Welcome to GISWeekly! For those users such as firefighters who need to view CAD drawings of a building on fire to create rescue plans, or those users out in the field who need the geographic location of a pipe or fire hydrants, a viewing and linking component that links CAD and GIS to a digital map is a viable solution. Read about it this week in our Industry News.
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, Alliances/Acquisitions, Announcements, New Products, Going on Around the Web, and Calendar.
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Susan Smith, Managing Editor
Industry News
Linking CAD/GIS Documents to a Digital Map
By Susan Smith
CompassCom Inc. is known for its fleet tracking, dispatching, mobile positioning and AVL solutions (see The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District) but the company also offers a CAD/GIS viewing and information linking component that is very useful to users out in the field. I've been covering CAD/GIS interoperable products lately, and this one, although not designed for field data collection, will be helpful to those users such as firefighters who need to view CAD drawings of a building on fire to create rescue plans, and utility users who might need to know the exact location of a pipe or fire hydrant. Users aren't passing back and forth GIS and CAD files marked up for review with this solution, only viewing CAD files that are linked to the GIS database.
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CompassRespond - document linkage feature displayed of a building floor plan |
CompassTrac is a viewing client that can reside either on the workstation, or on a laptop or other mobile device. It offers full support for satellite and aerial imagery, measurement tools if you want to measure the distance between two points, geocoding and reverse geocoding, searching by address or an intersection or lat/long. “We also support text messaging to the vehicle from dispatch or from mobile to mobile and we can hook in with computer aided dispatch systems,” explained Solomine.
CompassTrac Mobile is the mobile display that is all touch screen-capable, and optimized for in-vehicle use, including NightView, a feature that makes viewing at night easier for users, plus text messaging and changing of vehicle status. The cost of CompassTrac mobile is $600 per seat ($1,000 per seat with the document linking feature), while the workstation version is $2500 per copy. According to Solomine, most customers buy 5-10 copies of the workstation version and however many seats they need for their fleet of trucks or people in the field.
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CompassTrak Mobile with imagery |
Are they able to make any changes on these CAD documents, I asked. “Not out in the field, it's just a viewer.” Solomine added, “It's a universal linkage. We have an administrative module which allows users to link documents to a map. Now if they already have a records systems or a database system with a whole bunch of documents in it, we can create a filter that autopopulates this but if they don't, they can link any type of document to their map display. And then synchronize with all the other map displays out there so anyone who wants to access that system can do it.
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CompassTrak Mobile with imagery |
“Right now probably 50 percent of our customers are first responders, which include fire departments, police, EMS, state, local and federal government.,” said Solomine. “Secondary customers would be public works organizations and third would be public utilities.”
Alliances/Acquisitions/Awards
With ESRI Geoinformatik AG Redlands, California-ESRI, announced that the Swiss Confederation has signed a countrywide site license agreement with its national distributor, ESRI Geoinformatik AG, to promote GIS education throughout its secondary school system, ultimately introducing the technology into more than 200 high schools across the country.
SiRF Technology, Inc., provider of GPS enabled silicon and software location platforms, announced that its GPS technology is at the heart of HP's iPAQ Navigation System. The product, unveiled at the ITU Telecom World show in Geneva this month, is expected to drive the next wave of location based mobility features into the mainstream.
ESRI announced that HNIT-Baltic GeoInfoServisas (HB-GIS), its distributor for both Lithuania and Latvia, along with HB-GIS's partner as subcontractor ENVIROTECH, were awarded the software contract for development of the GIS-based Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) for the Rural Support Service (RSS) in Latvia.
MapInfo Corporation (Nasdaq: MAPS) announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Business Objects (Nasdaq: BOBJ), the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, to offer enterprise users a comprehensive location-based business intelligence solution. By adding location components to business intelligence software from Business Objects, the integrated solution helps organizations perform expanded analysis of customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) information. MapInfo will be showcasing the integrated solution at booth #301.
Laser-Scan announced a partnership with Computer Solutions and Finance Group plc (CSF), a leading full services IT solutions provider. Whilst Laser-Scan and CSF have already worked together on several initiatives, this agreement enables the two companies to form a comprehensive framework to effectively exploit commercial opportunities. The partnership will concentrate initially on the UK market, primarily in public sector, utilities and defense.
