All Points Blog

Quote of the Week

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-03T08:14:45Z

"Its extremely gratifying. I cant wait for this to show up on Google Earth for the first time."

Entrix Inc. senior project scientist Chris Pfeifer on Sloughs Gut Marsh which his company helped rebuild on Cape Cod in the Cape Gazette.

Japanese Imperial Army Maps Online

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-03T07:31:25Z

Maps from the Japanese Imperial Army archives are now online (Japanese language archive) and might be used to study changes in forest cover or the growth of cities, per one researcher. Some of the maps date back to the 1880s. The maps were collected, copied or created during times of Japanese colonialsim, making residents of some impacted countries less than pleased with their appearance on the Web.

- AFP

NAVTEQ: "The phone will not replace the sat-nav"

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-02T09:08:46Z

Not a new sentiment, though I've mostly heard it from sat-nav providers, not data providers. That comment comes from NAVTEQ vice president, Serge Bussat. He goes on to say, in an interview from Pocket-Link, "It's not about building the map, it's about building the layers on top of it." That says the article means not data layers, but apps. The future for NAVTEQ in sat-nav? In-car solutions. As the article points out, most folks commenting suggest phones will indeed push stand alone sat navs aside.

I'm not sure why it matters to NAVTEQ where its data end up. And, I'm not sure why a spokesperson would say, "it's not about building the map" unless it plans to get out of the data business and into the app biz. And, of course, the company is getting into the app biz, at least a bit, with its online and mobile phone directions/traffic apps.

Discussions in an MSNBC article that highlighted missing information in a satnav highlight the importance of the added layer. This was official NAVTEQ response from Navteq spokesman Bob Richter:

The information for travelling on the I-66 is correctly referenced in the Navteq [sic] map and is made available to our customers. We regret we cannot comment on the actual system performance, as it is our policy not to speak on behalf of our customers who make other necessary decisions in the final system development once we deliver our data.

- Pocket-Lint

In other NAVTEQ news:

NAVTEQ Vice Chairman (and former CEO) Judson Green is joining the board of human resources consulting and outsourcing company Hewitt Associates Inc.

- press release

MapQuest Adds July 4 Events to its Maps

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-02T08:43:05Z

In the spirit of the upcoming July 4th Independence Day events, MapQuest has added another icon on its maps - it's a startburst firework. Clicking on it shows July 4th celebrations from When.com, which is not all that complete. The icon joins the other regular ones (some hotel chains), grocery stores, bars, pharmacies...

Adding road closures related to those would be a nice addition!

via LA Times

Apps for Democracy 2 Wraps

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-02T08:12:54Z

Version 2 of DC crowdsourcing initiative to better serve its constituents saw its final submissions come in last night. In this version the community determined what sorts of apps were needed and developers were then asked to address them. Then, there's options for more funding. The results of phase 2 are here.

Government folks (D.C. Department of Transportation, the Office of Planning and the office of the city's CTO) took on one request themselves: developing a "Where's My Bus?" app. It details the five route Circulator Buses. A commercial option for that NextBus is back up and running, but having some issues, per the Washington Post.

- ReadWriteWeb

EU Drops Planned Tax on Mobile Phones with GPS, TV

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-02T07:45:32Z

The proposed tax would have menat a 14 percent charge on phones with mobile TV and a 3.7 percent tax on phones with navigation. Phone makers of course were against the plan and a majority of European countries voted "no" ending discussions for now.

- Reuters

Everyblock Source Code Now Available

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-02T06:00:00Z

Just as we vote on some of the most influential people in geospatial, one on our list has a big announcement: Adrian Holovaty explains on his blog that as his Knight News Challenge Grant comes to an end, the code behind his project, Everyblog is now being released under an open source (GPL) license. The two year grant has ended, but Holovaty assures the world the site will continue, under the direction of a private company.

via @timoreiily and Brady Forrest

Citysearch wants you to know...

joe.francica@directionsmag.com (Joe Francica) — 2009-07-01T07:46:38Z

This from Mike Francesconi at Citysearch:

Citysearch and IAC are on the hunt for a killer, local mobile/web application for our site Sidewalk.com. We recently announced the launch of our right here, right now contest to find a brilliant idea for a local mobile/web app that focuses on making life easiern.
The creator of the winning application will win a $10,000 grand prize, and possibly, the opportunity to develop and manage a new business venture with up to $1 million dollars in funding and receive an equity stake in the new Sidewalk.com venture, and access to the Citysearch publisher network allowing them to instantly monetize traffic.

