An interest contest for you mashup artists… Apps for America is a special contest being put on his year to celebrate the release of Data.gov! Fome the organizers… We’re doing it alongside Google, O’Reilly Media, and TechWeb and the winners will be announced at the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase in Washington, DC at the end of the Summer. check it out at http://sunlightlabs.com/contests/appsforamerica2/
Archives for May 6, 2010
Reminder of ArcGIS.com (coming soon) and ArcGIS Explorer Online
We had a chance recently to discuss ArcGIS Explorer and in particular, ArcGIS Explore online (think free, online GIS experience) and the future of these online services with Bernie Szukalski (@bernszukalski), ArcGIS.com Product Manager with ESRI. As you may know, ArcGIS.com is currently in a “coming soon” status although visitors to the site can access an FAQ, demos, and other relevant information. You’ll be glad to know that the online service will be opened to teh public by the end of May so stay tuned and be sure to check out ArcGIS.com for a teaser of what’s coming. Recall, ArcGIS Explorer Online was demoe’d quite heavily this past Spring at the ESRI BPC in Palm Springs. See videos HERE on esriTV http://www.esri.com/devsummit Enjoy below a video tour of ArcGIS online web services.
place digital tags anywhere on the Earth with TagWhat
What a cool Augmented Reality solution via TagWhat – place digital tags anywhere on the Earth! The low-down… By simply holding up the camera view of a mobile device (iPhone or Android), geo-contextual tags from pre-selected friends and community members become visible. Walk down the street and Tagwhat reveals a wealth of relevant information, discussions, and deals — such as a coupon for a nearby establishment, a discussion thread for a meet-up with friends, and a restaurant review about a sushi place around the corner. Check out the official PR blurb and an interesting video HERE
Small Business Tip – Cheap Calling from Canada to USA @RogersHelps
Here’s a tip for any of you contractors, consultants, or small business owners in Canada. Indeed calling from Canada is not as simple or as cheap as it is from the USA – this I know first-hand. Well, now Rogers Wireless Canada has an option that should help business people save a few dollars. You have 2 options, you can sign up for the North American unlimited calling plan for $35 per month or, register for a reduced rate plan for $5 per month that will give you a 10 cent per minute rate. If you do the math it seems that those callers having a need to dial more than 240 minutes per month from Canada to the USA will benefit from the unlimited plan, otherwise grab the low rate per minute. Note, you tech savvy mobile geeks should also keep in mind that there’s a number of land-based VOIP solutions that are cheap cheap. There’s also mobile Skype and Google voice offering users free or cheap calling.. be sure to check out those options. See more on the Rogers plans HERE – you can follow Rogers on Twitter @RogersHelps
GITA Event and Ideas for the future
I’ve heard a little bit of buzz recently about the recent GITA event and the low attendance at said event once again – even though the event was co-located with ACSM. Some of the reasons for low attendance at events organized by GITA and other industry orgs are obvious: poor economy, reluctance to travel, many competing events, many other choices. I do think there’s also a couple of other contributing factors.
CONFLICT – Firstly, the annual GITA event is typically held in the spring during a busy conference period – this year GITA/ACSM took place the SAME week as ASPRS… OOPS! This seems to happen pretty much every year, although in their defense, the Spring conference period is a busy one and having no conflict is likely pretty tough. An option, perhaps tag-teaming the event to coincide with another event in the same city could be a plan and enable attendees and vendors to hit 2 shows in one week – imagine if you could come to Denver, CO and attend/exhibit at GIS in the Rockies and GITA in the same week or schedule GITA and ASPRS for the same city, same week but not overlapping?? Just a thought…
COOLNESS – Lack of innovation… for many, the GITA event is somewhat “old school”… that’s not necessarily a bad thing, however, in this era of web services, the cloud, new media, web2.0, and social media, people are expecting change – enter WHERE2.0. the annual O’reilly Media event is cool ,hip, trendy, social, etc… I have to admit, people are drawn to such events and the success of Where2.0 is a testament to that.
Location Location Location… for many years now I’ve been wondering “will GITA ever be held in Denver again”? This may not solve all the problems with GITA event, however, when i look back in time, some of the best GITA events I’ve ever attended were held right in GITA’s backyard in Denver, Colorado. N. Colorado is home to a huge number of GIS and Geo tech companies and consultants and is even self-proclaimed as GIS Alley. GIS In The Rockies is an annual fall event has has decent attendance, and I’m sure that the Spring GITA conference would do quite well in Denver.
Note: our company had 3 people who attended GITA/ACSM and ASPRS
10 Must Have, free mobile iPhone apps for Summer road warriors
Summer is right around the corner for us in the Northern hemisphere and that means travel time. For those of you heading out on the road for vacation or for business travel you’ll no doubt have to stay in touch with the office, or perhaps you’ll want to keep blogging while away. the following are 10 must have, free iPhone mobile apps that any road warrior can use to stay productive while away from the office: [Read more…] about 10 Must Have, free mobile iPhone apps for Summer road warriors
Skygone releases GIS AppStore of Cloud-based applications – the GIS AppStore
An interesting new service from our friends at Skygone Inc… think pre-configured GIS applications hosted in the Cloud – globally deploy multi-tier applications! From the company – California-Skygone announced today the release of the Skygone GIS AppStore which showcases their Cloud-based GIS application templates. Skygone’s GIS AppStore provides a searchable, vendor-neutral, shopping experience to end users interested in deploying GIS applications in the Cloud.
Currently, the GIS AppStore provides deployable templates of many popular GIS Server software; including, ArcGISr Server, MapServer, and GeoServer templated in simple and multi-tier configurations. The Skygone AppStore also provides “general infrastructure” Windows and Linux based templates all of which can be deployed to meet individuals’ custom application needs. Check it out at http://appstore.skygoneinc.com – more details in the official PR HERE
