2007 October 18

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Editor's Introduction

This week, I report on which desktop GIS programs currently do and do not support Microsoft's Vista operating system, I profile a new virtual mapping system, and I bring two New York Times articles to your attention. Plus, 29 press releases.

— Matteo Luccio

Delay in Support for Windows Vista

About nine months after Microsoft launched its Windows Vista operating system, ESRI's ArcGIS does not yet support it. According to a company spokesperson:

"ArcGIS 9.3, which is expected to be out in the first half of 2008, will fully support Windows Vista. ArcGIS 9.2 SP3 (ArcGIS Explorer, ArcReader, ArcView, ArcEditor, ArcInfo Desktop, ArcInfo Workstation, ArcGIS Desktop Extensions, and ArcGIS Engine) has some known issues with Windows Vista. Some of these are issues in ArcGIS and others are the result of known issues in Windows Vista (requiring fixes from Microsoft). We are currently evaluating the severity of these issues. We expect to issue a statement regarding the support of Vista with ArcGIS 9.2 in the coming weeks. (Note: ArcGIS Server 9.2 (including ArcSDE 9.2), Image Server 9.2, and ArcIMS 9.2 are not supported on Windows Vista.)"

This statement differs from a FAQ on ESRI's online technical support center ("Does ArcGIS 9 support Microsoft Windows Vista?"], most recently updated on August 14), that states "ArcGIS 9.2 Desktop and ArcGIS 9.2 Engine are currently undergoing certification on the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. We are hoping to support these product releases under Vista later this year. Note that this certification will not include any of the ArcGIS 9.2 Server products."

I asked a few other vendors whether their desktop GIS products support Vista. Here's what they told me.

Autodesk

According to the company, the current versions of AutoCAD Map 3D, MapGuide Enterprise, and Topobase all support Vista.

Bentley

According to the company, the following products are "currently available" in Vista: Descartes, I/RAS B, CulvertMaster, FlowMaster, SewerCAD, StormCAD, WaterCAD, and WaterGEMS. Other Bentley products that support Vista "will be coming online very soon." Among those that do not yet support Vista are Map and PowerMap.

DeLorme

XMap 5.2 GIS Enterprise supports Vista (I know that for a fact, because I installed it on my new laptop, which runs Vista). According to the company, so does StreetAtlas 2008 and so will Topo7, which it plans to release in November. "Pretty much all of our programs will support Vista by the end of the year," says Geoffrey Ives, Director of Professional Sales. "The marketplace is slowly transitioning to Vista. Large enterprises are holding off before transitioning from XP." For example, he says, most energy companies have decided to wait before purchasing new laptops for their field crews.

Manifold System

"All Manifold products support Vista," says Dimitri Rotow, the company's product manager. "All of our products have supported Vista since the earliest internal Microsoft beta test versions of Vista."

Pitney Bowes MapInfo

The company says that it "has exhaustively tested MapInfo Professional" under various Microsoft Windows desktop operating systems, including Windows Vista Ultimate.

SmallWorld

According to John Eason, director of utility solutions for GE Energy's Smallworld business, the next service pack for Smallworld Core Spatial Technology (November 2007) will introduce support for MS Vista Pro Edition.

DMTI Spatial

The company announced in June that Microsoft had awarded it its Certified for Windows Vista status for its GeoPinpoint Suite Canadian geocoding software.

Earthmine Develops New Virtual Mapping System

The idea of a Web interface allowing users to navigate the streets of a city and see the view at street level is not new:

  • In February 2005, A9.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., launched A9.com Maps, a service that showed users an interactive map and corresponding street-level images in a single interface. It promised to combine driving directions and other mapping tools with images of millions of places and their surroundings. The service is no longer available.
  • In March 2006, Microsoft added a feature to its Windows Live Local service, which allows users to take a virtual tour of a city as if they were in a car. Microsoft said that it would use this technology for an upcoming consumer local search and mapping site. The initial release supported only the downtown cores of Seattle and San Francisco. The street-side view supplemented the aerial, road, and bird's eye views that were already available. However, Microsoft put this experiment on hold.
  • At the end of May 2007, at the Where 2.0 conference, Google announced that in certain locations on Google Maps it had added a feature called "Street View."Itdisplays an interactive panorama photo and enables the user to view 360° panoramas of street-level imagery on Google Maps. Camera icons indicate the cities in which this feature is available and, when you zoom in, the streets covered are indicated in blue.

Now a new company, Earthmine, has developed an original system that goes beyond street-level panoramic views, by georeferencing every pixel in the images — thereby allowing users to add georeferenced tags, measure buildings, build 3D models, and export this data into GIS and mapping systems.

This week, I discussed Earthmine with John Ristevsky and Anthony Fassero, who founded the company about a year ago.

  1. What are you trying to do?

    AF: We are focused on producing imagery and 3D data, capturing a whole new base layer of information from which people can gather, analyze, and communicate location-based information. We are looking at a whole workflow and just recently announced our technology. We started with a data collection system: vehicles that drive the streets with a stereo camera array that generates panoramic images as an interface to a very dense and detailed 3D dataset. The objects within the images have 3D locations and can be measured, modeled, and exported.

    JR: Think of it as a virtual mapping system. If you move through the panorama and start to click on things, they become 3D entities with X,Y, and Z coordinates. This can integrate with your GIS and populate it with new data. Traditionally, to populate a GIS, you would have to employ a mapping company or send out a crew with a total station to map the curb features or manhole covers. Now this can all be done virtually, within our system. Conversely, you can take data from a GIS and overlay it on top of these panoramic views and put them in context.

  2. What is your system's spatial accuracy?

    JR: Around ten centimeters. Each of those vehicles is equipped with a very high grade GPS receiver and an inertial navigation system. The data is all post-processed and then the 3D data is created behind it.

    AF: It is a great tool for asset mapping, but not for engineering-grade surveys.

  3. What do you want the user experience to be?

    AF: We are trying to make it just like standing on the street with a map in your hand.

  4. What kind of data do you collect?

    AF: We collect stereo imagery at a regular interval throughout the city, based on distance. Every five meters, for example. From that imagery we get seamless panoramic images and generate dense three-dimensional information behind them. I could put tags on items of interest and then export that data to various file formats for whatever application I wanted to integrate it with.

  5. Who will generate the content?

    JR: The content is all user-generated. We are only looking at generating a base layer of 3D panoramic imagery.


     

  6. Who would use this?

    AF: We are thinking, initially, that there is a big need out there for people who have GIS about their city to be able to populate it easily with data.

  7. What is your strategy regarding geographic coverage?

    JR: We have been collecting a test data set of San Francisco. Our collection model is not service-driven. You cannot contract Earthmine to do your city. We are currently raising a substantial amount of capital to actually deploy a fleet of vehicles to do many cities simultaneously. We hope that within the next 18 months we will have covered most of the major metropolitan areas. We are going to look at where the benefit is going to be very quick for the cities, because they already have some sort of initiative in mind. The idea is that, over time, we would collect every major metropolitan area in the world and then we would offer access to our data to other companies.


     

  8. What is your business model?

    JR: We will make this available as a software as a service model. You can subscribe to the Earthmine data set, download our tools, and then have access to this imagery.

  9. How does your offering differ from that of other digital map data companies?

    AF: There are many companies out there collecting very specific information. For example, Navteq and Tele Atlas collect road centerlines and points of interest (POIs). We will collect a generalized base layer of information. You can generate all those POIs, street centerlines, 3D models, and all kinds of other information from our data quite easily.

    JR: We sell a subscription to a service — a Web-based API. We collect and process the raw data and package it into a form around which developers and programmers can easily build custom, Web-based applications. Think of it like an enterprise version of Google Maps. The raw data comes in a package with the tools. End users then hit Earthmine's server via those applications.


     

  10. How can users export this data?

    AF: Let's say that I marked every gas station and made several 3D models in the Earthmine system, and then I wanted to extract that information and import it into my GIS. I would create those entities by clicking on them and then I would export them and select the file format that would match my need, such as KML.

    JR: [We provide] a broad range of interchange formats, such as KML and shapefiles, as well as direct connectivity with GIS and integration into CAD.

  11. I could look for all the benches in a 20-block area and get their coordinates, without ever having to step away from my computer…

    AF: Exactly.


     

  12. Can end-users download your stereo imagery and import it into their application?

    JR: No, they can't download the raw stereo imagery.

    AF: They can export a photo-textured surface into another program. For example, they can click on the four corners of a building and export that photo-textured surface in a format that is compatible with their modeling program. They can then refine the building with that model in another program that is more apt.

  13. Who are you focusing on as customers?

    JR: Our focus right now is on governments and enterprises that are specifically interested in city-level assets — city government departments, cities that have enterprise GIS initiatives, insurance companies, utility companies. Then, as we begin to scale up and we get a critical mass in the United States, some interesting opportunities will come up. We are looking at location-based services, mobile content providers, and Internet mapping portals. Right now we don't have any customers on board. We are still refining the technology and looking to deploy it.


     

  14. How might this fit into the consumer space?

    JR: We are exploring all sorts of options — from us hosting our own portal to partnering with an existing mapping portal, such as Yahoo, MapQuest, or Google.

    AF: Because it is so easy to use, it is pretty much a natural tie-in to many Internet applications. We are hoping that some day you may be able to georeference content on line, whether to see where an event mentioned in a news article happened or to report the location of a pot hole to the city.

  15. How does your system work in conjunction with satellite and aerial imagery?

    AF: You can click on an object on a satellite image and the system extracts the lat/long, finds the nearest view point, and displays it. So, the imagery from above and the panoramic imagery you look at are connected because of the common coordinate system. We are very complementary to those other types of data.

  16. What is your background?

    JR: I'm Australian, originally. I studied geomatic engineering. My background is in GIS and spatial sciences. Anthony and I connected at UC Berkeley, while we were in grad school and we were both working on reality capture techniques for cultural heritage. We were both investigating panoramic photography.

    AF: In the earlier days, I was making my own photographic equipment and exploring how you can use panoramic images for exploring the 3D nature of panoramic photos and how to connect that with more advanced tools, like applied laser scanning techniques. I had done a lot of photographic equipment design and John had a lot of experience in photogrammetry. We came together and designed the equipment and then built the whole system.

    JR: We were looking at how to apply that to cultural heritage sites —such as archaeological sites. While we were doing that, we thought, why can't we apply these same techniques to cities? So that is how we came up with the idea for Earthmine.

Briefly Noted

An article in yesterday's New York Times, "Surface Navigation Help for Subway Riders," by James Barron, describes the "embarrassing, frustrating, infuriating" experience for New Yorkers of emerging from subway stations mid-block and finding themselves disoriented and describes an experimental solution: compass-shaped decals on sidewalks, 24 inches in diameter, that indicate compass directions and the names of the nearest streets. I feel vindicated, twenty-five years after I used to emerge from subway stops in New York City and pull out of my pocket… a compass!

An article in today's New York Times, "Navigating With Feedback From Fellow Drivers," by Roy Furchgott, describes the Dash Express GPS-based car navigation system, which broadcasts data about a vehicle's travels back to the Dash network, thereby allowing it to monitor traffic in real-time and advise drivers as to how best to avoid it.

News Briefs

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

  1. CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS

    1. Pierce County, Washington Selects Freeance Mobile for BlackBerry GIS and Database Solutions

      October 17, 2007, Dayton, Ohio — TDC Group, Inc. (TDC) announced today that the County of Pierce, Washington has procured Freeance Mobile software for putting GIS maps in the field using BlackBerry smartphones. The City will also use Freeance Mobile accessing backend databases with custom forms on BlackBerry smartphones.

      State and local government agencies are implementing Freeance Mobile to field automate code enforcement, utilities and Public Safety/EMA applications. Freeance Mobile solutions start at less than $10,000.

      About Freeance Mobile Software: Freeance Mobile is innovative, easy-to-use location software for efficiently making mobile applications. You can now make your GIS available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. It is hassle-free software for users and IT administrators alike. Designed for the ESRI ArcGIS Server and BlackBerry environments, Freeance Mobile is a well-balanced approach combining off-the-shelf simplicity with the ability to make your own custom applications. Visit www.Freeance.com/mobile for more information.

    2. The City of Lima Benefits from Single Solution for Asset Maintenance Management

      Cityworks Deployed Across Multiple Divisions in Utilities Department

      Sandy, Utah — Azteca Systems, Inc., the leading provider of GIS-centric management solutions, announced today that the City of Lima, Ohio, has implemented Cityworks as their exclusive solution for asset maintenance management. Employed across several divisions, Lima uses Cityworks to manage utilities operations.

      In 2006, the City of Lima, Ohio, implemented Cityworks in its Utilities Department to enhance customer service and manage water and wastewater operations. Prior, the City used a variety of systems and databases to manage distribution, collection, and treatment systems. With Cityworks, the City now uses a single, easy-to-use system for tracking all infrastructure maintenance. Azteca Systems' business partner VELOCITIE Integration, Inc. assisted with the implementation which included the Customer Service, Water Distribution, Water Treatment, Sewer Maintenance, and Wastewater Treatment Divisions. Today more than 100 employees have the ability to generate, track, and manage customer service requests and work order information.

      "Personnel in our utilities divisions now have access to one, user-friendly system across all areas — from plant to field operations," said Dave Schnipke, City of Lima Environmental Compliance Manager. "With Cityworks, we can more effectively manage operations and address everyday questions across the whole organization."

      The City's infrastructure includes 250 miles of sanitary sewer and 400 miles of water lines, 40 treatment plant buildings, 50 water tanks and towers, 5 reservoirs and lagoons, and a number of related structures. Along with this critical infrastructure, Cityworks is also used to manage the maintenance of more than 75 vehicles.

