documents on the Internet are "geo-relevant," or plottable on a map. Is the same true of the content in your enterprise? Will plotting your documents geographically add value to the experience, or enable you to manage or find content more effectively? Perhaps, but as with any software that may look cool on the surface, be sure to assess your real business needs before you invest.

Via Michelin said it'd get out of the PND market about a week ago. The company is talking to German PND maker Navigon as a potential buyer.

- Twice

Earthmine won in its category of "Best technology innovation / achievement."

The blurb:

Earthmine picks up where Google Earth leaves off, bringing deep semantic data to 3D panoramas of the real world. Earthmine’s system can keep track of the objects found in the real world and attribute information to each of them, such as latitude, longitude, elevation, and other attributes.

- Techcrunch

----- original post 12/31/07-----------

BlinkGeo suggests we vote for UpNext ("UpNext is the new and exciting way to explore and discover your city.
Rather than sifting through pages and links of data, UpNext enables you glide around your city, virtually. Exploring has never been easier") in the Crunchies, the latest Web popularity contest. This one's put on by a few sites you might have heard of: GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb, VentureBeat and TechCrunch. I read the first and last on the list now and again.

The awards have quite a range - nominations totalled 82,000 (!) and were cut down to 100 - five competitors in each of 20 categories. I don't have time to check them all out to vote intelligently (here's the list) and I suspect only a few mere mortals will have heard of them all. Unfortunately, there's no blurb on the site explaining what the nominated companies do or how they do it - you must visit the sites and do your own "homework."

That said, the lists are interesting and include other geo-orgs than just UpNext. I saw: Zillow (twice) and earthmine. Oh and Justin.tv is in there - that company was one of finalist from the Amazon startup contest.

I couldn't find what (if anything) winners "receive" - perhaps its just PR? Why mention this? I thought readers might find some useful information by looking over companies in categories like Best business model or Best user-generated content site.

Did you ever wonder what happens to bring your GIS software to market? For many years a process referred to as the "waterfall method" was used. In the last 10 or so years a new method came on the scene, one referred to as agile practices. Today, with insights from agile proponents like my guests Chris Spagnuolo and Dave Bouwman of Data Transfer Solutions, GIS development organizations, including ESRI, are looking to this new way of managing and developing software.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info.