Poking around Google Trends, I entered a few terms and found something interesting.. what is it about the term “maps” and Canadians? Interesting to notice that many of the top 10 locations where searches for maps come from are in Canada. Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, and toronto are all in the top 10… Do Canadians get lost more often or are they simply more interested in geography?? hmmmm. See the results here – for fun, how about this trend of ESRI vs Autodesk – not very useful but kind of interesting! Finally, the trend in a search for GIS Data tells us that most searches for this term come from Fort Collins and Denver, CO
Archives for September 21, 2006
NZ Geographical Place Names & Street Names
Names for streets, roads and highways are assigned by the local City or District Council, in accordance with the Local Government Act. Railway names are approved by the NZ Geographic Board, and State Highway numbers are allocated by Transit New Zealand. Downloadable database here – http://www.linz.govt.nz/core/placenames/index.html
GEOnet Names Server (GNS)
The GEOnet Names Server (GNS) provides access to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names’ (US BGN) database of foreign geographic feature names. The GNS contains 4.0 million features with 5.5 million names – see http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html
GeoDataSource Place names
Another POI database is on the market in the GeoDataSource Cities Database product. The company has several flavors that run as much as $1,000+. A free product is available to those who register. It contains 2 million+ city place names. Not sure how this product differs from some of the widely available free place name products available. See more at http://www.geodatasource.com/cities-free.html – other free place name products can be found here & here for those interested – there’s also the ever popular GNS names server at http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html
Cities Database Free Edition
Another POI database is on the market in the GeoDataSource Cities Database product. The company has several flavors that run as much as $1,000+. A free product is available to those who register. It contains 2 million+ city place names. Not sure how this product differs from some of the widely available free place name products available. See more at http://www.geodatasource.com/cities-free.html – other free place name products can be found here & here for those interested – there’s also the ever popular GNS names server at http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html
BC Experience bankruptcy means the end of the line (likely) for World’s largest 3D map
Recall the BC Experience… you know, the massive 3D map of British Columbia on display in Victoria BC, Canada at the heart of a new tourist attraction – Victoria is a big tourist destination (a scaled-down version was on display in San Deigo at the ESRI conference map gallery). Well, unfortunately, poor planning and some bad luck on the part of the company that launched the tourist attraction has resulted in some financial woes. Looks like bankruptcy is a likely scenario in the near future as the venue is in debt to the tune of some $8.5 million owed to more than 228 creditors. The anchor attraction at the venue was the World’s largest solid terrain model – a 40-foot by 74-foot, three-dimensional, full-color model of British Columbia. The British Columbia model is larger than a “doubles” tennis court and is the world’s largest physical-terrain model ever created from digital data sources. The 3D model was created by California-based STM – complete details on how the model was built can be found here – http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/9216/
BC Experience bankruptcy means the end of the line (likely) for World’s largest 3D map
Recall the BC Experience… you know, the massive 3D map of British Columbia on display in Victoria BC, Canada at the heart of a new tourist attraction – Victoria is a big tourist destination (a scaled-down version was on display in San Deigo at the ESRI conference map gallery). Well, unfortunately, poor planning and some bad luck on the part of the company that launched the tourist attraction has resulted in some financial woes. Looks like bankruptcy is a likely scenario in the near future as the venue is in debt to the tune of some $8.5 million owed to more than 228 creditors. The anchor attraction at the venue was the World’s largest solid terrain model – a 40-foot by 74-foot, three-dimensional, full-color model of British Columbia. The British Columbia model is larger than a “doubles” tennis court and is the world’s largest physical-terrain model ever created from digital data sources. The 3D model was created by California-based STM – complete details on how the model was built can be found here – http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/9216/
The ARIA Project Providing Imagery for Arizona
This fine resource from the University of Arizona is an interdisciplinary resource system for digital image and map data for the Sonoran desert region, including the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico. Users will find instructional and outreach activities in remote sensing and spatial analysis on integrated regional assessments as well as a wealth of data (DRG, DEM, DOQQs) for use in their GIS. In addition to countless research material and educational resources, users will find they are provided with access to plenty of data. Simply click on the “Images” link and you’ll find more links leading to 24k, 100k, and 250k DRG, DEM, and imagery. Check it out at http://aria.arizona.edu/