Check out all the details on the contest at sidewalk.com and follow our updates at twitter.com/sidewalkdotcom

Lessons Learned in Hyperlocal

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-01T06:00:00Z

Poytner's E-media Tidbits has a contribution from Dr. Michelle Ferrier, an associate professor at Elon University and a former columnist and managing editor of MyTopiaCafe.com at the Daytona Beach News-Journal. She details what she learned trying to make MyTopiaCafe.com, a hyperlocal news site for two counties successful. It closes today.

Themes: Don't bite off too much, have multiple revenue sources, have a salesforce that knows how to sell your unique offering

New Map Puts Geography in the Curriculum

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-01T06:00:00Z

The week marked the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in D.C. Among the geospatial highlights was the rollout of the latest in its series of 21st century roadmaps for core academic subjects, K-12 science and geography. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the National Science Teachers Association and the National Council for Geographic Education are behind the effort.

These maps are numbers 3 and 4 in the series and "provide a framework and resources for integrating technology and other 21st century skills into core subject areas." They "include lesson plans for integrating 21st century skills into existing curricula, as well as specific student outcomes, along with models designed to help enhance student achievement at specific grade levels."

Said Joseph Kerski, vice president of external relations for the NCGE (and ESRI employee):

The 21st Century Skills and Geography Map presents some of the best teacher-created examples of geographic education," said J. "This work augments our mission to enhance the status and quality of geographic teaching and learning and ensures students engage in spatial analysis and inquiry that will prepare them for today's rapidly changing world.

You can download the geography map (29 page pdf) here

- THE Journal

- press release

Skyhook Adds Location to Dell's New Mini

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-01T06:00:00Z

Starting next week Dell will offer its Dell Wireless 700 location solution for the Mini 10 netbook in the U.S. It's a GPS/wireless hardware and software solution. Skyhook provides the wi-fi locating. Dow Jones says Dell is using LBS to try to differentiate its netbooks.

- Dell Blog

EveryTrail Moves from B2C to B2B

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-01T06:00:00Z

GPS Business News has an interview with joost Schreve, the CEO of GlobalMotion, the company behind the social/location/travel/sharing site. (One of my students evaluated it, which is how I ran into it.) While B2C is growing, the real money seems to be in licensing the platform to other businesses including GlobalStar, the company behind the SPOT locator and REI. I suspect many other LBS companies will need to "adjust" their business models.

Waze: Dash Reincarnate for Android?

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-01T05:42:00Z

Update: Now it's in open beta for Android across the U.S.

- SV/SJ Business Journal

Continue reading "Waze: Dash Reincarnate for Android?"

Wired on LBS

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-07-01T05:29:24Z

One piece by Clive Thompson at Wired looks at the LBS market in the context of the oxymoron that the Web means location doesn't matter, but that location-knowing devices means it does. Mentioned: Loopt, Socialight, Skyhook. Next big thing, per the article, "tagging."

ArcGIS Online Sharing in Open Beta: Does this change geodata sharing?

(Adena Schutzberg) — 2009-06-30T16:38:41Z

ESRI has opened up ArcGIS Online sharing app into an open beta. Anyone can use the site but a ESRI Global Account allows collaboration and data sharing.

The bottom line is this is an ESRI focused portal for finding, sharing and using maps, layers and tools. You can find data published by ESRI or its users via a text search and add it to your ArcMap session or build an online map from it. As a member, you get your own content page where you can access local maps, layers and tools. You can keep them private or share them with everyone or just with a selected group or groups. You can read about ArcGIS Online in the ArcGIS Online blog or get a video demo from the site.

This is something ESRI has been alluding to for some time and I expect this offering to be launched more formally at the User Conference in a few weeks. So, does it change anything? It's hard to say at this early point. I'll suggest that its predecessors include the Geography Network and Geospatial One-Stop and its peers/relatives include things like GeoCommons and perhaps WeoGeo and VoyagerGIS. It could even be said to be related to ERDAS Titan and the iTunes store. Did you lose me on that last one?

As introduced thus far, ArcGIS Online seems to be 100% focused on sharing ESRI maps, data and tools. I did note that one can set up a different default tool to view the data (other than ArcGIS), but it was unclear what types of data are supported for sharing. It'll be interesting to see how ArcGIS Online is presented to the larger GIS community with regard to other data types. Also interesting to contemplate: Will the large ESRI user community share its data (even with selected groups) via ArcGIS Online? Finally, how will ArcGIS Online work with state, country and worldwide efforts at data sharing? Would a city need/want/be expected to share its data via Geospatial One-Stop and ArcGIS Online? What about federal agencies? Will they need to be on those two portals and on Data.gov?