Monday, October 26. 2009

VentureBeat: State of Mobile Social Networks

Saad Fazil does a roundup and explains why these networks are still not reaching their potential:

We decided to try out several of these apps ourselves and talk to the companies and several industry experts to find out. And what we found out is that there seem to be four factors holding these networks back: Users are hesitant to join unless their friends are already on board, businesses won’t join up without a critical mass of users, many phones still can’t handle the necessary technology, and there are privacy and behavioral concerns.

He also offers suggestions to help them grow.

- VentureBeat

Peer Pressure on Indiana County to Give Data to Statewide Map

Allen County can't contribute its data to IndianaMap because county rules require it to sell the data. The good news? The tide seems likely to change, if slowly.

- The Journal Gazette

Update: Provide Feedback to Google On Map Errors

Update: I got word back yesterday (Sunday) on my requested update - but only after I re-reported it on Friday. I think the original request while logged, got lost in the "launch day" shuffle. The reply:

Hi ,

Your Google Maps problem report has been reviewed, and you were right! We'll update the map within a month and email you when you can see the change.

Report history
Problem ID: E176-3579-9E42-682D

Your report: Not a one way street. Also geocoding is backwards.

--
Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team

I'm looking forward to my house being on the right end of the street again!

Continue reading "Update: Provide Feedback to Google On Map Errors"

Lynchburg Web GIS with All the Bells and Whistles; Another Signal of Desktop GIS' Demise?

Lynchburg, VA just updated its online GIS website. Among the new additions: the ability to document your markups, save measured lines, jump to Google StreetView or Bing's Bird's Eye views, and tools to better see the relationship between records and parcels. (See What's New for details and screen shots.)

The app seems to be ADF-based ArcGIS Server apps and does not use Flex. WorldView Solutions did the consulting work.

The updates make sense when you learn that most common users of the site are "real estate agents, builders and others in development-related fields." One agent who uses the site daily is still finding new features.

Costs: $228,500 for the changeover from the old system, $50,000/year maintenance (the same as the previous system, interestingly).

The more apps like this I see, the more I wonder about how quickly desktop GIS use will drop inside local governments. Apps like this are as easily used inside as well as outside local government. The question is when, not if, most gov employees will move off the desktop. The related question, then, is how this new business model will change revenues for software developers.

- News and Advance

Bentley Positions PowerMap as Alternative to ESRI/ArcGIS

While doing some research on a previous post I did a Google search on "lynchburg va esri." One ad that popped up in the results:

Alternative to ESRI
Powerful Standalone Mapping With Bentley PowerMap
www.bentley.com/powermap

The link to the top text brought me here. While there's quite a bit of text about Bentley PowerMap's features and benefits, and the promise of a free trial, I didn't see anything about it being an alternative to ESRI.

Bentley is getting aggressive with its marketing of PowerMap and subtly positioning it as an alternative to ArcGIS. (Google that phrase and look at the sponsored links!)