Open Source

Location-based data and analysis are considered so critical to the understanding of a business’ operations that business analytics software companies routinely and prominently boast maps as part of their dashboard visualization toolkits. But Gartner, the market research company, gives scant...

As of today OpenStreetMap users with a modern browser will automatically use the new iD editor, the result of the Knight New Challenge grant. Users can switch between iD (open source, available on github) and the existing Flash-based Potlatch 2 editor (soon to be the intermediate tool).  The...

As TechCrunch just reported this morning, we are teaming up with Skybox, the microsatellite and analytics company, to design new interfaces for visualizing rapid satellite imagery collection. The timing of this collaboration is perfect - later this year, Skybox will be launching the first two...

Dr. Anthony Robinson of Penn State is continuing development of the first geo-MOOC, a massive open online course titled Maps and the Geospatial Revolution, which begins in July. I spoke with Dr. Robinson in February, just after the course was announced. In part two of our conversation recorded...

GIS users, even those who don’t consider themselves programmers, may have heard of a mysterious location on the Web called GitHub. What is it and what do GIS users need to know about it?

  The TeachGIS website is online. TeachGIS.org is the brain-child of Diana Sinton and a posse of other GIS-teaching, map-loving, spatial-thinking folks, mostly from higher education.  As a community of practice, we created this site as a venue where expert and novice instructors of...

The Sunlight Foundation chimed in on an Ohio Supreme Cout decision covered at All Points Blog last week. While the decision was about an open records law, Tom Lee believes the decision supports the use of open data formats.

The Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association has awarded Holliston, MA a $10,000 grant to implement a GIS. The Association provides the town with property and causuality insurance. PeopleGIS will do the implentation; I expect the company will use its open source-based SimpliCITY...

Jonathan Feldman is the chief information officer for the city of Asheville, NC. He keeps computer networks and technology working for both staffers and citizens. And, he thinks of his team as a startup. He encourages testing and piloting to see what works. For instance, GIS analysts in his...

Keeping an Eye on Online Test-Takers Cost of online proctoring? $15-$90. A whole new biz! #edtech How Google And Bing Maps Control What You Can See The latest on satellite imagery/aerial imagery censorship A Real-Time Map of the Odds on Where the Next Pope Will Come From Why? My guess?...