Tuesday, January 13. 2009

NGAC Report: The Changing Geospatial Landscape

The report just popped up on the NGAC website (pdf). It's a nice overview of the state of things. Might be valuable in connection with the efforts aimed at Congress. For those connecting dots: Anne Hale Miglarese is NGAC Chairperson and a co-author of the white paper titled A Proposal for National Economic Recovery.

From the report:

The committee has developed this white paper to describe the changes and
advancements the community has witnessed over the past three-plus decades
and to set a context from which in part we will base our future deliberations.
While this paper is not meant to be all-inclusive in chronicling the growth
of the industry, we do believe it captures the major milestones and identifies
several of the major issues that lie ahead. We encourage the reader of interest
to follow our deliberations and progress at www.fgdc.gov/ngac.

Update: Carol Bartz to Lead Yahoo?

The online edition of the Wall Street Journal is confirming that Bartz will be offered the Yahoo CEO position. TechCrunch has an updated photo of Ms. Bartz and noted that she and outgoing CEO and founder, Jerry Yang, are close allies.

-----------original post Jan 9, 2009-------------------

She's on the short list says the Wall Street Journal. (via Search Engine Watch)

But few seem to recall her good work at Sun and Autodesk. (via WorldCAD Access)

While I never met her and she was only casually interested (my take) in geospatial, she lead Autodesk to great success. I think she's been around the block enough times to do the same at Yahoo.

Analyst: GPS will do ok in 2009

IMS (Wellingborough, England) syas GPS market will grow by over $200 million over the next 12 months. Further, GPS shipments will have a 21.2 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) between 2008 and 2013.

The biggest hurdle to GPS growth/adoption per IMS Research analyst, Tom Arran: poor performance in some areas which should make GPS vendors think about hybrid solutions.

- EETimes

Patent Watch: Apple Calendar and Mapping Patent

Titled "Integrated calendar and map applications in a mobile device," (text) the patent application describes a smart application that takes advantage of knowing both the time and locations of meetings. It can help route one efficiently or pop up reminders that it's time for the next appointment.

- Unwired

Rural North Wales 911 Solution: Keep Grid Coordinates Near Phone

In this rural area addresses and post codes can be few and far between so the residents association in Tŷ'n-y-Groes took matters into their own hands. Cards were delivered to 250 homes with grid locations of their houses. The idea? When help is needed at 3 am, the caller will share the coordinates with public safety officials.

Anything that speeds emergency services is good, but this is not the ideal solution.

- BBC

Location-based Advertising Meets Retail Trade Area Analysis

I had a conversation yesterday with Ian White of Urban Mapping about his GeoModssolution, which a means to using his neighborhood boundaries along with more commonly referenced geographically defined areas such as ZIP codes and area codes as well as points of interest (POIs) to support local search and hence location-based advertising. What White has suggested is to take uniquely defined areas for seach that are more significant to people using mobile search. One of his marketing brochures suggests "According to some estimates, local search represents up to 30% of all queries but comprise only 10% of online advertising expenditures." His solution is to confine local search based on different criteria than an IP address. And he's right on the mark.

But as we discussed, this solution has other ramifications for the broader retailing community that is not yet as enamored with location-based advertising as they are with crummy-old direct marketing; i.e. junk mail and newspaper inserts.

Continue reading "Location-based Advertising Meets Retail Trade Area Analysis"