Newsletter Archive - 2005 March 24

2005 March 24

Contents

• Editor's Introduction
• Microsoft MapPoint 2004
• Autodesk LocationLogic 6
• Remote Sensing Made Easy
• Briefly Noted

This issue sponsored by:
Trimble

Departments:
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Editor's Introduction

In this week's issue of GIS Monitor I report on developments regarding two mapping solutions — Microsoft's MapPoint 2004 and Autodesk's LocationLogic 6. Both greatly expand the possibilities for developers of location-enabled applications. I also bring to your attention a Web site about remote sensing and do my usual roundup of industry news.

— Matteo

Microsoft MapPoint 2004

On Tuesday Microsoft released MapPoint Fleet Edition 2004, a version of its MapPoint 2004 software aimed at companies tracking their vehicle fleets. While functionally identical to MapPoint 2004, it features licensing per PC rather than per vehicle. Microsoft hopes that its new licensing model will boost adoption of MapPoint by its development partners and customers.
     Rather than be required to buy a MapPoint 2004 license for each vehicle tracked, as was previously the case, customers now must only purchase a license for each desktop or laptop computer they use to monitor their fleet.
     Not sold through retail, Fleet Edition is available through Microsoft's royalty licensing and volume licensing programs, at prices starting at $750 per copy. Although that's more expensive than the regular license of MapPoint 2004, which sells for about $150 per copy in groups of ten, according to Microsoft in the long run it's a better deal. "MapPoint Fleet Edition was created so that Microsoft customers and partners using MapPoint in fleet tracking applications would have a more affordable solution," the company said in a statement.
     However, the same licensing limitations of MapPoint 2004 also apply to Fleet Edition, including no real-time vehicle guidance and route calculations based on the location of only one vehicle at a time.

Genesis. I spoke with Tom Bailey, director of marketing for Microsoft's MapPoint Business Unit, the part of the company's Mobile Embedded Device Division that delivers mapping and location software and services for mobile devices.
     I asked Bailey about the genesis of MapPoint. He explained that it has been around for more than ten years and began with maps and driving directions for Expedia and the Encarta Atlas, along with other CD-ROM products such as Streets & Trips and AutoRoute. From there, Microsoft created the MapPoint platform to provide its customers and partners with a familiar development platform for more easily creating mapping and location-aware applications and services to help them visualize business processes and data. Microsoft then populated the application with data from several providers, including NAVTEQ.
     "Over the past six or seven years, we've expanded MapPoint into a bundle of businesses," Bailey told me. "About half of our end users are businesses and half are consumers." The bundle includes MapPoint Web Service, MapPoint Location Server, MapPoint 2004, and MapPoint Fleet Edition 2004.
     On the consumer side, MapPoint includes Streets & Trips 2005, Streets & Trips GPS 2005, AutoRoute (Europe) 2005, Pocket Streets 2005, and MSN Maps & Directions.

Custom applications. Microsoft uses activeX to allow development partners to build solutions that embed subsets of MapPoint functionality into custom business applications, such as customer relationship management (CRM) applications or sales management systems. "We fuel a bunch of partner-built solutions that use MapPoint as a high-quality but cheap solution," Bailey told me.
     About three years ago Microsoft launched MapPoint Web service, an online solution that covers the same geographies that the CD covers offline. Programmable in XML, this service integrates mapping capabilities into business or consumer applications and allows developers to build location-based services into their applications. It supports industry-standard SOAP and XML interfaces and can be integrated into other applications using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
     "We manage the data on our server." Bailey said. "We now have more than 500 business customers — including Starbucks, Expedia, and Verizon — who use it for both external services such as store locators, and internal services, such as call centers."

Location Server. In addition to the CD and the Web service, on Tuesday Microsoft added a MapPoint location server that connects into Wireless operator networks and extracts lat-long, allowing developers to write a single solution that connects into multiple operator networks. "Thus a mid-sized ISP can go through our system and link in to various carriers," Bailey explained. "Those same customers can then incorporate routing, visualization, etc., using our tools." Among the companies that are using the MapPoint location server to provide real-time location services are such mobile operators as Sprint, Bell Canada, O2, and TeliaSonera.
     I asked Bailey about the relationship between the Federal Communications Commission's E-911 mandate and these technological developments. "They are absolutely married," he told me. "Many operators are very open to working with us, to monetize the investments they've made" to comply with the FCC mandate.
     However, while Microsoft's partners do not need to understand the server's back end, the location accuracy it provides to the end user depends on what equipment the operator uses.

