Friday, October 23. 2009

Podcast: Press Conference of Vice Admiral Robert Murrett at the #GEOINT Symposium 2009

This podcast is a recording of a press conference by Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) at the GEOINT Symposium 2009 on October 21, 2009 in San Antonio. Murrett discusses the new NGA charter, the situation with aiding and supporting both domestic and military missions and other issues related to the agency's work.

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Thursday, October 22. 2009

#GEOINT Coverage Roundup II (Non-Directions Media)

Note: This post does not include coverage by Directions Media in All Points Blog or Directions Magazine.

U.S. spy chief calls for more coordination says MySanAntonio.com: "Speaking in San Antonio at a national intelligence symposium, retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair, director of national intelligence since January, said a more effective national security strategy includes all 16 members of the intelligence community on the same page."

DoD Buzz notes that "Open Source Intel Use Soars." That refers to open source intel, not software. "And the use of open source information is soaring, according to a panel here in San Antonio at the annual Geoint conference. Brian Magana, geospatial analysis branch chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that his consumption of open source data for one area of analysis he was following rocketed upwards 600 percent."

Wednesday, October 21. 2009

Liquid Galaxy: An Immersive, Multi-screen Version of Google Earth

If you had six, 42" flat screen monitors what would you do? If you are unsure, you may want to configure something like Liquid Galaxy, Google's immersive environment that takes Google Earth from impressive website application to simulation environment. Stepping in side a small booth at the GEOINT Symposium, the user is surrounded by flat screens, and a small podium mounted with the SpaceNavigator joystick from 3DConnexion. Yes, it's very cool, and everyone should have one for their game room (see below and click for larger image).

Virtual Worlds Offer #GEOINT a Different Geographic Perspective

Though the media hype has died down from virtual world’s like Second Life, the interest and research for applications in the defense and intelligence community have exploded. Tami Griffith, Science and Technology Manager for the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command has launched a contest called the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge. The objective is to encourage the development of training and analysis solutions on a virtual world platform. For the Army, virtual worlds present very low cost simulation tools. Griffith said that, “the premise is that we have not begun to explore all of the possibilities of using virtual worlds.” A Q&A with Griffith appears on the Second Life blog and you can view more on YouTube (See below).

Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, a military and intelligence consultant to such organizations as NGA, NRO, the Los Angeles Police Department, Ball Aerospace, and many others, warned that the blending of events in the real world and virtual reality is the next generation of virtual worlds. The next generation gets a little scary where events in the virtual world lead to “real world” deaths. Virtual Troops may engage in combat situations in cyberspace but the results may be real world destruction. “The technology now is very sophisticated,” said Baxter.

Update: Google Earth Portable - New Option for State and Local Government

In speaking with Dylan Lorimer, the project manager for Google Earth Enterprise, he said that the goal for the coming year is to support state and local governments. In particular, a new application called Google Earth Portable, developed by Google and looks to put a Google Earth globe in hands of those that need lots of data but who are not confined to an office environment. GE Portable does not require network connectivity and only a portion of an organization's data need be put on something as small as a thumb drive. Lorimer offered that the full Google Earth server serves tiles locally to the GE Enterprise client or via Google Maps and Google Earth APIs. [This update corrects an earlier version which had cited NT Concepts as the developer of GE Portable.]

Google's Michael Jones on Google Map's Parcel Layer

I had a short discussion with Michael Jones, Google's chief technology advocate, about the incorporation of the parcel layer in Google Maps. Jones said it was truly nothing more than improving Google's ability to provide more accurate geocoding. When I discussed the notion that it was integrated so as to increase potential ad revenue from the real estate industry, he dismissed that notion. He conveyed that real estate was a narrow audience in terms of specific searches for commercial or residential information and that was not the intent.

He also mentioned that he believed at some point the supplier of the parcel information would eventually come forward which led me to believe that it was not Google that was suppressing the information about the source.

Why is it important to know the source? I think it's simply a matter of understanding the intent that either party had by incorporating a data layer that seemed atypical for Google to do. Any more atypical than subsea terrain data? Any more atypical than displaying 3D buildings and their facades? Any more atypical than topographic data? All these data types seemed at one time the purview for applications by the GIS and CAD community but now are seen and used by millions of consumers on an atypical platform; i.e. not a GIS system, and are now being used by developers using the Google Maps API. With every new data type that Google introduces into Maps and Earth more questions arise about "what's next?" Such as the new real estate listings layer just announced today. According to Mr. Jones, "It is interesting to use the price ranges (more than $20m, say, for expensive houses, or under $20k for inexpensive ones) to create a browseable information surface of the country's housing demographics."