Monday, February 2. 2009

As More Universities offer LBS Apps, Will Towns, too? What about standards?

The Duke Chronicle details what some call iDuke, a mobile app that offer the university calendar, maps, real time tracking of busses and the like. It's expected to be available around spring break. It's parallel to an effort at Standard dubbed iStanford.

Now, this is all well and good, but - does it mean that those who travel among campuses will be downloading new, different apps all the time? If my town offers up iSomerville (not sure that'll happen any time soon...) will I also have to load up iCambridge to be sure I get bus tracking when I visit my Dad in the town next door? Are there standards and are folks interested enough to have a single client that could tap into data delivered by standard interfaces from providers representing different geographies?

UK Gets Snow and Makes/Shares Maps

The UK has quite a bit of snow today, something not too common. The last big storm was in 1991, per Bloomberg. But, that means some interesting maps!

The first map I found was a great traffic map from Trusted Reviews - with nearly 400 traffic jams - provided by a TomTom with traffic info.

Next is a map built from tweets coded with post codes evaluating how "good" the snow is on a 1-10 scale. I'm not sure how to evaluate "good" based on my US eastern and midwestern snow experiences. Here's the discussion (Pocket Lint) of the Twitter/Google Maps mashup that builds the map.

Podcast: Spatial Infrastructure-A Critical Part of Stimulating the Economy and Protecting the Nation's Assets

Last week, The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) announced the release of Spatial Infrastructures, [PDF] the second white paper to be published in the Geospatial Dimensions of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Response (CIP-ER) white paper series, which will include at least six more white papers published into the spring of 2009.


In this interview, Directions Magazine Editor in Chief Joe Francica speaks with John Moeller of Northrop Grumman, the paper's author, and Bob Samborski, executive director of GITA. The discussion focuses on driving awareness of geospatial technology to a broader audience as well as sustainable development, geospatial standards and the recent initiatives of the Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) to bring awareness of geospatial technology to our nation's policy makers.

The paper comes at a critical time for the geospatial community as COGO, GITA and others attempt to push Congress to support better oversight of government geospatial initiatives, especially in light of the economic stimulus package being sought by the Obama administration. [Also in this interview you will hear reference to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which recently issued its 2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure.]

The interview lasts for approximately 25 minutes.

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as"

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Springer Launches AuthorMapper

The scientific publisher Springer launched AuthorMapper this past week.

The free tool visualizes research and trends on a Google Map and on a timeline. Per Springer, you can use it to:

- Easily locate reviewers, authors and experts in similar fields
- Run a variety of queries by keyword, discipline, institution, author and more
- Discover the geographic areas where specific topics are being researched
- Identify new and historic literature trends
- Link and connect seamlessly to published content
- Discover wider relationships in the scientific community

Some materials are not available as they are behind a pay wall. You can search only for open articles and embed the results of a query of a website.

- Springer announcement

Hat tip to reader Duane.

(Mapping) Robots in Every Building?

PenBay Media and its partner's mapping robots are featured in an article at AutomatedBuildings.com. The article discusses the role robots can have in BIM and their value once they "know their way around."

The short article highlights that just as we mention GPS or LPS when talking about LBS, we should mention indoor locating when talking about BIM.

Open Source Bike Map for Oregon County

Albany, OR and Linn County, OR are very proud of its new multi-participant online bike route map. Among those involved: Linn County Geographic Information Systems, Albany GIS, the Albany Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission and local cycling clubs.

Also cool: it's powered by MapServer.

Corvallis Gazette Times