Tadpole-Cartesia Gets New Name, Celartem Merges US Holdings and More

Tadpole-Cartesia Now Tadpole Technology Group's Geospatial Solutions Division

Tadpole-Cartesia will now be marketed as the Geospatial Solutions Division of the Tadpole Technology Group.I confess that it was hard to connect the Tadpole-Cartesia name with mapping and GIS, so this is a timely change.Tadpole (which I always knew as a hardware provider) introduced its software side, Tadpole-Cartesia in the 1999 and soon after purchased Conic Software.Note that "geospatial" is the term of choice, though the company works very closely with GIS partner ESRI. Interestingly, the release uses the term GIS twice.

Celartem Technology Announces Merger of US Holdings

Celartem Technology Inc.known to readers as the folks who own LizardTech announced a merger of its three US companies, Extensis, Inc., LizardTech, Inc.and Celartem, Inc.Extensis and LizardTech will pretty much run as they have, but will operate under the Celartem, Inc. holding company.The combined entity has projected revenues exceeding $30M and more than 160 employees.Yasuo Kano, Celartem Technology President and Chairman of the Board of Directors suggests it will be a good move for customers and profitability.Carlos Domingo, who was CEO of LizardTech will head Celartem Inc.He notes that bringing "Extensis' deep distribution channels and customer base and LizardTech's understanding of the government and publishing markets" will better position both companies.So the big questions are what does Extensis do and will it help sell LizardTech products and vice versa? Extensis offers products for those who create content, or as the company puts it, that "empower digital asset creators and users." (The company won a Frost and Sullivan award last spring.) LizardTech is more about management and distribution of images and documents.So, there clearly is a link.The trick is going to be expanding each company's customer base via the other, while hopefully cutting redundant expenses (think of a traditional acquisition or merger).On first look, it sounds like a good business decision to me.In fact, one might ask why this move took so long.

LizardTech Announces Integration with Oracle Spatial 10g GeoRaster

LizardTech also announced its plans to provide native support for MrSID in the next version of Oracle 10g.The curious statement in the release refers to JPEG 2000 support, noting that support for MrSID was a first step toward supporting the ISO standard image format.I asked Karen Morley, VP of Global Marketing about that.The technology for the two formats are in the same toolkit, but since MrSID is not a standard, LizardTech has more flexibility in embedding it in Oracle.Adding support for JPEG 2000, and being sure to follow the standard, will be more complex and will come in a later release.Oracle, by the way, did have to do some work on its API to allow for MrSID support, so it's doing its part.

Handheld Users "Trading Places" with Latest Release of Earthcomber

I'm not sure if completely follow the double entendre of "trading places" but Earthcomber definitely falls into the "we really need something like that" department.It's essentially a place to "put your places of interest." So, if you are into the Underground Railroad, you can post places of significance and see other peoples posted locations, too.A free membership lets you post locations, join groups and chat in interest groups.Users can upload locations via a Palm powered device or via the Web.Datapoints can be downloaded to the handhelds, too.The social/personal use version is free.Businesses can list themselves for $35/year.Searching of the database is free.The challenge for this offering? Getting folks away from all the "localized" search engines.Since Earthcomber's business model is built on luring businesses to pay, it'll have to convince surfers its offering is "better than" A9, Google Local, etc.

North American Oracle Spatial Special Interest Group

The Oracle Spatial Special Interest Group (which probably should be called the Oracle Spatial Interest Group) held its first meeting on March 10, after the close of GITA in Denver.The group will "provide a forum for geospatial professionals to share best practices and meet with Oracle Spatial experts.Key benefits for SIG members will include the rich interaction between end users, technology partners, service providers and academic professionals.Members plan to collaborate to drive the market for geospatial technology and data in the enterprise wide applications." The board members, most of whose names are not detailed in the release, are from NAVTEQ, IDC, Autodesk, eSpatial and the University of Arkansas.Those players sound more like partners than what I expected, which were users.Since the board was announced to the attendees, as was the charter, it seems clear this was not a grass roots move, but an Oracle initiated move.That's not necessarily a bad thing, but worth keeping in mind.