Planet Geospatial

The ENTCHEV GIS Blog: “Open Source Mapping in Windows” blog post causes a stir

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:29:08 +0000

As it should.

If you are a geek, or a geek-wannabe, you quickly learn to deride Windows and to avoid Microsoft products whenever possible. You run Ubuntu, or – if you are less adventurous than affluent – the Mac OS. If your applications only run on Windows, you are quick to point this out as the reason for your operating system of choice, lest you get ridiculed. If you are a die-hard Mac fan, you run Parallels Desktop.

The first geek commandment says: “Thou shalt despise Windows.” Yet the Windows caravan moves on, largely ignored by the open source community, as if ignoring Windows could make it go away.

But things have changed.

In her widely retweeted blog post, Sophia Parafina describes her experience with a set of open source mapping tools for Windows – QGIS, Postgres/PostGIS and TileMill. The confluence of a bunch of open source mapping tools for Windows is hailed as a game changer, and this is not an exaggeration. Open source web mapping, just until very recently the province of the hard-core geogeek, has suddenly come within reach of someone who doesn’t want to run multiple operating systems.

Sophia promises more articles. I can’t wait.

AnyGeo: Location-Aware Instagram-Like Photo Sharing For Dog Lovers With Dogsly

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:18:52 +0000

Ok, if you know or have followed me then you likely know that there’s 3 things that I’m really passionate about… mobile technology, photography, and dogs, specifically, my best friends Zoe and Nash! Over the years I’ve likely photographed them hundreds of times (see this Flickr set for a small sampling) and shared their pics [...]

Spatially Adjusted: Sophia Parafina — Open Source Mapping in Windows

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:41:38 +0000

The real game changer is the release of TileMill for Windows.

She’s right, lots of great new options for Windows users. As Brian Timoney says:

PSA for GIS grads: the industry is already full-up with folks with no Python, no Javascript & marginal database skills—
Brian Timoney (@briantimoney) February 03, 2012

Those are universal skills no matter if you are on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. Cross platform apps gives you the ability to use your skills everywhere, rather than scripting VBA Microsoft Access “databases”.

Fuzzy Tolerance: GeoPortal v2.4 is Out

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:05:00 +0000

This is primarily a styling release to catch up the open source project with some changes I made to Mecklenburg County’s site. There are some code tweaks here and there.

You can download it here. Enjoy, and if you have any ideas or patches please send them my way.

Esri: ArcGIS for Server Blog: Esri picture marker symbol generator for JavaScript developers

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:01:00 +0000

The ArcGIS.com map viewer provides a nice collection of picture marker symbols that can be used to symbolize features on your map. If you're a developer, you might wonder how you can use these symbols in your applications. You could potentially use tools like Firebug or Chrome Developer tools to inspect ArcGIS.com and discover the image URL, but to make things easier, we've created a sample that allows you to select a symbol and generate the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) needed to draw the symbol:

When using this sample, just click a symbol and copy the JSON. Then, in your JavaScript code, create a new PictureMarkerSymbol and paste the JSON in the constructor.

    var infoSymbol = new esri.symbol.PictureMarkerSymbol({
      "angle": 0,
      "xoffset": 0,
      "yoffset": 12,
      "type": "esriPMS",
      "url": "http://static.arcgis.com/images/Symbols/Basic/YellowStickpin.png",
      "contentType": "image/png",
      "width": 24,
      "height": 24
    });

The application provides two options for generating the image: You can reference the image directly through a URL, or you can embed a string representation of the image (Base64 option in the sample app includes this information). When using the latter option, the image is stored within the document instead of as an external resource, so no HTTP requests need to be made to display the image.

Some browsers, notably Internet Explorer prior to version 8, do not support using Base64 data URIs. In these cases, the image URL is used instead.The snippets from the utility above always include a URL in case one is needed.

Contributed by Kelly Hutchins of the ArcGIS API for JavaScript development team

Thining in GIS: Python for geospatial developers

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:15:00 +0000

There is a recurring question at GIS mailing lists, forum and at some extent in my mailbox: what is the best way to master Python for developing geospatial applications?I myself had this question far away in 2006 when I started switching from proprietarysoftware to Open Source, and had identified in Python the way to go.In this post I will try to quickly summarize what is the best way to go in my opinion.If you are completely new to Python, first things to check out, are some very basic and popular resources, like these ones:the official Python tutorialthe "Dive into Python...

got geoint?: Friday’s Food for Thought: Yes, the Community Does Have Talent

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:20:04 +0000

Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Though post from got geoint? This week, KippsDeSanto & Co. presented “The Community’s Got Talent,” which was an invitation-only battle of the bands to benefit The CIA Officers Memorial Foundation (CIAOMF) and The Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF). Hosted by Dan Aykroyd, the event showcased the musical talent of IC and the SOF. And, let’s just say that, the community does have talent. Most people who are very smart (i.e., members of the IC of course), tend to be multi-layered and have many diverse talents — beyond what they do to protect our nation. So, the theme of this week’s FFFT post is all about the concept of being multi-talented. Speaking of talent, USGIF has just opened up its 2012 Scholarship application process. Don’t miss out on this opportunity. Happy Friday!

The Community’s Got Talent – Battle of the Bands
Last night, KippsDeSanto & Co. hosted The Community’s Got Talent, which was an invitation-only battle of the bands to benefit The CIA Officers Memorial Foundation (CIAOMF) and The Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF). Competing bands were judged by a discerning panel of internationally-recognized music critics, including Tish Long, Tom Ferguson, Ron Burgess, Charlie Holland and Scott Large. Oh, and Dan “Elwood Blues” Aykroyd and Steely Dan founding member Jeff “Skunk” Baxter performed a set of Blues Brothers songs, which was awesome! Check out more here.

Where Does Talent Come From?
Thomas Edison gave his famous formula for genius as 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Modern-day students of geniuses and prodigies, though, argue over the relative contributions of more tangible factors—of genetics, of physiology, of hours spent in training. Most believe that geniuses have special genes. Almost nobody takes the opposite stance: that prodigy performance, in any field, lies within the grasp of anyone who cares to try hard enough. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist at Florida State University, falls into the minority camp. Given ten years of deliberate practice, Dr Ericsson says, anyone should be able to attain prodigy-level performance in his discipline of choice. Check out more here.

How to Become a “Triple Threat”
Have you ever noticed that some of the most talented actors can also sing, dance, play an instrument and sometimes even paint and sculpt works of art? Yes, life is not fair. In the entertainment industry, they call these folks a “triple threat,” because they are way more than just a pretty face. Did you know there are programs that train children on how to be a “triple threat”? So, while it may be too late for you, your kids may have a shot at stardome.

Seven Most Talents Guitar Prodigies in the World
While it seems most youngsters these days are more enthralled with pop musicians than with guitar legends like B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Eric Clapton, there are still millions of young guitarists around the world taking guitar lessons and trying to learn how to play guitar. Every now and then, a prodigy emerges from the abyss of average talent on the Internet. Check out this post that features seven of the most talented guitar prodigies in the world. It will blow your mind.

