Update: LA Times Launches New Crime Database, Mapping App

The LAPD currently sends visitor its crime map to the LA Times one. It’s working a new one, which per the LA Times Blog is a few months away. Here’s the text on the LAPD crime map page:

“The Los Angeles Police Department’s Crime Map page is currently undergoing technical renovations in preparation for a new crime mapping system which will include expanded crime data from adjacent agencies, and will accommodate our growing viewer data base. Until such time as the new crime mapping system is fully functional, you may view Part One crime data provided to the Los Angeles Times by the Los Angeles Police Department at http://projects.latimes.com/mapping-la/crime/. We apologize for any inconvenience during this process and thank you for your patience and understanding.”

- LA Times Blog

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Remote Sensing Tidbits

A team of Japanese scientists has installed a receiver that will directly provide real time satellite imagery when natural disasters occur in Nepal. The receiver was installed at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Khumaltar of Lalitpur. Five satellites, ALOS of Japan, KOMPSAT of Korea, THEOS of Thailand, FORMOSAT of Taiwan and Resourcesat-1 of India are currently operating as earth observatory satellites that focus on disaster-related issues. Although crude satellite imagery is received directly, value added information like inundation area and total affected area can be extracted and simplified so that the public can easily understand.

- The Himalayan Times

Mosses are drying out in Antarctica due to climate change. But how do researchers keep tabs on the delicate mosses in that fragile environment? Satellite imagery? Too coarse. Instead researchers at the University of Tasmania and Antarctic Division built the “OktoKopter” a UAV helicopter to carry a sensor to capture data.

- ABC

Dr. Matt Hansen, co-director of SDSU’s Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence argues that free availability of satellite imagery has help deforestation monitoring, but he’s quick to note that without a continued effort to keep programs like LandSat alive, and keep data open, such efforts may not be effective into the future.

- Monga Bay

The glut of imagery data from UAV’s is only getting bigger, but some new technology may help the staffing challenges that could not be met.

The deluge of video data from these unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, is likely to get worse. By next year, a single new Reaper drone will record 10 video feeds at once, and the Air Force plans to eventually upgrade that number to 65. John Rush, chief of the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division of the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, projects that it would take an untenable 16 000 analysts to study the video footage from UAVs and other airborne surveillance systems.

- IEEE Spectrum

End of September Geo Conference Report RoundUp

W3G and AGI GeoCommunity (back to back in Stratford Upon Avon)

Ed Parsons (Google) recaps W3G (“onsiderable energy, lively debate and optimism around the use of open data, free and open software and the potential of “neogeography””) and AGI Geocommunity (“despair”).
- Ed Parsons Blog

Jo Cook (Oxford Archeology, a company, not the University) recaps each paper on Day One and Day Two of the AGI.
- Archaeogeek.com Blog - Day One
- Archaeogeek.com Blog - Day Two

Jeff Thurston (Vector One) recaps opening and the keynotes at AGI.
- opening and keynotes at Vector One

Gary Gale (Nokia), chair of the W3g event, reports on the logic of having the W3G before the AGI and asks if that should be repeated.
- Vicchi Blog

Steven Feldman (KnowWhere) addresses both W3G and AGI. And details his presentations.
- Know Where

Rich Treves found W3G ” like Geography only cooler.”
- Google Earth Design

Nick Bicanic, who did a keynote at W3G shares his slides and experience there.
- EchoEchoMe

Tim Waters recpas both W3G and AGI.
- ThinkWhere

Location-base Marketing Summit

Mobile Marketing Watch recapped a panel on the NJ Nets use of Gowalla to fill seats at its games and covered Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, announcing the agency’s first product: FourScore, a “tool for businesses and marketers who wish to understand the impact of consumers’ adoption of location-based services on their business, across the enterprise,” among other things.
- Mobile Marketing

Destination CRM addresses a “we don’t need no stinking badges” comment about the future of LBS.
- Destination CRM

Mobilize 2010

Valerie Potter recaps the one day Mobilize 2010 event. One big idea: social+LBS is a winner.
- Computerworld

PC World offers up the top five apps to watch from the event; just one, Micello, is an LBS app. It offers indoor maps for malls, airports and the like.
- PC World

GigaOm put on the event and offers lots of coverage.  Of note: one on NFC (nearfield communication) and takeaways.
- GigaOm.

GIS-Pro 2010 (URISA Conference)

Geoff Zeiss (Autodesk) recaps day of the GIS-Pro 2010 event (aka the URISA conference). He notes more attention to open source and open data discussions.
- Between the Poles Blog

Wendy Neslon (URISA Exec. Director) looks back at URISA’s GIS-Pro event.
- URISA blog

GPS Tidbits

On Sept 27 officials stated they expected that Russia’s navigation system, Glonass, will cover 100% of the Earth’s surface by the end of the year. “This year, I think, we will provide 100% coverage of the globe with the Glonass navigation system,” the head of the federal space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said.

- RIA Novisti

Uniden has unveiled a new line of in-car GPS that allow users to rent a map when going overseas. Oddly, the hardware onto which you would download the rentals is not available until October. No word on how much the map rentals cost for the upcoming Uniden iGO series.

- ChannelNews (Australia)

A working prototype of a GPS-enabled bike lock allows for bike sharing without a dedicated checkin/checkout facility. When the bike is locked up, it’s available to be shared by anyone in the sharing network. And, of course, they’ll know where to pick it up. The mechanism looks clunky, but could be smaller and sleeker.

- Crunchgear

Update: Slightly Off Topic: Consider Reading Before Retweeting

An ESRI partner, CoolApps, part of Cybertech, is also using the technique detailed below. Here are some articles by RobertWilliams.

One, GIS: The ESRI [sic] Wonder is a history of Esri, but with a link to Cybertech at the bottom. The Cybertech website is copyright 2010-2015. I was not aware you could set copyright into the future.

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