All Points Blog

ESRI Keywords: Authoritative Data, Generic Services

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:08:00 -0600

Wyatt Kash, editor in chief at Government Computer News was on the questioning side of the latest interviewwith ESRI's Jack Dangermond. Dangermond highlights the differences between Google Earth-based Virtual Alabama and ESRI-based Virginia Inter...Read more

Podcast: A Hallway Conversation with Maarten Oldenhof

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:39:00 -0600

Adena Schutzberg interviewed Automotive Navigation Data (AND) CEO Maarten Odelhof about the state of commercial geodata, the licensing challenges and the role the community can play in keeping data up-to-date. This is the third in a series of intervi...Read more

Junaio: Mobile Social 3D Editable Augmented Reality App

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:02:19 -0600

Metaio Augmented Reality Solutions is behind the Junaio iPhone app which will launch soon. RWW has the preview of the app which allows users to add, edit and animate 3D objects within the phone's view of reality. Then, those photos, for example can b...Read more

iPhone augmented reality parked car finder

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:44:06 -0600

I'm thinking Car Finder will be many people's first augmented reality app purchase. For 99 cents you get an app that allows you to "save the location" of your car into your iPhone. Then, when it's time to leave the concert or mall, you pop open your ...Read more

Garmin: Sitting on Hands or Smart Like a Fox?

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 08:24:44 -0600

GPS Business News asks if Garmin is sitting on its hands after Google's announcement of free navigation for Android. Alas the article is behind a wall, but the question is a good one. (And I'm sure the analysis is, too.) But I have only public sou...Read more

Entergy Offers up Property Locator for Texas

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 07:29:05 -0600

Entergy Texas Inc. has decided to lend a hand -- and possibly attract new customers of its own -- by launching a Web site specifically designed to help companies find commercial and industrial real estate in the region. I was sure the site, Texas ...Read more

Eight Year Old Voter Assignment Error to be Explored Using GIS

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 6 Nov 2009 06:48:48 -0600

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-assign...Read more

Flash in Local Gov Websites

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:51:54 -0500

One of the projects I assign my students is a report on a Web mapping format. They detail its structure, how it's used and demo an app that uses it. The Flash implementations they've found have always been in newspapers or other publicly facing sites...Read more

Tuscany's Open Source GIS Evolves

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

Officials of the Tuscany region (Italy) have published a new version of its GIS website built on SagaDB (Sistema di Accesso Georeferenziato alle Banche Dati). The development effort began back in 2001and originally used GRASS. The latest version,...Read more

GeoEye Satellites Dodging Space Junk

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 09:43:07 -0600

Here are the stats, shared by William Schuster, the companys 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....Read more

Google and TomTom Execs Address Google Navigation for Android

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 09:36:12 -0600

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. G...Read more

NY State GIS Consultant Promotes Snowmobiling and her Business

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 07:20:15 -0600

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 Stat...Read more

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

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 09:24:15 -0600

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 t...Read more

Mark Cattini to Head OnDemand Social Media Firm Awareness, Inc

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 08:51:09 -0600

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 T...Read more

St. Joseph County Election Maps Confuse Voters

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

The maps (a series of PDFs) had shaded and non-shaded areas and dots noting voting locations. Many residents looked at the maps and ended up at the wrong location. At least one voter could not vote because by the time he was at the correct location, ...Read more

Toronto Data Sharing: The Rest of the Story

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 5 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

I saw on Twitter earlier this week that Toronto had made some of its data available for download. Torontoist attended the Toronto Innovation Showcase where the announcement was made. The report describes the data, its limitiaatons and focuses on the ...Read more

Garmin Profits Up (despite SatNav chaos)

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 07:48:50 -0600

It may be a bit hard to fathom since TomTom saw losses based on lower margins that Garmin saw profit increase on what? Higher margins! "Garmin Ltd.'s (GRMN) third-quarter profit rose 26% as improved margins more than offset a moderate decline in reve...Read more

Guinness Promo: Create your own terrain

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:06:37 -0600

The interactive bit is described this way: "Guinness has also teamed up with Google Earth to create an online world that users can help bring to life by creating their own terrain." It's an add-on to a new video advertisement that shows a team of ...Read more

More on How Google Does 3D

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 12:56:20 -0600

Martin Daly (Lost in Spatial blog) summarizes Ed Parsons latest talk (at BCS) and I grabbed these tidbits about how the 3D building data is captured. - Street View uses LIDAR to get the building shapes, for the fancy navigation, and bespoke cameras...Read more

