Finland May Consolidate 336 Cities to About 70 and other International GIS News

Finland

The publication late last week by the news magazine Suomen Kuvalehti of a map proposing that the number of municipalities in Finland should be reduced from 336 to about 70 has led to a flurry of explanations, e-mails, and stonewalling.
      The map is based on a plan being drawn up by a group of civil servants set up by Minister for Public Administration and Local Government Henna Virkkunen (Nat. Coalition Party). The plan was originally to have been made public in February.

Got to ask my exactly two Finnish friends about that!

- Helsingin Sonamat

Oman

The Ministry of Education (MoE) [Oman] will launch a school web mapping project under the auspices of H E Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed bin Nassir al Shibaniyah, Minister of Education on Wednesday.

During the inauguration ceremony, a film about the project and an exhibition explaining its application will be showcased. The project is one of the important programmes to be implemented by the ministry. It aims at building a digital geographic database of all educational institutions and linking it to the ministry's web portal.

I suspect many would be jealous of how much PR is being done before the project begins.

- Zawya

Belize

TBSL, Esri's distrbutor and Esri itself hosted the second Belize GIS Conference in January.

- 7 News Belize

NH Geo Extension Specialist Gets Businesses on the Map and Other Edu GIS News

Shane Bradt, geospatial extension specialist for the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, recently presented information on how to put businesses on the digital map, giving fishermen and small businesses the opportunity to reach new clients who are increasingly tech-savvy. 

Does your university have someone like that? Should it?

- Fosters 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the selection of 43 community-based organizations to receive funding [more than $9.5M total] to promote economic growth and the selection of six rural microenterprises for loans and grants to support rural business development, create jobs and strengthen local communities.

Two include GIS training:

Kentucky

Community Action Kentucky, Inc.: $75,000 to train water and wastewater utility workers in GIS technology.

South Dakota

First Nations Oweesta Corporation: $100,000 to increase the capacity of eight Native American non-profit organizations to conduct sustainable community and economic development initiatives.

Planning and Development District III: $167,500 to train local governments to effectively utilize new GIS technologies.

- press release

Down in Belize a local GIS company is offering GIS camp/classes for kids. Here's how the local TV station understands GIS:

GIS - the abbreviation stands for Geographic Information Systems - it's a system of map-making combined with information to come up with a real time image of a place or space.

It may sound complex, but you'd be surprised to know that it's so simple even a child can do it! That's what we found when we visited a very novel summer camp at total Business solutions Limited.

The company is the Esri distributor but Esri is not mentioned in the article. How refreshing!

- Seven News