Kerala takes lead in setting up a State Spatial Data Infrastructure
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease/information-technology/2009110536981.htm”>htm
Archive for 2009
Kerala state government jump starts State Spatial Data Infrastructure
Friday, November 6th, 2009Urban Mapping database used by Yellow Pages
Friday, November 6th, 2009Yesterday Urban Mapping, Inc. (UMI) announced that Yellow Pages Group (YPG) is using the URBANWARE Neighborhoods database for its online directory sites. According to the press release, YPG, Canada’s leading local commercial search provider and largest directory publisher, owns and manages the country’s most visited online directories YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca. The company also has a network of seven local city sites that attract over 7 million unique visitors per month.
The popular online directories use Urban Mapping’s data as a basis of their geographical search results ranking algorithm, which allows their end-users to search for merchants by neighborhood. YPG is then able to visually present these search results to the user by using the database’s neighborhood centroids (latitude/longitude) and border information.
MapQuest Gets Intermap Technologies Terrain Maps
Thursday, November 5th, 2009Intermap Technologies announced this week that it has licensed shaded terrain products which leverage the nationwide NEXTMap 3D mapping database to MapQuest, Inc. Additionally, Intermap will deliver shaded terrain products for Europe from its NEXTMap Europe database and the remainder of the world for subsequent releases on the MapQuest.com consumer Web site and Platform products, according to press materials.
In April I reported on Intermap’s NEXTMap USA release. Completed March 16, 2009, NEXTMap USA is the first company-funded initiative to map 3.1 million square miles (more than 8 million km2) of the entire contiguous U.S. and Hawaii in 3D. Elevation data for the national dataset includes 3D digital terrain models, digital surface models, contours, 3D road centerline geometries, and other high-resolution geospatial products as part of the Company’s proactive mapping program.
“We’re really transitioning from the collection phase to truly putting everything on the shelf,” explained Kevin Thomas, vice president of Marketing, Intermap. “We finished collecting Europe in August of last year, so we still had to go through the editing process in order to create a finalized product that’s on the shelf. By the end of April we should have all of Western Europe, that is about 2.4 million square kilometers, to put on the shelf at the same time. Then we continued through the rest of this year to edit all the U.S. data so we can get it on the shelf at the beginning of 2010.”
When Intermap set out to collect the entire U.S., many people said it “can’t be done,” Thomas pointed out, and even near completion, watchers were incredulous. “They didn’t think it was possible to collect that much data over a couple of years’ time frame and then making it commercially available — it’s never been done.” Thomas noted that it took the U.S. government 30 plus years to collect it using varying methods to create the USGS DEMS “that obviously don’t have the accuracy and uniform nature that Intermap has collected.” Thomas said that the collection launches a whole new breed of applications in the future.
From the press release: “We are excited to provide MapQuest with terrain products that will boost its innovative online assets with our advanced wide area 3D map database,” said Garth Lawrence, Intermap’s senior vice president of strategic business. “By incorporating Intermap’s data products, MapQuest is delivering detailed terrain visualization that will enhance the map-viewing experience for MapQuest’s millions of users.”
Most end users won’t know where this robust technology comes from, nor what its potential is, however, the enhancements should definitely make their map experience more indepth.
Google Maps turn-by-turn directions coming soon for Android 2.0 phones
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009What consumers have been waiting for perhaps?
“Turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps will soon be
available for Android 2.0 phones, and don’t be surprised to see
this software find its way into other types of devices.”
Wed, Oct 28 07:00:00 PDT 2009 – CNET.com
GIS for economics in Lebanon
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Geographic Information System will help modernize Lebanon’s economy
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=107887
By Mohammed Zaatari, The Daily Star, Lebanon
Bentley PowerMap standalone GIS
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009In my recent GISWeekly report on Bentley’s Be Inspired Awards and Symposium product announcements, I neglected to mention the product PowerMap, which will enhnace the MicroStation V8i SELECTseries 1 technology but is a standalone product.
http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_weekly.php?articleid=753096
Company product description is as follows: “Bentley PowerMap is a full-featured standalone GIS designed to address the unique and challenging needs of organizations that map, plan, design, build, and operate the world’s infrastructure. It enhances underlying MicroStation V8i (SELECTseries 1) technology to power precision geospatial data creation, maintenance, and analysis. Users can easily integrate data from a wide variety of sources into engineering and mapping workflows. Multiple data types with varying coordinate systems are transformed “on-the-fly” as they are added to a session. Powerful analytical and presentation tools allow for detailed analysis, studies and decision support.”
Add street sense to GIS crime reporting
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009For law enforcement, a lot of “GIS” begins on the street as police officers generally possess an innate knowledge of what areas on their beats are trouble spots. Those who are back at the office and doing crime analysis don’t have that field knowledge, however, they can identify hot spots with the help of:
http://crimeinamerica.net/2009/10/26/hot-spots-key-to-crime-control/
Here’s an idea: What if the GIS could include the so called “ground truth” gathered by police officers, as a specific sort of user-generated data?
Find the closest…er, haunted house
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009Location-based technology enjoys some holiday fun with MapQuest’s latest “ghost icon search button” within the On-Map Search tool (located to the right hand side of the map).
This search shows not only locations of haunted houses and other Halloween festivities, but also includes a link to the web sites of haunted houses when available.
For more information, visit the MapQuest team blog at: http://blog.mapquest.com/.
GIS and why government can’t be more like business
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009Herhold: Government failures flourish in dark by Scott Herhold, October 19, 2009 – San Jose Mercury News