Intermap Technologies Corp., Denver, announced a plan to map the entire continental United States with its Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) technology. The NEXTMap USA project will provide elevation data and orthorectified radar imagery with one meter or better accuracy covering nearly 4.9 million miles of the United States.
Announcements
The focus of a webcast seminar on Nov. 18 hosted by the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) will be: “The August 14th Blackout: A Perspective on the Future of Utility Automation and IT” and will include presentations from senior executives with decades of experience in power engineering, automation, utility industry security, and power markets. The webcast, offered at a special price of $55, will take place Thursday, Nov. 18, 2003, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. More information on the webcast, including registration instructions, can be found at http://www.gita.org/events/webcasts/2003/blackout.html.
Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions announced its European Competence Center for Mapping and Military (Bonn, Germany) has successfully completed implementation of an optimized geospatial information system for the Amt fur Geoinformationswesen der Bundeswehr (geoinformation office of the German Federal Armed Forces) (AGeoBw). The new system, called the geodata information basis, contains source data, including topographical features with a scale from 1:50,000 to 1:1,000,000 that the AGeoBw uses to produce maps that support German military operations.
Z/I Imaging Corporation, an Intergraph company, announced the company's Digital Mapping Camera (DMC)(TM) has successfully captured imagery of New Mexico's San Juan River Basin in its first North American operational mission. The mission completed by 3001 Inc., the camera operator and a supplier of aerial mapping services and digital data to federal and local governments, delivered large-format multispectral and panchromatic digital imagery for a project designed to assess irrigated lands and test new technologies for an anticipated update to New Mexico's Digital Ortho Quarter Quad maps.
Peak Systems has updated it's UI-View32 Amateur Radio software which now seamlessly integrates UnderTow Software's street level mapping technology. With over 7,000 users World Wide, UI-View32 is one of the Amateur Radio applications which utilize APRS™ and packet radio technology. Using, among other things, GPS technology, UI-View32 enables Amateur Radio operators to see the geographic position of other APRS operators on street level maps anywhere in the USA.
Analytical Surveys, Inc., a provider of customized data conversion and digital mapping services for the geographic information systems (GIS) and related spatial data markets, announced that Tonga Partners LP ("Tonga"), an investment fund managed by Cannell Capital LLC, has converted $300,000 of a $2 million senior secured convertible debenture into ASI common stock. In accordance with the terms of the note, ASI will issue 261,458 shares of common stock to Tonga at a price of $1.24 per share, including accrued interest. The newly issued shares will increase ASI's total outstanding common shares from 823,965 to 1,085,423. Tonga previously held no common stock in ASI. After the conversion, Tonga will own approximately 24% of ASI's common stock.
The Open GIS Consortium Inc. (OGC) recently approved two new compliance tests and a series of tools to encourage software developers to validate software products that implement OpenGIS(R) Specifications. A new website ( http://www.opengis.org/resources/?page=testing) provides automated testing for Web Map Service 1.1.1 (WMS) and Web Feature Service 1.0 (WFS), a Geography Markup Language (GML) validation tool and links to reference implementations. Developers that successfully test for compliance with WMS and WFS specifications and want to claim or indicate compliance of their product in the marketplace must submit their results for validation, and pay a trademark licensing fee.
New Products
Locus Technologies (Locus), environmental information management organization, announced that it has expanded its award-winning, Web-based Environmental Information Management(TM) (EIM(TM)) system, a part of their LocusFocus(SM) Web portal, to include the capability of exporting data directly to the ArcView 8 Geographical Information System (GIS) from Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).
DAT/EM Systems now moves into the worldwide GIS marketplace with its new ESRI integration “Stereo Capture for ArcGIS”. This new ESRI integration was initially introduced to ESRI's ArcGIS Users at the 23rd Annual ESRI International Users Conference in early July 2003.
Mapping Solutions LLC unveiled TerraViewer USA for ArcGIS, its latest version of this innovative software. TerraViewer is an extension to ArcGIS that seamlessly integrates the USGS aerial images and topological maps into ArcGIS as a dynamically updated layer.
