Monday, June 22. 2009

@PBCares - Pitney Bowes Customer Service on Twitter/Online

Following the lead of the well discussed @comcastcares comes @pbcares where Pitney Bowes customers can share customer service issues. There's also a forum. The forum seems to be focused not on the Business Insights (MapInfo/Group 1) space but on the mailing side, at least thus far.

via @pbnews

Real Estate, Real Estate, Real Estate….Wait…Parcels, Parcels, Parcels

First American Spatial Solutions (FASS) will be announcing this week that they have taken a huge step in creating the largest private, national parcel database. The product released today is called National Cadastre. The new product captures “parcel information and points” from more than 120 million parcels in approximately 2000 of the over 3600 counties in the U.S. (see image at right; click for larger graphic). In conjunction with the company’s PxPoint geocoder, clients can now achieve highly accurate parcel-level geocoding.

Now the big question. Why has a private company decided that they wanted to create a nationwide cadastre? Isn’t this something that the national government should have spearheaded? Or, have the problems associated with the fiefdoms of local government necessitated that only a private company could have got it done? When they first started, there were many questions about why FASS was doing this, according to Scott Little, executive vice president. Some agencies acted defensively and questioned FASS’ objectives. One of the things that FASS has been doing over the last two years is working on multiple committees in the government considering a national cadastre. Recent discussions have changed over time where it is now a very positive relationship once it was understood that FASS’ parent company could maintain and update the information over time.

How do you maintain a national cadastre?
FASS has individuals working to collect data in every jurisdiction in the country. That’s been the case for many years as sister company, First American Title, has become the premier title company in the country. First American has been collecting and maintaining parcel data in local communities well before the company even thought about turning these data into a spatial solution. For many years, applications in title searches, flood data, tax information, and other data associated with property ownership have been captured. According the Little, the infrastructure has been in place through its corporate affiliates. FASS is now able to bring spatial and database capabilities as a value added service to both its internal affiliates and outside clients.

How do you price parcels?
Pricing is another normal process within First American. In the mortgage and insurance markets, those industries have daily requests for information related to valuation and risk.  Pricing related to value added information is nothing new to a company that regularly deals with thousands of daily transactions.

Applications
Apart from the typical applications in insurance, banking, real estate, and tax, the availability of a national parcel database could have the same impact as we saw when global satellite imagery was released through Google Earth. We just don’t know what some entrepreneurs might do when certain spatial data become available. But, we are about to find out.

Comparing ROI for AutoCAD to that of AutoCAD Map

Cadalyst is hosting an article titled "Road Map to Cost Savings: Calculate ROI to determine the real financial benefits of switching from AutoCAD to Map 3D."

Before plunging in, do note that the author, Marcia Carrillo, "is a researcher and adjunct professor of spatial and visualization information systems at Claremont Graduate University (Claremont, California)" who also does consulting. It's also worth noting that she was US Sales Development Manager Geospatial at Autodesk.

After discussing some "typical" costs and estimated benefits, the article concludes:

With a modest gain of 5-10% on each task performed [data input, data management, data analysis, and deliverables publication] in Map 3D, you will realize a little bit more than two person-years (3,800 hours) at the end of a five-year period. If the average cost is $70 per hour, you will save $266,000 over five years if you move from AutoCAD to Map 3D.

Now, there's no indication in the article that there is a gain of 5-10% in each task, but many of the features of AutoCAD Map are highlighted.

If memory serves, back in the day both Autodesk and Bentley claimed that about 1/3 of their uses of core CAD (AutoCAD or MicroStation) were doing some kind of mapping. Articles like this suggest that a great many are still on those platforms and not yet using CAD-based (or other) GIS solutions.

Quote of the Week

"We have a GIS database with 200 layers of data for the Gulf of Maine, and by the end of the year we will know where that test bed is going to be."

Habib Dagher, a professor at the University of Maine, on using GIS to find five test sites for deep water wind energy solutions. Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill in June that directs the state to identify up to five test areas by December 15. The bill also streamlines the permitting process for companies that want to set up renewable energy test projects in the Gulf of Maine. There's also talk of locating the National Center for Deepwater Offshore Wind Research in Maine.

- The Working Waterfront

NJ Bill Would Require Hands Free GPS Only in Cars

The bill introduced June 8th would impose a $100 fine. The bill proposed by Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a Democrat from Jersey City, will basically amend a law that prohibits non-hands free phones and texting by drivers.

- Daily Item

via CrunchGear

Flickr's Location-based Image Gallery

Yahoo announced a new feature of its mobile Flickr page. Those using Android-based phones or iPhones can click a button to "find images taken nearby." Once the user gives permission to the page to determine location, images are found and displayed.

- Flickr Blog
via MocoNews