Today is Bill Gates' last day in his current role. He'll move on to a new chapter working with his foundation. To honor that last day, CTV looks at the predictions made in his 1995 book, The Road Ahead. He has this to say about mapping:

"You'll be able to jump into a map so you can navigate down a street or through the rooms of a building."

We are certainly part way there and with the likes of EveryScape and new motion sensing technologies, we are getting closer all the time.

BTW, Hiawatha Bray covered EveryScape in the Boston Globe this week. The opening sentence mentioned Google Maps, so when my Dad pointed it out he said, "there's another article about Google mapping in the paper." I wonder if it's possible to write about new mapping technologies without mentioning the G company?

Sorry about the title, after George Carlin's death they replayed the bit on "a place for your stuff" and it just fit. In recent hours both companies have opened up new ways for people and organizations to share their geographic data and knowledge in Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Google's MapMaker (introduction on LatLong blog, tour) is a tool for those with knowledge of specific countries to "fill in the gaps" where the company does not have data. There's no option for such additions or edits in much of the world.

Microsoft is asking localities to share their aerial imagery via GoVE (no website, but introduced on the Virtual Earth, an Evangelist's Blog). That's not new; the company was thinking about it way back in 2005, but the data was to be kept in the public domain as I noted at the time.

The idea behind the patent, whose application is dated May 29, 2008, is to help device "behave properly" in different situations. There are a variety of ways for organizations to send out manners information, including if its suggested or required. A policy might mean that inside a university lecture hall wi-fi use is restricted or cell phone signals will not be transmitted. The title of the patent is Mobile Device Manners Propagation and Compliance. There may well be a geographic component as somehow the "range" required compliance must be designated.

via Unwired

This week the California State Automobile Association announce it would end its production of road maps due to falling demand. The slack will be picked up by the national Association. At the same time police and response organizations are warning the public and their staffs to keep a paper map on hand. What is happening to paper maps as GPS devices become part of our daily lives? Editors Adena Schutzberg and Joe Francica share their thoughts.

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The tribute for the Microsoft Researcher whose work enabled TerraServer and other online mapping was held Saturday at Berkeley. He was presumed missing at sea after setting sail last January. One element of the tribute was the announcement that the Jim Gray Chair in Computer Systems will be established at UC Berkeley, with funding from from Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce.com; Bill Gates, the chairman and co-founder of Microsoft; Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google; Mike Stonebraker, co-founder of Ingres; and the Hewlett Foundation. Donation information is the Chronicle article below.

- New York Times

- San Francisco Chronicle

- Seattle Times

- Information Week

- LA Times