Micro-flying UAV Maps the Halls (and other indoor, GPS restricted places)

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

Yes it comes from MIT -specifically, the Robust Robotics Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The mini buzzing quadcopter carries an array of sensors and scanners (including a camera and laser rangefinder) allowing ...Read more

Acquisition/Parntership Roundup

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:43:31 -0600

TeleCommunications Systems, a developer of text messaging location-based software, has acquired Solvern Innovations, a Baltimore company specializing in cyber security. - press release MapmyIndia, one of Indias map and GPS navigation services...Read more

Quote of the Week

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:34:42 -0600

"Satnav maps from Tele Atlas AND Navteq incorrectly show Ashdown Terrace in South Tidworth as a through road with a connection to Station road, see here when in actual fact it is a dead end." The story is from PocketGPSWorld and details how locals...Read more

Aussie Ipernica/NearMap Challenge Google/Bing Maps

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:09:07 -0600

That's how the Ipernica, which acquired NearMap last year, is describing its launch as a new media property. The technology (proprietary) sounds a lot like Pictometry (the sensor pod attaches to small aircraft and takes oblique and ortho shots, with ...Read more

Impact of Weather.com's Use of Bing Maps?

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 06:35:23 -0600

I really enjoy when tech journalists look at some new "neat" tool and get right down to the nitty gritty of "does it matter to me?" Clint Boulton did just that when reviewing the new Weather.com tool built on Bing Maps (Flash, not Sivlerlight, he's ...Read more

AT&T Sues Verizon over "Map for That" Map Ads

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 17:25:09 -0600

Reader Kevin pointed me to Engadget's detailed coverage of the complaint (including 4 updates!). The ads (and maps) show that Verizon has 5x the 3G AT&T does. AT&T doesn't dispute that - but does seem miffed that the large blank areas on it's map ...Read more

Googled Author Talks Google Maps and Google's Way of Thinking

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

Credit our publisher, Jane, with finding this interview (mp3) by Terry Gross with Googled author Ken Auletta. He examines Google's initial goals, how it turned advertising into apps (with maps), and why the company is not Microsoft. Gross doesn't ful...Read more

Cloudmade Chairman/CEO on How Google is Blowing it With Mapping Devs

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

Sadly, Juha Christensen does not identify himself as Chairman/CEO in the post on his blog. Further, he didn't identify that it was an e-mail sent to partners; I learned that from Mike Arrington at TechCrunch, who reprinted it at his request. His s...Read more

Maryland #1 in ARRA GIS Sites, But...

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 07:22:30 -0600

A Computerworld article lauds Maryland's use of GIS in reporting on the state of stimulus funding, but also notes some warts. The article notes: StateStat has the potential to show citizens the return on investment they get from get from governme...Read more

Podcast: With Geodata, Developers, not Consumers Rule

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

If consumers think of geodata as a commodity, what does that say for its future? What are the key data relationships? And what, if anything, will differentiate one offering from another? Our editors ponder these questions in light of evidence that co...Read more

Education Tidbits

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 08:10:00 -0600

There are more and more places to learn GIS! You can now take a three course series on ArcGIS from the KeyBank Tacoma Professional Development Center. After completion you receive a certificate. It's run through the Univ Washington Tacoma. It's rathe...Read more

OS Has First OpenSpacePro Client: A Tracker

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 07:39:16 -0600

OpenSpace is the Ordnance Survey's "free for non-commercial use" API. OpenSpacePro is the offering for commercial users. And, now there's an app that uses it: Locatorz offers a tracking solution for children, workers in hazardous areas and those who ...Read more

Off Topic: Teach New/Junior Marketing Folks about Copyright, Fair Use, Creative Commons...

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:01:57 -0500

It's been a stressful day. I got an e-mail from a "social media administrator" informing me that article I wrote was "added" to a website. In fact, it was reproduced in its entirety without permission. Earlier this week a colleague had to let a senio...Read more

MapQuest to get Intermap Terrain

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 07:07:00 -0600

A press release notes that Intermap "has licensed shaded terrain products which leverage the nationwide NEXTMap 3D mapping database to MapQuest, Inc. Additionally, Intermap will deliver shaded terrain products for Europe and the remainder of the worl...Read more

TeleNav to File for IPO ($75 million)

