Welcome to GISWeekly! This week the 2009 ESRI International User Conference will take place in San Diego, CA. Previews of the event are available in the form of podcasts and descriptions of industry specific events. Hope to see you there.

GISWeekly examines select top news each week, picks out worthwhile reading from around the web, and special interest items you might not find elsewhere. This issue will feature Industry News, Top News of the Week, Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances, Announcements, New Products, Around the Web and Events Calendar.

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Susan Smith, Managing Editor

Industry News
Extend Your Imagery Assets to the Field
By Susan Smith

TerraGo Technologies has evolved over the years from its begininngs as the creator of GeoPDF files that allow geospatial collaborations.

Today the company addresses the investments organizations have made in their data and their need to get the data the organization wants in the form it wants it in. In tough economic times, organizations must justify these hefty investments they’ve made or are planning to make in acquiring high quality imagery. Getting imagery out to the field is a challenge in and of itself. By making imagery data more useful to more people across the enterprise, decision makers are better able to justify the investment.

In a recent webcast, Chris Watson, vice president of marketing and business development for TerraGo, and Suzanne Henderson, vice president of engineering for TerraGo, spoke about their recent announcement of Publisher for Raster (formerly known as Map2PDF for Raster) product. The new solutoin will allow users to publish large geo-referenced or orthorectified images to a geo-referenced PDF file format (GeoPDF) so that it can be disseminated and used out in the field.

“We help organizations extend their investments by extending their availability and the value of their imagery assets,” explained Watson. “We’re talking about reaching beyond the traditional GIS savvy analyst all the way out to the edge of the enterprise where the average worker – inspector, farmer or emergency responder -- need access to the most current images just to do their daily jobs. We want to talk about some of the market dynamics that are driving this increase in demand for quality imagery and some of the resulting challenges that this demand is creating on many of you as you try to move in your daily jobs.”

Henderson demonstrated how TerraGo can help users take advantage of image files from many different sources and formats and publish them in portable, actionable file format called a GeoPDF, and how TerraGo offers an Adobe-based reader viewing tool that makes it easy to share, view and markup image files. Further, the webcast included a demo of field collected data can then be used for collaboration and for bringing data back into the system of record in geospatial collaboration payload.

Watson said that TerraGo has over 100 organizations using their raster solution today. The new release covers significant feature enhancements along with an emphasis on improved usability and customization capabilities.

The most popular types of imagery in use, according to the ASPRS industry forecast report, in which they surveyed over 500 professionals in the industry, are as follows: Landsat 7 came out as the most utilized form of imagery at 74%, followed by Landsat at 66%. Next on the list is DOI and Digital Globe which came in together at 62% and Modus and Spot 5 at 44%.

“Whatever the type of imagery you use, there is increase in demand,” said Watson. After Sept. 11 2001 and Hurricane Katrina, the average consumer began to recognize what value real time could provide. “We all watched on news as these images that were taken from hundreds of models up in space and came into our living rooms and showed us the devastation. Whether from an iPhone application or hundreds of image web stores on the market, consumer awareness is increasing, and consumers are expecting to get anytime anywhere access to their geospatial images.”

One of the biggest driving forces in this demand are Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth services, Watson said. “We can’t ignore the fact that these services have really helped popularize imagery in giving everyone with an internet connection access to a whole new perspective on the world. It’s not enough to see what your house looks like from space last year -- people want to see what it looks like today, and they want to see current images of where they’re going and what it will look like when they get there. And for the business and government workers like emergency responders or public safety officials or even city planners, they too are demanding greater access to more current imagery information to help them respond faster, and make better decisions.”

The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC)’s Imagery for the Nation initiative has created a whole new nationwide aerial imagery program that will collect and make generally avialable standard multi-resolution product sets. This imagery is a valuable asset, available in the public domain for anyone who knows how to use it.

