Thursday, July 23. 2009

Statements from Oversight Hearing on Federal Geospatial Data Management

Opening statement of Chairman Jim Costa (pdf)

Statement of Susan Marlow (CEO, Smart Data Strategies) (pdf)

Statement of John Palatiello (MAPPS Exec. Dir.) (pdf)

Statement of Michael Byrne (CA GIO) (pdf)

Statement of Karen Siderelis (GIO, US Dept. of Interior) (pdf)

Open Government and Innovation: Experts Explore Visualization

The Open Government and Innovation event was held earlier this week in DC and featured:

Ben Shneiderman, founding director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory and professor at the University of Maryland - if he's speaking where you are, go. I guarantee you will learn something.

Andrew Turner, chief technology officer for FortiusOne/GeoCommons - he's on the geo circuit, so you'll likely run into him

Susan Adams, chief technology officer for Microsoft’s federal sector - new name to me

Each pointed to visualization techniques such as mashups and Photosynth, but noted there are still challenges. Shneiderman "noted the difficult computer network administrators have had finding visualization tools that help them understand the status and performance of their networks."

- GCN

Geospatial Analysis of School Choice

A special issue of the American Journal of Education takes on school choice - including several articles that use GIS to explore the topic. (press release)

It's typically a fee-based journal, but two articles of interest to geospatial practitioners (and others!) are free to read:

School Choice in Suburbia: Test Scores, Race, and Housing Markets

School Choice and Competitive Incentives: Mapping the Distribution of Educational Opportunities across Local Education Markets

Among the findings: how much housing prices rise based on a local school's test scores and minority population.

- via EdWeek Blog

Local Events on Your TomTom (for Corpus Christi)

The blurring of sat nav and smartphone continues. Corpus Christi, Texas will role out a program at the end of August that allows TomTom users to get event information for the city based on their location. It's not clear which devices will support this or how the data is transmitted.

The Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is behind this effort and a similar text messaging one, said the city is looking to work with other providers as well.

- Caller Times

Tidbits from the TomTom Earnings Call

Among the details:

The company is still planning to release its iPhone navigation application this summer; it'll appear simultaneously in the U.S. and Europe. ( Navigon announced its offering for one-time fee of $70; price rises Aug 15 to $100.)

TomTom is in talks with “a number of” carmakers on the possible delivery of built-in navigation devices.

"Live" services are starting to catch on. Those "add on" charges for extra services such as its HD Traffic, which traces the road speed of participants to create live traffic reports, may mean enhanced revenues.

- TWICE
- Kansas City Star

Education Tidbits

The University of Florida and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics will soon establish a joint University of Florida-ICRISAT International Distance Education Center in Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India.

First up, in a series of short courses to be offered by the UF faculty is one on GIS in landscape analysis, analysis of bioenergy projects, soil and water science aspects in watershed development, crop modeling, and the use of geo-statistical data in environmental assessment. The technology used for instruction and GIS was not noted.

- The Hindu News

Forget GIS data companies driving around and collecting data, Anthony Phillips, a senior at Virginia Tech, spent the summer driving around his Pulaski County, WV collecting data on some 300 streams in the county and how close they are to roads. The goal? A searchable database for the National Weather Service in Blacksburg that will enable early prediction of flooded roads.

To compile the data, Phillips uses maps and GIS to determine which streams are within 25 feet of a road. He measures the area and uses a mathematical equation to determine how likely the area is to flood based on the proximity of the road to the stream. Then Prescott, 19, documents the area in pictures.

Phillips color-codes the map according to the likelihood that a flood could occur. Red means a flood can occur if the stream rises by as little as a foot and a half; blue means a flood isn't likely.

- Roanoke Times

TechniGraphics, with 600 workers around the globe, but based in Wooster, OH has opened its own university. While the economy is unsteady, the company, which specializes in geospatial for intelligence, opened TechniGraphics University, a place designed to educate, train and develop leaders and workers.

- The Daily Record