French Web Mapping Firm Sues Google Over Google Maps

Bottin Cartographes filed a complaint in Paris commercial court against Google France and U.S. parent Google Inc. The basis of the complaint: “Google strategy is aimed at undercutting competitors by temporarily swallowing the full cost until it gains control of the market.” In particular,  “Google is undercutting the market by offering map services to some companies for internal use for free – if they use Google Maps on their internet site,” according to one report.

Bottin seeks 500,000 euros (706,000 dollars) in damages.

- AFP

Agreement Cuts Red Tape on Indian Launches of U.S. Satellites

Representatives from the US and India signed a technology safeguard agreement (TSA) which allows the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch US made satellites from India without case by case approvals. The document was signed during US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent visit to India,

The current agreement allows foreign built non-commercial satellite launches; a separate ommercial space launch agreement (CSLA) is expected to be signed soon to allow the launch of commercial satellites.

- Express Buzz

Education Tidbits

Clark State Community College in Ohio announced a new geospatial technology associate degree program to begin this fall in Beavercreek. It was created through a partnership with Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), CACI and Woolpert and is partially funded through the Ohio Board of Regent’s Future Jobs’ grant.

- Springfield News Sun

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium received an $894,228 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program for the Geospatial Technician Education through Virginia’s Community Colleges project. Three community colleges will establish “academic pathways in geospatial technology” and serve as model programs for other schools. Project partners include the Virginia Community College System; Virginia Geospatial Extension Program at Virginia Tech; and John Tyler, Tidewater and Virginia Western community colleges.

- Daily Press

As the latest cube-shaped disaster imaging satellite from Surrey Satellite Technology Limited launches today, there’s a project aboard from UK students. Called Poise and developed by pupils at Shrewsbury School, in Shropshire, the experiment will measure variations in the ionosphere - the outermost layer of the atmosphere which can impact GPS signals.

- BBC

Update: Wind Atlas of Spain - Which Open Source Platform?

Those who know more than I have commented and confirm:
(1) It’s an ESRI Web ADF implementation and (2) there was a mis-translation in the article.

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Garmin Puts Toe into Crowdsourcing - New Nuvi Firmware Enables Rating POIs

Rich Owings at GPS tracklog shared a new feature in the new firmware for Garmin Nuvis.

In addition to providing a star rating [for a POI] you can also report an error and have the item removed from future searches.