Dan Aykroyd and Jeff “Skunk” Baxter 2005 USO Performance
While we are waiting with bated breath for video to appear from last night’s event, we did find this awesome clip of Dan Aykroyd and Skunk performing Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor” at a 2005 USO event in Washington DC. We hope you enjoy and stay talented!

geoMusings: DC/MD/VA Area Geo-Event Scene Getting More Active

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:08:02 +0000

There was a time only a few years ago when, if you lived in the DC/MD/VA area, planning your geo-conference schedule for the year went something like this: Register for the ESRI FedUC and then start booking plane tickets for … Continue reading →

Spatial Sustain: What will promote model-based digital realities from nice-to-have to need-to-have?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:34:56 +0000

This may be a perennial question, as certainly the rise and promise of universal 3D geovisualization keeps coming in waves that are similar to the promise of location-based services. With each wave, we all ride the crest, and perhaps a few move toward the ongoing capture and visualization of our geographies beyond just a project [...]

My Georamblings...: Thanks to Tamara & Azavea – Model My Watershed Presentation

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:17:31 +0000

I would like to say Thank You to Tamara Manik-Perlman and Azavea for taking the time last night to do a great presentation on the work they have been doing with the Stroud Water Research Center, University of Pennsylvania Cartographic Modeling Lab and Millersville University.

Tamara Manik-Perlman's Cover slide

Beyond describing the project, Tamara provided real world experience to the students about designing and working with models, gathering and cleaning data and the fact that your first choice may not be the right one and it is OK to go back to the drawing board.

For folks who might want to see another great presentation by Tamara, she presented on Day 2 of the 2012 GeoDesign Summit on Community Planning Tools.

Thank you very much to Tamara and Azavea. My students and I really appreciate you taking the time to come up and do the presentation for us.

'sproke: Game Changer: Open Source Mapping in Windows

noreply@blogger.com (sophia) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:11:48 +0000

One of the trepidations I have with teaching mapping courses using open source is that it usually requires some modicum of programming which is always way beyond the scope of any beginner class about making maps. In addition, open source tends to favor linux or unix based tool chains that require config/make/make install tap dance before starting anything. This is akin to telling folks that they will need to forge their tools before they can start building a dog house. Finally, 84% of the computers and (in my experience) 100% of the training facilities in the world run some variant of Windows, which means that people have to depend on the kindness of strangers who compile and distribute Windows binaries.

While the sheer number of mapping related programs has exploded, the learning curve has yet to flatten significantly so that the average Windows user can produce maps without sending sizable checks and bits of their soul to Redlands. Until now.

Two tools, QGIS and Postgres/PostGIS, have had windows implementations and are well on their way to being polished products with fantastic user communities that extend their capabilities. The QGIS plug-in architecture has fostered a number of repositories with plugins ranging from basic geometry manipulation to domain specific analysis. The Windows 1.7.3 Wroclaw version also includes GRASS and msys, which is a shell environment containing common unix tools such as sed and awk – mainstays in my data crunching/munging tool kit.

Postgres/PostGIS installation is also very polished thanks to EnterpriseDB's Stackbuilder installer. It simplifies PostGIS installation as well as providing ODBC drivers needed for communicating with Microsoft products. PostGIS 2.0 has not been released and is not included in the current installer, but the final release will include routing, geocoding, and many improvements that are already available in the alpha 2.0 release.

The real game changer is the release of TileMill for Windows. TileMill is a cartographic studio that uses Mapnik, which is described:

"Mapnik is about making beautiful maps. It uses the AGG library and offers world class anti-aliasing rendering with subpixel accuracy for geographic data."

That means no more jagged lines that you see on both web maps and print maps produced by commercial GIS programs. TileMill uses MSS (Map Style Sheets) to make maps; it's rather bare bones in that there is no tool to select a feature and set the line style, color, or fill in a menu. You have to create each style using MSS in a TileMill editor, fortunately TileMill syntax is simple and mirrors CSS so that designers can use it. Calling TileMill a cartographic studio is a stretch. For example, it lacks tools for automatically symbolizing categorical or continuous variables, or include a basic set of cartographic markers. What it does do very well is produce beautiful maps. Labeling is generally well done in terms of distribution, collision avoidance, and kerning along curves. Output formats include png, svg, pdf and mbtiles, which is a compact tile format that is gaining traction especially for mobile devices.

Red dot fever is a meme that won't die*

The lack of a really good cartographic tool has been the achilles heel for the adoption open source mapping, but TileMill plugs that deficiency. Windows users, henceforth known as the 84%, can now store and manipulate geospatial data in PostGIS, analyze and modify the data in QGIS, and publish it using TileMill.

This is an introduction to series of articles on using open source mapping software in Windows. The next install will cover installation, finding data, and loading it into PostGIS.

*Yes, that's an OSX screenshot, that's what happens when I stay up past my bedtime. On second thought, let's just say I'm lazy.

Google Earth Blog: Improved imagery of the Google Earth seafloor

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:46:28 +0000

To celebrate the three year anniversary of the release of the 3D Ocean in Google Earth, they've just released a major update to their bathymetry (underwater terrain) and it looks great!

Similar to their recent update "Pretty Earth" update, this one does quite a lot to help clean up stray artifacts and images visible in the ocean. A great example of that is Guam, seen here alongside the Marianas Trench, the deepest trench in the world:

Another noteworthy change is that "Atlantis" is now gone. A few years ago some people thought they had found the lost city of Atlantis, but it turned out to simply be sonar tracks from a ship. While that was a reasonable and accurate explanation, the sonar tracks were still pretty ugly on the surface of the ocean. They're now cleaned up as part of this update and the area looks as clear as it should:

To see more of what's changed, Google has created this short video to give you a tour:

Combined with the new patchless imagery, the earth is suddenly looking remarkably better all the way around. For more, check out this entry in the Google Lat Long Blog.

Vector One: Geospatial Project Controllers: Borrowed Music Interface Ideas for GIS Projects

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:21:46 +0000

Yesterday I wrote about the idea that some of the iPad Apps being developed for music instruments such as synthesizers, sequencers, mixing boards, wave shapers etc., use new approaches for handling complex sound data that lends them to possible geospatial data use. Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) was developed a long time ago, coming into [...]

From High Above: Aerial photogrammetric surveys to support emergency and disaster management in Australia

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:57:51 +0000

Australia experiences each year a range of natural disasters including floods, bushfires, server storms, landslides and earthquakes. Queensland and New South Wales have experienced an increasing number of flood events in the past few years. Both populated areas along the coast as well as isolated rural towns have been hit hard and emergency services have [...]

Spatial Law and Policy: The Spatial Law and Policy Update (February 2, 2012)

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:38:33 +0000

Raising Awareness of Where Geospatial Technology Is Taking the Law

Privacy

EU Data Rules Worse Than SOPA? (Information Week)

Personal use of GPS trackers growing fast Read more here (The News Tribune)

Why privacy policies don't work - and what might Read more (San Francisco Chronicle)

Legislating Privacy After US v Jones (Communia)

The Upside And Downside Of Privacy On The Web (New Tech Post)

What EU Data Privacy Proposal Means For Business (Information Week)

[DISCUSSION DRAFT] 112TH CONGRESS To require disclosures to consumers regarding the capability of software to monitor mobile telephone usage, to require the express consent of the consumer prior to monitoring, and for other purposes (Markey/U.S. House of Representatives)

Intellectual Property Rights

Copying Is Not Stealing (Slate)

Megaupload: A Lot Less Guilty Than You Think (Stanford Law School)

Insane English copyright ruling creates ownership in the idea of a photo's composition (boingboing)

New license for crowdsourced geospatial data adopted by OpenStreetMap (Between the Poles)

National Security/Law Enforcement

Philippines studying U.S. offer to deploy spy planes (Reuters)

GNSS

FAA gearing up for GPS policing (Flightglobal)

LIghtSquared Update - FCC Requests Comments on LS Request for Decision - 1/30/12 (Directions Magazine)

Data Quality

Spatial Precision - What's it all about? (Mapcite)

Remote Sensing

Pentagon To Trim Commercial Imagery Spending (Space News)

Spatial Data Infrastructures

Is open data under threat? (Information Age)

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Cars communicating to avoid collisions? NHTSA said time is now (Detroit Free Press)

Ride Sharing on the Rise in Germany, New Tech to Fuel Growth (GPS Business News)

UAVs

Drones for Human Rights (The New York Times)

NATO Will Buy Its First Spy Drones, Eventually (Wired)

U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies Provoke Outrage in Iraq (The New York Times)

Miscellaneous

Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda EU Data protection reform and Cloud Computing “Fuelling the European Economy” event, Microsoft Executive Briefing Centre Brussels, 30 January 2012 (Europa)

U.S. may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected (The Los Angeles Times)

Digital mapping and governance: the stories behind the maps (Wait...What?)

