Monday, July 27. 2009

Update 2: Autodesk to Give Startup "Clean Techs" Free Software

Update 2: Syncromatics did not use the software noted to "to create a more efficient bus-tracking system that utilizes GPS and mobile-location technology." They already had that tech in place. Instead, the company used Inventor to design the solar powered bus shelter signs that tell people when the bus will come. The information is collected using GPS. Thanks to Brett Smith at Autodesk for helping to solve the mystery and pointing me to this press release and video.

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GAO Questions DHS on Proposed Location for Infectious Pathogen Research Lab

A Government Accountability Office draft report obtained by the Washington Post suggests that the Department of Homeland Security underestimated the chance of a release of major contamination from a research lab for highly infectious pathogens in tornado-prone Manhattan, Kansas. To date, that sort of research has been confined to remote islands.

Despite efforts to delay or postpone a hearing on the matter by DHS, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight and investigations subcommittee plans to hold a hearing Thursday on the risk analysis, according to two sources cited by the Post. Had the GAO not reported such findings, the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), was expected to win construction funding.

Critics site active lobbying by state officials for the lab's location in Kansas.

Washington Post (via @jeffharrison)

Foursquare News

It seems like Foursquare pops up in the news every few months. Otherwise, I hear almost nothing about it - perhaps because it's not yet come to my city of Boston.

This week a New York Times blog reports on the Town Holler, a Foursquare "meetup" of Mayors of certain areas (those who have the most points for visiting certain locations, the "point" of the location-based social network). The system went down just as the event launched, but came back up soon after. Mashable gushes how the app may be the next Twitter. One reason: it's like Twitter was before Twitter became big.

GCN Tackles FusionX/Fusion Core Solution

FusionX was announced at the last November (press release), and renamed and relaunched at the ESRI User Conference (press release) as Fusion Core Solution, but neither ESRI nor Microsoft seemed to do much outreach on the offering, aimed at Fusion Centers. GCN has a write-up with this interesting quote suggesting why it came to be:

“We tried a year and a half ago to integrate ArcGIS with Microsoft SharePoint but failed,” Brian Egnitz, GIS program manager for the Massachusetts State Police, which hosts Massachusetts' Commonwealth Fusion Center.

- GCN

Bahrain Launches GIS Program

The National Project for Geographic Information System was launched over the weekend. it's being implemented by the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, a government agency formed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore to "respond effectively to the many foreign requests to tap on Singapore’s development experience." Among other things, it does consulting, sometimes in partnership with private companies.

- Bahrain News Agency

Computerworld Talks to Dangermond on ESRI's 40th Anniversary

The short interview yields a few interesting tidbits:

"I don't think it was inevitable that geographic information systems would have come into being in the way they have [without ESRI]"
- Interesting conjecture; we'll never know!

"Sears invested $4 million to build a system, and they saved $43 million a year as a result of automating their trucks for delivery."
- That implementation seems to be the one ESRI continues to hold up as an example. One reason no other names/number may pop up? Other users may not have given permission to share such information.

"In the early years, GIS was largely a proprietary technology. It invented its own standards for doing things. GIS has moved from that position to using IT standards and standards-based technology."
- Is that unique to GIS or is that true of other disciplines?

- Computerworld