Anything Geospatial

GIS, Maps, Geo and Location Technology by @gletham

Archives for October 2009

Twitter Earthquake Detector (TED)

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Here’s a fine example of an innovative government social media resource and some innovative crowd-sourcing of user comments. The USGS Twitter account @USGSted is an interesting find where you can follow shakers reported by the public and access related info from the USGS. About the service… In this exploratory effort, the USGS is developing a system that gathers real-time, earthquake-related messages from the social networking site Twitter and applies place, time, and quantity data to provide geo-located earthquake detection within 60 seconds of an event’s origin time. This approach also provides a central directory of short first-impression narratives and, potentially, photos from people at the hazard’s location. See also more HERE

Map your Flickr or Brightkite Photos on Mapquest using GeoRSS

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With the help of the Mapquest team (who contacted me via their Twitter – thanks!), we have some great information on how users can easily create a custom map, embed photos from a GeoRSS feed, and then embed on a webpage or blog (recall my last blog post on this topic where I had trouble locating the steps to do this).

First, get a map of your location of interest – for testing purposes I’ve elected to map Fort Collins, Colorado (yes, home of the Internationally renowned Balloon Boy). Next, in the very upper left area above the map, select the “Link or Embed” option.


[Read more…] about Map your Flickr or Brightkite Photos on Mapquest using GeoRSS

Platts Global Energy Awards Space Time Insight as Finalist

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Platts Global Energy Awards has become one of the most recognized awards program in the energy industry. Space Time Insight has been selected as a Finalist for Commercial Technology of the Year in the 11th Annual Platts Global Energy Awards. Established in 1999, the Platts Global Energy Awards has become the most recognized awards program in the industry and recognizes innovation, leadership, and superior performance in categories spanning the entire energy industry. Space-Time Insight delivers the geospatial composite applications that are used by operations teams and executives in industry-leading utilities and ISOs including San Diego Gas & Electric, Florida Power & Light, and California ISO.Great news for the industry… see more HERE

5 Things that encourage me to use an application

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Location – This is a no brainer, but perhaps the most compelling feature that an application can provide me along with the experience is location provisioning. Given that pretty much everything has a location component (physical location, a particular place that is sensitive or important to a certain moment, etc…) grabbing and using a location fix is key… it also enables the ability to produce useful spin-off products like a GeoRSS feed! Real map integration, not simply kicking me out to Google maps is a great feature as well!

Mobile Support – just about every one of my favorite tools also has mobile support… and hopefully not simply basic web access via a mobile web browser but a full-blown mobile application. I look at apps like Qik, Traffic.com INRIX traffic, Flickr, Twitter, facebook, Brightkite, Dopplr, Google Maps, Nokia (Ovi) Maps and many others of fine examples of this. If at all possible, integrate the ability to capture and share photos and video with the service as well… I’m currently using some fine mobile apps on my iPhone that could be ranked as “excellent” if they would have included this functionality.

Social Media Integration – if I’m using an application for any reason I’m pretty much always creating content of some kind, sharing information, or doing some kind of search and discovery… having the ability to share the results with colleagues, friends, even myself via my social bookmarks is crucial. Every app (social, personal, or enterprise use) needs to provide me with the ability to connect to some of my frequently used tools like the blog, Twitter, facebook, even dumping content to an RSS feed would go a long way.

Price Point – Free is always nice but that doesn’t mean that I’m not going to pay for something.. heck, some of the coolest apps I’m using (Mobile, web, and PC) are free tools, however, many of them I would be glad to pay for… too bad the developer didn’t know that! Before you roll out your app think about using a group of Beta testers to get some feedback on the price point – sales channels are also crucial in this step as well. There’s some great apps out there that are over-priced, however, there’s also some fine free apps out there that could easily be generating some good revenue – think about adding enhanced features for a “pro” version though.

Support – If I’m thinking about buying a product (particularly an application or piece of software) I’m really jazzed by having the ability to connect with other users, real staffers, and product evangelists that are eager to share tips, tricks, support, and share examples of successes that customers/users have experienced. A good group of product evangelists will go a long way in selling your apps and services. I’ve gone on to use apps much more frequently mainly because I’ve connected with the developer team via social networks and received some great tips and help as well!

I could likely go on, however, these are THE top things I look for first in an application.

