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Welcome to GISWeekly!
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, People, Awards, New Products, and Events Calendar.
GISWeekly welcomes letters and feedback from readers, so let us know what you think. Send your comments to me at giscafe-editor@IBSystems.com
Best wishes,
Susan Smith, Managing Editor
Industry News
ESRI UC RoundUp
by Susan Smith
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This year was no exception. The line to buy an autographed copy of Dr. Wangari Maathai’s memoir or a Green Belt Movement t-shirt (emblazoned with the message: “I Plant Trees”) extended out the doors of the Sail Room.
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Founder and director of Service at Sea, Drew Stephens |
GITA’s Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference
Bob Samborski, executive director of GITA, said the organization has been analyzing responses from membership and conference attendees to find out just what people think GITA’s identity is. Some feel that they focus mostly on utilities, which is, of course, a large part of membership. “We realized we’re not doing a good job of describing what our identity is. When you look at the composition of the membership, the second largest membership is local government. At the conference, one of the largest attendance constituencies is local government. We can’t shake this utility image.”
Next, the board members looked at the commonality of our some of their utility members, and wanted to find out who the local government people were and what did they do. “They’re mostly infrastructure oriented, network types, from local , state and federal government,” said Samborski.
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From the press release: “The geospatial industry has officially migrated from being exclusively a “technology” to being a full-fledged industry sector that is instrumental in the management of the critical infrastructure that supports every aspect of civil life—from telecommunications to emergency response to banking and finance.”
How to accomplish this change:
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Emergency Responseo GITA’s next Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in Seattle, WA, will have content focused on green GIS, and the organization will add on to this element of the conference in years to come—even in its own conference operations.
Broad horizontal solutionso A widely recognized area of infrastructure is emergency response and planning. Programming is already in place for a “conference within a conference,” happening at the next Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference in March 2008.
Adapxo With projects such as the now completed return on investment workbook, Building a Business Case for Geospatial Information Technology: A Practitioner’s Guide to Financial Strategic Analysis, GITA will continue to ensure that broad geospatial solutions are the focus of the organization and the conference.
Using technology licensed from Anoto, Adapx has created a new software product called Mapx, which is a fully integrated solution that allows you to use its digital pen-and-paper-based data collection with ESRI ArcGIS mapping software. The technology for ArcGIS involves a geo-registered map printed from a Mapx-enabled version of ArcGIS Desktop of Engine application, which you can mark up or annotate using one of the digital pens called Penx. The paper has a pattern of dots printed in the printed document that enables it to be used with the pen. The pen collects all this written data, when it is placed in the docking station for upload, the data is available on the computer.
Intermap
Intermap and Microsoft announced the launch of Microsoft’s enhanced Virtual Earth (VE) 3D viewing platform based on Intermap’s elevation data for all of Great Britain. Readers may recall that Intermap gained attention from their creation of an accurate, up-to-date elevation data model for Great Britain, called NEXTMap Britain, and is also creating maps for the rest of Western Europe, to be completed this year.
Intermap’s relationship with Microsoft means that Microsoft has licensed Intermap’s elevation data so that VE now has their elevation data as its foundation in Great Britain, providing a more realistic view of the earth. “The relationship hopes to continue to expand into the rest of our European markets,” noted E. Ted Garlock, senior manager, Global Marketing Communications for Intermap. “We want to work together to build applications that will provide services to consumers and businesses.” Intermap is known for providing elevation data for generating risk assessment and management models, and this data will now be available as part of VE to anyone using it.”
Intermap is also looking at creating personal navigation products, which will have 3D images and target the off road vehicle market, including forest roads and trails. “We are creating a product for off road that will go on any device, that will have a 3D off road network,” said Garlock. “Because of our elevation model, we’ll be able to put line of sight information, and safety features for being lost, or injured, to be able to tell if you have cell phone signals or not, and where to go to get them.”
