On Feb 21, 2013 Penn State announced that it will join several dozen universities in offering massive open online courses or MOOCs via the for profit Coursera company. Among the Penn State MOOCs to be offered later this year is what is believed to be the first geography or GIS MOOC: Maps and the Geospatial Revolution. Its author, Dr. Anthony Robinson discusses the role of MOOCs at Penn State and the development of the first Geo-MOOC.

In the last weeks Directions Magazine began adding infographics to the types of media we curate. These graphic representations of data and ideas are among the hottest things in the media today. Should geospatial professionals consider them as tools? Should the media build or share them? What are their pros and cons?

In this Data Informed podcast, Dangermond explains how those consumer trends influenced Esri to work on a new version of its ArcGIS platform designed for the cloud and around online collaboration. The company unveiled the new version in June 2012. Dangermond also discusses Esri’s plans to build new connectors to business intelligence tools like MicroStrategy, as well as develop three-dimensional visualizations to conduct spatial data mining using resources such as Hadoop.

Welcome to another Directions Magazine podcast.Editor in chief, Joe Francica speaks with Bob Denaro. Mr. Denaro is currently the chair of the U S Department of Transportation Intelligence Transportation Systems (ITS) Program Federal Advisory Committee; he is a member of the TRB ITS Committee, and some National Academy of Sciences, Mapping Sciences Committee. In interview focuses on connected cars, automated vehicles and what it means for location based services. He is a former Vice President Advanced Driver Assistance Systems at Nokia and an Air Force Academy graduate in Astronautics.

GE Digital Energyand Google signed an agreement allowing utility customers to access the Google Earth and Maps API to improve productivity and visualization. Editor in chief Joe Francica spoke with Bryan Friehauf, product line leader software for GE’s Digital Energy business, and Doug Daniels, head of GEO sales-America for Google about the announcement.

Two Google-funded reports on the size and nature of the geospatial industry, globally and in the U.S., use very different methodologies than past studies. Overall revenue figures are ten times those documented in the past! What did past studies miss, if anything? And, more importantly, what do these reports tell us about our industry?

The story goes that not many gold seekers actually made much money during the gold rush. Instead, those selling picks, shovels and blue jeans did. In 2013 maps are gold, if you listen to all the hype. Who, then, is selling the picks and shovels?

This got geoint? podcast, brought to you by trajectory magazine, features the publication of "Future U.S. Workforce for Geospatial Intelligence," a report released this week by the National Academy of Sciences. Keith C. Clarke of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and chair of the Committee on the Future U.S. Workforce for Geospatial Intelligence, joins us to discuss the main findings in the report, as well as to offer further perspective on the future of the GEOINT workforce.

The National Research Council released a report titled "Future U.S. Workforce for Geospatial Intelligence" last week. The document examines how well the U.S. is stocked with needed geospatial professionals today and what the need will be in the future. What does the report conclude? Perhaps not what you'd expect.

Building Information Models, BIM, have changed the design-build-operate workflow many kinds of asset projects including those in civil engineering, urban planning and architecture. Editor in chief Joe Francica interviews Rich Humphrey, Autodesk's director of industry strategy and business development for engineering, natural resources and infrastructure about this change and BIM's impact on managing projects both large and small.