The Coming Tech-led Boom (The Wall Street Journal)

France Finds Google Maps Is Unfair Competition (Mashable)

VerySpatial: Video games continue to build on spatial data

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:12:43 +0000

As I have said before, fan of geo and fan of games, so when they come together it is better than the sum of the parts. The (long awaited) next installment in the SSX series will bring together one of my favorite franchises with real world elevation models. This preview video released by the creators talks a little bit about how they are doing this. We will let you know more after we get our hands on the game when it comes out on February 28th.

Slashgeo.org: FOSSGIS Brasil Magazine #4

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:20:53 +0000

We are very proud to announce the release of the 4th edition of FOSSGIS Brasil Magazine.

In this 2012 1st issue, the cover section addresses Medatada theme, which deserves special attention of any professional who works with geospatial data.

This 4th edition of FOSSGIS Brasil was built with the effort of the GIS community, including international contributions. Consering this, be sure to check the interview with Jeroen Ticheler, founder and CEO at Geonetwork project, and also the text written for three of the most important contributors of the gvSIG association, talking about the new development model for the project of the robust gvSIG GIS suite.

This year, greatest desire for us at FOSSGIS Brasil team is to continue doing what we have been doing in 2011: To georreference knownledgment

Link to download: http://bit.ly/zFKS3b

Sincerely,
The FOSSGIS Brasil team
http://www.fossgisbrasil.com.br

AnyGeo: Rugged, Compact AW100 Camera by Nikon, Maps by NAVTEQ – nice! #IcanHaz

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:17:34 +0000

Building on my post the other day that applauded Nikon for integrating GPS into their new S series of devices, now NAVTEQ is touting that they are the map provider for the very sweet Nikon COOLPIX AW Series of Digital Cameras. The AW100 is rugged, waterproof, shock resistant, GPS enabled and get this, allows geo-tagged [...]

LiDAR News: Leica CloudWorx for Revit

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:01:00 +0000

As the Revit users know there have been a number of software products released over the past couple of years that were aimed at linking BIM with point clouds Continue reading →

Click Title to Continue Reading...

Vector One: iPad Music – Synthesizer Apps: Design Possibilities for Geospatial Apps?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:57:27 +0000

For a long time I have played guitar and have a few around my office. Although I left my synthesizers behind a while ago, I recently ventured into Apple iPad Apps – for music. My interest was to link my keyboard controller to some of the synthesizer and other music apps such as these, these [...]

AnyGeo: CoreLogic Paints a A Picture Of 2011 Home Price Changes in the USA

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:10:34 +0000

Some interesting stats from CoreLogic as they share some amazing stats on housing from 2011 – according to their data, overall, prices fell by 4.7 percent nationally in 2011. The CoreLogic HPI shows that, including distressed sales, home prices in the U.S. decreased 4.7 percent in 2011 compared with December 2010. This year-end report shows [...]

GeoIQ Blog: Tech@State Panel – Realtime Awareness

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:46:45 +0000

Tomorrow is the next Tech@State focusing on Realtime Awareness. In the afternoon I’m charing a panel on “Conveying Real-time Information”. You can still sign up for the conference tomorrow as well as the Unconference on Saturday.

Real-Time Awareness will focus on how to use the vast amount of data generated by social media and other internet technologies to deliver real-time awareness. Specifically, we will be examining the range of challenges that exist when trying to create real-time awareness, especially in the context of breaking news or events, crisis response and citizen engagement. We’ll discuss questions like: Which data feeds are the most reliable? What is the best way to filter the data? How should the data be analyzed? What’s the best way to convey the information to the user? What do citizens expect when they use social media to communicate with governments?

In our panel, we’ll be discussing the various issues and possibilities to visualize and utilize real-time information. Social media feeds, traffic cameras, mobile devices, satellite sensor feeds, crowd-sourced data, and more are quickly becoming valuable sources of information but the capability to quickly and effectively harness them are an open question.

My fellow panelist are Nancy Choi from Development Gateway, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin from The Stream Al Jazeera, Chris Damsen from NetVibes, and Paul Shinkman from WTOP. It should be a fascinating conversation!

GIS Lounge: Google Maps Loses Unfair Competition Lawsuit in France

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:55:05 +0000

A French court has determined that Google has abused its position with its Google Maps application by engaging in unfair competition practices. The lawsuit was brought in 2010 by French company, Bottin Cartographes, which lodged a complaint against Google France claiming that by providing free mapping services to some companies, it was undercutting competition. Bottin Cartographes [...]

Brain Off: Only Possible With Open Data

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:49:34 +0000

Arguments about the importance of Open Data often come down to a principled stance, or a licensing discussion … that kind of argument doesn’t make much impression on folks who aren’t way in the weeds. And it’s more than just licensing … there are equal parts issues of legality, technical freedom, and community. Clear examples of what you can do only with OpenStreetMap, and not with say, Google Map Maker, makes this stuff real. Here are just a few, among many.

Mapping of Jalabad and surrounding countryside is unique to OSM. They collect data with GPS and Smart Phones and Walking Papers. With GMM, you can only trace imagery on your laptop computer. With OSM you can go into the field to actually talk with people about what to put on the map. Afghanistan is not an option at all on MapMaker, for political reasons. And the Jalalagood guys are organized as a company, but do mapping largely in their free time, voluntarily … so they get nixed for being “commercial”.

Great video on Jalalagood and a detailed mapping trip report.

In Haiti, TapTapMap maps local bus routes, free to add any sort of data in OSM. In GMM, users are not allowed to add bus routes, only Google does that, and only by getting data from transit agencies. Haiti’s system, like many places in the developing world, does not have a single authority which maps and controls the routes. You can only get these routes by riding with your GPS.

Another project that certainly couldn’t happen without Open Data. This is a Tourist Map of the Gaza Strip. Produced by a spin-off company from a university that took part in OpenStreetMap mapping in Gaza. This is not an area that can even be mapped in Google because of a political decision, it’s mostly blank on the map. While the map is free, it’s produced by a commercial entity and contains ads for local restaurants, hotels and sites.

In the Phillippines, recent humanitarian response to flooding relied on open source tools to process and make available satellite imagery to create OSM data. The GMM toolset would not permit integration of any other data sources except those controlled by Google. So it would stifle local ability to respond to disasters that don’t make huge media splashes (G Crisis Response has not been active at all in the Philippines).