This product builds on what we’re doing with MS in terms of visualization. Just like being there, you’ll see in 3D and do fly arounds, do an analysis -- do I have to go back down into a valley to get to a peak with estimated time to get there, analysis functions for offroaders as well, campgrounds and all POIs for national parks and forest service, can make wiser decisions whether mountain biking, hiking, or driving.
MetaCarta
Announced at the conference were two new geographic data modules (GDMs) that “identify, disambiguate, and resolve Arabic and Spanish geographic references found in documents.” Up until now the MetaCarta products were only available in English. MetaCarta provides geographic search and referencing solutions, and the new modules make it possible for Spanish and Arabic documents to be geographically mined, categorized and visualized. The GeoTagger also will identify language and character set of each document and assign latitude and longitude coordinates plus country code tags to place names in the document.
The GDMs provide:
1) natural language processing (NLP) including jargon, naming schemes, and linguistic constructs
2) a gazetteer which includes both Spanish and Arabic worldwide.
Bob Warren of MetaCarta said that they will add Russian and French later this year, and plan on adding four to six languages by next year.
MetaCarta is also moving into media and publishing, where the product is being used for georeferencing published articles. Newspapers want to own local content, and be “hyper-local,” meaning they want to be everything to an area, and include all advertising and classifieds. Location awareness in this venue can be very useful for advertising and marketing.
TeleAtlas
SAIC
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Laser Technology
Laser Technology has had great success with its TruPulse 200 Laser measuring device which debuted in 2006, to be followed with its new laser rangefinder, TruPulse 360, a reflectorless device that combines an integrated compass, inclinometer and distance laser with mapping grade accuracy and ability to shoot from any angle. The new TruPulse 360 has compass bearing, azimuth bearing, and is ideal for markets such as forestry, utilities, telecom and transmission. It integrates with GPS and allows you to get remote GPS points and calculate the distance between utility poles. The product retails at $1595 and $1695 with Bluetooth.
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Trimble exhibited its Juno ST, released in April. A handheld non-rugged GPS receiver for field data collection and mobile GIS, it is the company’s most compact, lightweight and fully integrated field computer with a built in GPS and high volume data collection system. It has 2-5 meter GPS positioning in real time or after postprocessing.
The primary markets for the Juno ST handheld are utility companies, government organizations, and agencies that are managing large deployments and tight budgets. It is particularly useful in difficult positions such as in hostile environments, up against buildings or under forest canopy. For 2 to 5 meter accuracy in the field, you can use the integrated WAAS receiver for real time corrections. Otherwise, you can collect your field data and postprocess it back in the office.
Key features:
- Priced to equip an entire workforce
- Lightweight and compact enough to carry in a shirt pocket
- Productive field and office workflow
- Windows Mobile 5.0 software familiarity and convenience
- Bluetooth and WLAN connectivity
- SD card slot for expandable data storage
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Recently, GISWeekly wrote about GeoEye entering the growth market of predictive analysis and geointelligence solutions with the announcement of its investment in SPADAC.
Other interesting news from that company involves their new GeoEye Foundation which gives away imagery. Since announcing the Foundation, CEO Matt Connell said that GeoEye has been inundated with requests.
Besides making their imagery available to help people, the Foundation has other benefits for GeoEye: it allows them to get to know academics. They are working with various academic institutions and universities that provide a valuable vision of the future.
The various acquisitions and investments GeoEye has made allow the company to “inject knowledge into pixels.” With the acquisition of the aerial digital imaging company, M.J. Harden, and the addition of General James R. Clapper (formerly of the NGA) to their board, they have broadened their reach into the oil and gas market. The new satellite to be launched third quarter, 2007, GeoEye-1, “will be able to collect images at 0.41-meter panchromatic (black & white) and 1.65-meter multispectral resolution. Just as important, GeoEye-1 will be able to precisely locate an object to within 3 meters of its true location on the surface of the Earth.”
Top News of the Week
Universal Mind Inc. announced it will team with ESRI and Adobe to create a new generation of rich Internet applications (RIAs) that leverage ESRI’s enterprise GIS platform and Adobe® Flex™ software to make geographic analysis and access easy and ubiquitous.
Increasingly, the web is becoming geographically enabled, and GIS is playing a much broader role in delivering business intelligence and analysis to the larger community of business and non-professional users. As a result, GIS has grown into an integral component of enterprise applications supporting critical and real-time decision-making across a broad spectrum of industries and markets.
TerraServer is proud to announce the release of the new TerraServer.com website. This new version includes a completely redesigned layout and also includes many new subscription features and download/print options.
After five months and over 4,000 man-hours of work, the new website was released to the public. Extensive analysis was done in order to create the redesigned website including use of customer surveys, competitive comparisons, usability studies, and outside design consultants. Many of the new features were added directly based on customer feedback. The new version had been available to the public in beta release for over a month to allow users to become familiar and test out the new website.
Acquisitions/Agreements/Alliances
Tele Atlas, a global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location based solutions, announced it has signed an agreement with BAKOSURTANAL, the government institution responsible for creating and maintaining large scale geographical maps in Indonesia.
Tele Atlas plans to incorporate BAKOSURTANAL's digital maps within its existing Indonesia database by September 2007. The Indonesia map is part of a virtually seamless Southeast Asia map solution from Tele Atlas that includes extensive coverage of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) and GeoAge have announced an OEM partnership that will combine the world’s leading hand-held GIS mapping system – TPS’ GMS-2 – with advanced FAST™ data collection and mapping software designed by GeoAge.
The Topcon and GeoAge agreement enables users to benefit from high performance end-user solutions within industries such as utilities, engineering, public works and environmental management. Topcon and GeoAge will work together to help customers configure the best solutions to meet their needs.
Enspiria Solutions, a provider of consulting and systems integration services to the utility, cable and government sectors, and OSIsoft, Inc., who provide the PI System, the industry standard in enterprise historians, as the core of their real-time infrastructure platform, have partnered to provide PI System integration services as part of Enspiria’s overall offering related to asset management and business intelligent solutions.
DMTI Spatial (DMTI), a provider of location intelligence solutions, has established a reseller partnership with Statistics Canada (STC) to offer customers 2006 Census Boundary Files. The market will continue to rely on DMTI Spatial as an established Canadian provider of a comprehensive product line of geographic information that is of high quality and built for Location Intelligence applications.
Vyyo Inc., a supplier of broadband access equipment for cable system operators, announced that it has entered into a cooperative relationship with Bentley Systems, Incorporated to streamline the implementation of the Vyyo UltraBand(TM) spectrum overlay platform for cable system operators.
Working in conjunction with Vyyo, Bentley will incorporate a library of specifications based on the UltraBand platform into its Bentley Communications/Bentley Coax Geospatial Information System (GIS) solution for RF design. The relationship will simplify the ability of cable system operators to design spectrum overlay solutions for the delivery of residential and business services by providing increased visibility into performance and cost data with no change in GIS software.
Announcements
Just four days after the German radar satellite TerraSAR-X has been launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the first brilliant satellite images have been received.
There was loud cheering among the TerraSAR-X teams of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Astrium and Infoterra on Tuesday evening, when – only 30 minutes after the data had been received by the ground station in Neustrelitz – the first images appeared on the monitors at the DLR space centre in Oberpfaffenhofen. Although the satellite will only reach its final orbital position in ten days’ time, these data – recorded for test purposes only – already display a remarkably high quality and level of detail.
Topcon Corporation is expanding its business to include the rapidly growing international mobile control business.
For Topcon, entering the "mobile control business is a natural extension of our basic business model," according to Fumio Ohtomo, director and managing executive officer, "which is, simply, to provide the most innovative precise positioning instruments, software and applications to global end users.
In light of a greatly increased demand for qualified analysts in the intelligence, defense and emergency management fields, Penn State has developed a new online certificate program in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT). The five-course, 14-credit post baccalaureate program is designed to provide students with the core competencies required to effectively and ethically provide geospatial analysis to key decision makers at defense, governmental, business and nongovernmental organizations.