Making large volumes of imagery available to a broader audience has its own set of challenges, according to Watson. “There is educatoin and training associated with the need to have informed resources, and it is essential to have a simple and easy way to share images with non-technical users. It’s also important to be able to rapidly pass large volumes of image files to and from the edge of your enterpise and have a significant impact on your IT infrastructre, whether bandwidth or specialized software.”

Watson said access to real time images can make a marked difference to inspectors in the field looking at crop damage or soldiers in the battlefield trying to get back to base safely. “Being able to push mobile ready images to the field resource in a disconnected environment is absolutely critical, she said.

When pairing large raster files with mobile workers in the field, the files must often need to be compressed and optimized for portability. TerraGo Publisher software makes it easy to take those large image libraries of large files such as those from the U.S. Army and NGA and create GeoPDF files that are portable, actionable and mobile. “This also reduces the pressure on your IT infrastructre to rapidly distribute large image files to remote areas throughout your enterprise,” said Watson.

Secondly, ease of use is a critical concern. The TerraGo toolbar is a free software app that is available to any one with Adobe Reader. Users can view, access and manipulate the files, and they’re able to do things like measure links and area and view different coordinate displays and other geospatial functions. “In fact more than 500,000 people currently use this software application from TerraGo and it’s on a gold CD at several U.S. defense agencies organizations,” said Watson.

The third feature of TerraGo Publisher for Raster is interactivity. Henderson said that you want your file to be able to deliver as much value to the technical analyst as it does to users. “By sharing geoPDF files wth a broad range of users they can act as human sensors for your team and you enable them to collect valuable, on the ground intelligence that can be easily sent back to you for incorporation into your system of record or combined with TerraGo mobile for inspectors, pipeline operators, soldiers, etc., whoever has the image in front of them while out in the field. They can capture intelligence in a spatially aawre environment that can help you improve the currency of your data exponentially.”

A project demonstrated by Henderson was for the U.S. Army and NGA who needed a better way to distribute their maps and images out to the edge, to their warfighters and mission planners.

Features of Publisher for Raster include:

Geospaital collaboration - The customer’s unique data can be exposed up through multiple applications using TerraGo’s Collaboration suite. Field personnel can make georeferenced annotations and share file updates with peers or GIS analysts in the field.

Custom configuration. With Publisher for Raster users can generate one or more geoPDF files from a single georeferenced image file. “The formats we supports today are ADRG, CADRG, CIB, IMG, MrSID, Midiff and NITF and TIFF. And in our preferences in this new release you can now set image defaults for each one of those file formats, so you can specify compression type and quality using JPEG inflate,” said Henderson. “You can also specify which GeoPDF toolbar your users will be using because we do have a lot of new coordinate systems we’re supporting in this release. If you’re using the old GeoPDF toolbar, it may not support some of the new coordinate systems so you’ll be using the new one. Also you have your image type so we can support grey scale as well as static and dynamic RGB, naming suffix so if you want to append a name to the end of your file as well as your print options, you’ll see that for each type of file that we have that you can specify those optoins.”

Greater usability - In this release is the ability to subset and pull out a smaller area of interest in the file, so the user can click on the subset button and which will show another preview of the image and then he or she can zoom into a particular area. “I can pan around until I find the area I want to select and then I can pick my subset. It shows a preview of the subset as well,” said Henderson. Batch processing is also easier in this release because all the configuration information is set up in a single XML file that can be reused.

Broader compatibility – GeoPDF files can be generated from a broader range of sources using TerraGo’s enhanced projection engine. Besides supporting major file formats, the release also allows users to output OGC and ISO 32000 geo-enabled PDFs while at the same time maintaining their GeoPDFs.

Advanced options include the ability to overrirde the coordinate system in the file. Users can select from a list of predefined coodinate systems and also do a custom coordinate system from the other stream they edit and save it to a WKT file. They can also import from a JPEG or WKT file.

The GeoPDF output file supports a single image per input dataset, plus the source image contained in the file is tiled and compressed using either JPEG or Flate compression. Usually users see a 1 to 100 compression ratio while maintaining the image quality, but this is dependent upon the data source. Users can use Publisher for Raster with TerraGo Composer in order to create map books and other geospatial applications to be used in enterprise workflows.

