Tuesday, November 11. 2008

Save the Date for LI 2009...Oct. 5-7, Westminster CO

More information will be forthcoming but we ask you to "save the date" for the Location Intelligence Conference 2009.We'll be at the Westin Westminster Hotel in Westminster, Colorado, just outside of Denver toward Boulder from Oct. 5-7. Topics for your consideration:

• How do retailers prepare for natural disasters (think: Wal-mart and Katrina)?
• Will the financial crisis lead to new site selection strategies for retail bankers? (think: relocation and closing retail banks...where to go?)
• Where will the mortgage crisis affect economic development (think: Florida where 29% of houses are facing negative equity. See New York Times)?
• Is location-based advertising a solution in search of a mobile device?
• Will the decennial census truly yield sufficient demographic data for marketers? (Think: American Community Survey...will it work?)
• Insurance and re-insurance...How do you define risk these days?
• What kind of location intelligence do you need about your competitors?

And we'll certainly talk about technology:

• Data warehouse appliances burst on the scene...a replacement for spatial databases?
• BI...have the BI vendors bought into LI yet?
• Platforms and portfolios...software vendors want to bundle you up. (see our podcast from yesterday)
• Satellites and imagery...do we really need .25m data? What realtors and real estate developers really want.

Got an idea for a session at LI? Tell me.

This Two-Year Old is a Better Geographer than You

If you have not seen this YouTube video of Lilly, the World Map Master, you need to because it will make you cry with joy. The fact that a two-year old can find Fiji, Turkey, South Africa and scads of most other countries on the map is awesome. As we approach National Geography Awareness Week (Nov. 16-22), and GIS Day (Nov. 19) next week, take note that the geographic literacy of most elementary schoolers, not to mention adults, is abysmal. Lilly makes up for us all. 

Continue reading "This Two-Year Old is a Better Geographer than You"

USGS Raises Awareness of "the big one" LA Style in the Great SoCal ShakeOut

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal today, Los Angeles is 178 years overdue for "the big one," a massive earthquake of approximately 7.8 magnitude. So, in order to alert residents of the region to the dangers as well as how to prepare for a huge temblor, the USGS, in conjunction with the California Earthquake Authority, the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC) at USC, and sponsors like Home Depot and State Farm Insurance, is making November 13 the Great Southern California ShakeOut, essentially a massive earthquake preparedness drill. According to the WSJ, it was hard getting people excited about the drill, though...until the 5.4 magnitude shaker during this past summer in LA. Then people began to take notice that his wasn't such a bad idea and people started signing up to take part at the "ShakeOut" website. But it's also being billed as a huge "block party"...kind of a marketing ploy to get people excited. The USGS has a wealth of research reports about the scenario that will be staged. See the YouTube video produced by the SCEC below:

Continue reading "USGS Raises Awareness of "the big one" LA Style in the Great SoCal ShakeOut"

Garmin Takes a Pass on SuperBowl Ad this Year

A company spokesman for Garmin says its decision to sit out was "unrelated to the economy."

Garmin was in for the past two events with ads that failed to impress me, but that others enjoyed.

- Wall Street Journal

Quote of the Week

"While I rely on my GPS to compensate for my terrible sense of direction, that price seems a bit high to pay for a 3D map of Chicago and its mostly flat surrounding areas. It's an impressive novelty, but it is still just a novelty."

Scott Nichols wrote that in PC World about the not yet released $599 Navigon 8100T GPS model which uses "NASA terrain elevation data in conjunction with a built-in 3D accelerator" to offer "true 3D."

- PC World in Washington Post

RFID-based Social Networking - for Dogs and their Humans

It's called a SNIF Tag and it comes out of SNIF Labs, a company formed by grads of MIT's Media Lab. The idea:

The tag itself – a small device that attaches to a dog’s collar – essentially records the pet’s movements and, in some cases, social encounters, and then uploads that data to the Internet. An owner can find out by logging onto the company’s site whether their dog has been playing, resting or running around.

The tag, $300, or $200 is bought now online, uses active RFID/accelerometer and base stations (your computer) to determine the dog's activities and if its been frolicking with its dog buddies. That data is uploaded to a secure site where the dog's human can see what he did all day. Ideally, it allows for a pair or more of dogs' people to hook up. The first year of full service comes with the tag. It's $89/year after that.

I'm not a dog person, but I know dog people and how they like other dog people. And, I have to believe in rural areas where dogs roam free (not my city) this would be fun. And, with just active RFID, the tag will not help find Rover if he's lost.

- TMCNet.com