2007 June 22

This issue sponsored by

Professional Surveyor Magazine

If, for some reason, you cannot read this document, please visit:
http://www.gismonitor.com/news/newsletter/archive/archives.php?issue=20070622

Editor's Introduction

In this week's issue (which comes out late due to some travel complications I had), I report on the conclusion of the first act in the MAPPS lawsuit, GITA's decision to change the focus of its conferences, and, of course, the ESRI International User Conference. Plus, 22 press releases.

Last week, as you probably noticed, I accidentally re-used the previous week's introduction. Hopefully, you looked at the table of contents… In case you did not, here are the links to last week's articles:

From San Diego, California,

— Matteo Luccio

Judge Dismisses MAPPS Lawsuit

Late last week, a federal judge issued a long-awaited decision on the lawsuit brought by MAPPS against the federal government. The lawsuit was about the meaning of the Brooks Act regarding definitions of surveying and mapping, the extent to which federal contracting activities must follow Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS) rules, and whether the work must be performed under the responsible charge of a licensed professional. The judge ruled in favor of the government, finding that "plaintiffs lack the requisite standing to maintain this action" because individual surveyors or their firms did not suffer an "injury in fact."

The ruling, on procedural grounds, leaves most of the substantive issues unresolved and the door open to further litigation. Both sides believe that the game is not over. While the coalition that formed to oppose the lawsuit hails the ruling as a defeat for the plaintiffs, MAPPS' executive director, John Palatiello, also claims vindication in some of the judge's findings.

Read more…

GITA Changes Focus of Annual Conference

Ten years after changing its name to Geospatial Information & Technology Association and facing a steady decline in attendance at its annual conference, GITA has decided to re-name the event the "Geospatial Infrastructure Solutions Conference." This repositioning and shift in how GITA will brand and market the event better reflect "the broader scope and industry audiences that GITA's conference has accommodated over the years," according to the organization. The next conference will take place 2008 March 9-12, in Seattle, Washington.

According to GITA's executive director, Bob Samborski, his organization, which has always conducted surveys of its members, was particularly thorough in its polling following this spring's meeting in San Antonio. It realized that most attendees own, operate, maintain, and/or protect infrastructure. Additionally, while the focus of the organization's GIS for Oil & Gas conference (taking place this year on September 24-26 in Houston, Texas) is clear, that of the organization's main annual conference has not been. As a consequence, Samborski says, many potential attendees ask themselves "Why should I attend?"

Read more…

ESRI International User Conference

Photos


  1. Jack Dangermond

  2. Monday morning's plenary session

  3. Exhibit hall conversation

  4. Exhibit hall demonstration

  5. Exhibit hall

Unlike last year's big release of ArcGIS 9.2, version 9.3 — still in the development phase and expected to be available in beta this summer and released in early 2008 — represents a more "incremental" set of improvements. That's what ESRI president Jack Dangermond told 14,500 participants from 113 countries at the Twenty-Seventh Annual ESRI International User Conference (UC) in San Diego at Monday morning's opening plenary session. Later, in briefly commenting on the state of the privately-held company, he mentioned another increment: ESRI has grown 15 percent since last year.

Despite fears that conference attendance would be reduced because this year's dates placed it in the same fiscal year as the 2006 conference for many local governments, attendance was up compared to last year. According to Wendy McKinney, ESRI Events Manager, this is due to the large number of new people in attendance — comprising 32 percent of the total. Twenty percent were from outside the United States.

There were 735 sessions listed in the program (yes, I counted them!), divided into 42 tracks, and 50 of them were running concurrently at any given moment during the conference; there were almost 300 exhibitors in the exhibit pavilion… In short, the UC, was a huge event. Therefore, these notes are but a few, very idiosyncratic highlights of the first day's plenary session.

Read more…

News Briefs

Please note: I have neither edited nor verified the content of these press releases.

  1. CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS

    1. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Acquires IONIC

    2. Avineon Awarded Subcontract to Expand Geographic Information System for the Chicago Department of Water Management

    3. PCI Geomatics Selects SafeNet Sentinel RMS to Secure Licensing

    4. Microsoft Enhances Virtual Earth Product in Great Britain With High-Resolution 3-D Height Data From Intermap Technologies

    5. NVision Solutions, Inc. Selects NAVTEQ Map Data for use in Real-Time Emergency Action Coordination Tool (REACT)

    6. Fulton County, Georgia Public Works Group Puts GIS and Records On Blackberry Smart Phones

    7. ShotSpotter and Pictometry form Marketing and Integration Alliance

    8. Topcon Partners With Geoage For High Performance Data Collection And Mapping Solutions

    9. NVision Solutions, Magellium, and Pole Star Sign International Geospatial Marketing Agreement

    10. Viewer for IKONOS imagery

  2. PRODUCTS & SERVICES

    1. Hemisphere GPS Introduces Crescent V100 Series GPS Compass

    2. Geoage Introduces Mobile Map Connect For High Performance Mobile GIS

    3. DigitalGlobe Expands Its Content Strategy with Aerial

    4. Definiens Bridges the Gap between Remote Sensing and GIS

    5. TerraServer Announces Release of New Website

  3. CONFERENCES & TRAINING

    1. ESRI President Jack Dangermond to Deliver Keynote Address at GeoWeb 2007

    2. Penn State Launches First Online Geospatial Intelligence Program

  4. PEOPLE

    1. Firm Names New Associates

    2. Geomatic Technologies Expands into the North American Infrastructure Market

  5. OTHER

    1. ESRI Expands Its International Distributor Network with the Opening of ESRI Eastern Africa

    2. Smithsonian Poster Exhibit Celebrates 200th Anniversary Of NOAA Predecessor

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Matteo Luccio, Editor
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