Top News of the Week

DigitalGlobe announced that its WorldView-2 high-resolution 8-band multi-spectral satellite is scheduled to launch on October 6th, 2009 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Magellan Professional is introducing GPSDifferential for ESRI ArcPad 8, a post-processing software extension for the MobileMapper 6 with ArcPad 8 mapping application. The GPSDifferential for ArcPad 8 enables the MobileMapper 6 GIS/GPS handheld receiver users to achieve outstanding sub-meter accuracy for GIS data collection and mapping at low cost.

Trimble makes it easier and more fun for fans of the T-Mobile G1 to take a hike, climb a mountain or reel in the big one by using the power of their phone's Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. The Trimble Outdoors application is now available on the G1, the first phone for the Android open software platform. Trimble Outdoors turns the G1 into a full-featured GPS navigator and geotagging tool for hiking, backpacking, fishing and other outdoor activities.

Acquisitions, Agreements, Alliances

Woolpert announced that the firm has signed a strategic alliance with Pelydryn, a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) hydrographic survey company founded by former UK National Hydrographer, Dr. Wyn Williams and Geomatics Data Solutions, co-founded by Carol Lockhart.

ITT Visual Information Solutions (ITT VIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation, announced the signing of international distribution agreements with six independent companies, covering fourteen countries worldwide, for its leading image processing software solution, ENVI. Under these authorized distribution agreements, key distributors of ESRI® ArcGIS® software products will now make the ENVI family of image processing and analysis software products available to their customers. The agreement helps a growing number of professionals get information from geospatial imagery and integrate it with their GIS applications in a variety of industries, including environmental monitoring, urban planning, defense and intelligence, oil and gas, and agriculture.

Announcements

PA-MAPPS, the first state chapter of MAPPS, the national association of private geospatial firms, became the first organization to formally endorse the Geospatial Coordination Strategic Plan for Pennsylvania , which calls for the establishment of a Pennsylvania Statewide Geospatial Coordination Council. Upon the PA-MAPPS membership s unanimous vote to endorse the strategy, newly elected President Mike Shillenn (Photo Science, West Chester, PA) proposed the creation of a state version of the Council of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) to organize stakeholders in support of the plan.

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has posted videos of demonstrations of Phase 2 of the GEOSS Architecture Implementation Pilot (AIP-2) on the OGC website.

CSR plc and SiRF Technology Holdings Inc, on Friday 26 June completed the merger between SiRF and a wholly owned subsidiary of CSR, creating a leading pure play provider of connectivity and location platforms and a company with the scale, technology and strategy to enable its customers to address the exciting and emerging opportunities in mobile markets. The merger yields an enlarged development team, a strong IP portfolio, and a broad base of market leading customers. Customers of the enlarged CSR group will be able to deliver new user experiences of connectivity and location technologies in a diverse range of devices such as mobile phones, personal navigation devices, in-car navigation and telematics systems, laptop and netbook PCs, mobile internet devices, digital cameras, gaming machines, cellular accessories, and consumer electronic devices.

For the first time, participants in the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) can see a virtual, three-dimensional map of the entire marathon course, thanks to technology from new sponsor Harris Corporation. Harris is using technology from its RealSite(R) product family to create the stunningly realistic video map, which is now available on the MCM website. The 34th running of the MCM will take place October 25, 2009.

Isle of Wight Council is creating the UK’s most detailed road network map as part of a GBP 850 million (US$1400 million) investment in the Island’s highways. The digital map is being created using special mapping software from Mayrise Systems called MapNow that is linked to an asset database. The map not only provides comprehensive information of every highway asset such as manholes, footpaths, road signs and bollards, but also describes their type, condition and value.

People

GeoAnalytics Inc., an IT firm that specializes in Spatial Intelligence systems and solutions, announced that Kenneth Kubat has joined the firm as Vice President of Business Growth and Innovation.