      "The City of Lima is a shining example of the benefits Cityworks offers," affirms Brian Haslam, President of Azteca Systems. "Saving valuable time and money, Cityworks unique and intuitive GIS-centric approach allows organizations to consolidate multiple systems into a scalable and flexible system that can easily be applied to managing a wide array of assets and critical infrastructure for a division, department, or an entire enterprise."

      About the City of Lima, Ohio: Founded in 1831, the City of Lima is located in northwestern Ohio and is the county seat of Allen County. A local center for business and government, the city is home to more than 40,000 people with a history rooted in oil production and railroad. Today Lima is a prominent retail and manufacturing center.

      About Azteca Systems, Inc.: Founded in 1986, Azteca Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of GIS-centric Enterprise Management Systems. Built exclusively on top of ESRI's leading GIS technology, Cityworks is powerful, scalable, affordable, and designed for agencies that own and care for critical infrastructure, capital assets, and property.

    3. Chaos Systems AB Acquires Order from China

      Chaos systems AB has acquired an order from Hebei Geo Information Technology Co,; Ltd, Shijiazhuang, China. The order comprises 20 Topocad software systems containing the field module, the net adjustment module and the module for direct database connexion to ESRI:s ArcGIS software. The system is intended for field survey with GPS instruments of a map on a scale of 1:10,000. The representation office of Chaos systems AB in Beijing will be responsible for installation, configuration and education of the system at Hebei Geo Information Technology Co., Ltd.

      "It is an agreeable piece of news that our work in China the latest 18 months now has reached a breakthrough with this deal and we feel it is an important step for our product Topocad with its connector to ESRI:s products on the Chinese market. It is a unique connector between field and editing of data in a geographical information system, and there are many operators on the Chinese market that will benefit by our system Topocad," says Tomas Sandstroem, Sales manager of Chaos systems AB.

      "Updating the 1:10 000 geodata is a main task for the provincial authorities, to achieve this we need a more efficient solution to better integrate the field work with the afterwards indoor processing. After a long market investigation, we found Topocads solution closest to our idea, and it is most appropriate to our resources. We hope to have further cooperation in the future", says Zhang Xianli, General Manager of Hebei Geo Information Technology Co, Ltd.

      The order has a value of approximately 110 000 USD.

    4. Doncaster MBC Improves Local View with ESRI (UK)

      16th October 2007, Aylesbury: Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council has launched 'My Doncaster', an online tool to provide citizen access to local information and improve information sharing between partners of the Doncaster Strategic Partnership (DSP). 'My Doncaster' is based on ESRI (UK)'s LocalView Solution.

      'My Doncaster', accessible directly from Doncaster Council's homepage is helping the Council to support local government requirements to give local people and communities more influence and power to improve their lives.

      The web-based solution enables Doncaster Council to provide map-based information so that citizens can quickly and easily enter a postcode and retrieve information including who their Councillor is, local educational facilities and entertainment amenities. It also enables visitors to submit fault reports on environmental problems, such as broken street lights or abandoned cars.

      Councillor Margaret Ward, Deputy Mayor, said, "My Doncaster is a valuable tool for the Council to provide its citizens with a one-stop-shop for accurate and timely information on local services."

      Doncaster Council has also implemented the LocalView intranet solution to create the 'Interactive Maps' service for the partners of DSP who now have shared access to datasets of spatial information. Formed in May 2001, DSP comprises key stakeholders in the Borough, for example, South Yorkshire Police Force, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue and Doncaster Primary Care Trust. The new solution will increase information sharing between partners and as a result improve services within the community through more efficient service planning and provision.

      About ESRI (UK): ESRI (UK) is part of the global ESRI network. With the single, largest pool of GIS expertise in the UK, the company is the technical authority on GIS. ESRI (UK) provides solutions, technology and services including off the shelf applications built on the ArcGIS software suite and an extensive range of consulting and training services.

      Its offerings meet a range of business needs in different markets including Business, Local & Central Government, Public Safety, Utilities and Telecommunications, as well as catering for system integrators and application developers through the ESRI Developer Network.

      ESRI (UK)'s customers include both public sector clients such as Manchester City Council, Leeds City Council, Metropolitan Police, DCLG, The Environment Agency and businesses including Thames Water, Royal & SunAlliance and The AA.

      By building a deep understanding of its customers' needs, ESRI (UK) is able to help businesses become more profitable and public service more efficient through the better use of GIS. This process of enhancing sustainable business growth by developing solutions with the power to anticipate and meet industry specific requirements is known as Visionary Thinking.

    5. Ordnance Survey of Great Britain Selects Intergraph for the Nation's Geospatial Data Management System

      National mapping agency will leverage Intergraph's geospatial information management expertise to drive production efficiency, improve data consistency and support the creation of new products

      Huntsville, Alabama, Oct. 16, 2007 — Ordnance Survey, Great Britain's national mapping agency, has selected an Intergraph Corporation-led team, including 1Spatial and Snowflake Software, to provide its next generation geospatial database and data management system. This selection followed an extensive tender exercise under the European Union Public Procurement Regulations, Competitive Dialogue Procedure.

      Ordnance Survey maps are internationally renowned and its data are essential to the country's government, business and individuals. The agency's national geographic database describes more than 440 million individual features - such as every house, road and field. Each year more than a million changes to the British landscape need to be measured and assimilated into this database. This equates to 5,000 changes every day, and it requires efficient planning and control.

      The system will provide enterprise-wide capabilities for the management, planning, coordination, and control of data capture and production activities. Ordnance Survey's large-scale data holdings will be managed in a centralized geospatial database, and a standards-based interface will integrate field and office-based editing tools as well as those from external contractors. The system will ensure consistency between Ordnance Survey products and enable it to develop new ones.

      Ordnance Survey selected the Intergraph-led team after a rigorous six-month competitive evaluation in which potential suppliers worked to develop detailed proof of concepts.

      "This is an important step forward on the development of our seamless data management system," said Bob Goodrich, Ordnance Survey's Director of Information Systems. "As a result of this implementation, we will have a truly modernized system that will provide the nation with unprecedented access to current, accurate data."

      "We are honored to expand our relationship with Ordnance Survey and to support its vital mission with a world-class geospatial data management solution," said Reid French, chief operating officer and executive vice president, Intergraph. "The scope and scale of this endeavor are extraordinary, and we are proud of the confidence Ordnance Survey has demonstrated in us to help deliver a solution of national importance to Great Britain."

      About Ordnance Survey: Ordnance Survey is Great Britain's national mapping agency, providing the most accurate and up-to-date geographic data, relied on by government, business and individuals. Ordnance Survey and the OS Symbol are registered trademarks of Ordnance Survey.