Fleet tracking. Companies can use the MapPoint location server, in conjunction with either the Web service or the CD, to track a field force, a fleet of vehicles, or other assets. "We have mostly horizontal, enterprise-level customers," Bailey pointed out. "We help them improve their operations — down to the specialty bread service that has a small fleet of delivery trucks and no GPS receivers. We also have many very large customers, with tens of thousands of vehicles, who have invested in GPS but use MapPoint for visualization, for compliance and analysis, and to capture their data in databases. MapPoint 2004 is similar to Microsoft Office, so the interface feels very natural to many dispatchers."
     I asked Bailey why Microsoft developed MapPoint Fleet Edition 2004. He explained that it was "in response to the requests from partners and customers for a version with flexible licensing options that they could incorporate into their fleet tracking solutions. We've loosened up some of the licensing restrictions we had in our previous version. The code itself has not changed but the licensing terms have."

Partners. According to Microsoft, its development partners that have used the MapPoint platform to incorporate fleet management into their customers' business processes include Baka Trak-IT Inc., Complete Innovations, and GEOTAB. Baka Trak-IT used MapPoint to create a routing, delivery sequencing, and fleet tracking application for Corporate Express Canada, a business-to-business office furniture supplier. In addition, Corporate Express sales reps use MapPoint 2004 to manage and analyze their sales territories.
     Complete Innovations developed Fleet Complete, a vehicle and mobile resource location management solution that works in conjunction with MapPoint 2004, to visualize real-time vehicle tracking, historical playback, and reporting on maps for Cardinal Couriers' fleet of 135 vehicles.
     Cardinal Couriers provides courier service to customers in the aftermarket automotive, farming, industrial supply, and healthcare industries across Ontario and Quebec, Canada. GEOTAB developed Checkmate 4.6, a MapPoint-based GPS solution, to route and monitor about 6,000 vehicles operated by Orkin, a company that provides pest control services to approximately 1.6 million residential and commercial customers.
     According to Microsoft, "Following Orkin's implementation of the solution in 1999, driver efficiency has increased, enabling drivers to make an average of two extra stops per day, and Orkin's vehicle casualty claims are down 33 percent."

Autodesk LocationLogic 6

On Tuesday I spoke with Joe Astroth, VP of Autodesk Location Services, about Autodesk's LocationLogic 6. Launched at the CTIA WIRELESS 2005 trade show last week, this is the latest version of the company's solution that adds location to the services offered by wireless network operators.

Autodesk's fiscal 2005 revenues increased 30 percent over the previous year to $1.234 billion, making this the company's best year. According to Astroth, Autodesk's stock in 2004 was the best performing one on the S&P; and the company is second only to ESRI in the number of its GIS and mapping customers. While AutoCad remains the company's flagship product, Autodesk has expanded into other areas.

After spending five years building Autodesk's GIS division, in 2001 Astroth became the head of the company's location services division. Autodesk has been working on its location solution for about five years.

New Team. Variously referred to as middleware, GIS engine, or geo toolbox, LocationLogic 6 enables position determination, tracking, mapping, visualizations, geocoding, spatial analysis, privacy & authorization management, and application development through its application programming interface (API).

Unlike MapInfo, ESRI, and Intergraph, Astroth told me, Autodesk did not base its location solution on its existing GIS technology. Rather, "we went into the mountains five years ago and built a whole new team and technology base." Their starting point was the needs and the environment of the wireless operators. According to Astroth, Autodesk has now become the carrier-grade solution trusted by the Tier 1 carriers (i.e., those with more than nine million subscribers). When three of the five national carriers put out RFPs for location solutions, Autodesk won all three bids. When I asked him which of the five he was referring to, Astroth told me that he was only at liberty to reveal one, Nextel, because it discussed its partnership with Autodesk last week at CTIA.

Compared to Microsoft's MapPoint, which Astroth considers his closest competitor, Autodesk, he claims, has two main advantages. First, he points out, carriers do not use Microsoft OS for network operations but Unix/Linux, like Autodesk. Second, when dealing with Microsoft, carriers are concerned as to who "owns" the subscribers and whether Microsoft is just a service provider or also a competitor. Autodesk, on the other hand, because it builds solutions for the providers, does not play this dual role, Astroth explains.

