Brightkite hooked up with Limbo? Who?

I had that reaction to yesterday’s news (press release) about location-sharing company Brightkite pairing with social networking company Limbo. I’d never heard of Limbo.

Caroline McCarthy at C|net’s The Social describes the company: “Limbo’s focus is on mobile games, as well as text-message alerts: sports scores, celebrity gossip, weather, horoscopes, and the like.” That explains why I’d never heard of it. The Brightkite blog notes: “The Limbo team knows a lot about mobile.”

She notes it was basically a stock deal and that now Brightkite has access to Limbo’s $9 million in funding.

I wonder if this merger is the first of many for the early LBS social players. Perhaps location by itself is not enough to make a successful business?

Quote of the Week

“It would be fair to characterize [the new policy] as a break with what was going on under the Bush administration.”

- Edward A. Jurkevics, principal at Chesapeake Analytics, an Arlington financial analysis firm quoted in the Washington Post on the latest plans for satellites and imagery for the U.S. government.

Chronicling N Korean Rocket Launch in Satellite Imagery

The Wall Street Journal blog has a nice write up of home satellite imagery meant the launch was no big surprise. Some nice images and links to various reports.

Social Location Gaming

Read up on social location gaming in an essay by Nokia’s Director of Games, Jaako Kaidesoja. Nokia seems to see the genre as another way to get people involved in its OVI community. I’m still watching for uptake of Foursquare launched at SXSW but not heard from since…

Oops wait, an interview with Dennis Crowley of Foursquare popped up today!

MN State Legislators Ponder Offshore Map Work

Aero-Metric Inc. laid off 10 employees in Maple Grove, MN. That means that aerial maps of nine counties in the state are being made by contractors in India.

State legislators are currently working a bill to spend an additional $5 million of tax money to map at least 41 other counties over the next three years. The outsourcing has caused concern. Rep. Jean Wagenius, DFL-Minneapolis, who is chairwoman of an environmental finance oversight committee says Minnesota money should stay in Minnesota. However, when Rep. Rick Hansen,  looked into “a no-outsourcing clause” addition to his bill, House legal counsel told him it would be unconstitutional.

Aero-Metric beat out Woolpert of Dayton, Ohio, which had a lower overall bid after various optional tasks were added to the project. Woolpert would have done the work in the U.S. and raises concerns about sending detailed mapping work outside the country to “foreign countries that do not have the best interests of the United States at heart,” per Bob Brinkman, a senior vice president.

- Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune