Dr. Vincent Tao Moves on from Microsoft

In an e-mail to his friends and colleagues Microsoft’s Senior Director with Microsoft Virtual Earth and Local/Mobile Search shared that he is leaving the company to pursue “a business in the area of Consumer Internet and will offer consulting and advisory services to Geo/IT sectors. I have been amazed by the growing opportunities in China and as such I will spend most of my time in China.”

I’ve known Dr. Tao since his GeoTango days and always appreciated the energy and insight he brought to his work and the geospatial community.

TerraGo on the way to Topping off Latest Round of Funding

The Atlanta Business Chronicle blog reports on the latest funding for TerraGo Technologies.

The company is seeking nearly $4.5 million and has already raised $3.4 million. All three investors in the latest round participated in previous rounds; they include: Maryland-based CNF Investments LLC, Arlington, Virginia RedShift Ventures and In-Q-Tel.

Glympse: Time Limited Location Sharing

If users want more control of their location sharing, three ex-Microsoft folks behind Glympse may have the answer. The app allows for time limited location sharing: from minutes to four hours. After the set time the trackee is no longer tracked. The free service launches on on T-Mobile USA G1 phones, but is planned for iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices.

Great idea; I suspect all other location sharing services will add it.

- Seattle Times blog

- Xconomy

- TechCrunch

Cartifact Maps Update

The team at Cartifact Labs are moving the tool to beta v1.1 today. I wrote about the first beta back in March.

This new release enhances our current Los Angeles maps and adds maps of Manhattan, while extended lens tool features are currently under development.

In LA, we’ve assembled an incredibly detailed map of 1887 LA and added it to the innovative lens tool.  In NYC, we present a building level detailed map of Manhattan below Central Park.  The lens tool for New York features a Historic tab with an 1865 Sanitary & Topographic map for the Council of Hygiene which shows all the original water courses of Manhattan Island and is from the David Rumsey Map Collection.  Online map exploring takes on new dimensions with another lens tab showing Oblique 3D Buildings rendered by Union Design for CB Richard Ellis. 

The launch coincides with Where 2.0 where Cartifact Labs Director Bruce Daniel will be conducting a workshop on “Thinking about Map Design” and presenting to the conference a personal survey of visually rich maps.

Directions & USGIF: Collaborating on Geospatial

We announced today a relationship with the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), the not for profit organization that focuses on the intelligence community (IC). It was relationship that was forged between myself and Keith Masback, the USGIF president, in order to promote a better understanding of what the IC can bring to business and vice versa. Is there any difference between spying on the bad guys and spying on your competitor? Maybe, but the foundation of intelligence gathering using geospatial technology is similar. We also realized that education to a wider community is essential and we hope to develop an educational program through our webinars and conferences that make a difference, especially to younger professionals. And it is certainly our intent to support the technology firms and member corporations that deliver location intelligent solutions. The market is growing but even in these difficult, economic times, we can all benefit from the wider exposure. You will be hearing more about our partnership in the coming weeks and months.