Update: MapInfo Tackles GeoData Search with MapInfo Manager
I spoke with Global Product Manager for Location Intelligence, Jessica Krokowski to get at the gory details of the new Map Manager product:
- It evolved from interest in the public sector in Europe (there was discussion about it in Europe last year) and the U.S., as well as the telco space (with all its mergers and acquisitions and datasets). And, since PBBI is and always has been big in telcoms, the announcement at CTIA makes sense. (Oops! My bad - I think metadata is only for public agencies. Really, I think that.)
- It's designed to support worldwide geospatial metadata standards, ISO 19115/19139 which underlie both the INSPIRE and ANSI (US) requirements.
- It's a server based product that harvests metadata (into those mandated fields) from existing MapInfo data to create a catalog that supports OGC Catalog Services Web (CSW).
- It automates a lot of the data creation, but of course, much is always manual. Thus, there was a effort to make it very usable (the beta included 90 people form about a dozen countries). Users can set up templates to fill in fields that are the same across groups of datasets.
- There's a link in each record to the dataset itself. So, once you find the data of interest, you can directly use it.
- There's not really been a metadata solution (from MapInfo or Pitney Bowes or a third party).
- It's a Windows Server solution with pricing based on the number of seats of metadata creators/editors.
- It's designed to work with/have a similar look and feel to GeoSK.
More resources:
European MapInfo Manager Website
Data Sheet (Dated 2010)
--- original post 3/22/11 9 am ---
In what I'd consider an odd announcement for CTIA Pitney-Bowes announced its first data cataloging tool, MapInfo Manager. Per the press release: "The solution does not replace existing databases but instead creates metadata records for finding and accessing the correct data from the secure location in which it is already housed, ensuring both smarter version control and user-friendly search functionality. By providing this single point of truth for spatial data, organizations save costs by avoiding duplicate data collection or purchases being carried out by two different departments of the same company." How exactly it creates those metadata records or in what form is not stated (I have contacted the company.) I expect the impetus here are the EU's INSPIRE requirements around geodata rather then any U.S. initiatives (sadly).