Autodesk, Inc. introduced the availability of Autodesk® Express Viewer 4, the latest of its free, downloadable application for viewing and printing Design Web Format™ (DWF™) drawings created by architects and engineers.
Centurion Wireless Technologies, Inc., designer and manufacturer of antennas and power products for wireless communications, unveiled the Centurion GPS(TM) antenna for telematics applications. Specially designed to provide high gain Global Positioning System (GPS) coverage for commercial and consumer vehicle tracking applications, the Centurion GPS is available in the automotive aftermarket and to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Mapping Solutions LLC unveiled TerraViewer USA for ArcGIS, its latest version of this innovative software. TerraViewer is an extension to ArcGIS that seamlessly integrates the USGS aerial images and topological maps into ArcGIS as a dynamically updated layer.
GpsTools allows users to include GPS and mapping support to applications developed in Visual Studio. The samples and documentation make it easy for software developers who are new to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and GPS to get a quick start.
Featured Downloads
Integrated Solutions--
Hummingbird Exceed Evaluation Copy --Exceed Power Suite allows enterprise users the ability to be able to connect to any type of legacy system.
Trial Software--
LizardTech Document Express Professional Trial -- The Document Express Professional suite of products allows users to create and edit DjVu content from a variety of sources.
Exceed PowerSuite offers enterprise users everything they need to connect to any type of legacy system in the enterprise and access data in ways that is most convenient to them. Exceed PowerSuite combines a powerful PC X server,comprehensive Terminal Emulator, kernel -based Network File Systems solution and a complete set of TCP/IP utilities.
Going on Around the Web...
Wal-Mart Plan Could Cost Suppliers Millions,
NY Times, November 10, 2003, by Barnaby J. Feder - Some consumer products companies will have to invest millions of dollars to comply with Wal-Mart's drive to have every carton and palette it receives carry a radio identification tag, according to a report to be released today by A. T. Kearney, a consulting firm.
Tech Summit to Tackle Net Issues,
Wired News, November 9, 2003 - Who controls the Internet and how richer nations should subsidize its growth in poorer countries are central issues dividing planners a month ahead of the first U.N. summit on information technology.
What's Putting Wind in Wireless' Sails,
Special Report, Business Week, November 11, 2003 - The U.S., long the developed world's wireless laggard, is catching up, says Keith Waryas, an analyst at tech consultancy IDC in Framingham, Mass. -- and that's feeding into a recent and continuing revolution in mobile software.
Going on in November...
2003 CityView User Conference
Date: November 5 - 7, 2003M
Place: Toronto, Canada
Integrating the Enterprise. Meet with and learn from your peers and find out about new features in CityView.
MOBILE GIS SEMINAR
Date: November 6, 2003
Place: Hadley's Hotel Hobart, Australia
DataVision GIS, in conjunction with ESRI Australia, Ultimate Positioning and RIA Mobile GIS, will host a Mobile GIS Seminar on the 6 November 2003. The seminar will be held at Hadley's Hotel in Hobart, Australia, at 2pm. This is a great opportunity for Tasmanians to learn about the latest in mobile geographic information systems technology. Please note that although the seminar is free you will need to register, by 31 October 2003, in order to reserve your place. The Registration Form can be downloaded from: http://www.datavision.net.au/Seminar_Mobile.html
30th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment
Date: November 10 - 14, 2003
Place: Honolulu, HI USA
The symposium will bring together the knowledge and experience of experts from around the world in remote sensing of environment, and you are invited to be a part of it. In our commitment to sustaining development into the new millennium, specific perspectives will be featured in the technical program of this international assembly of the remote sensing community, the themes of Hazards & Disasters, Global Change, Natural Resources, and Technology and Infrastructure.
