Monday, August 11. 2008

Oak Ridge Mashes Up Electric Grid to Protect, Support Recovery

The Visualizing Energy Resources Dynamically on Earth (VERDE) system (fact sheet) is a "tool that enables real-time status of the national electric grid that federal state and local agencies can use to coordinate and respond to major problems such as wide-area power outages, natural disasters and other catastrophic events." Announced last week from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Dept of Energy), the Google Earth mashup includes "images and stats of everything from real-time status of the US electric grid and weather information to power grid behavior modeling and simulation." The goal: predict outages, improve situational awareness and speed recovery from outages.

- Computerworld Australia

Quote of the Week

"[Dave Imus is] self-effacing enough to tell you that 'professional cartographers' are map makers whose wives have full-time jobs. (His wife, Paula, teaches at Madison Middle School.)"

Bob Welch in the Register-Guard in profile of Imus, who just finished an updated map of the state of Oregon.

Hawaii to Implement EMS with GIS

The state of Hawaii has contracted with 21st Century Systems which announced that they were to implement a statewide emergency management system that integrates real-time information, satellite imagery and other geospatial information into a comprehensive GIS. The system will be managed by Hawaii State Civil Defense (HSCD). From personal experience, I'm happy to hear this. In 2006, I experienced a 6.7 and 6.0 magnitude earthquakes that occurred seven minutes apart while on the Big Island. It knocked out power there and on Oahu for several hours, and according to my sources it also knocked out power at HSCD. There was no loss of life and the threat of tsunami was minimal. However, no one knew that at the time. It was disconcerting to hear that the state agency tasked with responding to disasters did not have the ability to implement their warning systems if it was necessary to do so. Let's hope this project solves this deficiency.

Several Companies Fined for Stealing Navinfo's China Map Data

Direct sales company Acorn International, educational product provider OZing and GPS developer Careland Information System were all found guilty of stealing data from digital mapping service provider Navinfo. Navinfo sued the companies last year.

- Pacific Epoch

Geography Matters: More iPhone (geo) Apps from Seattle Companies

I'm simplifying but that's a quick conclusion based on Xconomy's list of apps a full month after the iPhone 3D launch as it looked for apps from companies around its Seattle and Boston offices. The vast majority are geo related.

Autodesk Geospatial Acquires 3D Geo GmbH

The German company provides "software and services for geo-visualization: solutions for effectively creating, analyzing, managing, and distributing large-scale geo information" and is a "maker of intelligent 3D urban models software." Further, "The products of 3D Geo are made in accordance with international standards such as CityGML." The company is based in Potsdam, Germany and is privately held.

The interesting bit about the company found in the "about" part of the press release: 3D Geo GmbH, is a spin-off company of the Hasso Platter Institute. Hasso Platter? He co-founded SAP and I believe I saw him on stage at ESRI UC back when ESRI was implementing, then partnering with SAP. He funds the institute which focuses on IT; there is no tuition!

The company has two sites: 3D Geo and LandXplorer (a free CityGML viewer for models created with for fee LandXplorer Studio, there's a full suite including a server, developer platform, a product to put data in to Google Earth and another to support geotainment). I am surprised not to find 3D Geo in the list of OGC member companies.

This is a clear step that Autodesk is trying to fill in any gaps it has between BIM and 3D GIS. Autodesk gets a gold star for holding the announcement until after the ESRI User Conference. Autodesk is taking a very different route than Google and Autodesk here, focussing on standards-based tools for professionals for 3D modeling. Google and Microsoft seem to be going after the "amateurs" providing free tools to build up and share home made versions of a 3D world.

- press release