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:

Intro Video

European MapInfo Manager Website

Data Sheet (Dated 2010)

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Podcast: Any Game Changers in LBS Yet?

Many announcements related to location-based services came out of the CTIA show last week, including winners of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge. Were any truly game changing? Our editors look at the current state of LBS and what may be ahead.


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Podcast: Three LBS Events, One Takeaway: One Device for Work and Play

Editor in Chief Joe Francica ran the LBS gauntlet last week by attending NAVTEQ Connections, CTIA and the SiRF Location 2.0 Summit. The big takeaway is the power of a single device to manage one business and personal life on a single location-enabled device. In the last year, Francica explains, LBS has become part of the enterprise. He and Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg explore the changes that have come with this growth.

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Location-based Advertising: Still Nascient and a Note of Caution

At CTIA in San Francisco…

During a panel session on location-based advertising, Isaias Sudit,CEO LOC-AID Technologies cautioned that a new ad unit is needed before more adoption can occure. "I still think that mobile advertising is still nacient. My big concern is still CPC (cost per click)...and it doesn’t work very well on the mobile advertising side. There is this notion that we need to start thinking about a new ad unit that doesn’t mimic the wired world. If we don’t move on this, the only winners are going to be the big internet houses," refering to Google and Microsoft. "Mobile ad space should sit down and figure out how that ecosystems is going to work out and the location guys will help," said Sudit.

A new ad unit that isn’t CPC. Let that sink in a minute because everything we thought about in terms of internet advertising will change. I think what Sudit was suggesting was that location needs to be factored into the cost equation.

But Sam Altman, CEO of loopt, cautioned that, "Sending an SMS to a mobile device when you walk within a certain distance of a coffee shop, did not work." Altman believes that to focus on the small "mom and pop" retailers is necessary. "But they aren’t used to buying those types of ads," he warned, suggesting that much education needs to be done to secure money from a business that is more used to buying Yellow Page ads rather than mobile, location-based ads.

Darren Koenig of Tele Atlas suggested that when you are able to targeting at a defined level of location the smaller mom and pop can begin to compete.

NAVTEQ LBS Challenge Winners Announced at CTIA 2008

Jeff Mize from NAVTEQ announced the winners of the Global LBS Challenge at CTIA 2008 (Other NAVTEQ Challenges were held at the Mobile World Congress and past CTIAs; CommunicAsia (Singapore) will host an Asia/Pac LBS Challenge). Watch the replay of the awards.

Rob Taylor, Director of Forum Nokia, a group within Nokia that is responsible for promoting applications and new innovation, noted how well run the LBS Challenge is conducted. Nokia commissioned study that revealed that 6 out of 9 applications that they supported recently had a location component. N95 devices are selling incredibly well, too.

Semi-finalists:
America’s Emergency Network; Gamepark; Duzine (Sportstalk); heywhatsthat (POI data); Proxido by Holloware; Phonetag by Knowledgewhere; Taxistop by Medianet (Taxi finder); Wildlab by Mediated Spaces; POI Cruiser by SearchQuest; Spotjots by ten23 (social networking app); Trapster.com (speed trap alert system); Twipster (travelers can share vaction experiences); Urban Mapping; MizPee by Yojo; Zoom by Zoospi.

...And the Winners:
Third Runner up: America’s Emergency Network for their mobile alerts application.

Second Runner up: heywhatsthat

First Runner up: Mediated Spaces Wildlab

Grand Prize Winner: ten23 with Spotjots