Skobbler Ends Development on Android and other OpenStreetMap News

Skobbler [which uses OSM] has announced its decision to withdraw from the Android Market.

Their free GPS Navigation app has been a big hit on the iOS platform with over 1.5million users worldwide. Skobbler cite the success of Google's free Navigation app on Android as one of the reasons for their decision not to pursue development on that platform.

- Pocket GPS World

- Skobbler Blog

- press release

The New Haven Register ran an article tiled "Mapmaking enthusiast celebrated by Google for contributions." It profiles Map Maker contributor and Yale University librarian, Daniel Mugaburu. Google likes his work so much it made "him an international ambassador of online cartography, flying him around the world to talk about using Google Map Maker technology." I could not read much more so I went directly to the comments where I found what I hoped I'd see:

Google Makes Map Maker Contributor from Yale an International Ambassador

The New Haven Register ran an article tiled "Mapmaking enthusiast celebrated by Google for contributions." It profiles Map Maker contributor and Yale University librarian, Daniel Mugaburu. Google likes his work so much it made "him an international ambassador of online cartography, flying him around the world to talk about using Google Map Maker technology." I could not read much more so I went directly to the comments where I found what I hoped I'd see:

Chris wrote on Feb 19, 2012 2:25 PM:

" It is fun to contribute to community maps. I prefer to contribute to OpenStreetMap, the Global Wiki map. The big differences from G Maps are that the underlying data is accessible and contributors own their work in OSM - you're working for the community not a closed company map. "

GIS Algorithm Cup and other GIS Competition News

With the goal of encouraging innovation in a fun way, ACM SIGSPATIAL is hosting an algorithm contest with winners to be announced at the ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS conference in November 2012. Contest participants will submit original computer programs to be evaluated by the contest organizers on a common dataset. The first place team will receive US$ 500 plus one NVIDIA Quadro 6000 (or similar) graphics card. Second place will receive US$ 400 plus one NVIDIA TEGRA tablet device. Third place will receive US$ 300 and one NVIDIA TEGRA tablet.

The 2012 contest will be about map matching, which is the problem of correctly matching a sequence of location measurements to roads. 

- contest page via @michael_d_gould

How about a game based learning contest? Ideas for teaching spatial literacy and/or geography would be valid!

In an effort to circulate innovative ideas about integrating electronic gaming in the classroom, the NEA Foundation, in a partnership with Microsoft U.S. Partners in Learning, is hosting a competition for the best ideas on "how interactive technology and game-based learning can improve teaching and learning," according to the Foundation's website. Game-based learning can mean anything from understanding physics through the popular Angry Birds app to delving into the structure of society in the computer game Minecraft.

The Challenge to Innovate (C2i) competition is open to educators, students, parents, or anyone who has an idea and has registered for free as a member of the U.S. Department of Education's Open Innovation Portal, which acts as a public forum for improving education. Participants post their gaming idea to the portal, and other registered members—most of whom are educators and parents—award points to the ideas they think are most innovative and helpful.

- US News

Aim: The main aim of the OneGeology Best Application competition is to demonstrate the wide range of potential applied uses and applications that the OneGeology Portal, and geological data/services that it provides, can offer for easy discoverability, access and use.

...

The registration of the applications developed for this competition will be accepted until the end of May 2012.

...

The winner of the competition will receive a free registration for the 34th International Geological Congress, Brisbane, Australia (August 2012) and will also have the opportunity to present the new innovative application during the Geoinformation Symposium/ OneGeology Session at the conference.

You must be under 35 to enter.

- website via @jeffharrison

Through their Google+ page, Google Maps announced the inaugural Map Your University competition for all students in the U.S. and Canada. Through the use of Google’s Map Maker, Google is asking current students to create detailed maps of their campuses that will be viewable on Google Maps and Google Earth. Winners of the competition will be award fun Google-y prizes such as Android tablets, phones, GPS devices, and more.

- Web Pro News

New York City kicked off voting today in its third annual BigApps competition, which rewards apps that use some of the city’s open data sets to build apps. But one of the most popular resources appears to be Foursquare, which is in use in more than half of the top apps in early voting.

- GigaOm

Nokia Announces Map Creator; Its Version of Google’s Map Maker

We’ve just launched Nokia Map Creator, a fun tool on maps.nokia.com that literally lets YOU map out your local neighbourhood! You can also use Map Creator to make small edits and additions to existing maps. The tool is super simple to use. The best thing about it is that your work will be visible to all maps.nokia.com users—immediately! Your Map Creator content will also be shared via regular map-data updates for Nokia Maps on mobile and web, after NAVTEQ validation checks.

Our initial focus with Map Creator is to get more information on previously unmapped countries including: Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Angola, Burundi, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, and Grenada. But the list of countries will continue growing over the coming months. In those parts of the world, your work will complement and help speed up the continuous work of our dedicated Nokia Maps team.

- Nokai Maps Blog via Google+

Crime Mapping in Brazil and other Crowdsourcing GIS News

WikiCrimes in Brazil, and similar initiatives in Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, provide interactive maps that people can use to anonymously report crimes, describe what happened and pinpoint the location. In this way, crime mapping identifies danger zones - crime hotspots - within a region with generally high crime rates, to enhance people's awareness, preparedness and safety. 

- Al Jazeera English

The [Utah] Legislature’s Redistricting Committee did two things Monday that critics doubted would ever happen.

First, it adopted a map proposed by an ordinary citizen — Robert Horning, a software designer living in Logan — for new state school board boundaries.

Second, it let the news media into a backroom to watch a subcommittee negotiate how to redraw Horning’s map a bit before final adoption, allowing reporters to listen to frank discussion about protection of incumbents and local school board boundaries.

- Salt Lake Tribune

Google is crowdsourcing guides to its crowdsourced mapping effort, Map Maker. (Yes, that's meta.)

Now all Map Maker users can be part of an even broader community education effort, with the help of “Map Makerpedia.”

Makerpeda lets users make additions and edits on a variety of guides, which range from 101 material on using Map Maker to in-depth guides on specialized tasks, like mapping a local university. Map Makerpedia also highlights some of the major charitable projects from Google that have been built with Map Maker, including flood and disease mapping.

- Search Engine Journal