Monday, March 23. 2009

ASCE - Raising America's Infrastructure GPA

It's short notice, but the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is hosting a briefing in Washington DC tomorrow (Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 2-5 p.m. United States Capitol, Room HC-5) to "discuss solutions to the problems facing the nation's transportation and water and environment infrastructure and what path the nation should take moving forward." Attendees receive an advance copy of "2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure."

Microsoft Expected to Tap PhotoSynth Tech to Create User Generated Street Views

Pocket Lint cites Microsoft and non-Microsoft sources in its report that a beta of the Photosynth-related GeoSynth will stitch together the best user uploaded imagery of places to create a StreetView like panorama of sights around the world. While no official announcement has been made, a beta is expected by year end.

GeoSynth, a stand alone licensable PhotoSynth, was announced last October.

- The Telegraph

Details on ArcGIS Explorer Build 900

Directions Media is not at the ESRI Business Partner/Developer Conferences this week, but in the spirit of "Do what you do best, link to the rest" (Jeff Jarvis), I happily point you to detailed coverage of the latest ArcGIS Explorer release, 900, on the ArcGIS Explorer blog. Read parts 1, 2, and 3 for the big picture. In short:

Jack Dangermond introduced Explorer 900 as "a big step," and of course we'd agree. Jack cited the new user experience, the integrated 2D/3D display capabilities, a variety of basemap choices (including Microsoft Virtual Earth imagery, hybrid, and streets basemaps), and presentation capabilities as important aspects of the new release.

That last bit, about the software becoming a true presentation system (think of it as geo-enabled PowerPoint, with simple live access to AGE's power) highlights for me that "little AGE" is turning into something quite different that I imagined when it was launched as simple visualizer some years ago. ESRI is tuning it, with this feature, to "tell stories" with technology. That harkens back to one of my first geography classes where the instructor explained that maps, thematic maps in particular, tell stories.

Podcast: Using Location as a Weapon against Online Fraud

More than likely, if you've made a purchase online, your current location has been cross checked against that of your credit card to determine if there's a liklihood of fraud. In today's podcast Sonja Schindeler, Vice President of Business Development, Quova, Inc. explains how five specific location-based best practices help limit the risk of fraud. This a very different way of performing location intelligence.

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Best Location-based Advertising I've Seen in Some Time

I'm not running the Boston Marathon (April 20) this year, but this weekend I joined some friends to run on the course (MIT out to Comm Ave to the Fire Station and back for those who care, about 18 miles). The big challenge of training on the course is once you get out of the city into the residential parts of Newton there are few places for pit stops. But, the folks at Saucony solved that problem with a logo-ed port-o-potty just where you might want one. It'll be up for the month before the Marathon, until April 13. Well done!

- Boston Globe write up

Micorosft Experiments with More Local in Search

Microsoft has a lab just for advertising. Each year for the last four it's shown off the latest research geared to help it gain ground on rivals in the advertising space. Among the four goodies shown off this year was one aimed at a better algorithm for determining when a local result was appropriate.

Microsoft also showed off technology aimed at determining if someone is searching for localised results in order to display targeted advertising. Researchers have developed an algorithm that aims to know if a word that a person is searching for should return local results. The word "dentist," for example, should offer nearby dentists while a search for "Simpsons episodes" shouldn't look for local results. The technology is shared between adCenter and Live Search, since it can be used to both deliver better search results and offer better advertisements.