2007 March 1
Contents
Departments
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Editor's Introduction
This week I preview two papers that will be presented next week at the Geospatial Information & Technology Association's 30th annual conference: one discusses how converging technologies are finally making mobile GIS and location-based services (LBS) practical, and the other is about GIS for disaster response. I also bring you an update on MAPPS's lawsuit against the U.S. government (for background, see Geospatial Groups Sue Feds On Contracting Regs, Geospatial Groups Oppose Lawsuit By MAPPS et al., and Interview with Ed Wells and Al Butler, of URISA).Plus, my usual selection of news items—but with a significant change: as of this week, I am no longer editing press releases the way I have been doing for the past two years. Rather, I am providing a title for each one, then reproducing it whole and unexpurgated. Because I receive press releases in many different formats and styles, it will probably take me a few weeks to settle on a new and uniform style.
Finally, please note the item in this week's Department of Corrections.
If you will be at GITA next week and would like to meet me, please drop me a line.
GITA Preview
At GITA's Annual Conference 30, next week, in San Antonio, Texas, nearly 200 speakers will present papers on a broad spectrum of topics—from an introduction to the technology to systems integration, from database design to organizational issues. To preview the conference, I talked with two of them: Thomas G. Counts, president of 3-GIS, a geospatial consulting and systems integration company, and Dean Hintz, a product support specialist for Safe Software Inc., a company that specializes in extract, transform, and load (ETL) technology. Counts' presentation will focus on the convergence of technologies that is finally beginning to enable true location-based services and real-time, mobile GIS. Hintz will discuss some of the lessons from studies and tests of GIS deployment in response to disasters. The two presentations will overlap on the question of data transfer.Mobile GIS
Thomas Counts' paper, titled "Convergence of Seemingly Diverging Technologies," argues that "the ubiquitous nature of data availability, the miniaturization and amalgamation of telecom, GPS, and computing platforms along with high volume data-storage capability," are giving new credibility to location-based services. Server-based platforms and optimized web services are allowing for thin clients again without a loss of functionality.
As an example of the kind of "grooming" of websites that compensates for limited bandwidth in the field, Counts points to the difference between www.Yahoo.com and www.mobile.Yahoo.com. The latter is "very trimmed down as far as pictures and pretty bandwidth hogs, so that you only get the content that is germane to what you are looking for." This kind of "management" of the data stream, according to Counts, makes the performance of 2.5-2.75G technology "quite acceptable" for real-time data transfer from the field, thereby eliminating "the much maligned and often corrupted process" of redlining—and its corollary, data latency. Furthermore, "going from 2.5G to ultimately to 3G networks and some day 4G networks," Counts says, "we're seeing a huge increase in available bandwidth, to handhelds and laptops."
GIS for Disaster Response
Dean Hintz' paper, titled "Rapid GIS Disaster Response: Integrating Open Standards With Baseline Data," discusses the trade-off between open and proprietary standards in disaster response. The former, he points out, "have raised many opportunities for sharing spatial data to a broad audience in a timely fashion that are particularly relevant to disaster response" and "[t]here is great potential for combining a rich background of baseline data with updates of evolving disaster impact and resource deployment." However, "most emergency applications remain proprietary based, or depend on de-facto standards" and it is very challenging to bring together open, de-facto, and proprietary standards.
Hintz focuses on a pragmatic, problem-solving approach to data integration for a disaster response scenario—taking into account tight timelines and the most vital data needs when managing an evolving disaster. He recommends a combination of Web-based applications and traditional file and database sources, with the goal of building "a common operational view that overlays city land use and infrastructure data on land imagery with dynamic hazard zones and emergency response resource tracking."
Surveying the lessons from three great recent disasters—the terrorist attacks in September 2001, Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, and the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2005—Hintz focuses on "technical and logistics workers behind the scenes," who "were coping with their own overwhelming challenges in order to enable the front-line workers to do their jobs." In particular, he writes, "GIS personnel played a critical role during the responses to all three of these disasters to help decision-makers understand the evolving disaster impact, plan responses to it, and understand how both relate to existing infrastructure and resources. In all three cases, there were no fully functional GIS disaster response systems waiting to swing into action."
MAPPS Lawsuit Update
On February 8, I reported on MAPPS's suit against the U.S. government and interviewed the organization's executive director, John Palatiello. On February 15, I reported on opposition to the lawsuit within the geospatial community and interviewed Ed Wells and Al Butler of URISA.
Yesterday, I asked Palatiello and Douglas Richardson, the executive director of the Association of American Geographers (AAG), one of the organizations opposing the lawsuit, for a quick update. Richardson referred me to a legal briefing regarding the lawsuit—prepared by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, a national law firm, at the request of the AAG—to which I had already linked in my February 15 report.
