Tech Review Innovators Unders 35 include Ushahidi Lead

David Kobia and his now well-known project is profiled.

- Tech Review

LBS Tidbits

Social location service Loopt has appointed Steve Boom as president. He spent ten years overseeing Yahoo’s mobile offering, before joining mobile social network mig33; he’ll maintain a position there as he works at Loopt.

- Mobile Ent. Biz

Sid Yadav explains why LBS uptake is so poor: hardware.

“In other words, location services aren’t facing a generation gap. They’re facing an equipment gap.”

- Venture Beat

Boston-based Scvngr has a new rewards program that allows businesses to customize what their patrons might do for prize, such as 20% off a meal or a free scoop of ice cream. Fifty Boston businesses are signed on for the launch. My concern: complexity: how many people are going to follow the directions to get those goodies? At one place you have to snap a picture, at another suggest new ingredients… that sound like a bit of work.

- Boston Herald

Eric Lai, who works for Sybase, argues that LBS is not for social stuff, but rather mundane enterprise business connections. Getting information to the right people onsite, using extra time to meet new potential customers, connecting with existing customers…

- ZDnet

OpenBuilding.com, a crowdsourced website for building a database of buildings (what else?) is now an iPhone app. It’s called Buildings (iTunes link):

Buildings is an application containing an encyclopaedia of architecture at the user’s fingertips. It supplies information, images and videos on over 2500 historic, contemporary and conceptual buildings. It lets the user find and learn about architecture nearby, across their country or overseas.

Using GPS technology to pinpoint the users location, Building is also a perfect mobile guide for travellers who can use their iPhone to find directions to buildings of interest.

- Archinect.com

MapQuest has updated its site again: it now adds additional language support, ability to embed maps within other websites, and to send data to GPS devices.

- MapQuest Blog

Apple Launches LBS Section of AppStore: On the Grid

For now the On the Grid section (iTunes link) hosts just a dozen apps (usual suspects) most are free, one Geofences (never heard of it) is 99 cents.

- Fierce Mobile

UpNext Pop Up POIs: New?

TechCrunch is noting a new way for POIs, in this case Foursquare checkins to appear on a scrolled map, in this case from UpNext on the iPad:

UpNext, a 3D mapping startup based in New York City, brings that information forward in amore fluid way in the latest release of its iPad app. As you push the 3D map around with your fingers, labels for specific searches or your friends’ recent Foursquare checkins pop open as they come into view. UpNext calls this the Fluid Labeling System, and you can see it in action in the video above.

The video shows it about :50 seconds in. Not sure that’s new, or if the actually “popping up” might distract you from your search, unless of course, those checkins are what you seek.

- TechCrunch

Education Tidbits

“Algoma University, in conjunction with ESRI Canada, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Nicola Shaw as Health Informatics Research Chair and Scientific Director for the Health Informatics Institute. In her role, Dr. Shaw will build on the health informatics (HI) research and potential that exists in Algoma region.” What’s the connection to ESRI Canada? “The research chair is funded for five years through support from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC), ESRI Canada and Algoma University. “

- press release

“The Virginia Geospatial Extension Program, based in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, has teamed with the Virginia Community College System ( VCCS ) and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium to develop a geospatial Web portal that will help train the future generation of geospatial technicians in Virginia.”

- press release

NITLE the is National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education. Its Sean Connin has launched a new podcast series titled “Spatial Perspectives: A Podcast Series” which features “the narratives of colleagues engaged in spatial teaching and study in the liberal arts.” First up is Jon Caris (GIS Specialist), who describes his work at Smith College’s Spatial Analysis Lab and shares his reflections on cross-curricular uses of GIS, the growing interest in spatial humanities, and much more. I think that’s a great idea and encourage those teaching GIS in geography and other departments to listen, too. Your expertise, insights and experience can help grow GIS use in liberal arts!

-  Nitle Blog