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Julia Ioffe reviews the trials and tribulations of Russia GLONASS (it’s answer to our GPS) and highlights how Father Frost (the local edition of Santa) was to have used the system this year. Alas, the satellites expected in orbit by years end will not be operable by then.
- CNN
Neither of these companies are that familiar to consumers, but they are leaders in their fields. TCS, aka TeleCommunication Systems Inc. is “provider of mission-critical wireless data solutions to government customers, public safety, and carriers.” In our corner its Xypoint Location Platform is noteworthy.
Networks in Motion (NIM) turns “today’s GPS-enabled mobile phones into full-featured navigation devices, making it easy to find just about anything, from ATMs and restaurants to people and events.” In short it builds platforms and apps, most notably AT&T’s VZ Navigator.
CloudMade Inc., the leading OpenStreetMap based provider of the commercial-grade mapping platform that allows developers to rapidly build mobile applications and websites, today launched Mapzen (Beta), and, Mapzen POI Collector. Mapzen, a web-based map editor, together with Mapzen POI Collector, an iPhone application, significantly reduce the complexity of editing and adding Points of Interest (POIs) to OpenStreetMap.
- press release (Hint to Cloudmade and anyone else with a geo-related PR: post it free here!)
The AP digs into how “Science Digs Into Civil War Sites” and profiles the use of GIS, GPS and GPR. Garrett Silliman, a 35-year-old archaeologist at an environmental consulting firm sums up the state of the art: “A lot of this technology has been around for years, but now it’s a lot cheaper and easier to use. For some of us, it’s becoming standard operating procedure.”
- US News
The AP also covers work done by Northern Michigan University geographers. They’ve been studying the Upper Peninsula’s Lake Superior shoreline and recently completed a project at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore that located 23 new archaeological sites and helped further define the shoreline as it existed 4,500 years ago.
Arizona State University archaeologist C. Michael Barton is behind the Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics project which creates “multidimensional computer models of landscape change and agricultural land use practices for a 6,000-year period from the beginning of farming to the rise of urban civilization.”
This month the Royal Society of the United Kingdom tapped Barton to speak at a conference titled, “Water and Society: Past, Present and Future.” The scientific discussion meeting not only examined the relationship between water and society throughout the ages but also addressed humanity’s role in the current water crisis and the climate change that is intensifying it. The conference is key, says Barton because it recognizes “that the most critical environmental issues we face can only be understood and mitigated when observations carried out today are combined with detailed knowledge of the past dynamics of human and natural systems provided by archaeology and other historical sciences.”
- ASU News
Patrick Abbott argues at KansasCity.com “Why we need to improve geographic literacy.” He’s got a masters in geography and served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Daventry District Council’s Walking Bus and Taxi Scheme for Schools received the National Gold Award for Environmental Best Practice at the Green Apple Environment Awards at the House of Commons. The effort uses Ordnance Survey data. Students draw their routes to school, then the council adds them to a GIS to plan out “walking schoolbus” routes. I am a great proponent of walking school buses in part because I walked to school for 13 years (and even walked home for lunch and back in grade 1!)
Simon Hume, GIS Officer at Daventry District Council spoke to the educational and govt use of GIS and geodata: “The school is able to benefit from the local authority’s use of Ordnance Survey data to help them become more eco-friendly as well as providing pupils with the opportunity to learn how to navigate, look at and understand maps, both from a fun aspect and as part of their education.”
