Welcome to another Directions Media podcast sponsored by Intergraph. We’ll be speaking today with John Graham, president of Intergraph’s Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I) Division, and he’ll be telling us more about the upcoming Hexagon 2012 conference this year in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel.

How do you put a value on geospatial technology? Does it just come down to revenue and profits? Or intrinsically is it more because critical information is held within the bounds of certain technology formats?

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe have been communicating via letter and press release over the last few days. The topic: who might acquire whom. As we go to press neither company has said "yes" but our editors feel wedding bells are likely. The U.S. federal government is both holding the shotgun and hoping to catch the bouquet.

Last week Google sold off its 3D sketching product, SketchUp, to Trimble. What is Trimble's plan? To move into near real-time 3D modeling? To move into BIM?

National Public Radio's Scott Simon celebrates Gerardus Mercator.

GIS software inertia involves the use of programs the same way for weeks, months and years without any change. Existing but not yet found or explored tools, new enhancements and workflows are left to gather electronic dust as users continue to do the same tasks, the same way. Why does this happen? Is it healthy for employees? Employers? How can the silent epidemic be eradicated?

WBUR (a Boston NPR station) host Anthony Brooks interviews Nathaniel Raymond, director of operations for the Satellite Sentinel Project, based at Harvard University’s Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. The project uses satellite imagery to follow the movement of military vehicles, rebel forces, or other activities that might be leading to an attack on civilian populations, in places like Sudan, and most recently, Syria.

On the ground, Tropical Storm Irene floodwaters devastated Vermont's communities, cutting off roads and washing away homes and businesses. Now with a digital bird's-eye-view, the world can see the dramatic statewide extent of Tropical Storm Irene's damage to Vermont's landscape. Google has just updated its maps for Vermont with post-Irene satellite imagery. VPR's Mitch Wertlieb turned to two professors at St. Michael's College, Geography Professor Richard Kujawa and Environmental Studies Professor Laura Stroup to tell us the value of having these images at our digital fingertips.

This past weekend, the Commercial Mobile Alert System went “live.” FEMA and the FCC are collaborating in this effort based on previously developed systems, such as IPAWS and EAS, and implemented because of The WARN Act. The system supports nationwide as well as local emergencies. But commercial companies are providing both the backbone and the end user apps to either supplement or replace government-issued warnings. Who will win and why? Will the public understand the difference and will multiple apps be necessary or should there be just one?

This week we mull over the announcements and news from the Where Conference held last week in San Francisco. It’s supposed to be about the business of location. So how’s business? What’s hot? What’s old news?