      About Intergraph: Intergraph Corporation is the leading global provider of spatial information management (SIM) software. Security organizations, businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on the company's spatial technology and services to make better and faster operational decisions. Intergraph's customers organize vast amounts of complex data into understandable visual representations, creating intelligent maps, managing assets, building and operating better plants and ships and protecting critical infrastructure and millions of people around the world. For more information, visit www.intergraph.com

      About 1Spatial: 1Spatial has 35 years of experience in providing operational solutions to organisations with large spatial databases. With leading expertise in transforming data from CAD and GIS, quantitative data quality control, and spatial database technologies we also enable reuse and repurposing of such data and access through both internal and external portals. The modern era demands the unconstrained sharing of spatial data between systems, business areas, organisations, and the public. We are the specialists in enabling such cooperative infrastructures. For more information, visit www.1spatial.com

      About Snowflake Software: Founded in 2001, Snowflake Software provides a range of software solutions that help put GML/XML to work. Based on open standards, the solutions enable corporate and government customers to benefit from their data with off-the-shelf, proven, reliable technology. Snowflake supports an international user base with a wealth of experience, offering consulting and training and tools for the loading, translating and publishing of XML and GML. For more information, visit http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/

    6. DHL Express Selects DMTI Spatial to Streamline Delivery Routes with Location Intelligence

      Markham, Ontario, Canada — October 15, 2007. DMTI Spatial (DMTI), a leading provider of location intelligence for the enterprise, has been selected by DHL Express, a global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, to provide comprehensive mapping data to optimize its facility and driver routing of its packages by moving from an address-based routing system to a 6 digit postal code boundary framework for its more than 100 locations across Canada. DHL Express Canada picks up and delivers over 300,000 packages on a daily basis. Using DMTI's Platinum Postal Suite, DHL can apply national postal code information with unmatched precision down to the neighborhood level ensuring accuracy and reliability in pick-up and delivery services for their customers.

      Prior to purchasing the Platinum Postal Suite, DHL's ability to accurately pinpoint addresses was limited. They had limited ability to analyze routes, make queries for more detailed information within different areas or accurately map routes by major intersection and cross streets. Using postal level demographic and geographic feature data from the Platinum Postal Suite, DHL can precisely define dispatch territories and market segment patterns providing opportunities to streamline their processes, save money and improve customer satisfaction.

      "We needed a comprehensive solution that gave us the ability to analyze our routes, realize new efficiencies and provide accurate information for our operations," explained Lenore Zara, Industrial Engineering Specialist for DHL Express. "DMTI Spatial has detailed and reliable national coverage of Canadian postal geography making them our mapping data vendor of choice."

      For more information about the Platinum Postal Suite: http://www.dmtispatial.com/postal/

      Visit our pre-recorded Platinum Postal Suite Webinar: http://www.dmtispatial.com/webinars.html

      About DHL: DHL is the global market leader of the international express and logistics industry, specializing in providing innovative and customized solutions from a single source. DHL offers expertise in express, air and ocean freight, overland transport, and contract logistic solutions as well as international mail services, combined with worldwide coverage and an in-depth understanding of local markets. DHL's international network links more than 225 countries and territories worldwide with over 300,000 employees dedicated to providing fast and reliable services that exceed customers' expectations. Founded in San Francisco in 1969, DHL is a Deutsche Post World Net brand. For more information on DHL, please visit www.dhl.com

      About DMTI Spatial: DMTI Spatial has been providing industry leading enterprise location intelligence solutions for more than a decade to Global 2000 companies and government agencies. DMTI's world-class Location Hub platform uniquely identifies and cross-references a universe of location-based data. DMTI is the creator of the CanMap suite of geospatial data products, including CanMap Streets and RouteLogistics, the gold standard for location data in Canada. DMTI also provides professional services and software tools bringing full solutions to the marketplace. For more information about Location Intelligence see: http://www.dmtispatial.com/location_intelligence/

    7. Pet Supermarket Licenses geoVue's Dynamic Location Optimization Solution to Prioritize, Expand Into New Trade Areas

      Going Beyond Site Selection, geoVue Will Help Pet Supermarket Analyze, Maximize Ideal Markets for its Pet Product Stores

      Woburn, Massachusetts, Oct. 15, 2007 — geoVue, a leading provider of dynamic location optimization software, and Pet Supermarket today announced that after using geoVue's services, Pet Supermarket has licensed and is now using geoVue's software solutions to prioritize and expand its retail stores into new market areas.

      Based in Florida, each of Pet Supermarket's 100 stores offers more than 8,000 pet products at competitive prices. Pet Supermarket is focused on offering the best products and service for the health and happiness of all pets. Pet Supermarket continues to grow and expand, adding stores and markets on an ongoing basis. Pet Supermarket is looking to add 20 stores a year, and is focused on the areas that geoVue has identified as having the most potential.

      According to Diane Holtz, president of Pet Supermarket, "We are using geoVue to understand exactly what customers like our stores. geoVue used our customer data base of addresses to determine the demographics of customers where we are the most successful. Given that knowledge and other demographic information, geoVue will help analyze and select new market areas that are ideal for Pet Supermarket. As part of this process, geoVue can also project sales for individual sites. It's early in the implementation, but we are very encouraged by the results so far."

      geoVue goes beyond simple site selection. It optimizes locations. Using its innovative solutions and domain expertise, geoVue develops predictive store trade areas that allow clients to decide which markets to enter, expand or exit; how they should optimize store networks within each market; and how to localize marketing and merchandising.

      "We are excited to work with Pet Supermarket as it continues to bring its quality pet offerings to customers in states across the country," said Rudy Nadilo, CEO of geoVue. "Pet Supermarket has demonstrated tremendous sophistication in planning new markets."

      About Pet Supermarket (www.petsupermarket.com): Pet Supermarket is headquartered in Sunrise, Florida. Each conveniently located store offers more than 8,000 pet products at competitive prices. Pet Supermarket employees pride themselves on customer service, knowledge and concern for pets. Their motto is: "At Pet Supermarket you can have a healthier pet for less."

      About geoVue (www.geovue.com): geoVue is the leading provider of dynamic location optimization software for retailers, restaurants and other real-estate based consumer channels seeking a higher return on capital investment. geoVue's state-of-the-art modeling and optimization solutions help its clients holistically plan store networks and prioritize capital investments based on predictive, multi-factor trade areas. Clients prioritize markets to enter, expand or exit; optimize store networks; and localize marketing and merchandising. geoVue's unique approach to data and model maintenance provides each client with a localized, real-time geospatial decision-making framework configured for its particular customer-centric strategy. geoVue clients "don't leave square footage on the table."

      Founded in 1994 and based in Woburn, Mass., the company has more than 150 clients, including Big Lots, Dunkin' Brands, Meineke, Papa Murphy's, Pet Supermarket, REI and The Limited.

    8. Fugro Survey Wins Contract for Royal Australian Navy

      Perth, 10 October 2007 — Fugro Survey Pty Ltd has been awarded a contract for hydrographic surveying services for the Royal Australian Navy Australian Hydrographic Office. The contract value is 11 million Australian Dollars. Due to the remote nature of the survey area, the relatively shallow waters and the technically demanding specifications, Fugro Survey plans to operate an airborne hydrographic LIDAR system to complete the survey. Field operations are expected to commence later this year and continue in 2008.