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 08:30:29 -0600

- WSJ...Read more

ABC News Tackles CDC's Brown Map

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 08:22:31 -0600

ABC News did research and concluded exactly what the CDC notes on its nearly all brown (nearly all having reported "widespread" H1N1 Swine Flu activity) map: the map doesn't reveal severity. The article goes on to detail variance in severity across t...Read more

Health and Science Tidbits

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 08:13:00 -0600

New regulations are being proposed to help respond to lead poising in the state of New Jersey, but GIS is in use, too. DCA [Department of Community Affairs]and DHSS [Department of Health and Senior Services] have created Geographic Information Syste...Read more

The Gravestone Project: Graveyard Geology for air pollution and climate change information

joe.francica@directionsmag.com (Joe Francica) — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 01:09:00 -0600

This from one of our readers: The Geological Society of America (GSA) is using cemetery data to serve as global climate monitors. To participate all you need is a GPS and a micrometer to measure weathering. This 2 year project should help create a ...Read more

National Map Elevation and Imagery Funding Available

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:56:08 -0500

USGS has 15 discretionary grant opportunities to collect and process imagery and elevation maps to be included as part of the National Map. The funds are part of the Stimulus aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Awards run up to...Read more

NEURISA Tackles "Making Integrated Information More Accessible"

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0600

New England URISA is hosting a one-day event November 16, 2009 titled "Trends in Making Integrated Information More Accessible" at the Sturbridge Host Hotel, Sturbridge, MA. The agenda includes three session exploring Citystat, Document and Permit ...Read more

My Thoughts on Google Navigation Beta

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:49:10 -0500

Last I looked there some 300 news articles about Google announcement yesterday of the beta of Google Navigation for the Android (and perhaps other) platforms. Stocks of PND players like TomTom and Garmin were down (though there were other reasons for...Read more

"AmericaView" Bill Passes House

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:56:05 -0500

The House passed the bill (2489, "To authorize a national cooperative geospatial imagery program through the United States Geological Survey to promote use of remote sensing data.") that would provide $10 million a year for a national grant program t...Read more

Lynchburg Web GIS with All the Bells and Whistles; Another Signal of Desktop GIS' Demise?

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0500

Lynchburg, VA just updated its online GIS website. Among the new additions: the ability to document your markups, save measured lines, jump to Google StreetView or Bing's Bird's Eye views, and tools to better see the relationship between records and ...Read more

Augmented Reality Player Layar gets $1 million+ in funding

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:04:06 -0500

That's the word from VentureBeat. The company boasts 250,000 downloads and acknowledges all the funders in the current round are from Europe. Also: the app launched on Symbian....Read more

OSM in Uganda

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:36:29 -0500

Just yesterday I noted AfricaGIS was held in the capital of Uganda, Kampala. Google had quite a presence in part because of new efforts to map the country. Today, there's word that OpenStreetMap is also active in country as part of a DevelopmentSeed ...Read more

Podcast: A Hallway Conversation with Philip O'Doherty, CEO, eSpatial

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:44:00 -0500

Adena Schutzberg interviewed eSpatial CEO Philip O'Doherty about Web GIS, its implementation challenges, editing capabilities ("CAD-lite") and future. This is the second in a series of interviews with geospatial insiders and outsiders. Subscribe ...Read more

Dangermond on Data Sharing at NASCIO

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:27:28 -0500

An article at CRN highlights what some industry leaders consider the most disruptive technologies today, during the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) conference in Austin, Texas. Among them: virtualization (if you don't know what that is, t...Read more

MapQuest Updates Look and Feel

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:44:01 -0500

After all the myriad announcements from Google about its changes to maps and mapping apps, it's nice to see MapQuest update its look and feel. Sources tell me the company behind the new look is Cartifact, who did a similar update for Yahoo! in 2007. ...Read more

Quote of the Week

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:02:22 -0500

"27 members of Googles staff and around 200 people from around the world and Africa (Ive heard conflicting reports of higher numbers) descended upon the capital city of Uganda for a technology conference dedicated to the topic of geospatial data an...Read more

Update: Google Maps News RoundUp

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:30:00 -0500

The non-news turned out to be true: Google announced a nav app (with voice, for free) for Android today. ...Read more
Continue reading "Update: Google Maps News RoundUp"

Stalqer: Foursquare running in the background

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:11:29 -0500

One of the big issues with location-based apps for the iPhone is that the operating system does not allow background processing. That makes playing Foursquare or other LBS apps and games a bit trying. Stalqer ("stalker?") has found a way around t...Read more