East View Cartographic (EVC) announced the addition of global outsourcing management services for mapping and GIS data production. EVC is the leading provider of authoritative global mapping products and geospatial data and sees global outsourcing management services as a natural extension of its business.

Visual Learning Systems (VLS) announced the release of Feature Analyst 4.0 for ArcGIS, the latest edition of the feature extraction software recognized by ESRI as the “Most Innovative Solution” . Feature Analyst 4.0 provides users with significant new capabilities including enhanced image and vector handling, direct read/write with the Geodatabase, and a developer API for creating plug-in tools.

Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia FreeHand as well as MAPdataUSA and MAPdataWorld royalty-free data sets, announces that Geographic Imager, a new plug-in suite for Adobe Photoshop CS2 software that adds geospatial functionality to this powerful image editing program, is now shipping.

CARIS announced the first release of is next generation suite of products for bathymetric data management. CARIS BASE Editor 1.0 has been released to enable users to compile, validate and analyze source bathymetry. Users import BASE surfaces and data from a variety of third party sources to perform functions for 3D visualization and fly-through, subset area editing and surface comparison.

MapInfo Corporation, provider of location intelligence solutions, announced the release of Demand Insight Financial, the banking industry's first financial demand data product derived from actual retail banking accounts and engineered specifically to generate accurate current and five-year projections for the total financial services demand in any given U.S. market. Total wallet demand estimates are segmented and allocated by residential, workplace and small business customer categories.

Around the Web

Mapping a revolution with 'mashups' , November 17, 2005, CNET News.com--The ability to mash together maps and other content has people mapping everything from urinals to UFO sightings.

Enlisting Cellphone Signals to Fight Road Gridlock , by Matt Richtel, November 11, 2005, The New York Times - Several state transportation agencies, including those in Maryland and Virginia, are starting to test technology that allows them to monitor traffic by tracking cellphone signals and mapping them against road grids.

'Geocoding' used to locate Katrina survivors, by Marsha Walton, November 10, 2005, CNN - Police, firefighters, and Coast Guard crews may be the first to come to mind when naming the lifesavers during disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

It might be time to add geographers to that list.

In the sometimes desperate hours following Katrina's landfall, experts in geographic information services -- GIS -- helped search and rescue crews reach more than 75 stranded survivors in Mississippi.

One of their most valuable tools was a process called "geocoding," the conversion of street addresses into global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

Upcoming Events

8th South East Asian Surveyors Congress 2005

Date: November 21 - 25, 2005

Place: Brunei, Brunei Darussalam

The Brunei Institution of Geomatics will present the 2005 South East Asian Survey Congress in Brunei Darussalam, The theme is Geomatics and the Community. Enquiries to Sariawati on +673-238-2005 or via email.

Autodesk University 2005

Date: November 28 - December 1, 2005

Place: Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel , Orlando, FL USA

Autodesk University®, an annual user's conference, is the premier educational and networking conference. The conference features over 250 classes, labs and great networking opportunities with Autodesk representatives and industry experts.

First International Conference on Geospatial Semantics (GeoS 2005)

Date: November 29 - 30, 2005

Place: Mexico City, Mexico

Geospatial semantics is an emerging research theme in the domain of geographic information systems and spatial databases. GeoS 2005 will provide a timely forum for the exchange of state-of-the-art research results related to the many facets of modeling and processing geospatial semantics.

You can find the full GISCafe event calendar here.

To read more news, click here.

-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.