Wednesday, January 28. 2009

Update 1: A Third Proposal Regarding Geo and the Stimulus: Investing in NSDI

Update 1/28: NSGIC has endorsed this proposal, along with the earlier GIS for the Nation proposal.

Continue reading "Update 1: A Third Proposal Regarding Geo and the Stimulus: Investing in NSDI"

National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law Releases 2008 Supplement to Journal of Space Law

This from the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law at the University of Mississippi. "[We are] pleased to make available, without charge, Selected Space Law Documents: 2008. It is a compilation of space law documents from the year 2008 that were gathered primarily from postings placed on Res Communis from 1 January through 31 December 2008. The postings are supplemented with materials from other sources that were published in 2008 but which were published too late to be posted as a blog entry in a timely manner. The compilation is a special supplement to the Journal of Space Law, the world's oldest law review dedicated to space law. The Journal of Space Law, beginning with the first volume, is available on line through HeinOnLine.

Selected Space Law Documents: 2008 demonstrates that the overall body of space law is continuing to grow. A major characteristic of this growth is the number of new laws promulgated at the national level. India, Iran, Japan, France, the Russian Federation (C.I.S), South Africa, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States all had new space laws in 2008. Internationally, space law growth can be seen in the materials produced by various U.N. bodies and a number of multilateral and bilateral agreements and statements, also contained in the compilation."

For more details contact:

Prof. Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz, Director
National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Space Law
Res Communis Aerospace Law Blog
The University of Mississippi School of Law
jgabryno(at)olemiss.edu

The Job that Paid for College Now Done by Robot...

Wired writes about smart robots at work in warehouses like those of online shoe seller Zappos. The little guys go and "fetch" products needed by their human masters. They are "pickers." I was a picker - made good money back in the day $4.15/hour at the SKYR warehouse in my home town.

But the robots are smarter than I was as a high school kid: they not only find the product and re-route themselves back to the requester, but they find time for the 5 minute/hour charge they require and help reorganize the wares for better efficiency.

The warehouse, says those behind the robots are 2 to 4 times as efficient with the robots. I'll bet.

How DC Got Coders to Write Open Source Open Access Apps for Almost No Money

The OhMyGov blog details how DC spent $433 in advertising and a bit in "prize" money to jumpstart development of 47 open source online apps that support DC government. If you've not heard the story, this is a great write up.

New GIS Education Programs: Michigan and Rwanda

North Central Michigan College's University Center in Gaylord will launch an associate of science degree in geographic information systems (GIS) starting in the fall of 2009. It's a two year program.

- Petroskey News-Review

The National University of Rwanda has partnered with the Centre for Geographic Information Science (CGIS) to launch a Post-Graduate Diploma programme in GIS. It runs nights in the country's capitol, Kigali. The first class has 33 students, young and mid-career professionals are the target population.

- The New Times

ArsTechnica Looks at Location Awareness for Linux

Desktop is the focus.

- ArsTechnica