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Features
All FeaturesBusinessMAP’s included data and functionality continue to make it an outstanding desktop mapping value. Version 5.0 includes updated business listings from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), integration with Google Earth and Google Maps, and the capability to place geo-referenced photos on the map.
MapInfo Professional version 9.5’s new features include ease of use and data access enhancements, .NET support and a new license server. Those and some other goodies planned for a November maintenance release are explored in this review from Paul Amos. He’s especially pleased with the new MapCAD tools for editing and tools for users to provide immediate feedback on the product and suggested enhancements. If you’ve not had a look at MapInfo for a while, this is a nice round up of what’s new.
Caliper Corporation’s Maptitude has a reputation for being a powerful, easy-to-use desktop mapping program. Version 5.0, released early this year, should turn a few heads according to reviewer Michael Cline. He suggests that GIS professionals will find more advanced analytical capabilities that take Maptitude beyond a simple mapping tool. Users will also like the low cost offering, which includes some functions unavailable in more expensive packages.
Terrain Navigator Pro lets you access the U.S. Geological Survey topographic quadrangle maps and USGS Digital Ortho Quarter Quads. The newest version offers new data enhancements and new functions to incorporate data from Google Earth. Paul Amos offers this review.
DeLorme XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise is one of the components of a three-tiered software solution suite from DeLorme that provides increasing levels of functionality for GIS professionals. DeLorme has taken the approach of providing scalable solutions with its software and data products so that users only purchase the required amount of software and data they need. Paul Amos reviews the product.
GeoIQ is an open platform that allows you to create applications integrating your data and other folks’ data using Google Maps and Microsoft Visual Earth APIs. This combination provides not only interesting visualizations, it also allows for fairly complex analysis in an easy-to-use interface. GeoIQ operates as a Web service; the API lets you configure its usage, the data sources and the level of analysis. Hal Reid provides an overview.
MapPoint 2006 is the next version of Microsoft’s desktop mapping software. It is really two separate products: a desktop mapping system and an in-vehicle navigation system. Depending on how you use it, you may see the improvements made from the previous version, MapPoint 2004, as valuable or not. Microsoft touts the vehicle navigation features of this version, and thus potential purchasers should consider whether the desktop mapping features are adequate for the type of analyses required. But the product lacks key features in desktop mapping and falls short of being a viable in-vehicle navigation system. Read more…
This free plug-in from CMC International creates Google Maps of individual contact addresses from within Microsoft Outlook. (It has a catchy name, too: “Google Maps plug-in for Outlook.”) What makes this product interesting is that it is an advertising vehicle that promotes ESRI’s BusinessMAP. Providing free, useful products is nothing new to the advertising world, but this seems like a fairly new twist in the GIS industry.
Sales forecasting models are among the most interesting applications of technology in retail development. The models quantify the nature and value of a location, summarize the location’s surrounding market or trade area, and provide a view of the future. This product overview describes a new Web-based offering from Proxix, Profi$ite.
Editor Hal Reid interviewed Antti Korhonen, President and CEO of Ekahau, Inc. Hal discovered a series of products and technologies that address the “where is it and where are they” problem in elegant ways. Ekahau’s products address the need to track assets and people.
Journal News Removes Interactive Gun Permit Map
The Lower Hudson Journal News has been under fire for publishing a map of gun permit holders in two counties in New York State before Christma. (APB coverage 1, 2, podcast). On Friday January 18 the paper removed the interactive map. Why? Publisher Janet Hasson gave answers in a media statement and in a letter to readers.
In a statement in response to The Poynter Institute (a journalism school) she argued:
With the passage this week of the NYSAFE gun law, which allows permit holders to request their names and addresses be removed from the public record, we decided to remove the gun permit data from lohud.com at 5 pm today. While the new law does not require us to remove the data, we believe that doing so complies with its spirit. For the past four weeks, there has been vigorous debate over our publication of the permit data, which has been viewed nearly 1.2 million times by readers. One of our core missions as a newspaper is to empower our readers with as much information as possible on the critical issues they face, and guns have certainly become a top issue since the massacre in nearby Newtown, Conn. Sharing as much public information as possible provides our readers with the ability to contribute to the discussion, in any way they wish, on how to make their communities safer. We remain committed to our mission of providing the critical public service of championing free speech and open records.
In a letter to readers published on Friday she wrote:
So intense was the opposition to our publication of the names and addresses that legislation passed earlier this week in Albany included a provision allowing permit holders to request confidentiality and imposing a 120-day moratorium on the release of permit holder data.
She goes on to say that during the 27 days the map was online any one interested would have seen it and that the data would eventually be out of date. She also noted that the paper does not endorse the way the state chose to limit availability of the data.
The original map/article still includes a graphic - but it's a snapshot, a raster image, with no interactivity. Says Hasson in the letter to readers:
And we will keep a snapshot of our map — with all its red dots — on our website to remind the community that guns are a fact of life we should never forget.
I continue to applaud the paper for requesting the data via a Freedom on Informat request, mapping it, keeping the map up despite threats and criticism and now responding to state law. I think the paper did a service to the state, to citizens and to journalism.
- via reader Jim and Poynter
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