      The survey is in support of the Fisheries Protection Survey and Charting Project (FPSCP). This phase of the FPSCP will be conducted in the southern portion of the Torres Strait. The survey provides the Royal Australian Navy with detailed mapping of this area, which will enhance the capacity of maritime enforcement vessels to protect and secure Australian waters from incursion by illegal foreign fishing vessels.

    9. VELOCITIE Assists the City of Ann Arbor with Enterprise Web Access Using Orion's OnPoint Web GIS Software

      Green Bay, Wisconsin — October 4, 2007 — VELOCITIE Integration, Inc. announced today that the City of Ann Arbor has completed its implementation of Orion's enterprise Web-GIS solution, OnPoint Enterprise. The City is expanding their GIS with this easy-to-use web interface to allow access to the City's growing spatial data repository.

      VELOCITIE, an Authorized OnPoint reseller, provided its expertise in Web-GIS develoopment and consulting to configure OnPoint Enterprise on the City's intranet to better utilize all of their GIS data as well as integrate with the City's computerized maintenance management system, Azteca's Cityworks. This integration with Cityworks, which is used to maintain work orders, service requests, and scheduled maintenance, allows City employees to see the status of work being performed across the City via the website.

      Located in Lower Michigan approximately 30 miles west of Detroit, the City of Ann Arbor is home to approximately 115,000 citizens and the University of Michigan. The City of Ann Arbor is Michigan's seventh largest city whose residents include about 37,000 college or graduate students living within the City's 27 square miles.

      "The City needed a vehicle to allow our employees to access work orders via the intranet. By implementing OnPoint and integrating it with Cityworks our employees are able to navigate links on the site to get the information they need to check the status of work orders and perform other maintenance related job duties," stated Russ Hanshue, the City's Applications Delivery Manager.

      About VELOCITIE: VELOCITIE Integration, Inc. provides integrated enterprise GIS solutions for utilities, municipalities and telecommunication companies. With offices in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Denver, Colorado, the team at VELOCITIE brings over 250 years of combined experience in serving the GIS industry. VELOCITIE has the knowledge, insight, experience, and proven success to ensure that its clients have a clear path for implementing GIS with their business needs in mind. Our objective is for clients to realize the true benefits and cost savings of integrating GIS technology with their IT and core business practices while implementing a wide array of industry leading products.

      To find out more about VELOCITIE, visit www.velocitie.com

  2. PRODUCTS & SERVICES

    1. TerraPixel Corporation Launches New Web-based System to Order Ortho Imagery

      Reston, Virginia — TerraPixel Corporation launches a new Web-based means to order small-scale high-resolution ortho imagery for 20-300 acre sites in the United States. The interactive online ordering system is built on Microsoft's Virtual Earth platform and can be viewed in Microsoft's booth (# 167) at the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation's 2007 GeoInt Symposium, taking place Oct. 21-24 in San Antonio, Texas.

      ImagePatch provides the means to define an area of interest via an interactive Web site and choose the quality of the ortho imagery in 3,6 or12 inch/pixel resolution. Users then specify the format that they would like delivered. TerraPixel flies and collects the imagery throughout the Northeast and has built a network of professional aerial providers to collect imagery in the rest of the country. Delivery is guaranteed within 30 days nationwide.

      This new tool gives users a convenient and easy means to acquire custom imagery without relying on outdated imagery archives or spending the time to contract and negotiate pricing with local aerial firms.

      "ImagePatch is a revolutionary idea where affordable, high-resolution, up-to-date aerial views complement most commercially available data," said Nuke Goldstein, CTO of The Carbon Project and ImagePatch co-founder, "Private, government and commercial customers can now use this service to track ongoing construction or land development projects or simply get updated views of areas of interest."

      ImagePatch is targeted at CAD/GIS professionals that need to update specific project areas, real estate professionals and land developers that need to manage their portfolios, and local governments that want to save money by updating newly developed areas rather than flying the entire area every year.

      The imagery imports seamlessly as an image base layer for drawings or for upload on Web-based mapping sites, such as Image Connect, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Earth, Leica Titan and Skyline Globe. Patches can be published into the core image database of Google Earth and Vitual Earth for public viewing at the customer's request.

      The imagery service includes basic ortho rectification of the imagery or delivery in RAW format for rectification to your own requirements.

      About ImagePatch: ImagePatch(TM) is a web-based imagery ordering and delivery system that targets the needs of smaller companies, cities and agencies that are looking for an affordable means to acquire ortho imagery of small-scale 20-300 acre sites in high resolution (3,6 or 12 inch/pixel).

      TerraPixel is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. For more information about ImagePatch, please visit our Web site at www.imagepatch.com. For details contact TerraPixel at 888-363-0702 or e-mail: [email protected].

    2. MicroImages Integrates Geospatial Analysis with Google Earth and Maps

      17 October 2007. Use TNTmips to create ready-to-use standard Google Maps and Earth tilesets or KML files. Publish your tilesets using an HTML page and anyone can use them in Google Maps via their browser. Tilesets can be assembled directly from many different formats and coordinate reference systems using the TNTmips mosaic process. Or, directly import, export, snapshot a view, or render a layout from geodata in your geodata format into KML and KMZ files including images, photos, graphics, and styles. Support is also included to create OSGeo tilesets for use in Open Layers. For detailed descriptions of these new TNTmips features see the illustrated TechGuides at www.microimages.com/press/google.htm or contact [email protected].

      About MicroImages, Inc.: Since 1986, MicroImages, Inc. has been providing the most advanced software in the industry for fully integrated GIS, desktop cartography, image processing, CAD, TIN, database, and geospatial analysis. With the TNT products, you edit, display, and present project materials in raster, vector, shape, CAD, relational database, and TIN formats. All TNT products are available in a growing number of international languages and can be operated under Windows, Mac OSX and Linux/Unix operating systems using the same interface and Project File structure. MicroImages also provides TNTlite, a free version of the professional TNT products along with a series of free tutorial booklets for students and rofessionals trying to learn geospatial analysis. For more information, see MicroImages' web site at www.microimages.com.

    3. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Releases New Version of Leica ADE with Oracle 11g Compatibility

      Norcross, Georgia — Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging today released a new version of Leica ADE, with the ability to handle Oracle 11g data. An innovative product suite, Leica ADE contains web-based and mobile enterprise applications for editing Oracle Spatial data in both a connected and disconnected environment. Extending the value of Oracle, Leica ADE combines business information with geospatial content.

      Participating in the Oracle 11g Beta program, Leica ADE now provides editing of user-defined data types, including Shapefiles (.shp). As well as being fully integrated with the Oracle Database and Application Server, the new version of Leica ADE also offers enhanced digitizing capabilities and support of Oracle MapViewer, a J2EE service for rendering maps managed by Oracle Spatial. MapViewer features supported by Leica ADE include the Linear Referencing System, GeoRaster and Workspace Manager.

