Friday, November 6. 2009

Eight Year Old Voter Assignment Error to be Explored Using GIS

The error, found only this week, seems to date back 2001, when precincts in Scott County, Iowa were drawn by hand. This was apparently the first time a voter was turned away from the expected voting location to another. 39 individuals were mis-assigned. Only one of them voted in the recent election, which may explain why it took this long for the error to pop up.

Now, the plan is to review the rest of county, to be sure there are no other errors. The good news? The process can be automated:

Voter registration details from the auditor's office will be compared with computerized address and precinct mapping from the county's geographic information system, or GIS, to determine if any other areas were assigned improperly. The computerized analysis is expected to take about two weeks.

- QC Times

Thursday, November 5. 2009

GeoEye Satellites Dodging Space Junk

Here are the stats, shared by William Schuster, the company’s chief operating officer, at the Strategic Space Symposium held Tuesday in Omaha, Nebaraska.

The company has had to move the 10-year-old Ikonos satellite seven times to avoid space junk. It's had to move GeoEye-1, in orbit just over a year four times.

Bottom line: the more fuel used to move the birds around, the shorter their productive life in space. On the other hand, getting "wacked" may put them out of commission forever.

- Space News

Google and TomTom Execs Address Google Navigation for Android

I dug this up in The Boston Globe writer Hiawatha Bray's overview of the Droid (which he says is cool, but no iPhone killer) and its free navigation app:

During a visit to Cambridge yesterday, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was unapologetic. “Google is a disruptor,’’ Schmidt said. “We would argue that this disruption has a very strong consumer benefit. . . . As long as we’re on the side of making consumers empowered, we’ll be fine.’’

TomTom spokeswoman Kaitlin Ambrogio told me her company will be fine as well. “We believe there are opportunities for all of us,’’ Ambrogio said. Indeed, TomTom might launch a hugely successful Web search company, make billions of dollars, and start giving away their maps. Pretty far-fetched, I admit. But it’s been done.

- Boston Globe

AOL's Patch - Now with OSM (not MapQuest) Maps

AOL acquired hyperlocal news site Patch in the spring. This week it swapped out the previous mapping tool, Google Maps, for an OpenStreetMap-based solution. Business Insider suggests is further evidence that AOL management is not that interested in the older properties like MapQuest.

- Business Insider

Mark Cattini to Head OnDemand Social Media Firm Awareness, Inc

Mark Cattini will take over as CEO at Awareness Inc., based in Waltham, MA. Most recently Cattini was president of marketing services at Pitney Bowes, though most in the geo industry know him as longtime president and CEO of MapInfo.

- Mass High Tech

NY State GIS Consultant Promotes Snowmobiling and her Business

Linda Rockwood owns Mohawk Valley GIS (in Herkimer, NY where my car needed attention last spring) and in concert with the local snowmobile organizations has moved the old dated, regional paper snowmobile maps online. The online app, The New York State Snowmobile Trails Interactive Map and Trip Planner, is free, but there will be a nominal charge to download the data for use in satnavs. The data includes trails and info on gas stations, restaurants, snow mobile dealers and other relevant snowmobile POIs.

While she notes three groups that the site/data target ("... the local riders who need to know if the trail routes have changed since last year... regional riders can learn about a new route or establishment... riders from all over the Northeast.), she's also doing some good local PR for her business.

The app, by the way, is built on Manifold IMS.

- Utica Observer-Dispatch