Remote Sensing

License plate identification, picture-taking drones and GPS tracking devices are legal in certain cases and their users may have only the best of intentions. So, what could possibly go wrong if these tools are deployed for purposes other than those for which they were intended? Welcome to the new privacy.

When you hear the word drone, images of warfare or high-tech surveillance come to mind. But the former editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and a young Tijuana programmer have a different idea. They believe drones will revolutionize our everyday lives. Text: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/drones-war-machine-today-helpful-tool-tomorrow

Our editors step up to the plate to evaluate last year's predictions and offer new ones for the geospatial marketplace in 2013.

Maps before and after Hurricane Sandy predicted flood damage well. What can mappers do better next time to support high density urban areas that are likely to be impacted by catastrophic storms?

Last week a discussion of Spatial Information Technology (SpatialIT) came to a bit of a head. The conversation, led by OpenGeo’s Paul Ramsey, may have unearthed a truth many would rather not hear: “... as we know, GIS courses are just the bait in the trap, to suck naïve students into a career where 90% of the activity is actually in data creation (digitization monkey!) and publication (map monkey!), not in analysis.” Is that right?

Editor in Chief, Joe Francica, spoke with Tomas Larsson, marketing director, Trimble Survey and Maarten Vandenbroucke, president, Gatewing, the provider of the X100 unmanned aerial vehicle about unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for an inside look at the applications and the equipment. Trimble recently bought Gatewing and listeners will find this interview especially useful as the market is set to rapidly expand.

With the impending merger of DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, Dr. Walkter Scott, Founder, Vice President and CTO, DigitalGlobe sat down with Editor in Chief Joe Francica to provide his views on where the company is headed, the budget situation in Washington and the technical advantages of the WorldView constellation.

The long northern hemisphere summer is over and the geospatial industry is gearing up for fall. What should we expect? What would we like to see? Our editors get listeners ready for the next few months.

What is the Dept. of Defense doing with its Enterprise Software Initiative? Why is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency asking for input on its procurement of apps? Does this tell us anything about the state of the geospatial market in the DoD or elsewhere?

As we head into the