Have you ever wanted to see the view from the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania? Google is making that possible — sending employees up the world's highest peaks with digital cameras, tripods and fisheye lenses to take photos that can be stitched together for a 360 degree view. Image Luca Galuzzi - www.galuzzi.it under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en

A Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAAPS) working group is exploring the viability of a geospatial user fee that would create a trust fund to insure the creation and maintenance the United States spatial data stores. It's not as farfetched as it might seem; there are dozens of such fees that support important government created goods and services. Our editors are joined by John Palatiello, MAPPS Executive Director and Alan Mikuni, chair of the MAPPS Working Group on Geospatial User Fees and Trust Fund.

Drones on top of drones. New, commercial drones take off. Some say our skies will be dark with privately-owned drones.

Geospatial technology and energy management seem to be intertwined in so many operational and strategic areas for utilities. In today's Directions Magazine podcast, Editor in Chief Joe Francica interviews Oracle's Brad Williams, vice president of the company's global business unit, to discuss how utility companies are leveraging geospatial information to managing everything from smart grid technology to outage management.

On Thursday, March 7 the Ohio Supreme Court ruled on a whether a county engineer correctly responded to a Public Records Act request related to geospatial data. The engineer offered the data with a $2,000 fee to the requestor. The Court ruled the action was valid because the data were “intertwined with a copyright-protected software program” and the fee was to separate them out. This decision prompted discussions about the nature of public records, appropriate GIS software and data formats for government use and the role of consultants.

When will we see the first true GIS app? Who will build it? What will it do? Can it replace the desktop and should it? What can we learn about the future from the current crop of tablets and broadband availability? Do current retina displays and $999 apps mean GIS will come to the tablet?

Max Roberts, a psychology professor, argues in an article at the Londonist website that no matter what new tech tools pop up, we’ll still need a basic map of the London Underground, along with other basic navigation maps. What is the longterm future of such maps?

The phrase "unmanned drones" typically conjures images of places like Afghanistan. But the Federal Aviation Administration says it wants to start testing the civilian use of aerial drones here in the U.S. and has already issued special permits to a few police departments interested in trying them out. But after a raucous Seattle City Council hearing earlier this month, the mayor killed the drone program. http://www.npr.org/2013/02/22/172696814/as-police-drones-take-off-washington-state-pushes-back

Technology you will wear. Google’s glasses. Apple’s iWatch. And “augmented reality” on its way. Guests Omar Gallaga, technology culture writer for the Austin American-Statesman. (@omarg) Amber Case, director of the Portland R&D Center for the tech firm Esri. (@caseorganic) Ben Chigier, retired software engineer and entrepreneur. He and his daughter each own a pair of “augmented” ski goggles. Full details: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/02/28/wearable-tech-and-augmented-reality

Geofencing just might be the catalyst for location-based advertising, the so-called “holy grail” of LBS. And 2013 seems to be shaping up as the year geofencing seals the deal. Both ABI Research and Broadcom, the chip makers, see the potential.