Monday, September 8. 2008

PCI is Staffing up in Redlands

There are four open positions in the Redlands office. I didn't know Canada-based PCI had a Redlands office.

Pictometry back in the local paper...

I've noted before that Pictometry does a great job getting its story into local papers. That continues to be its marketing strategy. This week I found two examples:

New aerial photo system develops into government tool (Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune)

New kind of map proving useful (Rosemount MN, Town Pages)

BBC Coverage of DConstruct Conference Keynote

Steven Johnson, author and the fellow behind hyperlocal news site outside.in, provided the keynote for the event "for people designing and building the latest generation of social web applications" which was held last week in Brighton, UK.

Some tidbits from the coverage:

Mr Johnson and many others at the conference argued about and how to program for the so-called "geographic web". For most of its life, the web has been "out there", a boundless but ethereal construct. While it could provide information about particular places, web surfers had to find and assimilate it themselves. Where that surfer was, or lived, wasn't even possible to specify.

Mr Johnson closed his talk with what he hoped was the take-home message. Teething problems and privacy concerns aside, the geographic web should be a tool "not to use the web as a mechanism to escape the real world but instead use the web as a way of enhancing the real world, making you feel more connected to your community".

- BBC

New Zealand Possum GIS Pays Back Quickly

VectorNet, is a GIS to manage efforts to cull the possum population and thus control TB in wildlife. A few years and a few million dollars in the making, it took it won a Computerworld award for excellence in the use of IT.

Alison Barrett, the Animal Health Board's business strategy and systems manager says it's so effective, that the cost should be paid back within a few years.

Thanks to reader Duane for pointing out the previous geographically incorrect headline.

- New Zealand Herald

Free for Life Garmin Traffic Data has a Price

I confess when I heard about the deal on new devices that include "free for life" traffic information, I didn't get too excited. Apparently, it was for good reason: the traffic comes with ads. A PC Mag review explains:

One gripe: The nüvi 755T comes with advertisements. My evaluation unit arrived with three preloaded vendors (BP, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo). When you access the traffic menu, one of these advertiser's names always appears at the bottom of the screen. Also, from time to time, one of these ads will pop up on the map view screen (they won't appear when you are in motion). A single tap of the advertisers' name will perform a POI search for nearby retail locations. Unfortunately, you can't disable these ads, but it's likely that they help Garmin offset the cost of the live traffic information that it offers free.

It'll be interesting to see if a backlash causes any changes in the plan.

Two DEMO companies to launch geo products for carpooling, dieting

Rafe Needleman has the list of folks presenting at DEMO Fall. Among his current "top ten to watch" are two geo-related businesses.

Sharelift by Mapflow: Adds intelligence to casual carpooling with a car-service-like gizmo that tells drivers where riders are that want to go where they are going. It's hitchhiking 2.0: Scary but cool, and very green.

WebDiet: Location-based diet helper. Gives you food advice based on what's close to you. Unknown if it gives you an electric shock and shrieks, "Keep walking!" when you pass a McDonald's.

- Webware, via C|net