Remotely sensed data of Haiti became the basis for updating maps of the devastated capital of Port-au-Prince when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake ripped through the country. Suddenly government, NGO, and volunteers collaborated using imagery provided by multiple sources including the USGS, NOAA, Google, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye and many other geospatial technology firms. The result was not only a tremendous outpouring of charity, but a technological success via social geonetworks and government agencies. Directions Magazine editor in chief Joe Francica provides a synopsis of how remote sensing became the foundation for many of Haiti’s rescue efforts.
WILSON KERR at Web 2.0 Journal notes that the LBS “check in” space is ROI gold. I wonder how “the old fashioned check in” is doing? That’s called the affinity card - you know the one from the grocery store or Subway or my favorite burrito place, Bolocco. What’s interesting to note is that in LBS iteration, potentially, everyone knows where you are, that is everyone who wants to advertise to you. Using the affinity cards only that organization (for starters) knows when and in which store you shopped. So, which is a better deal for the provider of the service? For the user? I can speak to the latter: if we didn’t get something back from those affinity cards, we’d not use them, and many of us have a fist full of them. So…why not get the grocery store discounts if you check in via Foursquare (or your favorite similar animal)? Would that get those who are getting “bored” with these games back on board?
On Friday it [Foursquare] will add The New York Times to the list.
In conjunction with the Winter Olympics, The Times will be offering recommendations to Foursquare users on restaurants, attractions, shopping and nightlife in Vancouver, Whistler and the nearby town of Squamish. The tips will be pulled from The Times’s travel and entertainment coverage.
Foursquare users who check in at one of the suggested venues will earn a New York Times Olympics badge, said Stacy Green, public relations manager for The New York Times Company.
Administration officials said they hope to have the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Service up and running by Oct. 1 which will require negotiating with Congress, employee groups and the Office of Management and Budget to hammer out details.
The new service will be what the National Weather Service is for weather, but aimed aimed at planning for climate change. Per the NY Times:
The proposed entity would provide “user-friendly” information to help governments and businesses adapt to climate change, creating a central federal source of information on everything from projections of sea level rise to maps of the nation’s best sites for wind and solar power.
And the hope is that just as the National Weather Service spawned lots of private sector businesses (from Accuweather to the Weather Channel), the Climate Service will do the same.
This is sort of hard to follow, but here’s what I understand.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a scientific methodology that analyses the environmental impact of human activities and can predict soil degradation. For the first time, it now includes an impact category called desertification. That impact category reflects some human activities, notably cultivation or grazing on soil, something occurring across the globe. The new Montserrat Núñez, lead author and a researcher at the Institute of Agro Food Research and Technology (IRTA) and his team published their work integrating GIS with the LCA in the latest issue of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. The result: 38 percent of the world’s land surface is made up of arid regions at risk of desertification.
Like many others I tried to make sense of Google’s Buzz announcement, made yesterday. I like the description, from many commentators that it’s like Google Wave integrated into GMail. I don’t think most people figured out what Google Wave is. In fact, much like Google Latitude, it went from lots of buzz (note small “b”) to invisible very quickly.
And, that’s a huge issue. Every time Google (or any one for that matter) adds a new product or service, it creates a whole set of hurdles to use. “Google Wave? What’s that? How do I try it? I need an invitation? Why should I try it?” It also creates a lot of Buzz as people try to figure it out. But, add features to an existing platform, and the barriers are fewer. The buzz level may also be lower. “There’s a new button in Google Maps, big whoop.”
Still, from a practical view, I think it’s a lot more likely users will try a new button in an existing product or service, that figure out a whole new platform. And, maybe Google, which has more products than (insert clever line here) is figuring that out, and thus putting location information and social tools right inside Gmail for potential better uptake, at least from those who use Gmail at least and perhaps also Google Maps Mobile on some platforms. Like Buzz or hate it, if you use Gmail it’s in your face. That frankly is why users regularly balk at Facebook’s interface changes; they actually see them!
Eweek has a nice discussion of the geolocation tools of Buzz in Google Maps Mobile and their use on mobiles.
by Adena Schutzberg on 02/10 at 06:44 AM |
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