Monday, November 3. 2008

Follow the Presidential Election on Map Hawk, Twitter, delicious...Let's Watch the Media and their Gimmicks

During the U.S. presidential election coverage on Tuesday evening, I'll be watching how the media uses and abuses mapping technology. Follow along on the Map Hawk blog or on Twitter. Plus, any useful links to other articles I find will be on delicious.

Already, we know that NBC will be projecting a map onto the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center but unless you have a vertical camera...how will you see it? Seems like just a "slick" gimmick to me. And, NBC will be unfurling "giant banners" that will climb 16 stories along the side of 30 Rock to mark the progress (red or blue banner) in the electoral vote count.

MSNBC "Last Map" = No Map

The title of post at the FirstRead blog is: FIRST THOUGHTS: OUR FINAL MAP but there is no map to be found via link or in the post so far as I could find. But you can see the list in text form:

Likely Obama: CA, CT, DE, DC, HI, IL, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OR, RI, VT, WA, WI (227 electoral votes)
Lean Obama: CO, IA, NH, NM, PA, VA (59 votes)
Toss-up: FL, IN, MO, MT, NV, NC, ND, OH (95 votes)
Lean McCain: AZ, GA, NE 02, SD, WV (34 votes)
Likely McCain: AL, AK, AR, ID, KS, KY, LA, MS, NE (the rest of the state), OK, SC, TN, TX, UT, WY (123 votes)

Multi-vendor SmartBUY Concerns Filter Out

Back on October 21 federal officials held a "Vendor Day" to discuss a new multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement for geospatial products. The focus of the event and the little coverage it received was to highlight how coordinated buying could save the government money and ideally encourage data and technology sharing, consolidated management and quicker delivery of needed tools.

Today FCW highlights some of the concerns voiced by vendors and their representatives. In particular:

- "the government proposes a provision that would let multiple agencies band together on purchases, enabling them to receive bigger discounts than they would get individually" - vendors may lose money on the deal

Perhaps, but most vendors already have "government pricing" of some kind. The question is how much lower can it go? Further, only one vendor ultimately provides each product; that vendor (MapInfo, ESRI, ERDAS...) will set the price in a bid to be in the contract.

- "government analysts worry that the contract might slow geospatial innovation" - once vendors are in, why worry about enhancements

I suppose that's possible, but many vendors serve both public and private clients and you don't want to hold back say Exxon by not innovating. Besides, with all the new players in the space, it's hard to imagine a "slow down" just now.

- "vendors fret that mapping professionals and surveyors might be negatively affected by the contract’s definitions of products and services"

That one sparked concern and action by the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) and others . They formally protested the language in the Scope of Work (SOW) with the General Services Administration (GSA), claiming it lumped products and services (mapping and surveying, which are covered under other laws). The SOW was updated to remove such references. and the lead on the BPA stated firmly that the contract is only for products and will not impact contracts for services. Still, as Kass Green, current president of ASPRS points out, the line between the two is still fuzzy: "There is a lot of debate in our community on whether ortho-corrected imagery is a service or a product."

Matthew Leopard, chairman of the Geospatial Common Services Work Group that is working with GSA and the Office of Management and Budget on the new contract vehicle suggests the BPA will raise all boats, including those of surveyors and mappers: "The mapping community will have a greater opportunity because we will be expanding the use of geospatial tools to make them mainstream."

Map Attacks Weatherman

Just one panel on a wall-sized display fell on Francis Wilson as he did the weather live on Sky News. He's been in the business for 20 years and according to Newslite "was the first television forecaster to use computer generated graphics in weather bulletins." That's perhaps why he handled it like a pro. Video below.

Continue reading "Map Attacks Weatherman"

Property Prices Go Up in Second Life, University Receives Grant for Second Life Island

A few tech observers have noted that Linden Labs Second Life has not been making news lately. It did this weekend as Linden raised prices for the less expensive "land" in the virtual world by 50%. "The setup fee for the virtual space will increase by 50 percent from $250 to $375, and the monthly maintenance fees will increase by 66 percent from $75 to $125" as PaidContent reports. The reason for the price increase: the lower priced land is meant to be used as open space, not for condos or shops. And, alas, folks are using it for condos and shops...putting more pressure on servers and making it more expensive for Linden to operate. More expensive properties get "better servers" but open spaces are meant to share servers.

In other Second Life news, Pace University received a Verizon grant to establish a presence (that is its own island) in the virtual world. It's learning opportunity, notes the university.