New Products

Surveylab announced the launch of its new ike1000 series of remote positioning GPS handhelds. It combines a GPS, 3D compass, digital camera and laser rangefinder to provide the user with an all-in-one GPS data capture solution. The ike1000 improves on the earlier ikeGPS series with all new instruments, a faster and more rugged computer, and a display more easily read in bright sunlight.

Paradigm Imaging Group, a supplier of large-format scanning, printing and document archiving solutions, introduced it’s newest addition to the EIS family of large format multi-function systems, the EIS Supra.

The EIS Supra, a turnkey system designed for a broad range of applications including Facility Management, CAD, GIS and Reprographics, maintains a user-friendly interface while providing sophisticated features.

geoXMF LLC announced that The Nature Conservancy will be deploying an Enterprise Edition license of its industry-leading enterprise GIS performance monitoring software XMF AlerterTM. The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

Aerial survey specialist Bluesky has launched a brand new digital map layer accurately modeling the location and extent of trees and their proximity to buildings. Designed as a tool to aid insurance assessors, property developers and Local Authority Planners, ProximiTREE details the exact spatial location and height of individual trees together with the circumference of its canopy. From this information a determination can be made of the root extent and the potential impact on either existing or proposed properties.

3-GIS, an Alabama based software development and services company, has announced the release of Version 5.0 of the Transmission Inspection & Maintenance System (TIMS), a user friendly tool that provides a precise graphic depiction of electric transmission equipment so accurate maintenance records can be created, collected, and maintained.

myVR Software, Norwegian 3D development house has now released myVR's latest platform edition of its 3D mapping solution - myVR 3D MapView for Linux.

ITT Visual Information Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITT Corporation, announced its ENVI software product and add-on SARscape Modules for ENVI now provide tools and support for processing the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data and imagery generated by COSMO-SkyMed - a satellite system launched and managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

Latitude Geographics is pleased to announce the release of Geocortex Essentials 2.0, the next-generation version of its popular value-added software for ESRI’s ArcGIS Server.

Geocortex Essentials 2.0 introduces the Geocortex Essentials REST API. Using this REST API, developers can create JavaScript API, Flex API and Silverlight API applications that consume core Geocortex Essentials functions such as data linking, template-based printing and custom reporting. Latitude’s all-new Geocortex Essentials REST Elements follows ESRI’s RESTful development paradigm.

Corresponding with Geocortex Essentials 2.0, Latitude Geographics is also unveiling an ESRI-style Geocortex Resource Center which contains samples and documentation to support REST Elements and complement ESRI’s related resources for developers.

AT&T* and TeleNav, Inc. announced the expansion of TeleNav Track from AT&T, a GPS-enabled mobile resource management (MRM) service for mobile business customers. AT&T will now offer TeleNav Track LITE to help businesses improve their field service, delivery or sales operations through real-time visibility of employee locations.

AT&T* and Xora, Inc. announced a GPS Locator application that will provide small and medium-sized businesses with real-time visibility into the location of their mobile workforce. The new easy to deploy solution is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application designed to help AT&T business customers improve the productivity and accountability of field-based employees, as well as lower expenses related to overtime and fuel costs.

The GeoExt community is proud to announce the release of GeoExt 0.5, the first GeoExt version to be released.

GeoExt brings together the geospatial power of OpenLayers with the user interface savvy of Ext JS to help you build powerful desktop style GIS applications on the web with JavaScript. GeoExt is available under the BSD license and is supported by a growing community of individuals, businesses and organizations.

Pictometry International Corp. announced its Pictometry Navigator API (Application Programming Interface) is now integrated into Site To Do Business, an online suite of analytical and mapping resources used by members of the CCIM Institute, a leading commercial real estate association and the largest broker network in the world.

Around the Web

GIS Services Provider Changes Leadership July 7, 2009 American Surveyor -- Data Enhancement Services (DES) announced it has changed company leadership in a strategic move to lead the organization to its next growth stage.

SeaZone: Exciting business opportunity in the Marine GIS Sector July 7, 2009, Ron’s ROV Links

Events