Quote of the Week

“Our teachers are not requesting (maps) anymore. They’re saying, ‘Please take them away. They’re cluttering up our space.’ ”

- Oak Brooks’ Butler School District 53 (Illinois) Superintendent Sandra Martin explaining how teachers in her district often ask to clear away the pull-down maps and make space for a white board that would display maps digitally instead, in a Chicago Tribune article about using online vs. pull-down maps in K-12 education.

Johannesburg “Closing off” its Geodata

EE Times reprints an article by Heather Ford originally from Brainstorm Magazine addressing the conflict between Joberg, South Africa attempting to become a “world-class” city and its old fashioned city geodata licensing.

One of my favorite Google Map Apps Adds OSM!

I guess I missed the addition (late August 2009) because I’d just finished my ultra training. I used Google Maps Pedometer regularly until then to plan running routes for the Somerville Road Runners Unofficial Saturday Morning Davis Square Long Runs. We’d go anywhere from 10 to 20+  miles.

This weekend were getting together for our first run after our fall ultras/marathons. (We are working toward the very fun Mill Cities Relay in December.) When I went to use Google Maps Pedometer I saw the additional OSM option next to the Terrain button. A quick look showed that the developer added OSM via the CloudMade API in part because users could add updates directly and see them appear in weeks. Interestingly, Googlehas since them switched to its own data since then, with ideally, a 30 day turn around on corrections.

I think this is an interested approach for developers in general who are wary of the quality of the current US Google data.

Apps.gov Prices for Google API: Nearly $1million

Ever wonder how much Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are worth? John Foley took a look at Apps.gov to find out.

Google’s Maps API comes in at just under $1 million. It’s available from Onix Networking for $966,448. That covers unlimited site traffic for Web applications that make use of the API, plus support from Onix Networking, an IT vendor that resells Google products (Google Apps, Google Earth, Enterprise Search, Maps, and more), as well as wares from other tech vendors.

Onix offers the API under a few different licenses. He suggests that the offer is for the Premier version (the standard versoin of the API, for many purposes, is free). The Premiere version “comes with advanced geocoding, encryption, control over advertising, an SLA, and other features designed for large users.” Foley asks the obvious question: “whether the feds are getting a good deal, an OK deal, or overpaying for the Google Maps API.”

ESRI’s offerings were announced to be on the site via a press release this week. The various data and geoprocessing tools offered by ESRI (results of search) top out at $266.

You can also buy tech from Microsoft, FortiusOne (via Carahsoft), and Salesforce.com (via Carasoft).

- InformationWeek