Slashgeo.org: SpatiaLite 3.0 Released with Excel Spreadsheets Support

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:25:43 +0000

I failed to find much information about it, but SpatiaLite, the geospatial version of SQLite, reached version 3.0 about a month ago. Anyone knows where to find release notes? I find also funny that on SpatiaLite homepage, it is clearly stated that spatial is not special! :-) Yes, I'll share a followup to my previous entry on the topic (thanks for your feedback!).

On the SpatiaLite topic, here's a blog entry named Spatialite and Excel on talking terms: "The recent stable version of Spatialite, 3.0, supports linking to and importing Excel spreadsheet tables. Read on to see how it’s done. The developers of spatialite have added a driver for *.xls files (thru the FreeXL library ). You can either link to, or import a single sheet from an Excel file [...]"

Spatially Adjusted: France Says Google Maps is Guilty of Being a Free Resource

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:13:36 +0000

You got to love France.

A French commercial court has found Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.
In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.
The court ordered Google to pay 500,000 euros ($660,000) in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a 15,000 euro fine.

Bottin Cartographes’ webpage is sparse on what actually they do that people want. Rule number one of failing, sue the rich competitor when your own stuff falls flat. Clearly Europe has it’s eye on Google and I suspect we’ll see many more of these “judgements”. And god forbid, don’t let Bottin find out about OpenStreetMap. They dump just about anything on the market for free.

The French Judge in the case was quick to "pass" on the ruling.

Esri Insider: Changing the Way We Teach and Learn GIS

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:50:00 +0000

Mobile computing, social media, “the cloud”, and other technology trends are not only changing the way we use GIS; they’re also changing the way we teach and learn GIS. Just how are these changes affecting education? I recently spoke with David DiBiase, Director of Education at Esri, about the opportunities and challenges ahead. [Note: This is the first half of the interview; the second half will be posted next week.]

What is the mission of Esri’s Education Team?

David: The overarching objective of Esri’s Education Team is to cultivate the next generation of ArcGIS users and Esri customers. Jack Dangermond established this goal when he founded the Team in 1992, and reaffirmed it at the Team’s 2011 strategic planning meeting in August. By his reckoning, the education market accounts for 40% of Esri users. We are known and admired within our market for our low-cost education licensing programs. Esri’s longstanding support for education is an example of how a business can do good while doing well.

David DiBiase

As the Education Team begins its third decade of operation, how are changes in geospatial technology changing the way GIS will be taught?

David: When Charlie Fitzpatrick and Mike Phoenix—the original Education Team members—joined Esri in 1992, it would be two years before the first automaker offered an optional GPS-based in-car navigation system, and four years before MapQuest launched the first web-based routing system for public use. Although satellite remote sensing systems like Landsat were in orbit since the 1970s, detailed map data were still mostly derived from aerial photographs captured with film cameras, and interpreted by eye by photogrammetrists. Google didn’t even exist until 1998. At Esri, the very first version of ArcView appeared in 1992. That alone gives you an idea of how far the technology has come.

Like information technology in general, geospatial technology has become both more sophisticated and more heterogeneous over the past 20 years. ArcView was a breakthrough desktop technology. Now the ArcGIS system includes server, mobile, and cloud applications, as well as countless custom applications “mashed-up” by combining Esri tools with others. Open source software and crowd-sourced data provide viable complements to commercial software and government data products in certain circumstances. And consumer-oriented mapping tools like Google Maps have greatly expanded public access to interactive maps and mapping. All of this progress and diversity, which a recent public media project dubbed “the geospatial revolution,” has made it both easier and harder to teach with and about GIS. Easier because the tools are better and more accessible; harder because the diversity and rapid evolution of the tools makes it harder for educators to keep up.

Would you say that GIS has been an easy tool for educators to adopt?

David: No. In his PhD dissertation research, Esri colleague Joseph Kerski found that GIS was used in only about 1% of U.S. high schools. Joseph went on to co-edit a book that profiles the use of GIS in education in 33 countries around the world. Some of those countries include geography and GIS in their national curriculum standards. However, except for pockets of activity led by inspired innovators, GIS remains a fugitive technology in most secondary education worldwide. The reasons for that unfortunate trend include inadequate infrastructure (for example, many classrooms in developing countries lack dependable access to electricity, let alone Internet), lack of training opportunities for teachers, and the persistently inadequate awareness among policy makers and parents about the value of spatial thinking. The Esri Education Team continues to work hard to make a difference in spite of these obstacles. We now have statewide site licenses in place in 15 U.S. states, with 10 more likely to be finalized in the coming year. Expanding access to real GIS software is one obstacle we can do something about.

Higher education is a different story. Colleges and universities embraced GIS education relatively early on, in part because of the career opportunities that it affords students, and because geography—the traditional home of GIS teaching and research—has a somewhat higher profile in higher education. We recently found that approximately 85% of the top 400 universities worldwide (ranked by the Times of London) are Esri software users. All told, Esri software is in use at about 7,000 colleges and universities, including 98% of U.S. institutions with enrollments greater than 10,000 students. A few years ago, Mike Phoenix estimated that approximately 150,000 college and university students worldwide enroll in GIS-related courses each year. That number is probably quite a bit higher today.

Mike Phoenix

How much of this is about GIS or other geospatial technologies, vs. the more basic goal of teaching spatial thinking skills?

David: ArcGIS desktop and server products have long been indispensable tools for GIS professionals. Learning these tools continues to be an essential part of the education of future GIS professionals. This is a big and important job; the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that about 100,000 additional GIS professionals will be needed in the next ten years in the U.S. alone. However, that leaves many millions of other learners who would benefit from the geographic awareness and spatial thinking skills that GIS fosters.

As the National Research Council report Learning to Think Spatially points out, our professional-grade tools are not particularly well suited to teaching and learning with, as opposed to about, GIS. Fortunately, the next generation of Esri technology—including ArcGIS Online, Esri Community Analyst, and other products—has the potential to be a game-changer for education. For instance, I recently met a professor who teaches public health at the University of Minnesota. He explained that he had long wanted to expose his students to the power of location intelligence. However, his students aren’t free to add an additional prerequisite course to learn how to use GIS. Once he saw Esri Community Analyst, he began to rethink the viability of GIS in his classes.

How does “the cloud” affect the way we teach GIS?

David: The cloud-based ArcGIS Online platform offers several advantages for the education enterprise. First, it lowers barrier to adoption by educators and administrators for whom even our deeply discounted educational site licenses are more than they can afford. By reducing the need for computer labs loaded with desktop software, ArcGIS Online greatly reduces the burden for IT administrators.

Second, the Esri cloud provides a gallery of authoritative basemaps that students can use for free, not to mention the rapidly growing collection of maps and apps contributed by ArcGIS users worldwide. This rich collection of shared map resources directly supports the active, inquiry-based learning methods that leading educators and researchers advocate.

Third, because it is accessible anywhere they can connect to the Internet, cloud-based GIS frees students to learn wherever they happen to be. This is a benefit for the increasing proportion of students—particularly adult students—who need to continue their education from home or work via hybrid or fully online courses and programs.

Finally, for institutions, school districts, and states that already maintain educational site licenses, Esri will soon offer access to ArcGIS Online for Organizations subscriptions at no extra cost. This cloud-based platform will extend the capabilities of the public version of ArcGIS Online. Of particular interest to educators will be the ability to customize the platform’s look and feel to conform to institution’s visual identity, as well as to create and manage student accounts and publishing privileges. For many institutions, ArcGIS Online for Organizations subscriptions will become an enterprise geospatial content management system.

