Nokia Shuts Down NAVTEQ Network for Developers

Update 1/25/12:

No word yet from request to NN4D on status request for comment.

Last Tweet from NN4D twitter account: 1/9/12

Website still up

Last post to forum 1/20/12

--- original post 1/24/12 ----

A NAVTEQer, writing at Google+ (publicly):

Well, it seems that "The Powers That Be" (Read: Nokia Location & Commerce division) decided to pull the plug on our group, the NAVTEQ Network for Developers and we were all given 2 weeks notice to shut the whole developer network down. The whole team was let go as of last Friday, from our executive VP all the way down to ...

San Diego (Open Data) App Challenge and other GIS Competition News

Mayor Sanders and the City of San Diego are challenging the software developer community to create new apps using city and partner data. They’re also inviting the public to share their ideas for innovative new apps.

Winners will receive $50,000 in cash prizes as well as promotional exposure. Prizes will be awarded for apps that enhance city services and quality of life for San Diegans, and that use the data in innovative ways. Submitted apps can run on the web, desktop computers, tablets, or smartphones. The public is encouraged to share application ideas related to energy, tourism, economic development, transportation, the environment, health and other areas.

The public will have one month to share ideas for San Diego apps they’d like to see created. Developers will have approximately three months following the challenge launch to build their submissions. A panel of distinguished judges from the tech industry, venture capital, and partner institutions will select winners, and the general public will vote to identify two “Popular Choice” winners.

The Get Outdoors Massachusetts contest is open to the public and seeks public participation in developing technologies that feature Massachusetts outdoor and natural resources. The goal of the competition is to provide software developers with data to create a mobile application for the public to use a smart phone to map to public lands, access points and other outdoor venues for outdoor recreation. The agencies will provide data about state parks, wildlife management areas, public boat ramps, agricultural tourism locations and parking locations and lists of available activities at each facility or location.

The 2012 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest is designed to investigate the potential of multi-modal/multi-temporal fusion of very high spatial resolution imagery. This year, participants will download three different sets of images (optical, SAR, and LIDAR) over the downtown of San Francisco and each participant will get to choose their own research topic to work with. Proposals should describe in detail the addressed problem, the method used, and the end result.

Site Maps Northern Ireland’s Troubles and other Education GIS News

A team of researchers at the University of Ulster’s Magee campus has created a unique online resource that sheds new light on the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’.

The £260K Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded project - called Visualising the Conflict – combines an extensive archive of information about memorials, including images, and information about deaths during the Troubles with geographical and internet technologies such as Second Life, Google Earth and Google StreetView to give an enhanced insight into the spatial dimensions of the Northern Ireland conflict.

It launched January 20th.

- press release

According to [Associate Professor Dr. Michelle] Ferrier [of the School of Communications at Elon University], media deserts are geographic or topical hotspots that lack consistent news and information sources. Ferrier, who is a local food advocate, saw the value of the USDA’s food map for mobilizing community action and uses the news as food metaphor for her research. Ferrier is working with Assistant Professor Dr. Ryan Kirk in the Department of Environmental Studies at Elon to visualize the impact of the changing media landscape using GIS mapping technologies. This spring, students in Kirk’s applied GIS class will be tackling the North Carolina media landscape to create a prototype for a national map.

- Locally Grown News

A group of kids armed with GPS devices is taking community service to a new high-tech level. In Canandaigua, the 4-H Geoseekers learn geospatial science while giving back to their community.

The group is in the process of mapping every street sign in the city of Canandaigua. That’s because the Federal Highway Administration has mandated that every city have an inventory of its street signs.

- MPNNow

Sacramento Green Map and other Government GIS News

...a new website that showcases Sacramento County’s green strategies, achievements and helpful information. The website – Green Sacramento County – features an interactive map to pinpoint green activity and provides constituents with green news, tips and resources.

You can choose different base maps including Google and Esri streets.

- Sacremento Press

The board [Coweta County, GA] approved an agreement with TomTom North America for GIS data. The county has agreed to provide the GIS data to the GPS and mapping companies for free in order to help speed the updates reflecting the new names of Walt Sanders Memorial Drive (International Park) and Walt Sanders Memorial Court (Enterprise Court).

- Times Herald

In 2011, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) launched the National Broadband Map (NBM), a tool local governments can use to determine the level broadband access in their communities. Join [National League of Cities] NLC and NTIA on January 25 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time for a webinar, entitled The National Broadband Map: An Economic Development Tool for Cities which will show how cities can use this tool and provide feedback so it can be further enhanced to suit their needs.

- NLC.org

[Ottawa/Carleton] OC Transpo [Ontario, CA] should open its bus-location data to outside programmers the same day it launches its own application to tell riders when their buses are due, says Councillor Stephen Blais, and he intends to present a motion to the city's transit commission at its next meeting on Thursday to force the company to do it.

- Ottawa Citizen

New Geo APIs - 1/24/12

China Historical GIS API: The service maintains a geographic information database of historical information related to placenames in China. The placenames are cross-referenced by spelling variants comprising 250,000 or more records referring to more than 175,000 locations, including 50,000 places significant in Chinese history. Information provided documents historical events linked to the places specified.

API methods support queries against the same database accessed by search tools on the CHGIS website. Queries can specify placenames as romanized ASCII strings of UTF-8 encoded Chinese characters (either simplified or complex glyphs). Responses can be limited for particular date ranges, if desired.

CartoDB API: CartoDB is a geospatial database on the cloud. CartoDB allows users to make their data geolocal and map the data, as well as import geospatial datasets to create location-aware applications.

The CartoDB API allows developers to access and integrate the functionality of CartoDB with other applications and to create other applications. CartoDB offers a SQL API, as well as tile maps API. Example API methods include creating maps, performing queries of geospatial data, and rendering maps.

GeoGratis API: GeoGratis is an online platform that holds geospatial data, maps, documents, and other geographic resources from Canada.

The GeoGratis API allows developers to access and integrate the data and functionality of GeoGratis with other applications and to make other applications. Some example API methods include searching maps, retrieving maps, and retrieving geospatial data.

EPA Station API: The EPA Station API provides information for all monitoring locations within a user-determined geographic bounding box. The API allows users to quickly pull station locations for mapping, return station counts for a given geographic area, or obtain detailed station information.

Jotly API: Jotly is an application that allows users to rate everything. Users of Jotly can rate photos, places, and view other Jotly users that are nearby with a map view. Originally, Jotly was a parody of all of the rating apps out there, but then they actually developed the application.

The Jotly API allows developers to access and integrate the functionality of Jotly with other applications and to create other applications. Some example API methods include retrieving user information, signing up for Jotly, and accessing lists of "Jots."

- Programmable Web