      These enhancements provide Leica ADE with more comprehensive feature editing and data management capabilities. Efficiently handling spatial and non-spatial information, Leica ADE is further equipped for use in the field or office, using a mobile client, the web, desktop or laptop computer.

      "Leica ADE is a complete enterprise-enabled solution providing geospatial access, analytics and accurate data capture in a web or mobile application," said Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging. "With Oracle 11g compatibility, Leica ADE is empowered to offer a broader collection of applications with real time visualization, query and synchronous editing of both geospatial and business data."

      For more information about Leica ADE or Leica Geosystems, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit www.gi.leica-geosystems.com.

      About Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging: To be successful in our changing marketplace, you need reliable, enterprise-enabled geospatial information. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging transforms your raw data to useable information, integrating a broad range of geospatial technology throughout your enterprise, via web-based, mobile and desktop clients. Delivering the most comprehensive solutions in image exploitation, processing, visualization and data management, Leica Geosystems provides robust image compression techniques and the most efficient delivery of imagery over the Internet or within an organization. With Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) interoperability, Leica Geosystems develops solutions with the most advanced service-oriented platform available.

      Those who use Leica Geosystems products trust them for their precision, seamless integration, interoperability and superior customer support. Geospatial solutions from Leica Geosystems - when it has to be right.

      Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden. For more information about Leica Geosystems or its products and services, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit www.gi.leica-geosystems.com.

    4. WhiteStar Introduces Unlimited Well Access (UWA) Product

      Lakewood, Colorado, 17 October 2007 — WhiteStar Corp. today officially introduced Unlimited Well Access (UWA), a digital map-based product containing well header information for oil and gas wells in the United States, including Alaska, state and federal waters, and the Gulf of Mexico. Offered as a subscription product, UWA is updated quarterly with status information for all of the 3.9 million wells drilled and recorded nationwide.

      "UWA is the only nationwide solution designed to keep track of the 30,000 new wells being drilled in the United States every year along with all the existing ones," said Robert White, WhiteStar President. "UWA puts nationwide well data right on the desktop so that exploration companies can create regional or statewide base maps quickly and inexpensively whenever they want without having to order individual data sets from individual states."

      At a cost of only $500 per month with a two-year subscription, UWA provides well information for less than the price of buying well information from just one of the major oil-producing states. And UWA comes in a standard format that's much easier to use than the state-supplied files. WhiteStar has obtained the well data from every state and converted the various files into a standard format supported by mapping packages such as ESRI, GeoGraphix, Petra, SMT Kingdom, and Pitney Bowes MapInfo. The nationwide UWA data set is seamless from state to state and can be projected in either NAD27 or NAD83, including all related state planes and UTM zones.

      UWA provides a map-based interface where the user can define an area of interest (AOI) by zooming in on the map, selecting specific states or counties, or delineating a region of any shape or size. Built-in software automatically accesses data for all of the wells in that AOI, delivering the results in a graphical or tabular format. The user can click on any single well on the map screen to view its data.

      Data provided for each well varies by state, but all files contain such details as well name, API number, and elevation. There are about 20 attributes and 20-30 status codes listed for each well. Most data sets also provide the formation top name and bottom hole location information. The UWA interface allows the user to query well data by standard attributes, which enables the creation of base maps by particular producing formation or field.

      "UWA is ideal for exploration companies that want to monitor drilling activity in a specific region without attracting any attention to themselves," said White. "With a few clicks of the mouse, they can see what operators have been drilling in a given area within recent months."

      WhiteStar clients will be pleased to know that UWA is fully compatible with, and overlays on top of, the popular WhiteStar Unlimited Grid Access (UGA) and Unlimited Base-Map Access (UBA) products. UGA is a seamless digital mosaic of land survey and fitted county boundaries covering all public land survey states, Texas, and Offshore State and Federal Waters in the Gulf of Mexico. UBA a seamless nationwide digital mosaic of base map information layers from U.S. Census Bureau TIGER Files.

      "By integrating UWA with UGA and UBA, WhiteStar clients can make a base map for any location in the United States containing all of the Public Land Survey information, Census data and cultural layers they need to plan their exploration and production operations – all in a matter of minutes," said White.

      About WhiteStar Corp.: Headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, WhiteStar Corp. has supplied digital cartographic data products, services and consulting since 1990 to the oil and gas, pipeline, natural resource, and engineering industries. As a purveyor of geospatial data products, WhiteStar takes a customized approach to every implementation project. The WhiteStar client base now includes more than 1600 companies ranging in size from local consulting firms to integrated multi-national corporations. Learn more at www.whitestar.com.

    5. GETAC To Showcase Fully Rugged Tablet PCs With iWater GIS-Based Software System At WEFTEC

      Models V100 and CA27 Offer Portability and Flexibility In Rugged Package That Meets Military Standards

      Lake Forest, California, October 15, 2007 — GETAC Inc., a pioneering manufacturer of Rugged computers that meet the demands of field-based applications, will showcase its V100 and CA27 Rugged convertible and slate model tablet PCs today through Wednesday, Oct. 17, during the Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, Calif. (Booth #4149).

      The lightweight-yet-Rugged V100 and CA27 tablet PCs will feature the iWater infraMap GIS software solution. iWater, Inc. provides services, accurate data, reports, maps, attributes and problem identification to cities, municipalities and private utility companies. Together, GETAC and iWater provide the ideal solution for field-based workers whose jobs demand the combination of GIS-based software and a Rugged PC that can stand up to daily outdoor use and abuse.

      Designed to meet the strenuous everyday demands of utility workers, the GETAC V100 is fully compliant with MIL-STD 810F and IP54 standards for ruggedness. The highly portable 4.9-pound V100 features ultra-quiet fanless design and includes a wide range of standard features, including a 10.4 inch screen, power-saving 1.2 GHz Intel Core Duo Platform Technology, 512 MB expandable to 2 GB of DRAM, 120 GB shock-mounted removable hard drive, Integrated Bluetooth, reversible waterproof camera, and a full menu of wireless networking capabilities — all housed in a water resistant Rugged magnesium alloy case. The package includes the Microsoft Windows XP Professional and XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 operating system.

      "A GETAC tablet PC loaded with iWater infraMap software is the ideal solution for municipal and private water company workers whose jobs demand a Rugged computing system that meets all their needs," said Jessica Pasch, GETAC business development manager. "The GETAC V100 and CA 27 both exceed every performance and reliability standard that workers demand from a fully Rugged computer while offering a number of optional features not available elsewhere."

      To satisfy customers' unique applications the V100 offers an optional 12-inch LCD screen that is daylight readable and a choice of digitizer or touch screen interface. The V100 also offers optional Integrated GPS, 3G and 802.11a/b/g functionality that keeps users connected whether they are in the office, in a vehicle or outdoors.

