Old Poll, New Poll

A few weeks ago we asked about APB readers’ use of Twitter for communicating on geospatial topics. We had 51 responses.

0% - No, I don’t send, but I do follow one or more Twitters on geo topics.
26% - Yes, I send messages and follow others who share geo topics.
34%-  What are you talking about?
42% - Neither of the above, but I know about Twitter.

There was some discussion (here and on Twitter) when I commented that fewer people than I expected (some 80 when I wrote the post) were following the #where2008 Twitter thread. Thanks for the input; I welcome any other thoughts on how the geospatial community is using Twitter.

Next up: Who do you think is the top innovator in geospatial in 2008 so far? Vote on the lower right hand corner of the main page and feel free to leave comments to this post on why you think so.

How Green is Pitney Bowes?

Industry Week asks all sorts of green questions of Paul Robbertz, Vice President, Environment Health & Safety. Most of the interview is about how the company behaves (measures carbon footprint, offsets it, etc.) but there is a tidbit about its products being green:

Q. Have you changed/modified your products/developed new products as a result of your initiatives?

A. We have practiced environmental responsibility since the company’s founding in 1920. The company’s business model is to optimize the transfer of information through the mailstream, minimizing extraneous waste and thus reducing environmental impact. In today’s marketplace, it is necessary to reposition products and services to highlight environmental attributes, but not necessary to re-invent core businesses. For example, our location intelligence and geospatial technologies help customers pinpoint the most appropriate population to receive a particular mailpiece, reducing the amount of unwanted mail.

Nokia Happy with TomTom Approval, but Deals Differ

While Nokia’s lead financial executive noted his approval with the EU’s approval of the TomTom/Tele Atlas deal, outsiders note that the deals are rather different.

Nokia is looking for revenue from mobile sources and the Internet in contrast to TomTom which for now is a pure play navigation player, says Reuters. While that’s true, there’s no requirement that TomTom will stay a pure play. All indications seem to be that Nokia’s deal will go through and be announced before the August 8 deadline.

- Reuters

Bentley Wants Leadership Role in Energy Analysis Solutions

Citing several acquisitions made by the company within the last year, Greg Bentley, CEO of Bentley Systems, illustrated for attendees at this year’s BE Conference in Baltimore how he wants his company to lead the way in providing solutions for energy consumption, analysis and conservation. 2007 was a record year for technology acquisitions for the company to support this vision:

• LEAP Software - analysis and design for concrete bridges; ProConcrete will be available at the end of 2009.
• ECT International Inc - electrical control systems for reducing electrical design time.
• Hevacomp Ltd. - virtual energy models and software tools for electrical design and to promote low energy solutions; it is the largest UK building services provider which also provides HVAC solutions; Hevacomp’s software was originally designed used to increase productivity for design tasks and is used to improve energy efficiency of buildings with an energy analysis package.
• Environmental Design Solutions Ltd. and Bentley have agreed to a worldwide distribution of EDSL’s Tas software – an easy to use fluid dynamic software modeling solution.

But Mr. Bentley didn’t stop at making acquistions. He has challenged his company to reduce its carbon footprint by 15% by 2009, starting with reducing the amount of travel his company undertakes.