ESRI Mid-Atlantic User Group ESRI Mid-Atlantic User Group
Date: November 12 - 14, 2003
Place: Sheraton Reston Hotel, Reston, VA USA
The ESRI Mid-Atlantic User Group (ESRI-MUG) announces its annual GIS conference November 12-14, 2003, at the Sheraton Reston Hotel, 11810 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, VA, 20191. November 12th will be devoted to three all-day training seminars. On November 13-14, 2003, the conference will feature keynote speakers, vendor exhibits, poster displays, user presentations, and ESRI technical sessions. For more information on the conference or to register, visit the ESRI-MUG web site ( www.esrimug.org ) or contact Jeff Poplin, Conference Chair, at Email Contact or (703) 849-0614. For exhibitor information, contact Delaney Meeting and Event Management at (802) 655-7769.
Seven Hills Regional User Group for GIS (SHRUG)
Date: November 17 - 21, 2003
Place: Tallahassee - Leon County Civic Center Tallahassee, FL USA
2nd Annual GIS Workshop - "Expanding Our Boundaries" Training Sessions : November 17-18, 2003 GIS Workshop: November 19-21, 2003 Building on the success of the 2002 SHRUG GIS Workshop, we are extending the 2003 Workshop another full day. The first day of the Workshop coincides with GIS Day (November 19th)! Pre-Workshop training sessions will also be available for purchase. These professionally-instructed, two-day sessions will take place on November 17-18. The sessions will cover a variety of popular GIS topics, ranging from Beginner to Advanced. The Seven Hills Regional Usergroup for GIS webpage will provide additional information like costs, directions, registration, hotels, and training availability. Inquiries: Email Contact
CARIS 2003 - Gateways in Geomatics Date: November 18 - 21, 2003
Place: Adam's Mark St. Hotel St. Louis, MO USA
Hosted in St. Louis, the Gateway to the West, the CARIS 2003 conference theme, "Gateways in Geomatics," reflects the exciting results of recent advances in geospatial technology. Join us to learn how CARIS software is are opening doors for improved data quality, data sharing, facilitating the introduction of Geomatics to new audiences and is turning data into information...learn how CARIS is creating Gateways in Geomatics!
GIS Day
Date: November 20, 2003
Place: USA
November 20 every year GIS Day serves to make people aware of mapping technology and the vital contributions it is making in the fields of science, technology, information, and the humanities. It is a day for GIS enthusiasts to show individuals and organizations how to apply geographic information in their own communities, businesses, and environments and experience the amazing benefits of GIS technology. Principal sponsors of the event are the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the United States Geological Survey, the Library of Congress, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, Sun Microsystems, and ESRI. Users of GIS technology are invited to be a part of this worldwide educational mission and register to host an event. Participating organizations will receive support in promoting their event to local schools, newspapers, and other organizations.
FME Training Surrey
Date: November 20 - 21, 2003
Place: (Safe Headoffice) BC, Canada
Learn from the source how to use the core components of the Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) through hands-on training. During our two-day (1/3 lecture, 2/3 exercise and problem solving) training course, attendees learn to unlock the powerful features and functionalities of FME to more effectively manage their data translation and data transformation problems. Questions are encouraged throughout the class and attendees are encouraged to bring their own sample data files.
GeoInfo 2003
Date: November 24 - 27, 2003
Place: Havana, Cuba
"Informatics & Geosciences" GEOINFO'2003 will gather a wide group of specialists involved in urban and territorial planning, integral environmental studies, the exploration and rational exploitation of the natural resources, the integrated handling of water resources and the residuals, precision in agriculture, the protection of ecosystems of high fragility, the studies of environmental impact, electrification and telecommunications network systems and the environmental education. They should have as a main scope the sustainability of the socioeconomic activity and the mitigation and/or attenuation of impacts caused by the natural and anthropic disasters.
ESRI Canada Regional User Conference
Date: November 25, 2003
Place: St. Johns, NL, Canada
II International Congress on Territorial Zoning Date: November 26 - 28, 2003
Place: Toluca, Mexico
Territorial zoning is an instrument, process, strategy and/or policy of technical and political planning whose main purpose is to arrange the long-term organization of the use and occupation of territory according to its own potential and limitations, the expectations and needs of the people and the objectives of sustainable human development. The policies of territorial zoning are developed through programs which are carried out within a spatial organization or the existing territorial order of use and occupation adapted to a socially coordinated objective image.
You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.
To read more news, click here.
-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.