      Among the features of GETAC V100 Fully Rugged Convertible Notebook/Tablet PC:

      • 180-degree rotatable screen transformable from a notebook to a tablet PC
      • 10.4" or optional 12.1" (wide) LCD screen
      • Intel Core Duo Processor
      • MIL-STD 810F and IP54 compliance
      • Magnesium alloy casing with hand strap
      • Shock-mounted removable hard drive
      • Sunlight readable display solution
      • Integrated GPS, Bluetooth, 3G and 802.11a/b/g capability
      • Reversible waterproof camera

      The GETAC CA27 slate-style tablet PC features a fully sealed 10.4-inch touch screen display or Windows XP° tablet digitizer display with advanced handwriting recognition features as well as mobile wireless support. Its unique X-Bay options support different kinds of communication modules, a vehicle docking station, and 4-port option that make the CA27 adaptable to any application. The CA27 is MIL-STD 810F and IP52 compliant.

      The V100 and CA27 are currently available through GETAC authorized resellers. Please visit www.getac.com for more information.

      About GETAC: GETAC Inc., a subsidiary company of MiTAC Technology Corporation, is a pioneer in the Rugged mobile computing industry, providing premier Fully Rugged and Rugged notebook, tablet PC and handheld solutions for the military, law enforcement, public safety, utility, telecommunication, manufacturing, field service and mobile workforce industries. Its Rugged computers are strictly controlled and monitored from the design, manufacture, quality assurance to service flows, making GETAC an industry-known Rugged computer provider. For more information, visit the GETAC Inc. website at www.getac.com.

    6. LeadDog Releases Comprehensive City Street Maps for Ten Peruvian Cities

      Anchorage, Alaska, October 17, 2007 — LeadDog Consulting, a leading international provider of GIS street and road maps announced the release of detailed city street geographic databases for the Peruvian cities: Lima, Arequipa, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura, Iquitos, Cusco, Chimbote, Huancayo, and Pucallpa. LeadDog maps are in use in a wide range of applications from military and government emergency and defense support to commercial fleet management and location based services. LeadDog products provide accurate base level mapping and numerous vector layers and attributes such as:

      • Streets at 1:10,000 scale
      • Street names
      • Street classifications
      • Extensive Points of Interest (airports, hospitals, government offices, etc.)
      • Water and Landmark polygons
      • Political division and borders

      Peruvian City Streets products are available in all major GIS formats. In addition to the cities named, LeadDog has detailed City Street Maps for 26 other Peruvian cities. A Peruvian Major Roads and Highways product is available at a 1:250,000 scale.

      LeadDog has vector mapping for over 75 countries making them one of the leading mapping companies worldwide; with an extensive library that is critically focused in the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, the rest of Latin America, and Asia.

    7. Verizon Wireless Announces Availability of AAA Mobile Downloadable GPS Application

      Offers AAA's Travel Information, Navigation, Roadside Assistance in Palm of Hand

      Basking Ridge, New Jersey and Orlando, Florida, Oct. 16, 2007 — Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless company with the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, and AAA, North America's foremost motoring and leisure travel organization, today announced AAA Mobile. A tool for travelers, both AAA members and non-members, AAA Mobile enables Verizon Wireless customers to find AAA-rated points of interest and quickly access roadside assistance, right from their GPS-enabled Verizon Wireless phones.

      AAA Mobile subscribers can use their Verizon Wireless phones to receive visual and audible directions to any travel destination in the U.S.; locate AAA Approved points of interest (POIs), including Diamond Rated hotels and restaurants; and search more than 100,000 locations that offer AAA member savings. Subscribers can review detailed AAA descriptions for POIs on their phone, receive a map showing a destination on the mobile phone screen, and bookmark locations as favorites for quick recall in future.

      If AAA members experience vehicle difficulties, AAA Mobile streamlines access to AAA's member roadside assistance service. The press of a single button on their Verizon Wireless phones sends the members' GPS location to AAA and connects callers with AAA for quick and reliable roadside assistance services.

      Verizon Wireless customers can purchase AAA Mobile in the Travel & Guides shopping aisle of the Tools On The Go section in the Get It Now virtual store for $9.99 monthly access. Customers can currently also find AAA Mobile in the Featured Application shopping aisle on select Get It Now-enabled phones. Download charges for Get It Now applications vary and airtime charges apply when browsing, downloading and using certain applications. Customers need a Get It Now-enabled handset and Verizon Wireless digital service to access the Get It Now virtual store.

      AAA Mobile is powered by the Networks In Motion (NIM) location-based services platform, and is available for download directly from select GPS-enabled wireless phones. More information, including which phones are compatible with AAA Mobile, is available at www.AAA.com/AAAMobile. For more information about Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

      About Verizon Wireless: Verizon Wireless operates the nation's most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving more than 62.1 million customers. The largest U.S. wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 67,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

      About AAA: As North America's largest motoring and leisure travel organization, AAA provides more than 50 million members with travel, insurance, financial and automotive-related services. Since its founding in 1902, the not-for-profit, fully tax-paying AAA has been a leader and advocate for the safety and security of all travelers. AAA clubs can be visited on the Internet at www.AAA.com.

      About Networks In Motion: Networks In Motion (NIM), America's Favorite Way to Navigate, is the award-winning wireless navigation and local search company, with over one million paid users of its products in North America. Founded in 2000, the company is privately held and headquartered in Aliso Viejo, Calif., with international offices in Sweden and Spain. More information is available at http://www.networksinmotion.com.

    8. ArcGIS Business Analyst Products Help Marketers Reach More Customers

      Solution Being Previewed at DMA 2007 Conference in Chicago

      Redlands, California — Enterprise GIS solutions for business now offer more efficient workflows and improved customer prospecting through ESRI's ArcGIS Business Analyst product family. Marketers find that these solutions help reduce marketing campaign costs while improving customer acceptance levels. Finding more qualified prospects using GIS techniques and geographic datasets allows companies to spend less time analyzing and more time attracting the buyers they want.

      The Business Analyst family now includes ArcGIS Business Analyst, a complete GIS with out-of-the-box end user applications and services for spatial data management, visualization, and analysis. ArcGIS Business Analyst works with ESRI's popular Business Analyst Online, which offers on-demand analysis, presentation-quality reports, and maps on a subscription basis. These solutions go beyond traditional demographic segmentation, allowing companies to understand how consumers' geographic locations and relationships with the retail landscape impact their purchasing habits, brand loyalties, and product preferences.

      "Direct marketing can be a shot in the dark if you don't have the right tools and understanding of your audience," says Simon Thompson, director, commercial market, ESRI. "ESRI's software and data provide this community with the best analytical and mapping solutions necessary to profile intended buyers. By providing intuitive and powerful ways to analyze market barriers, psychographic habits, and consumer lifestyles, GIS gives you the edge you need; the more you know, the better you perform."

      In addition to powerful analytical capabilities, ArcGIS Business Analyst gives marketers access to more than 1,500 U.S. demographic data variables available at ZIP Code, census tract, block group, and Designated Market Area (DMA) levels including

      • 2007 estimates
      • 2012 projections
      • Demographic profiles
      • Employee population by occupation/industry
      • Disposable income
      • Consumer expenditures

      ESRI also provides high-quality, nationwide street and geocoding databases together with high-quality aerial photography and more than 100 online data resources. These datasets easily and richly supplement any company's customer relationship management (CRM) software or marketing solution.