Santa Clara County slammed with $500K fine for not sharing data

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An interesting bit of fall out in California as Santa Clara County has been ordered to pay up for essentially trying to hoard their data and “stick it” to those who want access to it. Fees for data, cost recovery, ownership, public information, national security, you name it, all these points have been brought up at some point in this case (and others that are similar). Of particular interest (and quite laughable) is the fact that the county tried to charge $250K for a “duplication fee” – ya I guess dumping all that data on an external drive is quite labor intensive – and then when that failed they played the national security card. Oh, and also a bit laughable was the fact that in addition to the $250K the purchaser was supposed to sign an NDA and guarantee they would not redistribute the data… ohboy! The result of the county trying to lock-down their data.. they have been ordered to shell out $500,000 to the non-profit org that was seeking the information from them… Dang, that half a mill could have built you on hell of a fine GIS for the tax payers, perhaps the California First Amendment Coalition will take all that cash and invest it in a state of the art GIS and webmapping portal to serve up all that public information… hmmm! take that tax payers! You have to wonder how many counties have the same feeling and seem to have forgotten that the tax payers have paid to collect and distribute that data already. See more on Wired or see the San Jose Mercury News

Locking up your data and not sharing could cost you $$$
Locking up your data and not sharing could cost you $$$

RunningMap Trackometer, iPhone app for runners and outdoor enthusiasts

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I just heard about another cool location-aware iPhone app ideally geared towards runners and outdoor enthusiasts (and Geographers!) RunningMap (from Canadian company Spin Technologies). Taking advantage of the iPhone data connectivity, completed routes can be uploaded to RunningMap.com from anywhere, anytime, and with no cables to connect. The portable GPS feature in the iPhone records all the details of each workout including the elevation profile. Uploaded routes are stored on RunningMap.com so they can be reviewed for future reference or shared with friends. See more about the app here or head over to www.runningmap.com

Forbes 400 Richest Americans Rank #158 include Donald Trump and Jack Dangermond

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Have you checked the recently released Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans? You may want to have a gander down the list and slow down around #158… sound familiar?? Indeed, our very own Jack Dangermond seems to be weathering the rough economic times quite well lately with a reported net worth of $2 billion! Yes indeed, Dangermond (congrats Jack!) shows up on the list just along-side Donald Trump and shares the 158 ranking spot with him – net worth is roughly equal at $2bill! Great news for Geo Technologies in my mind… hey Jack, maybe its time for you to start your very own Geo-Apprentice show… sign me up please! Check out the list HERE on Forbes

Geo Tech Employment Trends – Appears ArcGIS and Geospatial is a trending topic!

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No doubt there’s plenty of doom and glob in the job market and regarding the economy in general. So, perhaps it may brighten things up a little bit when you search some of the job trends and in particular buzzwords that are appearing in employment opportunities. Indeed.com is a cool resource that mashes up thousands of career resources, they also provide some interesting trends and stats. Check out the graphs below showing historical job postings that contain the buzzwords “ArcGIS” as compared to say Autodesk, or Intergraph… interesting! Obviously this data is a little rough and should not be used to extrapolate industry trends on a whole, however, it is a fun comparison! Check out the bottom graph showing trend for the term Geospatial… nice!

Trend for term ArcGIS in job listings

Trend for term Autodesk used in job ads

Trend graph for term Intergraph
Trend graph for term Intergraph
Trend graph for use of term "Geospatial"
Trend graph for use of term Geospatial

3D Map of the Future from Ordnance Survey

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An interesting 3D mapping product has been released in the UK – the Map of the Future! Ordnance Survey has been trialling the use of incredibly accurate lasers to create a spectacularly detailed map that could change the way the national mapping agency works. The map was created as part of a trial spanning three years, with every square metre of Bournemouth captured using a combination of land-based and aerial survey with high-accuracy lasers. See more info HERE

Creating buildings for Google Earth with Building Maker

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Seems the Google team has let another fun tool out of the bag with Google Building Maker. Available for about 50 cities at the moment, Building Maker is apparently an addictive tool that enables users to create building for their map projects. The Google team likens it to a gigantic bin of building blocks! This from Google… When you’re done, we take a look at your model. If it looks right, and if a better model doesn’t already exist, we add it to the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. You can make a whole building in a few minutes. See more on the Google Blog… or see www.google.com/buildingmaker

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