2007 September 27

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Editor's Introduction

This week, I report on a new service by MetaCarta for the on-line publishing industry. Plus, 25 press releases.

— Matteo Luccio

MetaCarta Launches Local Alerts

MetaCarta specializes in searching for geographic content in unstructured text documents and displaying the results on a map. So far it has focused on large government and commercial clients, such as intelligence agencies and oil companies. Now, it is moving closer to consumer applications, by assisting customers that are serving the mass market. This week, the company launched Local Alerts, a service for the digital publishing industry that notifies users when free-form text content mentions specific places they deem important. Users register for the service, provide their e-mail address, and specify an extent of interest, using a map that they can zoom and pan; they are then notified by e-mail daily of any items in the covered content that mention places within that extent.

MetaCarta uses its core technology to geoparse and geotag the stories in real time and puts them in a database, which also stores the information on all of the registrants and the max-min lat-long of their area of interest. The company then maps out all the stories and alerts users to any stories that contain geographic references that fall within the range they have specified.

The first publication to sign up for the alert service is MySanAntonio.com, which is the on-line edition of the San Antonio Express-News newspaper, a Hearst Publication. To test the service, go to the site, then scroll down until you see an orange "CONNECT" logo.

For digital publishers, the main advantage of the service is that it draws readers back to their sites, "substantially increasing user frequency and page views metrics," MetaCarta says, and "enabling publishers to better capture local advertising dollars and maximize advertising rates." For users interested in news, listings, promotions, etc. pertaining to a particular neighborhood, city, or area, this service obviates the need to search for it in a publication covering a much larger area. I presume that the value of this service to users will increase as the number of participating publishers increases: then you will be able to sign up to receive alerts when your area of interest makes the news in regional, national, or international publications.

Read more…

News Briefs

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

  1. CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS

    1. Southwest Florida Water Management District Awards Three-year Contract To Merrick & Company

    2. GeoAnalytics Completes SDE GIS Data Migration System For Oneida County, Wisconsin

    3. Stadtwerke Mainz Selects Bentley for Multi-Utility GIS and Infrastructure Engineering Solutions

    4. City of Magdeburg, Germany, Joins Bentley's Municipal License Subscription Program

    5. Games Workshop Licenses and Deploys geoVue Software

    6. 3D Mouse Extends Geographic Approach in ArcGIS Desktop

    7. Powerco Selects Telvent Miner & Miner's ArcFM Solution

    8. EarthData Awarded US Corps of Engineers Surveying and Mapping Contract

    9. NGA Awards Intermap Technologies Additional $1.3 Million Contract for NEXTMap USA Geospatial Data

  2. PRODUCTS & SERVICES

    1. 1Spatial Demonstrates First Results from AdV ATKIS Generalization Project at INTERGEO

    2. GE Energy Releases Software for Oil And Gas Transmission Pipeline Industry

    3. LeadDog Releases North Korea Database

    4. Broadcom Introduces Advanced Single-Chip GPS Solution for Mobile Applications

    5. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Enhances Leica TITAN

    6. MapMart Introduces MapMart On-Demand Geospatial Imagery Service Solution

    7. WhiteStar Introduces SpotOn at GITA Oil & Gas Show

    8. Tri-Global Technologies to Demo UtiliMapper 2.0 Underground Mapping Suite at GITA Oil & Gas Conference

    9. Orbit GIS 4.2 Released for Mac OSX

    10. Minecode Corp. Announces Release of LiDAR-M

    11. Hemisphere GPS Announces Centimeter Accuracy with New Eclipse Dual-Frequency GPS Receiver Technology

  3. CONFERENCES & TRAINING

    1. URISA and NENA Announce New Name for Joint Conference and the Availability of a Call for Presentations

  4. OTHER

    1. Autodesk Furthers Leadership Role in Geospatial Open Source Community by Contributing New Coordinate System Software

    2. ESRI (UK) Tracks Edinburgh to Paris Charity Cycle Ride

    3. New Web Site Maps Nationwide High School Graduation Data

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Matteo Luccio, Editor
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