Open Source Data vs. Open Source Intelligence

Update: @gletham responds: “based on this panel I’m in I guess she’s meaning OS data, community sources like osm wikis flickr for geointel use”

Great, I hope folks are defining their use of open!

——original post———

I saw this tweet from @gletham: “I think open source data is extremely important to us” - Latitia Long, Director NGA #GEOINT2010

I wonder if Ms. Long was referring to open source intelligence, OSINT? Or what she means by open source data? Here’s another place that “open” term can confuse me.

Update: Neo vs. Paleo Geographers - Either way you look at it, it’s not your “father’s GIS” [#gita]

Video now available on Peter Batty’s blog.

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Vox Clamatis in Deserto…More thoughts on geospatial conferences with few attendees

As an addendum to my editorial today on GITA and those other conferences with fewer and fewer attendees, I need to point out two glaring examples from last week’s GITA conference. Two separate sessions with excellent speakers, worthy of a conference plenary session were only modestly attended. It was another indication where thoughtful effort was given to create panels where lots of "meaty" issues were discussed but few people heard them.

Vox Clamatis in Deserto…it’s such a shame.

Here we had one panel moderated by Peter Batty with Steve Coast, Andrew Turner, Ron Lake, and James Fee talking about open source data and standards. It was an animated, energetic discussion with about 50-60 people in the room. Another panel the following day included senior level managers from the DoD, FEMA, and DHS, plus Ivan DeLoatch, executive director of the FGDC, talking about how the federal government responds in the time of crisis (exhibits A&B: explosion of oil well in the Gulf and major flooding in Tennessee). Again, 50-60 people in the audience. This is almost tragic that we get such quality people in the room talking about keenly important and timely issues and only a modest attendance.

It’s to our detriment if we do not encourage the geospatial professional organizations to create a singular, multi-vendor, neutral conference where all geospatial professionals can get together to share ideas and support these kinds of presentations with more people.

PS Apologies to all fellow Dartmouth alumni…but it was just so appropriate.

What’s News from the #GITA Exhibit Floor… Here are the Crib Notes

Rolta: Biggest company doing geospatial not known in the U.S. They will make waves by integrating business intelligence with their location technology tools staring with their OnPoint product and now their acquisition of OneGIS. They are touting their GeoSpatial Fusion solutions which we profiled at last year’s ESRI UC. One of their competitive strengths is to talk the language of the business unit managers which is to implement performance management tools like key performance indicators (KPI) in a BI dashboard user interface. Could they creep into Oracle’s space? Actually, Rolta is one of the largest Oracle shops for systems integration.

Intergraph is taking on "smart grid" as a challenge to roll out new solutions to clients. With partnering agreements with Siemens and smaller companies like eMeter the company is positioning itself with key players to attack utilities investing in new sensor technology and as well as laying fiber. G/Technology is now reved to version 10.1. and In/Service is reved to 8.2.1.  Intergraph is integrating its technology with Siemens’ solutions for power system analysis.

A very cool survey application on the iPhone called Terrapad is being rolled out by Fasterre, a Montreal-based company. Primarily the tool is used for field asset data collection.

Vertical Mapping Resources was demonstrating a 3D terrain display whereby you can visualize vector data with an image backdrop. The unique aspect of their solution was that the 3D is now possible standard monitor and 3D glasses synched to the display but it is not like the old days of having huge monitors and equally huge stereo glasses to see in 3D.

Bentley Systems was showing their solutions for substation design and visualization. You can do things now in a CAD system that were just not possible just a few years ago. It’s worth seeing the video.

Critigen has come out from under their spin out by CH2M HILL and is focused on large projects for sustainability, state and local government, managed services, security, and environmental. It is also building websites for citizen awareness such as for solar potential so that people can look at their home or office building and determine solar potential. Eco-mapping is another focus area for tracking greenhouse gas emissions from transportation or waste. Many programs they are in support of getting the average citizen to understand that one person can make a difference.

Telvent is also tackling smart grid projects. They are supporting projects to help utilities reduce outages and manage the electric network.  They are pitching ways to enable customer choice by helping them lower bills and enable credible feedback to the utility. Telvent has a complete Distribution Management ( DM) system that integrates real-time weather and load forecasting as well as aggregating meter information (AMI) with a meter data management system. Telvent collects data to a master repository and integrated mapping solution.

CartoPac Field Solutions is singularly focused on field data collection. The company has released CartoPac 3.0.

And hidden far from the maddening crowd, over with the folks exhibiting in the ACSM area was a new company called Wuda Geomatics Co., Ltd., a Chinese geospatial company. According to company literature, "Wuda Geo possesses the most comprehensive first class licenses for surveying and mapping in China and was awarded the ISO9001 certificate in 2002." Apparently, over 10 years of development has gone into developing a product called "GeoStar." Will they burst onto the U.S. market anytime soon and challenge established vendors? Watch this space.

Winners of the #GITA4DM Advertising Contest from Directions [#GITA]

Here are the winners of our #GITA4DM contest

Grand Prize: eSpatial - $5000 in free advertising

2^nd Prize: Safe Software - Will receive 20% off the total of their next advertising campaign

3^rd Prize: GISBiz - Will receive a $50 Gift Certificate to Starbucks

Congratulations to the winners and stay tuned for the next 4DM contest at an upcoming conference and plan to visit our "virtual booth."