Expectations. The wireless carriers, Astroth says, have "a dial tone mentality" when it comes to location services — in other words, they expect these services to be available for millions of people 24/7 and never go down. This, he points out, is very different from the attitude managers take with regard to enterprise-level GIS.

Autodesk works with carriers on privacy and authorization issues: privacy refers to protecting users from unauthorized disclosures of their location and other confidential information; authorization refers to protecting carriers' networks from malicious intruders.

Autodesk gathers location information from position determination entities (PDEs) and handsets, weeds out spurious data, and provides location information to third parties. However, Astroth emphasized, his company is not trying to become wireless service providers (ASPs.) Rather, it builds custom solutions for carriers, which often then "white label" them and sell then just as if they had developed them in-house. Nextel Mobile Locator is an example of this.

In order to assist it to get to market faster, Autodesk agreed to host Nextel's location platform and integrate it into the carrier's network. In about 70 percent of the cases, however, Autodesk's location solution is entirely inside the carrier's network and hosted by the carrier.

Revenue Stream. Astroth wants to provide a "killer-enabler to existing services" and "location-enhance" existing services, rather than chase the elusive next "killer app." He focuses especially on those services that already generate the greatest revenue stream — such as 411, which, he says, is the service with the single-highest margin for carriers. This means that anything that can increase that average revenue per unit (ARPU) by even a couple of percentage points is a big winner. "By adding 'location smarts' to 411," Astroth says, "we make the service much more efficient." Operators no longer need to start by asking callers 'What city and state, please?' Furthermore, frequently people call 411 to get a number only in order to call a business and ask how to get there. Location-enabled operators can save these callers a step by providing driving directions for, say, an extra 25 cents. Directions — delivered, for example, via text message — also serve as a back-up and can ensure against bad spoken directions. "Are we now talking about a location-based service? No. To the user it is still a directory assistance service, but better."

Similarly, Astroth explains, location-enabling of roadside assistance services can greatly reduce that industry's very high churn rates — mostly due to the frustration of drivers who are told by operators that they cannot receive assistance unless they can pinpoint their location. In this case, too, location solutions can obviate the need for operators to ask the now obligatory first question, "Where are you?", but would not alter the basic nature of the service. "This is low-hanging fruit and does not require us to wait for 3G," says Astroth, referring to third-generation cell phone technology.

Invisible GIS. "Where we missed the boat with GIS," says Astroth, "is by thinking that it is the center of the universe. It would be the same mistake to think of LBS as the center of the wireless industry." Rather, "the more location technology becomes invisible but ubiquitous, the more successful it will be." Coming as I do from the GPS side of the house, this sounds to me very much like the "disappearing" GPS receiver — embedded deeper and deeper into more and more other devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, and vehicle navigation systems.

Where Autodesk's location solutions hit the "sweet spot," according to Astroth, is with "light weight solutions" that carriers can use to make their existing applications more "location-centric" and create new revenue streams. Examples include tracking mobile workers, allowing them to communicate with each other on the basis of their location ("Who's the closest to Lilac Lane?"), and creating simple "breadcrumb" maps of where they have been. For $15 per month, Astroth says, companies with, say, 20 to 50 employees can have a working system without needing to install any software or hardware. "All they need is a URL and a password and all we need are their employees' cell phone numbers. If this results in even just one additional sales or service call a month, that $15 per month investment can generate $600 per month in additional revenue."

Autodesk's location solutions, according to Astroth, are not in direct competition with the more sophisticated and expensive location services provided by such companies as Trimble and @Road.

Chat Service. Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) services, after considerable initial skepticism, implemented Autodesk's solution with great success, according to Astroth. As soon as TIM, on the last weekend of August 2004, added a location icon to one of its chat services, without any kind of advertising, SMS traffic shot up by 50 percent. (In Italy, cell phone penetration is more than 100 percent. In other words, there are more cell phones than people!) Now TIM will start marketing the service. "The end user still thinks of it as a chat service," says Astroth.

"When you are chatting on-line, you expect your interlocutor to be hundreds or thousands of miles away, so you don't worry about location. Besides, the chat is free. But when you are chatting via SMS proximity matters. Maybe, after you chat with someone, you decide that you would like to get together with that person. Plus, because you are paying for each text message, you would be upset to find out, after a lengthy exchange, that the person is half a country away from you. This is where chat services, up until now, have hit the wall." Location services now allow users to decide whether to make their own location visible or invisible and to filter other people's aliases by city or by distance radius.