I’ll be posting the second half of my interview with David next week, so be sure to check back!

By Matt Artz

Slashgeo.org: French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:29:34 +0000

Slashdot runs a discussion named French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition.

Their summary: "A French court has ruled that Google is unfairly subsidizing its free mapping products, making for unfair competition with paid services. This might seem ridiculous, but keep in mind that Google started charging for use of its mapping API once the free version had come to dominate the market."

We of course mentioned last October that Google decided to enforce usage limits for the Google Maps API.

AnyGeo: Salary Survey of GIS / Geo Tech Professionals

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:22:43 +0000

I think we can all agree that we live in challenging economic times to say the least! As GIS professionals we are subject to the same budget cutbacks, restrictions, and decreased revenue sources as everyone else. Read on for a look at that state of the GIS Professionals’ Salary in these findings from 2011 – [...]

All Points Blog: EnhancedView Could Take $50 Million Hit - Aviation Week

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:38:57 +0000

Aviation Week is reporting that the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) may be forced to renegotiate the EnhanceView contract with GeoEye and DigitalGlobe due to an expected $50 Million cut to the agency's 2012 fiscal year budget with the prospect of more cuts in fiscal 2013.... Continue reading

The GEO-Jobe Blog: Maps From the Past: 2003 Generic Names for Soft Drinks Map by County

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:34:34 +0000

This map was created by Matthew T. Campbell from the Department of Cartography and Geography East Central University (Oklahoma). The map was based on 120,464 respondents who were asked what they called “soft drinks.” – Pop, Coke, Soda, Other. I wonder what “Other” is…. Also, Alaska is very interesting… leave a reply and let us know what you call soft drinks today!…

Click to Enlarge

Bing Maps Blog: Super Imagery for Super Bowl 2012!

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

If you love football (or great commercials…or parties with lots of snacks), you’re probably looking forward to Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, Indiana happening this Sunday. If you’re taking a trip to Indiana to see the big game in person, or if you’re planning to experience it all from the comfort of your couch, let Bing Maps be your insider’s guide. Our incredible aerial imagery and Bird’s Eye perspective allow you to enjoy unique, beautiful, and interactive pictures of Lucas Oil Stadium and all the best sights and attractions that make Indianapolis “the crossroads of America!” Check it out!

The Main Event

On February 5, all eyes will be on Lucas Oil Stadium, where ticketholders will be soaking in the exciting atmosphere during the game. The stadium, which opened in 2008, boasts the largest retractable roof in the NFL, covers 1.8 million square feet, and was named the 2009 Sports Facility of the Year by Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal. You can read more about the stadium here.

Also, check out these before and after aerial images of the construction process. Big improvement, don’t you think?

January 27 – February 5, visitors can enjoy the NFL Experience—an interactive theme park all about pro football—hosted at the Indiana Convention Center. Between the NFL Experience and Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Georgia Street will be transformed into Super Bowl Village (a.k.a. “The Epicenter of Awesome”). These three blocks will be packed with interactive games, restaurants, bars, concerts, live attractions, and four ziplines overhead! Learn more at www.indianapolissuperbowl.com.

Georgia Street, Bird's Eye perspective

New in Town?

Bing Maps offers helpful tools and information for visitors to Indianapolis, and also for those who simply want to know more about the city.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art holds a collection of over 50,000 pieces of art spanning 5,000 years and representing the whole world.

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Aerial view

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Bird's Eye perspective

It sits adjacent to the breathtaking 100 Acres Art and Nature Park. Best of all, the museum is FREE!

For those more interested in fashion than football, check out the Material World Exhibit, featuring “the extravagant ornamentation of textiles and personal adornment from cultures around the world, highlighting the significance of textiles in displaying wealth, status, and power.” This exhibit is open through Sunday, February 5.

Perhaps the city’s most infamous attraction, don’t miss the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indy 500. This incredible facility is offering special hours of operation during Super Bowl XLVI for tours, boasting one of the most highly visible collections in the world devoted to automobiles and auto racing. More information is available here. Enjoy several tour options of the famous 2.5 mile oval in person, or check out this image:

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Bird's Eye perspective

Traveling with kids? The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is a must-see. Come explore all five floors of the largest Children’s Museum in the WORLD! Yes…the whole world. Exhibits cover science, culture, history, and the arts…and there are some frighteningly realistic dinosaurs that look like they’re roaming the grounds, looking for fun!

Children's Museum, Aerial view

Children's Museum, Bird's Eye view

If you haven’t had enough museums, you’re in luck…there are MORE! Three of Indiana’s best are all lined up in a row, for your viewing pleasure. In one visit (or click of the mouse, for those following along at home!), you can see the Indiana State Museum, the NCAA Hall of Champions, and the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art.

Three Museums, Bird's Eye

For many of you, a day of shopping will ALWAYS sound more fun than a day of football. The Cultural Trail of Indianapolis is a walking/biking trails that connects all five of the downtown Cultural Districts in the city, including Fountain Square, Indiana Avenue, Mass Avenue, The Canal and White River State Park, and the Wholesale District. Each district offers fun shops, great restaurants, and lovely galleries to explore.

Find more info here: http://www.indyculturaltrail.org/

The Cultural Trail, Bird's Eye view

The Canal Walk, Bird's Eye

For those history buffs, check out the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.

This towering structure is hard to miss, and is situated very close to Super Bowl Village. At 284 feet tall, the monument stands in memory of the thousands of Indianapolis residents who lost their lives in the Civil War. Visitors can see the city from the glass-enclosed observatory up top, or check out the historical displays about the Civil War in the basement.

If you want to brave the winter cold, the White River State Park and Indianapolis Zoo are excellent destinations. Located downtown, White River was one of the first state parks in Indiana. Check out the zoo, three museums, and an IMAX theater, all with a great view of the city skyline.

White River State Park from the air

Finally, if you’re wandering the city and looking for a quick and delicious snack, drop in at the Indianapolis City Market. This has been Indianapolis’ go-to place for fresh produce, specialty foods, delicious baked goods, and fine meats and cheeses from around the world since 1886. It’s also a great spot to relax and enjoy the sights, smells, and lively atmosphere of the city.

Indianapolis City Market, Streetside view

Need a map? We love maps…so here’s a helpful collection of maps to help you navigate all the local events: Know Before You Go.

We hope you’ll enjoy touring the city (live, or virtually) as much as we have. Continue using Bing Maps for all your travel needs, Super Bowl related or otherwise!

Spatial Sustain: OGC Video Provides Compelling Global Vision for Geospatial Value

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:18:22 +0000

The Open Geospatial Consortium has recently released a professionally-produced video that condenses the value of interconnected geospatial data (particularly through sensors) as well as the value of the consortium. The piece uses a multi-narrator approach, where different actors from different nationalities finish each other’s sentences. The result is a compelling global appeal for the value [...]

Vector One: GLONASS Satellites Track Transport Trucks Through Siemens App

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:44:07 +0000

Siemens has developed a software application based upon Russia’s GLONASS navigation satellites that will be used to track truck positions in relation to restricted weight limits. Over-weight trucks are known to cause significant damage to highways and roads not designed nor designated for heavy weights. The device would attach to individual trucks, thus providing their [...]

