Tuesday, July 29. 2008

Update: Rolta Finalized Acquisition of US BI Company; Won't say Which One

Update: 7/29/08: Word is out: it's WhittmanHart Consulting, the consulting Division of WhittmanHart Inc., a Chicago company.

WhittmanHart Consulting (WHC) is a management and technology consulting services firm that delivers solutions with a unique blend of industry relevance, business process innovation and technology expertise. The company is recognized today as an industry leading provider of consulting services in the Business Intelligence (BI) arena, particularly focused on the Hyperion software technology acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2007. WhittmanHart, Inc. will retain and continue to operate WhittmanHart Interactive, its leading interactive agency, in a standalone capacity.

- Moneycontrol

--- original post 7/25/08 ---------

They'll share the name within two weeks.

- Sify

Podcast: How to Read Microsoft's 3D Effort with trueSpace

Last week Microsoft announcedthat its recently acquired trueSpace 3D model creator is now free and models created with it can be uploaded as collections to Virtual Earth. What does that say about what Google, Microsoft and the geospatial community think about what tools and data are required for today's maps?


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Monday, July 28. 2008

UK Crime Maps Not Sitting Well

The UK is rolling out crime maps, called MyNeighbourhood.info, for all of England and Wales by the end of the year according to the Times Online (Times of London). Midlands is being used as a pilot city but this kind of information is not exactly sitting well with everyone. Some, like the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors are fearing it will reduce home values. While countries like the US have had crime maps and mashups (remember ChicagoCrime.org; now EveryBlock Chicago) its seems not everyone wants to know about what's going on around them.

You + ESRI Coverage = iPod touch

Here's a chance for all of you attending the ESRI International User Conference to win an iPod touch. Directions Media wants your help covering the event. The best submission (audio or text) will win an iPod touch. You can enter via e-mail , text or phone between Saturday August 2 and Wednesday August 13, 2008. Full details.

What is GIS for the Google generation?

Dr Pablo Mateos spoke (on behalf of a missing Alex Singleton) at the 2008 ESRC Research Methods Festival on "What is GIS for the Google generation?"

The ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) is a network of research groups, each conducting research and training in an area of social science research methods.

The slides are here and it's tough to tell from them the exact nature of the discussion Still I tease out:

- need to distinguish GIS from today's visualization (GIS = science, much of the rest = visualization)
- today's users are part of a "volunteered" generation and users of social media
- need to "make sense of" the "points on a map" situation and explore metadata

There are some valuable (if uncited) stats and images.

via Twitter

BizWeek on Walking/Biking Directions

The article highlights Google's and MapQuest's walking offerings and local bicycle routing efforts. Of note:

In Broward County, Fla., planners are working on a project that would let users factor in things such as speed limits, traffic volume, lane widths and shortcuts.
The project, shooting for online launch by next summer, has programmers looking at aerial maps and punching key factors into the route-setting algorithms. They also incorporate things like where people or bikers can make left turns but cars can't.

If a car can't make a left turn, a bike can't either. Unless of course the cyclist dismounts and become a pedestrian. (That's rare where I live.)

This week, Google Maps launched a feature that offers walking directions for trips shorter than 6.2 miles. That is being added to a feature already helping visitors find the best mass transit routes.

I didn't realize there was a distance limit. The API would be great for the many sites aimed at race walkers, runners, etc.

But it [Tele Atlas] is open to accepting bike and pedestrian route information from cities and community groups if it can be verified from multiple sources.

TomTom could take the lead here tapping into the cycling, even walking communities... My gut feeling is the money is not there for such an effort, however.