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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
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.
That’s the premise of the business model of NearYoo - “you” submit your location via SMS and its servers “put you on the map” for your friends to see. The odd bit - you need to user their syntax “>Location.” Many other companies are using SMS for location-based solutions. None seem to have the impact of solutions that automagically “know” your location. Solution looking for a problem?
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
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.
via CrunchGear