VerySpatial: A Truly Mobile App Market

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:24:21 +0000

Web Map Solutions, a mobile application development company, recently posted their “Hot Topics in Mobile GIS” in which they reflect on the development trends they see in the applications they have developed or are developing for clients. Their list includes applications such as cultural resource management, genealogy, political campaigning, and mining. This list would be an accurate reflection of overall trends in mobile web applications. One of the hottest is related to true mobile applications – one’s developed for the automobile industry.

The Wall Street Journal has a recent article on the mobile app market, “Mobile Hot Spots: Web Radio, Apps Move to the Dashboard“. They say that mobile apps such a huge growth market that car manufacturers are setting up mobile and spatial app shops in Silicon Valley to be more integrated into the development process.

According to ReadWriteMobile, a web channel devoted to the mobile application industry, the projected growth of the mobile web app market is over $100 Billion by 2015. Of course, they have an interest in seeing that market increase but the spatial application market seems to be growing as more and more people expect it as a matter of course during their every day routines.

Spatial Sustain: Energy Use Data for all of New York City Released in Map Form

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:16:45 +0000

A detailed map of block-by-block energy use has been created by the Columbia University Engineering School with data from the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. The interactive map demonstrates the energy used to heat and cool buildings, which accounts for two-thirds of the energy used in the city. The research built a statistical [...]

Vector One: OpenLayers 3D Rendered Direct to Browser

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:06:43 +0000

Using ReadyMap users can render a 3D model constructed using OpenLayers. The challenge here has always been able to render such models without the use of a plugin – directly from the modeling software. ”ReadyMap uses WebGL and the HTML5 Canvas element to render 3D in the browser without a plugin. The developer creates an [...]

got geoint?: DARPA Creating Virtual Reality Contact Lenses for Viewing Aerial and Sensor Data

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:41:56 +0000

Rather than equipping the warfighter with bulky helmets and goggles to provide vital battlefield data, DARPA is moving forward with an innovative program where contact lenses with built-in systems would allow soldiers to focus on distant targets and overlay their vision with tactical information. According to DARPA, the goal of the effort is to provide individual soldiers with data from aerial drones and battlefield sensors in real-time — which was previously a capability challenge.

DARPA’s Soldier Centric Imaging Via Computational Cameras (SCENICC) program is leading the charge on this new effort. Innovega iOptics is the partner working with DARPA to actually develop the contact lenses. Check out more here.

Clearly, this is the next step for delivering vital GEOINT data to the warifighter.

Linfiniti Geo Blog: Publishing multiple projects with QGIS Server

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:04:47 +0000

You know the drill right? You just made a beautiful map for your boss using QGIS Server. Then he walks into your office and says ‘Kiepie, I need another one in a different CRS’. Your heart drops in your chest and your jaw drops to the desk. You can’t do that using QGIS without publishing [...]

Slashgeo.org: OGRS2012 :: CALL FOR PAPERS - Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:28:33 +0000

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
OGRS2012 :: CALL FOR PAPERS
Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium

October 24 – 26, 2012 in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland
Hosted by School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD)

Website: http://www.ogrs2012.org
Contact: cfp@ogrs2012.org

Notice, PDF version of this call is available here : http://cfp.ogrs2012.org.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

(our apologies for cross-postings)
Dear colleagues,

The Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium (OGRS) is a meeting dedicated to exchanging ideas on development and use of open source geospatial software in both research and education.

Motivated by the inaugural symposium in Nantes, France, OGRS2012 will be held from October 24 – 26, 2012 in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. The symposium is hosted and organized by the School of Business and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD), in partnership with EPFL Lausanne, University of Lausanne, University of Geneva, which are all academic institutions in Western Switzerland, and the Institute for Research on Urban Sciences and Techniques in France.

The main goals are:
- to build a panel of new scientific research and education practices using and contributing to open source initiatives in the geospatial fields;
- to discuss a framework and highlight a rationale about geospatial open source technology usage in research and education activities;
- to provide an innovation platform to network and develop ideas for future collaborative work between academia – from research to education – and other actors of the field (associations, foundations, local authorities, industry etc.).

For more details, visit the overview page on the website.

Keynote speakers :
- Luc Anselin, Director, Regents' Professor and Walter Isard Chair at School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Director at GeoDa Center for Geospatial Analysis and Computation, Arizona State University;
- Gérard Hégron, Scientific Director in charge of sustainable city at IFSTTAR (French Institute of Science and Technology for Transport, Planning and Networks);
- Helena Mitasova, Associate Professor at Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University;
- Robert Weibel, Professor of Geographical Information Science at Department of Geography, University of Zürich.

Submission :
The symposium will integrate several opportunities for presenting : oral presentations, workshops, posters and discussion groups. To participate in any of these opportunities, authors are invited to submit an extended abstract (1000 to 1500 words, references and keywords excluded) through the conference website. The official language is English.

The international scientific advisory board will review and select abstracts for inclusion in the symposium and publication in the symposium proceedings. A subset of contributions will be invited to submit full papers for possible publication in a special issue of the Journal of Spatial Information Sciences (JOSIS), pending a peer review of full papers.

For more details on how to submit a contribution, please visit the call for papers page on the website : http://cfp.ogrs2012.org.

Important dates :
- submission deadline for abstracts is May 28, 2012.
- authors will be notified by June 30, 2012 on program inclusion and selection for JOSIS submission
- deadline to submit full papers is September 30, 2012.

Best regards,
OGRS2012 program committee

Slashgeo.org: Sensor Networks In San Francisco Finds Parking Spots

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:13:13 +0000

Slashdot discusses a story named Sensor Networks In San Francisco Finds Parking Spots.

Their summary: "You've heard of smart cars, and now, rolling out in San Francisco, is a smart parking system that promises to eliminate the arduous process of finding a parking spot. SFpark is a network of magnetic sensors that have been installed under 8,200 street parking spaces, along with additional information from parking garages and parking meters. These sensors are all linked together in a mesh network, and ultimately link back to a central command center. Drivers can access this parking data via the SFpark website or smartphone app, and see in real-time where parking spaces are available. At any one time, a third of cars on the road in urban areas are looking for parking spots, consuming more fuel, creating more pollution, and causing more accidents. With SFpark, you can see at a glance where there's a parking spot — but in the future, you'll be able to hit a button and have your smartphone direct you to the nearest parking spot."

It's not the first time we discuss location technology to find parking lots.

Google Earth Blog: The city lights of Earth

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:08:11 +0000

First released in 2007, the "Earth at Night" layer remains a very unique way to view the earth. Captured on the "dark side" of the planet, depending on the time of day, the images are a striking visual of the more urbanized areas of the planet.

However, the images were not easy to capture. For years, astronauts would try to capture the bright lights and only have blurry photographs to show for it, as the earth travels beneath them at 4.4 miles/second.

In 2003, Don Pettit developed an innovative system for capturing these images and he went on to capture over 2,500 photos, with thousands more captured in subsequent missions. You can read more about Don and his technique in this article at Air & Space Magazine.

To see the lights for yourself, simply click on the [Layers] in Google Earth, open [NASA], then [Earth City Lights] and click the button in there.. For the best results, disable your other layers and places to get a nice clean view of the earth. You should likely disable the atmosphere as well (under [View] --> [Atmosphere]), but I kind of like the glow it gives. It's a neat effect.

A big thanks to Don for pioneering this amazing technique, and hopefully as time goes on this imagery will become even higher-quality and more striking.

