Wednesday, February 18. 2009

ESRI FedUC-Robust Attendance; Company Fairing Well in Downturn

There was robust attendance today at the opening plenary sessions at the ESRI Federal User's Group (FedUC) meeting at the Washington Convention Center, Washington DC. The hall which holds approximately 2000 people was packed. Two prevailing sentiments as to why:

1. Federal budgets for the current fiscal year are set and the economic situation has not really affected federal department budgets yet.

2. Money will be tight later in the year and trips to San Diego for the International User's Conference (UC) will be harder to justify.

Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, made mention that the company posted a 9% gain in 2008 and that although things were "slowing down" business was still good. In addition, he stated that the company's financials were sound and the company has no debt.

NAVTEQ, GeoDecision Granted Extension to MilitaryHOMEFRONT Portal

NAVTEQ announced today that their contract to support the MilitaryHOMEFRONT portal has been extended. GeoDecisions supports the portal and if you have never had a chance to visit the mapping application it is a farily extensive mapping application focused on supporting military personnel based in the U.S. It provides the basic location of military installations nationwide as well as other supporting applications such as routing to/from points of interest, educational institutions and local government facilities.

Nearly Half of Media/Ad Execs See LBS Ads as Greatest Mobile Opportunity

A KPMG survey of media and ad execs found that 48% of those polled saw location-based adv formats as the greatest opportunity in mobile, with games and video viewed as the next most important.

- Mobile Messaging 2.0

Google VP: More than a million Latitude Users in First Week

Vic Gundotra, Google's vice president of engineering cited that figure during a panel at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

He went on to note that today's mobile browser must include three key elements: The HTML5 core language specification, application caching and geolocation tools. He showed off an Android mobile search solution that found local "weather," using GPS.

- Fierce Mobile Content

Map Use Now an ESRI Publication

Credit to Jonathan at The Map Room for his post as I didn't make the connection from looking at the press release. ESRI gained rights to JP Publications Map Use and has published an updated edition, the sixth.

This is one great book. I didn't use it in college but somehow picked up a copy there. (I bet it was from Powell's, which had a great geography collection.) Somehow during my time at ESRI I probably lent it out and never got it back. I don't recall if it was when I left or when a colleague left, but he replaced my missing copy with his, the second edition, dated 1986. (Jeff, if you want it back, I'd understand. It still says Geography Middlebury College in it!) I've used my copy and this "new one" many many times for reference and in my teaching. It uses comics to help illustrate some key ideas and has clear explanations of concepts and formulae. The illustrations, in my edition in gray scale, are some of the best around.

I'm very pleased to see a new addition out, with far more names on the cover, than just Philip Muehrke's. He's now an emeritus professor at the Univ. of Wisconsin. ESRI's efforts to keep this classic updated and in print are laudable.

The price tag may seem steep at $100, but based on my long term use of my copy, this is a true "must have" and would be a fabulous graduation present for any geography or GIS certificate, college or graduate degree recipient. It's also a fabulous gift for any geography teacher at any level.

Update: Quote of the Week

Update: 2/18/09 The county will still not pay to use the assessor's maps, but Warren County Joint Communications officials have agreed to use them. Local emergency response organizations will pay the $5,000 fee. Among those stepping up to contribute: Warrenton and Wright City fire protection districts and Marthasville Volunteer Fire District. The Warren County Sheriff and Ambulance District have expressed interest. All emergency responders will have access to the data, whether they contribute or not, per Mike Owenby, chief of the Warrenton Fire Protection District.

Note: In this article Carol Sexton is identified as Joint Communications Director Carol Sexton, while below she is Dispatch Director. She may well be both; it's not clear.

- Suburban Journal

--- original post (with state updated per comment) 2/11/09 --------

"[The state of Missouri's free map is] the one we want to use because it's going to be effective for seeing driveways. Do you need to see the license plate on the car in the driveway when you're trying to get to an address? No. It's overkill on the resolution."

- Warren County Missouri Dispatch Director Carol Sexton on why the county does not pay the $5000 to use the assessor's maps for 911 response in the Suburban Journal. [That URL is dead. The original article I believe, is here. - ABS]