What's New. So what is new in this release of Autodesk's LocationLogic? According to Astroth, better privacy management, J2ME and BREW handset extensions, support for AGPS user plane location interface, triggers and alerts (for example, the ability to geofence), and support for open standards. "My engineers authored the open location solution standards," he told me.

Remote Sensing Made Easy

Ned Horning is trying to demystify remote sensing. For starters, he wants you to know that it is currently possible to freely download and view satellite images for almost any location on the planet. Developments in satellite image archives and viewers have made it easier than ever to access and utilize this wealth of data.

Horning, the Remote Sensing/GIS Program Manager for the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, challenges the widespread notion that using remote sensing requires extensive academic studies and practical training. To the contrary, he believes that it can be easy and wants to encourage many more people, including curators at his own museum, to start using remotely sensed imagery — such as satellite imagery and aerial photography — in their work.

For this reason, Horning and a colleague have set up a Web site with guides, tutorials, and links to remote sensing resources. The site focuses on the practical aspects of accessing, visualizing, and processing satellite imagery. The site is designed with beginners in mind, but also has many features that are of interest to more experienced users. "This is an attempt at making remote sensing a little more accessible," he told me, "so that my colleagues can make more use of it on their own. It is a work in progress and it is our intent to craft it to meet the needs of a broad community interested in using satellite imagery."

The site is divided into four main sections:

Remote sensing guides — CBC-designed guides to locate, download, and view satellite imagery.

Training resources — Material and information for remote sensing training courses and workshops offered by the CBC and other organizations.

Interactive tools — Tools to illustrate fundamental remote sensing concepts. (I particularly enjoyed playing with the RGB demonstration.)

Net resources — Links to an array of remote sensing information available on the Internet.

While Horning for now is concentrating on providing entry-level information and resources on remote sensing — which he thinks are very scarce — he later plans to expand his Web site to also include materials on GIS, on geospatial tools (heavily focused on open source), and on species distribution modeling.

One section of the site is geared to managers who need to learn how to integrate remote sensing into their organization. It discusses "How to determine when to hire a consultant and when it is appropriate to do work in-house" and "Writing technical specifications for a remote sensing project."

Briefly Noted

According to the California State Information Technology Strategic Plan, issued last November, the state is to appoint "a Geospatial Information Officer ('GIO') to lead and coordinate the development of geographic information systems." John Ellison, the state's Agency Information Technology Officer, told me that this would happen "soon, probably by the end of this month." He then referred me to J. Clark Kelso, California's State Chief Information Officer for further details. However, despite repeated calls to Kelso — who, at first, bounced me back to Ellison — I was not able to elicit a comment from him on this appointment by press time. I hope to have more details next week.

News Briefs

Please note: I have culled the following news items from press releases and have not independently verified them.

PRODUCTS

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial, a geospatial solutions provider, has released GeoMedia Grid 5.2, a grid analysis toolkit for GeoMedia. The toolkit provides integration of vector and grid data formats for viewing and analysis and is well suited for carrying out complex spatial analysis — such as site location in urban planning, corridor planning for designing highway improvements, and hot spot detection for environmental management and public safety.
     This version expands on the product's functionality by improving data interoperability, expanding data viewing facilities, increasing performance, and adding to and extending spatial analysis commands.
     GeoMedia Grid was developed in collaboration with Keigan Systems, a London, Ontario-based company that specializes in developing decision-support mapping software. To support the continued growth of the GeoMedia Grid technology, Intergraph purchased a perpetual license for development rights to the software from Keigan Systems.

Mio Technology Ltd., a vender of GPS pocket PC's, has announced its Mio136 GPS navigation system. The device, marketed as an aftermarket option for vehicles that do not already have built-in GPS-based navigation systems, comes ready for vehicle installation or hand-held use and contains more than one million points of interest. It gives directions both verbally and visually and displays them in 2D, 3D, and bird's eye views. If the user misses a turn or exit or cannot make a transition in time, the Mio136 automatically recalculates the route and delivers new directions in real-time.
     Other features include route and trip planning, an interface with large onscreen icons and hot keys/buttons, a map of North America on CD-ROM, and an MP3 media player with an SD/MMC expansion slot.
     The unit is powered by an Intel 300Mhz CPU and stores maps on the included 256 MB SD/MMC storage card. Maps are loaded on the card by plugging it into a USB adaptor and selecting a region on the CD-ROM. By using a larger SD/MMC storage card, users can add additional regions.
     The Mio136 comes complete with an AC charger, a 12 Volt charger, USB cables, a 256 MB SD/MMC card, a SD/MMC card reader, and other accessories. The MSRP for the standard Mio136 is $499.