All Points Blog: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Sponsors “Data Fusion Contest”

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:20:25 +0000

From Fabio Pacifici, chair of the Data Fusion Technical Committee of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), comes word that the organization is hosting the 2012 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest. Mr. Pacifici writes: This year the Contest is designed to investigate the... Continue reading

All Points Blog: Quote of the Week - 2/2/12

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:17:10 +0000

“Why does Interstate 95 go in a straight line from Florida to Canton [MA], and then hooks around, and resumes a straight line from Peabody [MA] to Canada. And that’s Interstate 95.” The answer is Mayor Kevin White of Boston, who died earlier this week. Rep. Barney Frank, asked the... Continue reading

All Points Blog: Hawaii Broadband Speed Test and other Government GIS News

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:55:41 +0000

A new website will allow internet users to determine their computer or electronic device’s internet speed and help the state map its broadband coverage as the Abercrombie Administration moves forward with its Hawai’i Broadband Initiative. Participants can take the test... Continue reading

All Points Blog: Open Data on Malta Coming and other International GIS News

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:40:04 +0000

A plane will be scanning the island to build a three-dimensional map that will allow the planning authority to monitor environmental changes over the years. The photographic map will carry information such as on air and water quality and noise levels. All data will be available... Continue reading

All Points Blog: NJ Hospital Mortality Rates and other Health GIS News

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:00:48 +0000

The New Jersey Department of Health rated 72 major hospitals across the state according to the number of deaths per 100 patients for pneumonia, stroke, heart attack, and heart failure. That data was used to create the Google Map. - NJ Spotlight An independent study conducted by... Continue reading

Directions Magazine: What is Pitney Bowes Software’s Geosk?

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:02:42 +0000

Pitney Bowes announced its new data as a service offering, Geosk, last fall. Adena Schutzberg interviewed Pitney Bowes Software’s Scott Robinson, director of Global Data Products, to learn more.

More about: business gis, daas, data as a service, geocoding, geographic data, geospatial technology, location intelligence, real estate, saas, telecommunications

LiDAR News: FME 2012 Support for LiDAR

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:33:50 +0000

For people who are just getting started with LiDAR data the relatively low cost of FME 2012 makes it a product you have to consider. Continue reading →

Click Title to Continue Reading...

bbbox.me: Getting a boundingbox into FME 2012

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:48:49 +0000

How many times have this happened to You?

1. You need a boundingbox. Possibly to query a database or maybe call a WMS service.

2. You open a map somwehere on the internet or maybe in another GIS-tool than FME.

3. You locate Your area of interest and manually note of the corner coordinates -the bbox. (xmin is…. ymin is… max lat is…)

4. You manually enter these into FME.

We figured out a smarter way here: http://bbox.me/osm

1. Search for You area of interest (Find Place)

2. Zoom in/out and redefine the bbox (Set to screen)

3. Select the Resource (“6 BBOX Transformer.fmw”) and press “Download”.

Now open the generated Workspace in FME and You have a Transformer with Your Boundingbox!

(If You do have troubles getting it to work with Internet Explorer – You may have to enter bbox.me to the trusted sites).

Between the Poles: Ottawa's water and sewer rates to increase 74% over next decade

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:07:47 +0000

I have blogged several times about combined sewer overflows (CSOs), sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs), the cost of correcting these problems, and the variety of financial instruments that cities are using to finance these projects. By law in the Province of Ontario, city water and sewer systems are required to pay for themselves, which means that water users fund the water system and the water and sewer budget is separate from the city budget.

A part of Ottawa's wastewater system is a combined storm and sanitary system and it is planned to build holding tanks like those under construction in Chicago to store overflows in times of wet weather. Ottawa’s water rates are set to rise a combined 74 per cent over the next 10 years. The city needs to double its spending on maintaining and expanding the water and wastewater system, whose assets are estimated at $18 billion. The plan proposes spending $376.5 million this year on upgrades and maintenance, and $8.8 million on projects to expand the system for new growth in the city.

Over the next decade the average household water and sewer bill will rise from $636 a year now to $1,045. The rate increases and borrowing of additional $460 million will raise $2.1 billion for maintaining the system. But this is short of the estimated $2.7 billion that is required, leaving a $600-million gap.

The projected costs assume that water use remains constant and that the city continues to charge users by the volume of water they consume using the current rate structure. Many cities have adopted increasing block rates which means that the rate per unit volume of water goes up the more water you use and is intended to encourage reduced water usage. There are also proposals to decouple revenue and water usage.

Fuzzy Tolerance: Responsive Design Bookmarklet

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:01:05 +0000

Found via CSS Tricks, Benjaminkeen.com has a great bookmarklet for testing your responsive web design. Toss the bookmarklet in your toolbar, go to the page you want to test, and hit it. You’ll get your page in a series of common resolutions to see how it does. Essentially it sticks the pages in iframes of various common resolutions for tables, phones, etc.

Take a look at the bookmarklet code – it’s very easy to hack if you need to test different resolutions. All you need to do is adjust the iframe sizes.

javascript:document.write('<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><meta charset="utf-8"><title>Responsive Design Testing</title><style>body { margin: 20px; font-family: sans-serif; overflow-x: scroll; }.wrapper { width: 6000px; }.frame { float: left; }h2 { margin: 0 0 5px 0; }iframe { margin: 0 20px 20px 0; border: 1px solid #666; }</style></head><body><div class="wrapper"><div class="frame"><h2>240<span> x 320</span> <small>(mobile)</small></h2><iframe src="' + window.location + '" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" seamless width="240" height="320"></iframe></div><div class="frame"><h2>320<span> x 480</span> <small>(mobile)</small></h2><iframe src="' + window.location + '" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" seamless width="320" height="480"></iframe></div><div class="frame"><h2>480<span> x 640</span> <small>(small tablet)</small></h2><iframe src="' + window.location + '" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" seamless width="480" height="640"></iframe></div><div class="frame"><h2>768<span> x 1024</span> <small>(tablet - portrait)</small></h2><iframe src="' + window.location + '" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" seamless width="768" height="1024"></iframe></div><div class="frame"><h2>1024<span> x 768</span> <small>(tablet - landscape)</small></h2><iframe src="' + window.location + '" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" seamless width="1024" height="768"></iframe></div><div class="frame"><h2>1200<span> x 800</span> <small>(desktop)</small></h2><iframe src="' + window.location + '" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-forms" seamless width="1200" height="800"></iframe></div></div></body></html>');

Vector One: Geodata Needed: U.S. Puts Integrated Forest Management Back In Action

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:22:31 +0000

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved new legislation this week that would see Integrated Forest Management put back into the country’s forests. “Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the plan as a response to a forest planning rule thrown out by a federal court in 2009. Environmentalists had claimed the rule revoked key forest protections, [...]

AnyGeo: The New, Nikon Coolpix S9300 Includes GPS – Finally, Affordable GPS For All!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:45:44 +0000

Yes indeed, Nikon has rolled out a new S series of cameras and best of all, the Coolpix S9300 Includes GPS – I recall testing a Kodak that sported integrated GPS back in 2000 if you can believe that, however, Kodak never did roll out that device to the masses.. too bad, perhaps if they [...]

OpenGeo: It goes up to 2.0

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:59:18 +0000

Maybe someday PostGIS will go to 11, but for now, we’re still shooting for 2, point oh. And happily we are getting closer and closer. We have moved to a weekly schedule of alpha releases (this week was alpha3) and have started cleaning down the list of tickets against the 2.0 milestone.

