Tuesday, August 18. 2009

The Politics of Cloud Computing

Andrea DiMaio of Gartner discusses in his blog two political issues likely to arise from moving to a cloud computing platform:

1. Some lawmakers are more cautious about new projects to develop physical data centers when cloud computing would be cheaper
2. Tax laws related to the same ala Microsoft's decision to move Azure development outside Washington State

He thinks these arguments are similar to the ones that arose when open source software first bolted onto the IT scene.

Education Tidbits

University of Illinois computer science Professor John Hart got a visit from a former student, Matei Stroila who now works for NAVTEQ. Stroila is involved in research and emerging technologies with Navteq and decided to delivered the vehicle to support Hart's research in 2D and 3D mapping, something NAVTEQ is also exploring.

In the vehicle he brought is camera equipment that takes "a sphere of pictures" and a laser scanner that makes precise measurements of how far away objects are as it passes by them.

The scanner shines a laser beam off a tree on Green Street, for instance, and the time that it takes to bounce back, combined with GPS in the vehicle, tells precisely how far away the tree is.

The vehicle was gathering one point for every 2 centimeters – less than an inch – Hart said.

- News-Gazette

Indiana State University geography students and Kennesaw State University students in north central West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania in a field course.

"Students surveyed and collected data regarding physical and human landscapes. They used soil and water test kits, global positioning systems as well as took walking tours of Appalachian communities and coal camps to learn about cultural landscapes and settlement patterns. ISU and KSU students formed groups to research projects ranging from "Geology of West Virginia," "Red Maple Regeneration and Oak Decline" and "Hydrology of a Reach Along Decker's Creek" to "Demographics, Politics and Bumper Stickers," "Neighborhood Architecture of Morgantown, W.Va." and "Coal Camps and the Human Landscape.""

I for one had no geography field experience as an undergrad (it was a small department) but got some from a geosci course and and a non-credit summer geology field course (2 undergrads, 15 grads - learned more about life that geology, but that was fine!).

- Indiana State University

San Diego State University Department of Geography professor Douglas Stow, an expert in remote-sensing analysis of terrestrial environments, is a recipient of The President’s Leadership Fund Awards for Faculty and Staff Excellence. He receives $5,000 to invested in his work which includes studying satellite imagery for changes in arctic habitats and the use of UAVs.

- San Diego State University

Western Michigan University is proud that one its graduates is heading to work on the next versions of Google's Internet mapping and architectural modeling software. Jonathan Rumohr of Ishpeming, Mich., an April graduate in mechanical engineering, received an all-expense paid trip to Google's Colorado complex earlier this month to work with the team on the next version of Google Earth and Sketchup.

- Western Michigan University

Update: India's "Google Earth," Bhuvan, is Out

Update: Here's a review from Media Nama. Bottom line: Our short, politically-correct verdict is that “it’s a start”, and it’s definitely not a myth. The non-politically correct verdict is a lot harsher, particularly given how difficult it was to review this product..." Here's another from Content Sutra with essentially the same message: there is work to be done to enhance it.

Continue reading "Update: India's "Google Earth," Bhuvan, is Out"

$27 Million for Detailed Map of Singapore

The state government has set aside $27 million over the next five years to create a super-accurate interactive map of Singapore. The SG-Space (Singapore Geospatial Collaborative Environment) project will provide authorised users (at first just government staff will have access, then data will be rolled to the public and hopefully, the commercial sector) with data on weather forecasts to the location of underground utility pipes to building layouts. The announcement was made at the Map Asia conference on Tuesday.

Tiny Singapore seems to have the same issues as many larger jurisdictions: data separated by authority, different formats, qualities and scales. This single map is to be a step towards a solution. It's unclear how the new map will be created.

- Straits Times

MSNBC.com Acquires Adrian Holovaty's EveryBlock

The microlocal company and app grew out of a Knight Foundation grant that ended in June 2009 and grew into the epitome of a high tech hyperlocal website. It's framework is open source and uses many open source geospatial tools. The data is fed to the site in as automated a fashion as possible. Further, the team worked with many localities to make data more available to the site and thus other sites. EveryBlock now has sites for 15 cities, four in beta; it slowly and smartly added them a few at at a time over it's year and a half of existence. (Wow, is that all?)

There was no official statement about the terms. AOL bought another hyper local site, Patch, in June for $7 million.

PaidContent reports that the Washington Post is shutting down its hyperlocal standalone site, Loudon Extra.

- EveryBlock Blog

Podcast: The Free Business Model and Geospatial

How do you benefit from giving technology away? This week we look at a trend - all sorts of things (data, technology and Web services) are being offered for free across the technology landscape. It's happening in geospatial too. So, here's today's question: How will companies' free offerings compete with one another?

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