Friday, June 5. 2009

A piano tuner joins CA Assemblyman in Suggesting Publicly Available Aerial Images Endangered

"It is disturbing to me that terrorists can now perform considerable surveillance without visiting the targeted site," wrote piano tuner and nuclear watchdog Scott Portzline in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. He wants satellite and aerial imagery companies to voluntarily blur nuclear plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it's looking into the request.

Joel Anderson, a member of the California Assembly filed legislation in that state to make sharing of aerial imagery illegal.

- CNN via reader Duane

ESRI's Proposal to Update Recovery.gov

The Inland Empire's Press Enterprise highlights ESRI's response to a call to update Recovery.gov. The company suggested adding mapping and geospatial analysis to the site. This quote from local Rep. Darrell Issa highlights the possibilities of how "private sector" participation "would improve the site."

Full transparency requires attention to not just what is posted online, but also how the information is posted. Information about how the taxpayers' money is distributed must be disclosed in a structured, open and searchable format.

This is technology which can be implemented. There are a number of companies who can show they do it better than Recovery.gov.

Research In Motion acquires Dash Navigation

I first saw the report of the acquisition on GPS Business News (subscription required, but I want to give them credit!); now it's well confirmed. No terms of the deal were shared.

TechCrunch reports "RIM refused to comment on how Dash will be incorporated into its business but it’s safe to assume that the company will use Dash’s technology to upgrade the GPS in their devices in some capacity." The article goes on to report that RIM might be able to do good things with the platform, considering how many people currently carry Blackberries.

Twice notes some other entries into the "traffic probe" space: Waze and Aha Mobile.

Many, including this InformationWeek blog are suggesting the acquisition is like that of NAVTEQ by Nokia. While I agree it'll help in the nav space, it's really not the same sort of acquisition at all in my book.