Tuesday, June 2. 2009

Podcast: A Geospatial Look at Data.gov

Last week the federal government launched data.gov, a data portal to enhance transparency. What's in it for geospatial practitioners and how will the new offering evolve? Our editors share their thoughts on the current offering and some possible paths forward.


Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.

Tuesday, May 26. 2009

Census Shape files to KML (and more)

This from Bruce [corrected from Brian] Ralston, Professor and Associate Head of the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee:

I have released a program called AFF Mapper. This is a Windows based package that was specifically designed for creating KML based mapping files from TIGER shapes and tables available from the Census Bureau's American FactFinder web page. While it was designed for these files, it can be used to create KML files for other shapes (that are in decimal degrees with NAD83 or WGS 84) and external attribute files. The resulting KML files can be viewed in several free mapping packages such as Google Earth and ArcGIS Explorer.

To download a copy of the program and the user manual [visit this page].

This is freeware, copy till you drop.

Tuesday, April 14. 2009

Podcast: The State of GeoData Formats

This week we look at geodata formats - what's new, what's needed, what's working and what's not. Among our topics: Google's newly announced Map Data API, the Shapefile 2.0 Manifesto, SpatiaLite and the state of KML in the wild.


Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info.

Thursday, April 2. 2009

Maine Uses Open Source and Open Standards to Deliver Imagery

Government Technology reprinted an article by Mike Smith of the Maine Office of Information technology, describing how the Maine Office of GIS (MEGIS),with the Maine Library of Geographic Information (GeoLibrary), has put together a tool using mostly open source software to prepare and deliver imagery of the state via a WMS. Among the tools: GDAL, Python, and MapServer. The goal is make any publicly available imagery available in a standard way for use in the many software clients via a webpage.

With only two municipal datasets online, the site already gets 2000-3000 hits per day. And, teh cost saving?

Earlier attempts at providing web imagery services were costing the state $110,000 per year, prohibiting the inclusion of municipal data. Using WMS and open-source software, that cost is slashed to $6,000 per year.

Thursday, March 26. 2009

Update: OneGeology-Deeper Dive into the Portal

Update: The project now has 100 countries participating. Number 100 was Burkina Faso.

- One Geology News, via Carbon Cloud

Wednesday, March 18. 2009

C|net Covers SXSWi Panel: "Using GPS and Location to Enhance Social Networking"

The big question was interoperability. Despite efforts of OGC and the recently launched OSLO, right now, "doesn't look good."

- C|net