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According to a February 17th article in the Wall Street Journal:
The Pentagon's latest spending plan marks a little-noticed but important shift for the space industry, scaling back a push to use commercial satellites to supplement the military's communication and space efforts.
Yesterday I noticed that DigitalGlobe's (DGI) stock was getting creamed but couldn't find any reason why. And concurrently, GeoEye (GEOY) took it on the chin as well. Both were down yesterday, yo-yoing between 10-20%. Today both have rebounded up 6%-7%. The bad news is already out there about the defense budgets and EnhancedView programs. But, leave it to the Motley Fool, which seems to have a bead on these stocks, to get the answer.
Analysts at Wall Street firm Dougherty & Co. may have a bullish buy rating on DigitalGlobe shares, but it looks like they helped drive today's less-than-bullish action. Dougherty left the buy rating in place, but dropped its price target on DigitalGlobe's shares nearly 40%, from $38 to $23.
Land Cover Classification Competition: Join Now!
First Prize: The top ten validators will become co-authors of the paper:
Generation of a global hybrid land cover dataset.Other Prizes
• Best Classifier – highest quality with the highest number of validations: 35 Euro Voucher from Amazon
• Second best Classifier: 20 Euro Amazon Voucher
• Third best Classifier: 20 Euro Amazon Voucher
This is part of the Geo-Wiki effort. Competition ends March 30.
- via SlashGeo
Google Map Maker University Mapping Contest for the US and CanadaRegister now and start mapping February 13, 2012 through March 9, 2012!Be a part of a university mapping contest open for US and Canadian students who currently study at a university in these two countries! From February 13, 2012 to March 9, 2012, improving the maps of your campus can give you a chance to be a local hero and the highest scoring entries will win prizes like Samsung Galaxy tablets, Samsung Android phones, Google Map Maker messenger bags, and more!
Namibia
Ephraim Katjatjena, the spokesperson of the Omururu Municipality, said the town recently launched its Geographical Information System (GIS) in conjunction with the Polytechnic of Namibia and the Tavastia Vocational Training College in Finland. This places Omaruru in a leading role with regard to GIS, along with towns such as Windhoek, Rundu, Walvis Bay and Otjiwarongo.
- New Era
Pakistan
Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has approved Pakistan Space Policy and it is likely to be presented in National Assembly for its consideration and approval soon, Chairman, Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), Major General Ahmed Bilal informed business community on Thursday [Feb 9].
Space work has been slow going during the past 40 years, but some success with satellite imagery for agriculture is helping move initiatives forward.
Tunisia
At the first ever Geospatial Conference in Tunisia (GCT), held from February 9th to 10th, the consensus was loud and clear: Tunisia must revamp its cartography with the latest geospatial innovations if it wants to develop efficient industries and infrastructure projects across the country.
Fiji
The Secretariat of the Pacific community (SPC) is working with the Fiji Department of Forestry to build capacity in using very high resolution satellite images to map land and forest cover in Fiji.
The Phillippines
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) today unveiled a new website - with maps!
Another important feature of the new website is the Mobile Mapping Service, a facility for viewing the locations of health facilities and provides a visualization of various corporate data using maps. Office Locations shows the locations of PhilHealth’s Regional and Branch offices. Once the link is clicked, the Google map of the Philippines will be displayed. Overlaid on the Google map are the locations of the Regional and Branch Offices shown using the PhilHealth logo as the symbol.
Under the Health Facilities Locations, the Google map will show by default all health facilities that are already mapped. This facility will enable the site visitor to see the location of a specific health facility on the Google map and its photograph. At the same time, the PhilHealth GIS Application System (PhilGIS) can show statistical data on accreditation, claims, collections, and membership data in map forms or statistical maps. These maps are shown by regions and by provinces. (PhilHealth)
[Chicago Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom] Byrne said the blitzing now permits crews to trim 20 trees a day instead of 14.
The maps are based both on observation by city employees and by callers to the city’s 311 non-emergency line. Byrne said that in less than four months, use of the program has reduced the number of backlogged tree-trimming requests from 30,000 to 23,000, with a blitz taking place in each of the city’s 50 wards roughly twice a month.
...Byrne said it saves on manpower, fuel and mechanical wear and addresses complaints more quickly.
The app was first used to map crime, now tree trimming requests. Next up: graffitti.
2011 NAIP 1 meter, 4 band aerial photography is now available in Image Server (image.agrc.utah.gov). This imagery was acquired statewide in the summer of 2011 as a part of the National Agriculture Imagery Program and is also available for FTP download as well.
The county will now offer its global information mapping services at no cost to area school corporations.
Allen County commissioners approved a new membership agreement with Fort Wayne Community Schools today that will eliminate the fees the county normally charges for sharing mapping information, said Dave Estes, who manages the county’s GIS office.
The legislation that requires those fees has retricted the county from contributing to IndianaMap, the state's map.
- Journal Gazette (I contacted the paper about the expansion of "GIS" above)
"Investigators consider making map of arson fires" is the headline in the local paper in Kamploops, BC. They have a list of the suspicious fires. I wonder what they are waiting for?
Esri is among those noted in new project cited in a press release from the White House discussing its Global Development Policy.
• A new “app store” for development to spur humanitarian apps and software: USAID has joined forces with today’s leading technology companies to build an “app store” for development-oriented software. The platform will enable public and private technology interventions to be scaled and replicated across multiple countries, programs, and implementers while creating a marketplace of ideas and applications. This partnership will take advantage of the knowledge of “cloud computing experts” from major technology companies such as HP, Cisco, Accenture, and ESRI to increase the productivity and efficiency of USAID’s development assistance.
- fact sheet via @michael_d_gould
