Tuesday, June 30. 2009

GAO to Review FEMA Process for Flood Map Updates

Sen Charles Schumer of New York, with the support of Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, requested the review from the Government Accountability Office after multiple complaints from constituents regarding the new maps which force homeowners to have flood insurance. I've seen many articles from area across the country raising issues about the maps.

FEMA is using new technologies to produce the maps and homeowners who have hired engineers to "check" the work have suggested there are inaccuracies. The GAO agreed to the request and will begin an investigation in about two months.

- press release

Most Complete Worldwide Elevation Dataset Ready for Download

The Global Digital Elevation Map was developed from data collected by the Japanese Aster sensor aboard the NASA satellite Terra. Data points are 30M apart and the dataset covers 99% of the earth. For comparison, the Radar Shuttle Topography Mission covered but 80%.

Downloads/Links:

26-megabyte TIF (it will begin drawing on your screen if you click!)
Aster GDEM Page
Search and download (there are warnings heavy demand may mean some restrictions)

- NASA announcement (pdf)
- BBC
- Wired

Sunlight Foundation Makes Over Govt Sites

GovExec covered Monday's Personal Democracy Forum in New York which addressed government transparency and accountability. The recap notes some work by the Sunlight Foundation:

The nonprofit government transparency group Sunlight Foundation recently began an online series where it critiqued federal Web sites and created mockups of an alternative version. Many of the redesigns included cleaner content, more consolidated links and greater use of mapping.

Among the sites already reviewed are Data.gov (Sunlight Review) and EPA.gov (Sunlight Review).

NAVTEQ's Mobile Traffic App Update

You may have missed yesterday's press release from NAVTEQ noting an update to its traffic information app for mobile phones (any with a browser) for free. There are, per C|net some unobtrusive ads, and the navigation is "interesting." The "east" and "west" links to slide the map one way or the other, are not in their typical orientation.

It's hard to imagine that users really want one app for finding directions or local services and another for traffic information. I'm hopeful this is simply a way to get the word out that this sort of functionality (and detail) should be embedded in other apps, a la "Intel Inside," though NAVTEQ uses "NAVTEQ onboard."

Podcast: Delivering Maps to the FBI

This past week two geospatial practitioners were cited for their good work by the FBI. What did they do? At the request of the Bureau, they went online and found some Digital Raster Graphics, scanned quad maps, printed them and gave them to agents working in their area. Is this how agents and others in the federal government, or even citizens, should get their geographic data? What does this scenario reveal about the FBI? The state of our geospatial infrastructure? The value of the geospatial workforce?


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Monday, June 29. 2009

Amazon Doing Invite Only Cloud Training in DC

Techflash has the news and suggests this is Amazon's push beyond selling startups on the cloud. The two-day course is for "a variety IT services firms that do business with the federal government." I wonder if any with a geospatial bent were involved?

via @timoreilly