Avenza Systems Inc., the developer of MAPublisher map production software and MAPdataUSA shapefile data for the United States, has released MAPdata World, a three-part set of royalty-free GIS map data covering the world at 1:15 million scale. This world vector dataset was initially created by Avenza UK reseller and digital data experts, The XYZ Digital Map Co., Ltd., and was specially created / designed for Avenza and the MAPublisher user.
     MAPdata World comes complete with ESRI Arcview project and shapefiles, MapInfo tab and workspace files and a set of MAPublisher-optimized mid/mif files which have been fine-tuned and simplified for optimum performance with MAPublisher, whether working in Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia FreeHand. Vector data layers include towns, roads, railways, rivers, lakes, administration areas and lines, symbols and physical names. Raster contour and hillshading layers are also available. This is a royalty-free data set that allows for the unrestricted use of all files for the design and creation of maps for print and/or electronic distribution. It sells for US$999 for the complete 3-format set or US$599 for an individual file format.

Leica Geosystems AG, of Heerbrugg, Switzerland, has released Leica MNS1200, a new sensor for centimeter-level dynamic GPS guidance of machines. The sensor is built to withstand shocks and vibrations even in salty or dusty atmosphere with extreme weather conditions such as driving rain, extreme heat, or cold. It uses the Leica GPS1200 SmartTrack technology for fastest satellite acquisition, best multipath mitigation, and strongest signal.
     Leica SmartCheck provides independent GPS measurement updates at 20Hz with less than 30 millisecond latency to deliver dynamic RTK GPS positioning data at ranges of up to 30 kilometers or more from a GPS reference station.
     The size and design of the MNS1200 permits easy mounting inside the cabin or external on the machine. The sensor can also be used for various surveying and engineering applications around a construction site. It is upgradeable to be used in a backpack with the Leica GPS1200 controller and configurable for local co-ordinate systems.

MapViewSVG, a tool for internet mapping with ESRI ArcGIS and ArcView GIS, is now available in Version 4. The new version includes supporting layers with chart symbology and the possibility to tile point layers and supports displaying attribute data as bar charts and group layers. It does not need any additional server software to display maps and to offer extensive search functionalities. Because SVG is an open XML standard recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium it is easy to integrate SVG maps into existing Web sites.

DAP Technologies, a manufacturer of rugged mobile computing solutions and services, has expanded its Microflex product range by launching three new handheld computers: the Microflex CE3240, the Microflex CE5000X, and the Microflex 2240.
     These mobile units are designed for such field applications as utilities, transportation and logistics, emergency services, law and parking enforcement, civil engineering, and construction. All units are offered as IP67, and are MIL-STD-810F approved.
     Weighing one pound, the Microflex CE3240, is equipped with an Intel XScale PXA 255 400 MHz processor, runs the Windows CE 5.0 operating system, supports optional 2D scanning, and offers wireless connectivity options, including GPRS and CDMA 1X RTT WWAN, 802.11b WLAN. The unit is designed so that users can add wireless, GPS, 2D imager bar code reader, and RFID reader program and has the industry's first multiple SDIO slot support and one full PCMCIA slot.
      The Microflex CE5000X integrates a colour 1.3 mega pixel camera and flash, a GPS receiver, and a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) two-way radio into a traditional industrial mobile unit. The camera includes software drivers and API — allowing developers to easily implement colour image capture into their applications. The unit supports GPRS wireless WAN or 802.11b WLAN, enabling real-time data communications.
     Weighing 500 grams, the Microflex 2240 runs Windows Mobile 2003, allowing users to view documents such as Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel in their original formats. The unit runs all the applications including calendar, e-mail, and Pocket versions of Word and Excel. Two user-accessible Compact Flash slots provide memory expansion capabilities to support such technologies as GPS, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and the AA Battery PowerBoot Module. An optional Extended CF-Cap provides room for large Compact Flash cards. Also available are a 1D or 2D scanner and colour camera (1.3 pixels).

CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS

Orion Information Services (OIS), a cross media company based in Miami Beach that delivers mobile content and services, and Agito Systems ApS will collaborate to create, track, and promote mobile entertainment products and services geared to consumers at specific events and locations such as nightclubs, bars, sports events, and concerts. Initially designed in Denmark, this technology enables direct, guerilla, and mobile marketing in a single medium.
     This venture will expand Orion's flirting/dating service, SmartFlirts, into a new venue. The agreement between the two companies allows both of them to cross-promote products designed for this medium. The technology also supports storing user preferences, identifying individual consumers, offering other location-based services, and building large-scale marketing campaigns using radio, TV, the Internet, and mobile phones.
     Users will be provided a card that can be used at any location where the system is installed, free of charge. Once the card is swiped and logged, the user's location and basic, non-personal information is available through the network. This allows other participants to see, anonymously, where this user is and how long they have been there. Marketers can then send targeted SMS messages, such as a promotion of a specific brand of drink, to all users at that location. Users will also have the ability to opt-in and respond to contests within the facility.

The Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit of the police department in Gwinnett County, Georgia, used software and imagery from Pictometry International Corp. for strategic preplanning and tactical deployment of personnel in the recent apprehension of suspect Brian G. Nichols. The Pictometry visual information system arrived with the SWAT van and was able to provide multiple images of both the apartment complex where the suspect was and of the surrounding area.
     Pictometry is a provider of an information system that captures georeferenced, digital aerial oblique, and orthogonal images as well as related software. Pictometry's software enables users to access up to 12 different views of any property, building, highway, or other feature in a county in a 3D-like format. The software also enables users to create measurements such as distance, height, elevation, and area, directly from the oblique imagery as well as insert GIS content and other data. Many of Pictometry's county government customers use the software and county image databases as part of their homeland security efforts.

i-cubed — a Fort Collins, Colorado-based provider of satellite imagery, processing, and analysis along with Internet-based GIS systems for data access and distribution — has won a contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service (FS) to implement the DataDoors software system at the FS Geospatial Service and Technology Center in Salt Lake City. DataDoors will serve as the raster data provisioning engine inside the FS Geodata Clearinghouse and will allow users to search the FS archive of raster maps and images on the Clearinghouse Web site and download the selected files directly into their image processing or GIS software system.
     DataDoors is an enterprise software system designed by i-cubed to reduce geodata procurement time from hours to minutes. Built upon a combination of database and image processing technologies, it enables users to search via ArcMap or Web browser for any type of geospatial data in local or remote databases. Once suitable data has been selected, DataDoors applies standard (or customized) image processing algorithms on the fly and delivers a tailored data set to the end user's desktop application.
     The FS Geodata Clearinghouse provides government personnel and the public with the online ability to search, view, and download metadata and geospatial data sets pertaining to lands of the National Forest System. After DataDoors implementation, data sets will include digital raster maps, digital orthophotos, and other imagery.

PEOPLE

Sanborn, a provider of end-to-end spatial solutions to GIS and photogrammetric mapping customers, has appointed Richard Vincent as senior project manager and Thomas Leier as project manager. Vincent will be responsible for Sanborn's federal and international mapping programs; he was previously with Denver-based Spectrum Mapping, LLC. Leier will provide project management support for current and future GIS projects; he was previously with Longmont, Colorado-based DigitalGlobe. Both Vincent and Leier will be based in Sanborn's Colorado Springs office.

OTHER

Telcontar, a supplier of software and related services for the location-based services (LBS) industry, has announced the close of a $10.6 million round of funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), of Palo Alto, California, which focuses on early stage investments in information technology and has funded over 350 companies since inception. Existing investors, Mobius Venture Capital and Cardinal Venture Capital, were also significant participants in the round. Telcontar will use the funds for increased sales and marketing, international expansion and new product development.
Telcontar powers such applications as mapping, driving directions, navigation, "local search", on-line yellow pages, tracking, trip planning, and real-time traffic information. The company's clients include Yahoo!, Google, Ask Jeeves, Rand McNally, Motorola, Hutchison Mobile, Pharos, ATX, Appello, Networks In Motion, and Televigation.
The company also announced the addition of Jeff Crowe of Norwest Venture Partners to its board of directors.

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