DMTI Spatial (DMTI), a provider of enterprise location intelligence solutions, has been awarded Certified for Windows Vista status for its premiere Canadian geocoding software. This Vista certification for the GeoPinpoint Suite is important to our customers as it demonstrates application security, reliability and overall compatibility with the Vista operating system.
NAVTEQ, a global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions and vehicle navigation, announced that it has been selected to provide Panasonic, a leading manufacturer of consumer electronics, with NAVTEQ(R) digital map data for the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico for the recently launched Panasonic Strada CN-NVD905U. The navigation system will also feature SIRIUS Traffic available through SIRIUS Satellite Radio.
People
Infotech Enterprises America, Inc. (IEAI) is pleased to announce Mrs. Jennifer Davila’s promotion to Marketing Manager for the Geospatial Division of Infotech headquartered in Sterling, Virginia. Prior, Mrs. Davila held the position of Marketing Coordinator with primary duties focused on preparation of all bid/proposals, tradeshow coordination, and development of marketing materials. The promotion reflects Infotech’s growth plans that include increasing market penetration by raising market awareness of Infotech and performing primary and secondary market research to identify new services required by the target market segments.
Sara Kustron, GISP, joins AppGeo as a Project manager and Senior GIS Analyst. She brings to AppGeo more than seven years of professional experience, most recently as GIS Coordinator with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Center for Environmental Health (CEH).
Awards
GeoEye announced that Matthew O'Connell, President & CEO, received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) 2007 Award for the Communications category in Greater Washington D.C. The Ernst & Young award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who are building and leading dynamic, growing businesses. Mr. O'Connell was selected by an independent panel of judges and the award was presented at an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year gala event at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, Virginia on June 21, 2007.
Ernst & Young has awarded its prestigious Ernst & Young 2007 London Region Entrepreneur of The Year Technology and Communication award to Sean Phelan, founder of Multimap. Phelan picked up the trophy at the awards ceremony at the London Hilton Metropole, in recognition of his success as a leading internet entrepreneur and innovator.
On March 13, the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS) Facility Information Council released the first version of the National Building Information Modeling StandardTM [ NBIMS] for a two month industry review period. The Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) has been helping to promote this standard through interoperable web services using NBIMS and helping to ensure compatibility with the geospatial industry's consensus based open standards for urban modeling.
New Products
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announces the development of a TerraSAR-X processing capability for ERDAS IMAGINE® Radar Mapping Suite 9.1.
Upon completion, this new capability will allow users to display and manipulate images captured by the TerraSAR-X satellite, recently launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. This Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, a joint effort of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and Infoterra’s parent company Astrium GmbH, transmits high quality X-band radar images in record time, penetrating cloud cover and requiring few ground control points. Only five days after launch, the ground station received images, and within thirty minutes, these images appeared on the DLR monitors in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Azteca Systems, Inc., provider of GIS-centric management solutions, announced the release of Cityworks Server, a web based maintenance management system. Cityworks Server offers state-of-the-art technology and provides users an advanced and efficient way to account for assets in Cityworks. Cityworks Server represents the latest functionality towards making asset and work management easier than ever before.
AtlasCT, a developer and provider of worldwide mapping solutions both for the Web and mobile marketplace, is announcing the release of version 3.0, the newest version of AtlasWeb™ Software Development Kit (SDK) an advanced package for Internet-based GIS applications development.
Proxix Solutions, a location intelligence company, launched PxPoint Online, a Web-based service that accurately geocodes files containing up to one hundred thousand customer records in a single batch process.
Utilizing high-precision, multinational geocoding technology integrated with quality data sources, such as NAVTEQ street data and parcel boundaries, PxPoint Online appends the exact latitude and longitude coordinates to each record, and corrects addresses to United States Postal Service (USPS) standards. Using multiple data sets heightens geocoding accuracy and ensures the best possible match for any address, which improves the integrity of an organization's customer data.
Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop is pleased to announce MAPublisher 7.5 for Adobe Illustrator CS2 and CS3. MAPublisher 7.5 is the latest version of this powerful mapmaking software used to produce high quality maps from GIS data and is the first version to offer support for the new Adobe Illustrator CS3.
Last April 2007 Aerodata Int. Surveys successfully used the extremely fine weather period for the acquisition of nationwide digital aerial imagery over 3 countries: The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (also known as the Benelux). An area of 80.000 sq km was digitally captured in a period of just 4 weeks, thereby creating a unique time document of the above countries.
This aerial photography is presently being merged into one very large image database both in color (RGB) and color infrared (NIR) at 40 cm GSD (ground sample distance).
Upcoming Events
| Geoinformatics Forum Salzburg 2007 | |
| Date: | July 3 - 6, 2007 |
| Place: | Salzburg University,
Hellbrunner Strasse 34, Salzburg, 5020 Austria |
| The Salzburg University Centre for Geoinformatics has been organizing an annual regional conference dedicated to Applied Geoinformatics (AGIT) for over fifteen years. After several successful English speaking pre- and post-conferences on various topics, we have decided to follow our international partner organisations' suggestions to offer an annual English symposium co-located with AGIT and sharing the state-of-the art AGIT-EXPO exhibit. We invite you to attend GI-Forum 2007. | |
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| Diving into GIS and Earth Observation Technologies | |
| Date:
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July 11 - 21, 2007 |
| Place: | Santa Cesarea Terme
Italy |
| The International Summer School DIGEO “Diving into GIS and Earth Observation Technologies” will take place during the 11th. - 21st. of July 2007 in the mediterranean locality of Santa Cesarea Terme in Italy. The main objective is to provide participants with the know-how needed to: - create and manage Geographic Information Systems (GIS), - integrate Remote Sensing - Satellite Image interpretation and GIS - collect underwater data while obtaining an International scuba SSI certificate | |
| The Second ICA Workshop on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling | |
| Date: | July 12 - 13, 2007 |
| Place: | Xiaobai Angela Yao, and Bin Jiang
Athens , GA USA |
| The International Cartographic Association (ICA) workshop series aims to bring together researchers from academia and industry to present leading edge research findings, exchange ideas, and stimulate new research efforts around geospatial analysis and modeling. | |
| National Association of Counties (NACo) | |
| Date: | July 13 - 17, 2007 |
| Place:
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Richmond, VA USA |
| MARK YOUR CALENDARS! Registration for the 2007 NACo Annual Conference and Exposition will open in mid-February. | |
| The 2007 Wireless & Mobile Expo and Conference | |
| Date: | July 17 - 18, 2007 |
| Place:
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Imigrantes Exhibiiton Center
S©o Paulo , Brazil |
| The 2007 Wireless & Mobile Expo and Conference, being the global meeting place for the wireless industry, attracts key decision-makers to learn and purchase the latest products and solutions, offered by innovative technology vendors and service providers. | |
| GEOBrasil Summit 2007 | |
| Date: | July 17 - 19, 2007
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| Place: | Imigrantes Exhibiiton Center
S©o Paulo , Brazil |
| Created in 2000, GEOBrasil Summit is, by far, the biggest and most important annual meeting of buyers, specialists and suppliers of solutions connected with geotechnologies of Latin America. | |
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GeoWeb 2007
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| Date: | July 23 - 27, 2007 |
| Place: | Vancouver, BC
Canada |
| We encourage the attendance of anyone and everyone working in the public and private sectors that match the following description: You are interested in the development of technology to enable the convergence of Web technologies, XML, Web services, and GIS. You are interested in the multitude of applications associated with the convergence of Web technologies, XML, Web services, and GIS You are interested in the impact of businesses and government policies associated with the convergence of Web technologies, XML, Web services, and GIS. You are interested in the emergence of new business models leveraged by the convergence of Web technologies, XML, Web services, and GIS. | |
You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.
To read more news, click here.
-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.