Autodesk wants you to know about Map 3D Extensions

These extensions (Autodesk calls them Toolkits, but the URL says extensions, which I think is more clear) aid Map 3D users in surveying and utility work. They are free to those on subscription as of June 27.

Autodesk shared these details (but not in a press release; interesting):

INDUSTRY TOOLKITS: Autodesk today announced the availability of three AutoCAD Map 3D Industry Toolkits aimed at helping Map 3D 2009 users working within the electric, water or wastewater utility industries to improve adherence to data standards and to increase drafting productivity for transmission and distribution system networks during data creation, acquisition and consolidation phases of a network design project.
With these industry-specific toolkits, utilities can leverage their existing investment in Autodesk technology to increase efficiency and data quality. Each toolkit includes industry data models and symbology specific to electric, water or wastewater utility operations. The toolkits enable utilities to quickly create and maintain consistency in drawings throughout a design project’s lifecycle. Utilities can:
§  Improve drafting productivity of facilities for new and experienced workers;
§  Define and apply data standardization and intelligence during the drafting process;
§  Seamlessly integrate data received from external contractors and other departments to match established standards; and
§  Easily prepare engineering/CAD data for GIS.
The toolkits can also help facilitate the transfer of information between utilities and external engineering firms. Engineering firms can easily work within industry standards, leading to improved engineering/CAD and GIS data integration as well as more effectively meeting client requirements.
SURVEYING TOOLS: The availability of new AutoCAD Map 3D Surveying Tools was also announced today. These tools provide Map 3D 2009 users with surface creation, improved point data support and additional coordinate geometry (COGO) functionality. Map 3D 2009 users can now create, visualize and analyze terrain models and improve design and as-built update processes when working with point data collected by surveying, scanning and GPS instruments and devices. The surveying tools are available exclusively for users of Map 3D 2009.

The utility ones offer data models, templates and documentation. Per the FAQ:

• Data models - A set of industry object classes and corresponding data attributes. For
example, an overhead conductor and the voltage carried by that conductor. 
• A set of pre-configured industry symbols that are tied to the object classes.
• AutoCAD Map 3D drawing (DWT) and Object Classification template (XML) files. 
• User documentation including User’s Guide, Workflows and Data Model Schema.
• Instructional videos

The survey tools actually offer new functionality. Per the FAQ:

• Improved point data support. 
• Surface creation capabilities.
• Additional Coordinate Geometry (COGO) commands. 
• Import and export support for LandXML. 
• Preview Application Programming Interface (API).
• User documentation including User’s Guide and Developer’s Reference. 

Loopt Launches Web, taxi-based videos to build the brand

The campaign launches today and is aimed at tech-savvy young consumers. The webisodes feature David Price, host of the Internet’s “Middle Show,” (never heard of it but apparently it’s in the late night vein). He uses Loopt’s mobile friend-finding technology as he travels around New York City. There’s a Loopt ad and a plug from the host for Loopt around the episode.

New weekly episodes will appear for two month on social networks like YouTube, Facebook and MySpace and on TaxiTV in 6,000 New York taxi cabs. I’ll be curious to see what the advertising mavens think of this.

- MediaPost

BizWeek on Making Collaborative Maps During Disasters

Google doesn’t get the bulk of the electrons: GeoCommons, OpenStreetMap and Mapfacture do. They are referred to as “online hubs.”

- Business Week

Quote of the Week

“It’s all over. Bottom line is that there is just so much data and so few people to collect it and process it. It’s a tough job. I wouldn’t like to have it, quite frankly.”

- OGC’s Sam Bacharach on location errors in online maps, in an article about the misplacement of the Cohanzick Zoo in Bridgeton, New Jersey in the Press of Atlantic City.

A journalist tries to make sense of maps, GIS and their impact

Leslie Rule at MediaShift Idea Lab is putting the pieces of the journalism/activism/mapping/social media world together. Some points from her latest post are worth repeating here:

As the Beyond Broadcast panelist Lee Banville, Editor-in-Chief of the Online NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, noted simply mapping “doesn’t necessarily tell a story, it introduces a story.” Otherwise, he pointed out, a map can become a data dump.

...
Graphical [sic] Information System (GIS) is connecting data to maps, but the difference is both in quantity and quality of data, as well as intention. The intent is for analysis, not a superficial look. On the flip side, there is a learning curve with GIS software.
...
Taking into account Google’s large layperson user base, Jack Dangemond observed that the partnership does represent the emergence of a new “societal GIS.” The addition of new features in their software facilitates KML output of the GIS data. This output makes it possible to create mashups between deep GIS databases and neogeography databases and tools, between crowdsourced data and professional GIS data, moving beyond just mapping the problem to helping to create solutions.

I’m in agreement on the first point, as many traditional geographers have made the same point of the many of the “just another mashups” out there.

As for the second, I think it’s hard (impossible) to know the intent of software. While I know some of the reasons some products were built or applications developed or implementations completed, that’s about what people do with it. Much of what ESRI and other companies have learned is that they need to educate their users beyond putting dots on the map. That aspect is not inherently in the box.

The third point, building on the Google/ESRI demo at Where 2.0 again forgets the people aspect of GIS. Again, it’s what people (folks in basements, for profit companies, non-profits and everyone else) do with the tools that matters. KML output of GIS data is not new, and Google Earth as a front end for it isn’t either. And, it’s people who will need to figure out the way to manage mixing crowdsourced and professional data. TomTom and Tele Atlas and Google and others are trying to solve some of that challenge right now.