Palatiello sent me the following:
The hearing [took place] as scheduled on Friday, February 23. It lasted not more than an hour.
Department of Corrections
Due to an omission in a press release from GITA, an item in the "Conferences & Training" section of last week's "News Briefs" department, about next week's GITA Annual Conference 30, failed to mention that the American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) will also be represented at the associations panel.
News Briefs
Please note: I have not verified the content of these press releases.
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CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS
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Earthdata Provides All-Digital Technologies For Mississippi's Gulf Region Base Mapping Program; Final Mapping Deliverables will Support Post-Katrina Redevelopment Efforts
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Tensing USA Extends Reach into African Mobile GIS Market with IST Data Partnership
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Saint John Energy Selects Telvent Miner & Miner's Designer for GIS-based Design
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STDBonline Gives Commercial Realtors Access to Information Through Business Analyst Online; One-Stop Internet Service Saves Commercial Real Estate Professionals Time and Money
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Pictometry Imagery Now Available at the Click of a Mouse in Symposium Technologies' CAD and Mobile Data Systems; High-Resolution Oblique Solution Deployed in Public Safety Agencies in Massachusetts
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NAVTEQ Map Data Supports QUALCOMM's New European Fleet Management Web Portal; Western and Eastern European coverage key to providing consistent service
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Tadpole Awarded Contract To Deliver Google Earth Based Application To BP International
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City of Norman, Oklahoma Awards Merrick & Company Topographic Mapping Contract
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Norwegian Utility to Provide ASP Services using ArcFM Lyse Energi Targets Local Utilities to Host GIS Data
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MetaCarta Expands Geographic Information Retrieval to Google Earth, ESRI ArcGIS Explorer and NASA World Wind 3D Mapping Software
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GeoSpatial Experts Includes New Ricoh GPS-Ready Camera in Photo-Mapping Product Bundle
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The Nielsen Company Provides Superior Analytics for Customers Using DMTI Spatial
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DMTI Spatial powers Economic Development Web Portal with Innovative 6-digit Postal Code Boundaries
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Airborne 1 Services Secured by IAGT for Map Modernization Project
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ESRI BusinessMAP Software Improves Customer Service at Global Knowledge Easy-to-Use Territory Design and Database Mapping Software Goes Out on the Street with Sales Representatives
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PRODUCTS
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Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Announces New Enhancements and Capabilities for ERDAS IMAGINE 9.1
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GIS Yellow Pages Releases GIS Portal for Geotechnology Products and Services
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2007 ESRI Business GeoInfo Summit Shows Businesses How to Profit from the Geographic Advantage; GIS Helps Business Professionals Find New Markets, Increase Market Share, and Improve Efficiency and Customer Service
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Valtus Adds 2006 Coverage of Three US States and Worldwide Satellite Imagery
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CONFERENCES & TRAINING
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2007 GeoTec Event Registration Now Online
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GeoWeb 2007 Conference
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APEX conference early registration extended; U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman featured speaker
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Valtus Announces Final Call for Registration to Calgary Seminar on Advances in Geospatial Data
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OGC and GITA Emerging Technology Summit Preliminary Program Available
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Online GIS Training Program from the University of North Dakota
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Geospatial Integration for Public Safety Conference in New Orleans Announced
Read more… - Scotiabank's Jean-Marc Astolfi to Deliver Keynote Address at MapInfo Global User Conference—MapWorld 2007; 14th Annual MapWorld Conference to Welcome Hundreds of Business Leaders to Seattle, May 8-10 Read more…
PEOPLE
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Avineon Expands Geospatial and Engineering Services with Appointment of Business Development Executive
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Avineon Appoints Utility Industry Veteran, Akhlesh Kaushiva, to Vice President of Commercial IT Services Division
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OTHER
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EngineerSupply announces Total Stations are now a part of its product offering
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EngineerSupply announces new supply line of Leica Geosystems
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Colombia Coastal Mapping Project Cited In National Engineering Competition; Innovative Technology Aids Environmental Management
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MAPPS Introduces Awards Program to Honor Excellence in Geospatial Products and Services
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Geofirm Digital Mapping System Cited In National Engineering Competition: Innovative Technology Helps Speed Production Of Flood Risk Maps
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Local Company honored by Red Cross: CEO of Bentley Systems, Incorporated. TO Receive Humanitarian Award On Behalf of Company
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ESIP Federation Elects 6 New Partners
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New ESRI Press Book Chronicles the Federal Government's GIS Success Stories; Case Studies Show How Mapping and Geospatial Analysis Save Agencies Time and Money and Boost Productivity
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