Thursday, July 30. 2009

Microsoft Offers SQL Server "Add-in" for MapPoint

Microsoft PR just let us know that Microsoft released a free SQL Server add-in for MapPoint. It does what you'd think: "Customers using the MapPoint add-in for SQL Server can visualize and manipulate data directly on a MapPoint map."

Chris Pendleton (who writes the now Bing Maps blog, at this new address) provides details:

The add-on solution is NOT web-based. But it is inexpensive. SQL Server 2008 Express is free, the add-on is free and desktop MapPoint is $300. Thus "you get the power of some hardcore data visualization with offline capabilities" for a few hundred dollars.

MapIt (announced recently) is for the enterprise and is NOT an offline solution (and costs way more, $4500).

He also notes, but does not answer this question: "…what in the world has taken us so long to be these two together?"

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Microsoft at 12:00 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, July 27. 2009

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.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in ESRI, Microsoft, ESRI UC 09 at 07:30 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, July 20. 2009

Microsoft Knows Some Geography Principles

How do I know?

"Microsoft is planning to open the first of its planned retail stores next to existing Apple stores this fall." per MaryJo Foley at C|net. I wonder if a Dell kiosk will appear nearby? Or maybe other phone stores? This could be interesting.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Microsoft, Apple at 11:50 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Wednesday, July 15. 2009

GeoEye Uses Best of Breed Tech and the Cloud to Better Serve up its Imagery (#ESRIUC)

I got a real "two-fer" when I spent some time with Deke Young, the Director of Business Systems at GeoEye. I got the inside scoop on the back end of its new GeoFuse applications and I learned more about the cloud and its use.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, ESRI, Microsoft, Remote Sensing, Google Earth, ESRI UC 09 at 16:38 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, July 14. 2009

Is Google Chasing Bing Features?

I didn't bother to blog this Google Maps announcement since I figured the Google Maps/Earth bloggers would. I did notice it was like a Bing feature I did blog.

What I didn't do was try Google's implementation. But Michael Hickins at InformationWeek did and he declares it lame and a suggests its a quick response to playing "feature match" with Bing.

To achieve this effect, Google simply mashed up user-generated photos with its map, resulting in a mish-mash of semi-effective information. There's definitely a place for user generated content, but crowd-sourcing information should be a conscious decision, not something that's foisted upon users in the guise of reliable information. People who use Google maps aren't looking for views from apartments they'll never see or points of interest to people completely unlike themselves.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, Microsoft at 06:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |