The Carbon Project - ((Echo))MyPlace

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Message from the Editor -

Welcome to GISWeekly! The Carbon Project demonstrated ((Echo))MyPlace, a type of real time, non web service Myspace, at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. They are also selling the software development toolkit so that people can make their own applications, and the CarbonCloud framework so they can also make their own peer-to-peer frameworks and networks. Read about it in this week's Industry News.

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Industry News

The Carbon Project - ((Echo))MyPlace
by Susan Smith

What is a Myspace or Plaxo with maps that is not a web service?

The answer is ((Echo))MyPlace, a new application created by The Carbon Project with part of their CarbonTools PRO toolkit suite, CarbonCloud. CarbonCloud is the peer-to-peer (P2P) framework for sharing location content.

The Carbon Project demonstrated this application at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. They are also selling the software development toolkit so that people can make their own applications, and the CarbonCloud framework so they can also make their own peer-to-peer frameworks and networks.

The response to this technology was quite astounding, according to Jeff Harrison of the Carbon Project. “With ((Echo))MyPlace, people were able to get Microsoft ultramobile PCs and walk around the conference floor and these Microsoft Origamis were connected by a peer to peer (P2P) network running right from the computers themselves in an ad-hoc network. People brought in maps from GlobeXplorer, Yahoo! Maps and Custom Weather and cached them on the ultra mobile PCs, then dropped notes about their favorite places in Boston or at the conference, or pictures of themselves, and bounced these notes back and forth from one mobile PC to another. This was the first time this had ever been done.”

“It's sort of like a real time, real place Myspace, with maps,” summarized Harrison. “You can't do the same types of things with Plaxo and Myspace. They make you upload your data into some remote server, and that's completely unacceptable for a soldier or firefighter. With EchoMySpace, you can pull in all these maps from web services to form what we call 'neighborhoods.' It's a more democratic way to approach it and it is also based on peer-to-peer (P2P) and core software as opposed to Web 2.0 stuff.”

The Carbon Project has appeared to be a geospatial company offering geospatial solutions for the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). They started with CarbonTools, which some say was an OGC toolkit for .NET developers but it really wasn't only that, according to Nuke Goldstein, Chief Technology Officer of The Carbon Project. “It was much more vast than people realized,” he said. “The architecture behind it allows us to hook .NET software into anything, not just OGC. The intent of ((Echo))MyPlace is to not be for the geospatial community only,” Goldstein explained. “When we release this as a free application, it will be designed for everyone, and anyone, and there will be a free download. We designed it to be easy and non-geospatial, so we tried it with a 14 year old girl as our target user. We're getting pretty good at hiding the complexity of OGC and other services and content into something that is consumer friendly and choosing a 14 year girl as our target demographic was not just to make something for kids, but to help us to develop an easy user interface and capabilities for users such as fire fighters and first responders.”

((Echo))MyPlace was built with CarbonTools PRO, Carbon Project's next generation toolkit, as a demonstrator for what you could do in CarbonTools. “We also built it so we could have a free download where this target audience could use all these things I just mentioned without having to worry about it, then add their own user generated content and share it very easily.”

Not only does CarbonTools PRO have a lot of enhanced capabilities, but also supports many new formats such as time-based mapping, real time KML, very varied sources of information as well as OGC.

“The ability to work in the .NET framework level gives us a few advantages over the desktop GIS or web services,” said Harrison. “This ability allows us to cache data, package the data and move it around. Once we realize we can do that, we can actually package geospatial information in a pretty efficient way. The ability to cache is very important here. Let's say I'm going out to a place where there is not internet, although I can communicate on the peer-to-peer but the bandwidth is pretty small. I don't want to move huge basemaps or aerial photography using that bandwidth. If I'm a first responder, I probably want to take the data of the incident with me to the field.”

Harrison said firefighters really liked ((Echo))MyPlace, as they see this as a way to plug into spatial data infrastructure sources and have an easy to use application that allows them to see where they're going and also add notes about the most recent events that affect the situation on the ground. They can pull in a basemap of the state and a Yahoo! map, and then firefighters would be able to add the location of a traffic accident or fire. They can then send that out in a peer-to-peer cloud. The cloud with the ultramobile PC computers can communicate up to about 50 yards from peer to peer without any signal boost to the mobile computer's Wi-Fi capability. With a little work, firefighters can create their own ad hoc survival network and bounce the notes back and forth without needing to be on the internet.

“This is a very secure communication on a very survivable network,” maintained Harrison. “it's not actually riding on an internet backbone, it's riding on an ad hoc wireless network formed up around a specific situation. We see a lot of applications for fire, first responders, infrastructure protection, and network centric operations in the military.

This type of peer-to-peer communication works in a server self-repairing, self-sustaining type of environment where “peers are all you need.” You don't need a server over the internet like you would for file sharing where you would communicate with peers over the internet. In the demonstration done at the conference, Harrison said they had three machines - two mobile computers and a laptop -- and networked them together. None of them were connected to the internet, yet they were able to get good range with just WiFi cards on the machines.

The military is interested in forming their own ad hoc networks and with a small antennae adjustment they can get greater range, and form “neighborhoods.”

The maps used for ((Echo))MyPlace are so far Yahoo! base maps, GlobeXplorer aerial photography, CustomWeather, real time weather information, Google Earth in KML and KMZ, and OGC Web Map Server (WMS) or Web Feature Server (WFS) as well.

“With CarbonTools PRO, we have no problem bringing in the tile based maps like Yahoo maps and Google maps and merging those with WMS from all different places including GlobeXplorer,” explained Harrison. “This is probably the biggest interoperability challenge right now that people don't talk about, the fact that all these popular tile based maps don't work with OGC but in the end CarbonTools PRO is about geospatial interoperability and we have a new set of controls that allows this to happen. We can actually cache and tile with WMS easily with CarbonTools.

“We have a software tool that makes it possible for developers to bridge the OGC world and the mainstream tile based mapping world called DataRasterTiles. Add to that our ability to be able to deal with non imagery data such as GML or KML. Plus we added a sophisticated symbology engine to CarbonTools which allows us to symbolize and render features,” said Goldstein.

((Echo))MyPlace also leverages the capabilities of the new generation Ultra Mobile PCs with a full Windows XP system with .NET 2.0. This is slightly bigger than a PDA. Harrison said “What Microsoft is doing with their operating system is taking the Windows XP environment into a mobile PC (Ultra Mobile PC) so that the line between a phone, PDA, Ultra Mobile PC and laptop is blurred,” Harrison pointed out. “We see (((Echo))MyPlace) taking advantage of this new form factor for new location-based social networking.”

Top News of the Week

MAD [Motor Adventure Destinations] Maps, Inc., publisher of scenic back road maps, announced the launch of its "Get Outta Town" pocket-sized map series, based on digital geographic content from Tele Atlas. "Get Outta Town" maps are designed to help time-starved city dwellers plan day, overnight and weekend excursions from major U.S. cities. Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. can be purchased today, and Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco will be available this fall, with additional cities to follow at the end of the year.

ESRI's 2006 demographic data estimates and 2011 projections have been released and are available as downloadable reports and maps from Business Analyst Online, ESRI's on-demand reporting and mapping service. The 2006/2011 data is available in more than 50 reports and maps such as the Demographic and Income Profile, Market Profile, and Age by Race Profile. Business Analyst Online provides easy access to these reports that are used to analyze trends, identify growth, and discover new opportunities.

The 2006 GIS in the Rockies Conference is pleased to announce that it will be one of the first events to benefit from facility improvements currently underway at INVESCO Field at Mile High Stadium. The $5 million venue renovation will feature natural materials typical of a Rocky Mountain lodge and will bring the essence of the Rockies into Denver's INVESCO Field.

For the GIS in the Rockies Conference, the new venue will provide an improved exhibit hall area more conducive to professional networking and conference traffic flow. It will also allow for the conference to provide higher quality wireless Internet connectivity for all exhibitors and conference participants. As a result, free WiFi connectivity will be available to all exhibitors as part of the standard exhibit booth registration.

Lockheed Martin announced that it has completed the fifth in a series of eight modernized Global Positioning System (GPS) IIR satellites that the company is developing for the U.S. Air Force. The spacecraft are the most technologically advanced GPS satellites ever developed and will provide significantly improved navigation performance for U.S. military and civilian users worldwide.

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd., introduced the GPSMAP 496, a full-color, portable aviation device that expands on the GPSMAP 396's features by incorporating Garmin's SafeTaxi(TM) airport diagrams, Garmin's Smart Airspace(TM), AOPA's Airport Directory data, enhanced high-resolution terrain database, aviation database with private airports and heliports, accelerated GPS update rate, and pre-loaded automotive maps of North America or Europe. These features are in addition to the real-time XM WX Satellite Weather(TM) that puts powerful weather information at the pilot's fingertips.

Agreements/Alliances/Acquisitions

Laser-Scan and Galdos announced a technology partnership focused on the certification of quality spatial data.

Demand for integrated spatial data to support interoperability along with increasing regulatory pressures requires a new approach in systems and a new standard of data quality. It requires re-use of data, much collected prior to the advent of GPS, and web delivery mechanisms. Laser-Scan and Galdos are responding to this challenge by introducing novel and groundbreaking technologies in web service delivery.

USATODAY.com, a leading news and information Web site, announces a technology and content partnership with The Map Network (TMN), the premier provider of customizable, interactive destination maps.

The partnership will enable the integration of TMN's mapping platform within USATODAY.com content to offer readers a deeper level of engagement around relevant points of interest and to engage users in an interactive, graphically compelling, and user-friendly way.

An investment group led by Shah Capital Partners (SCP) announced they have reached a definitive agreement to acquire Thales Navigation, a division of Thales. Co-investors who participated with SCP in the transaction included Tudor Group, Galleon Group, Consolidated Press Holdings, AIG SunAmerica, and Eli Broad. Thales Navigation is a leader in the consumer, survey, GIS and OEM GPS navigation and positioning markets.

Announcements

LandNet Corp. has been issued a patent from the U.S. Patent Office for a suite of highly differentiated online mapping functions. The patent titled "Land Software Tool" includes several functions that provide the online map drawing and measuring capabilities available on the LandVoyage mapping website.

ESRI announced that strategic alliance partner SAP AG has certified the integration of ESRI's ArcGIS 9.1 software with the SAP NetWeaver® platform. The seamless integration enables organizational flexibility in deploying enterprise server GIS solutions, thereby reducing the need for custom integration.

Contract Awards

GE Energy has supplied Sabesp - Companhia de Saneamento Básico do Estado de Sao Paulo (Sabesp) of Sao Paulo, Brazil with its Smallworld geospatial technology. This technology forms the core of the SIGNOS integrated water management system, improving water delivery to households and response time to service outages. Sabesp is the largest water and wastewater company in Latin America.

People

Enspiria Solutions, Inc. announced that Jeff Evans has joined its consultancy practice as a principal consultant, bringing 15 years of utility experience at Exelon and particular expertise in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

James W. Sewall Company is pleased to announce that Joan N. Gardner has joined the firm's Board of Directors.

ESRI announced Chuck Cmeyla has joined ESRI as the Public Works Industry Solutions manager. Cmeyla comes to ESRI from GE GeoSpatial Solutions where, as a sales manager, he led GIS-related business development activities for utilities and governments.

deCarta (formerly Telcontar), the leading supplier of software platforms and services for the location-based services (LBS) industry, announced the appointment of Mike Agron as Vice President, Business and Partner Development.

New Products

Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop announces the release of MAPublisher 7.0 for Adobe Illustrator. MAPublisher 7.0 is the latest version of this powerful mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data.

CustomWeather, Inc. is pleased to announce its new hurricane software package just in time for the 2006 hurricane season. This new software package features the ability to request historical hurricane data based on date ranges and bounding boxes for hurricanes, tropical cyclones, and typhoons that have occurred anywhere around the world. The new package also features projected paths and wind swath information for current tropical systems across the globe for the next 5 days. CustomWeather provides advanced queries for tracking wind speed thresholds and various strength categories.

Seisan is proud to announce that they have recently developed and released a new one-click mapping tool for the Firefox Browser. The new product called Shazou (pronounced - Shazoo - Japanese for “mapping”) finally integrates true LBS based mapping within the Firefox Browser. With one-click the user is able to map and geo-locate any website they are currently viewing.

Inside a laboratory at Harvard University in 1965, a group of forward-thinking computer scientists, geographers, and others began to push the boundaries of computer mapping into an exciting new territory: geographic information systems (GIS) technology. Nick Chrisman, professor of geomatic sciences at Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, tells the story in his new book, Charting the Unknown: How Computer Mapping at Harvard Became GIS, published by ESRI Press.

Aerial mapping company BlueSky International, in partnership with Aerodata International Surveys, has created the most up to date and detailed aerial photomap of Paris. Covering the whole of the metropolitan area the digital photomap, which was flown last summer, provides a highly detailed snapshot of Parisian life. Features on the ground as small as road markings and even people are clearly visible in the imagery and the digital dataset is already proving to be an essential tool for urban planners, environmental managers and tourist organizations. The project was a collaboration between Leicestershire based BlueSky and Aerodata the Antwerp based European aerial survey specialists.

The latest release of TopSURV field controller and Topcon Tools software from Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) offers a multitude of new features and expanded functions to expedite data collection and integration operations.

The new TopSURV Version 6.04 software includes:

* New Contractor module designed specifically for contractors that is upgradeable;
* Unique topographical grid function;
* Improved digital level support; and
* Topcon Link PC software.

Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. announced the debut of zumo, designed from the ground-up to exceed the demands of motorcyclists of every stripe. The Garmin zumo debut coincided with National Ride to Work Day and the unit will be unveiled this week at motorcycling's premier racing event, the MotoGP U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California.

Wiremedia announced that the company is set to deliver a series of plug-ins, widgets and tools designed to enable over 350 million social networkers and bloggers the ability to share, interact, and stay connected to their online presence via Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and devices.

Around the Web

Bluetooth Biosensor Fits Within Wristwatch PC Magazine Staff, July 19, 2006, eWeek

Upcoming Events

IGNSS 2006
Date: July 17 - 21, 2006
Place: Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise Gold Coast , Australia
This is a great opportunity to see the latest products offered in Australia by leaders in the field of equipment, services and applications in positioning, navigation and more.

GeoWeb 2006
Date: July 24 - 28, 2006
Place: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Make plans now to attend GeoWeb 2006, the premier conference for Web-based geographic information systems-featuring 13 half-day workshops, nearly 70 paper presentations, keynoters, and a products and services exhibition that bring together the world of professional GIS and the broader world of the Web.

You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.

To read more news, click here.

-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.