Last month, much of the time spent by me and Sandro Santilli on PostGIS 2.0 preparation was funded by the Humanitarian Information Unit of the US Department of State. So, from the PostGIS development team, and the PostGIS community in general: thanks, HIU! Why is HIU funding PostGIS? Because the kinds of tools that HIU and its partners use for humanitarian response are backed by PostGIS, and they want to see those tools get better. Funding PostGIS development is an economical way to simultaneously raise the capabilities of a whole ecosystem of tools in HIU’s space.

All Points Blog: Facebook IPO Might Spur Real Estate Geolocation App

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:15:31 +0000

According to the Washington Post, the impending initial public offering (IPO) by Facebook, with its expected windfall of cash from investors, might encourage some employees to go looking for housing. But the prospective home buyers are a bit picky. You see, they might not want to live... Continue reading

Bing Maps Blog: Bing Maps Reporting Tips

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

By Ricky Brundritt, EMEA Bing Maps Technology Solution Professional

In addition to Bing Maps great API’s, there are some helpful reporting tools available to anyone who has a Bing Maps account: Developer or Enterprise. These help you get insight as to how people are using your map applications, and to also keep track of your Bing Maps usage so that it does not exceed your allowed transactions. For example, according to the Bing Maps Terms of Use, Limited Commercial use accounts are allowed 500,000 transactions and 125,000 sessions within a 12-month period.

This post will go through and highlight many useful tips to help you make the most out your Bing Maps sessions and transactions. This post is in two sections. The first section is about the reporting tools available in the Bing Maps portal and the second is focused on development tips to get the most out of the API. This blog post will assume that you have implemented Bing Maps Keys in your application. If you are using Bing Maps Tokens, these will be retired on March 30^th, 2012. Documentation on how to migrate to Bing Maps Keys is here.

Before I move forward, there are a couple of definitions you should know.

Bing Maps Session: A Bing Maps session occurs when one of the map controls is loaded. Any transactions occurred against the Bing Maps services, while within a session is non-billable. Note this requires the application to properly use Bing Maps Keys.
Bing Maps Transaction: A Bing Maps transaction occurs any time a service request is made. For example, some of the more common services used that incur transactions are: Bing Maps Geocoding, Routing, and Imagery service, Bing Spatial Data Service Query .
Bing Maps Key: A Bing Maps Key is a unique string that is used to authenticate a user’s Bing Maps application or service request. This is the primary method used for tracking usage of the Bing Maps API’s.

Complete documentation explaining all the different ways sessions and transactions are incurred can be found here.

Bing Maps Portal Reports

The Bing Maps reporting tools can be found in the Bing Maps portal. To find the reports follow these steps:

1. Sign into the Bing Maps portal (https://www.bingmapsportal.com/) using your Windows Live Id for your account.

2. Once signed in click on the “View my Bing Maps API usage” link in the left side panel.

3. You will now see a list of 5 different report options. Choose the one that interests you.

a. Usage Report – A report of all transactions incurred using Bing Maps keys

b. Usage Report by Category – A breakdown of all transactions broken up by the different usage categories (i.e. AjaxSession, RESTRoutes). This is a great way to see how users are using Bing Maps in your application.

c. Usage Report by Bing Maps Keys – Breaks down the transaction by Bing Maps keys. This is useful if you have multiple applications each using a different Bing Maps key.

d. Legacy (MWS + Token) Usage Report – This is an older report type that let people who have implemented Bing Maps tokens or who used to use MapPoint Web Services view their historical transactions.

e. Legacy (MWS + Token) Usage Report by Category - This is a break down of the historical transactions incurred by MapPoint and Bing Maps token users.

If you were to select Usage Report by Category, you would see a page open that looks like this:

All reports have date range filters which can be used to view up to one year’s worth of data. You can also filter the first two reports by Bing Maps key to further break down the data. In addition you can export the reports to several file formats:

XML file with report data
CSV (comma delimited)
Acrobat (PDF) file
MHTML (web archive)
Excel
TIFF file
Word

Development Tips

Many of the Bing Maps API’s have a method for getting the credentials from the map after you have loaded it using a valid Bing Maps key. One often overlooked feature is that, by getting the credentials from the map, you do not get back your original Bing Maps key. Instead, you get a special session key which you can use as a Bing Maps key to make requests to the Bing Maps services. By doing this, all transactions occurred by this session key will be non-billable. Many developers overlook this feature and opt to simply use their original Bing Maps key, not knowing that they are actually incurring more billable transactions than they need to. Here are some examples of how to properly use a session key.

Bing Maps V7 AJAX API

function ClickGeocode()

{

map.getCredentials(MakeBingMapsRESTRequest);

}

function MakeBingMapsRESTRequest(sessionKey)

{

//Generate a request URL for the Bing Maps REST services.

//Use the session key in the request as the Bing Maps key

}

Full working sample can be found here.

Bing Maps Silverlight, WPF, WP7, and WinForm API’s

Map.CredentialsProvider.GetCredentials((c) =>

{

string sessionKey = c.ApplicationId;

//Generate a request URL for the Bing Maps REST services.

//Use the session key in the request as the Bing Maps key

});

Full working samples can be found here.

Throttled Events for Dynamically Loading Data

Some developers like to update the data on the map as it moves. This is often achieved by using a view change end map event. This can be useful for presenting new data to the user without them needing to do a new search. However there are a few tricks you can implement to reduce the number of requests made by your application. The first trick, if using the Bing Maps V7 API, is to use a throttled event. This will help reduce the number of events that are fired if the user is constantly panning and zooming the map. Here is an example of how to create a throttled event in Bing Maps V7 that ensures that 250ms has passed since the map has stopped moving.

Microsoft.Maps.Events.addThrottledHandler(map, 'viewchangeend', eventHandlerFunction, 250);

By reducing the number of requests made to the Bing Maps services, you greatly reduce the amount of bandwidth required by your application which will in turn increase performance. This will be most notable on web and mobile applications. You can find a good working example of this type of solution here.

Learn More

To learn more about the Bing Maps Account Center and reporting capabilities, attend a webcast on March 15. Register here.

Spatial Sustain: Agile Swarms of Nano Quadrocopters Evoke Fiction

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:29:10 +0000

A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab have developed a small quadrotor platform that can fly in formation. The buzzing swarm of 24 quadrocopters is a must-see for its almost chilling agility and efficiency, flying in formation and navigating a window opening. View the video [...]

Vector One: Predictive Modeling: From Rivers to the Ocean in 3D

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:19:24 +0000

Modeling is an integral aspect of understanding and managing water, and it happens in 3D. Conceptual models based upon mathematics and process understanding are used to describe and represent real world physical events. Analytical models are directly related to modeling solutions according to equations. Geospatial data and geographic information systems (GIS) are important tools and [...]

Zekiah Technologies Blog: Browsing and Ordering Geospatial Data Using WeoGeo Tools for ArcGIS

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:11:25 +0000

WeoGeo Tools for ArcGIS is an extension and toolbar designed by Zekiah Technologies for use with ArcGIS for Desktop. The current version allows users to browse the WeoGeo Market or hosted libraries and order data sets for use within ArcGIS. If you are not familiar with WeoGeo Market, it contains thousands of data sets, both for-purchase and free-of-charge, from numerous data providers. WeoGeo allows a user to customize an order to suit his or her needs. For example, a user is able to extract a subset of features from a national data set if only features in a specific area of interest are needed.