      The ESRI team will be at the DMA 2007 Conference in Chicago, Illinois, October 13—18, 2007, in booth #838 highlighting the benefits and values of the ArcGIS Business Analyst product family including a preview demonstration and information on Business Analyst Server, a complete server-based GIS for deployment of enterprise solutions through any business.

      About ESRI: Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit www.esri.com.

    9. Autodesk Unveils U-Vis 360: Revolutionary Visual Integration Platform Transforms Decision-Making Potential for Federal, State and Local Governments

      Allows government agencies to more effectively integrate, visualize and experience precision information and data for more rapid decision making.

      San Rafael, California, Oct. 15, 2007 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced the Autodesk U-Vis 360 Core, a new solution platform that integrates building design, manufacturing, mapping, and infrastructure data and displays it in a single visualization environment. Specifically tailored for federal and state and local governments, solutions built on the U-Vis 360 platform provide a complete and highly accurate 360-degree inside-outside-under view of any structure or urban environment with an easy-to-use interface.

      The U-Vis platform integrates 'smart' engineering data, filters it according to specific task and then applies the appropriate interface — either a 2D web or a 3D game engine. The result is that non-technical users at all levels of federal and state and local governments can more easily integrate, visualize and experience complete precision information and data about an urban setting or structure in a digital environment—giving them immediate access and allowing them to make critical decisions more quickly and easily.

      "U-Vis 360 provides an end-to-end solution our state and local and federal government customers have been asking for—an open-architecture, user-friendly platform that lets our customers visualize and access every aspect of their urban structures and cities before they take action," said Bill Goodson, vice president, government sales, Autodesk. "With U-Vis 360, our customers can incorporate data and easily extend their current workflows throughout the entire process--from design to implementation and then out to delivery of applications most important to them: analysis, training and response. U-Vis 360 ultimately lets our customers make more informed decisions so they can reduce costs and protect present and future investments."

      "For over 25 years, Autodesk has been a leader in providing software that helps people design, build and manage everything from traffic lights to highways and skyscrapers. Information about this infrastructure is critically important, but, to date, has been scattered around different systems. With U-Vis 360, Autodesk is introducing an important visual decision management tool that will allow governments to pull this information together and organize it visually by location," said David Sonnen, senior consultant at International Data Corporation. "U-Vis 360 provides a consistent structure for governments to access a wide variety of visual information so they can make better decisions—and save time and money in the process."

      While the U-Vis 360 platform was first created to support the needs of defense and intelligence agencies, the widespread capabilities captured in a U-Vis 360 solution set have proven valuable in a wide variety of applications for federal and state and local governments--including emergency response, urban planning, campus security and management, and facilities management.

      U-Vis 360 enables users to incorporate existing data from commercial-off-the-shelf software, such as computer-aided design (CAD), geospatial information (GIS), building information modeling (BIM) and databases, to create complete and accurate urban environments for customers' business application and analysis needs. The U-Vis 360 Core supports the development of multiple solutions from the same sets of source data for both technical and professional users. At their fingertips, users from any level in the organization can find the top-line information they require to make quick and informed decisions, while technical users can still retain easy access to precision engineering data.

      "By leveraging existing data customers already have stored in various software types, we are able to quickly create a precise and comprehensive 2D or 3D visual data integration solution containing that specific data," said Juliana Slye, director of Autodesk Government. "The U-Vis 360 family of solutions delivers cost-effective applications for decision-makers who require collaboration across the enterprise and need a complete inside-outside-under view of any structure."

      Partners and Availability: Autodesk is working jointly with a number of its partners to deliver customized, powerful solutions based on the U-Vis 360 platform to specialized government markets and agencies. Several of these solutions are available today. To further Autodesk's open platform approach, Autodesk is also working with its partners to develop a software development kit (SDK) and an application programming interface (API).

      More information on the Autodesk U-Vis 360 Core can be found at http://www.autodesk.com/uvis

      About Autodesk Government: Autodesk Government is a dedicated organization within Autodesk that has served the needs of federal and state/local government agencies for more than 20 years. Autodesk Government delivers software solutions that integrate geospatial, manufacturing, design and engineering data with other critical information to reduce the time it takes to make informed decisions. In roles that include emergency response management, physical infrastructure design and protection, mission rehearsal, simulation and training, and asset tracking, Autodesk Government is a trusted partner to help agencies ensure mission success.

      About Autodesk: Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

    10. IRRIS Showcased During U.S. Congressional Luncheon

      Oct. 11, 2007, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — The IRRIS technology application was demonstrated during a special luncheon at the U.S. House Rayburn Office Building, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Hearing Room, in Washington D.C., on Sept. 26, 2007. The event was attended by senior staff members from the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation and other stakeholders from professional associations and private industry.

      The event featured a real-time demonstration of IRRIS that focused on the technology's capabilities as an emergency management, incident response, and evacuation tool. IRRIS was developed in partnership with GeoDecisions, an award-winning leader in the information technology industry specializing in geographic information systems, and the U.S. Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command Transportation Engineering Agency (SDDCTEA).

      IRRIS is a Web-based geospatial tool with more than 400 layers of data, including near-real-time weather and traffic. It provides routing capabilities, logistics management, and situational awareness during crisis situations and for day-to-day operations. IRRIS is currently deployed by the U.S. military and other state and federal agencies.

      The luncheon provided further insight into IRRIS' utility as a tool to enhance interoperability among different levels of government and provide a real-time solution and common operating picture for emergency management, homeland security, and transportation safety in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

      Two other Pennsylvania-based firms, Mountaintop Technologies and Synergist Technology Group, collaborated with GeoDecisions to showcase and demonstrate IRRIS. More information about IRRIS can be found at www.irris.com.

  3. CONFERENCES & TRAINING

    1. URISA Announces Conference Schedule

      October 17, 2007 (Park Ridge, IL) — The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) has another ambitious conference schedule in 2008 to meet the professional development needs of its multi-disciplinary membership. All of the volunteer committees for each conference are hard at work organizing educational sessions that challenge participants and events that strengthen professional networks.

      February 25-28, 2008. 12th Annual GIS/CAMA Technologies Conference in New Orleans

      In addition to workshops, educational sessions, and networking meetings, the conference will also include a charity event to help rebuild the City. The conference, co-sponsored by the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) had record-setting attendance numbers last year.

      April 7-10, 2008. 2008 URISA/NENA Addressing Conference in Portland, Oregon. The conference is a merging of the successful URISA Street Smart and Address Savvy and Geospatial Integration for Public Safety conferences.

      August 25-29, 2008. 4th URISA Caribbean GIS Conference on Grand Cayman. In its fourth year, this conference regularly attracts forward-thinking and accomplished GIS professionals in the region and provides quality educational programming and professional development opportunities.

      October 7-10, 2008. URISA's 46th Annual Conference in New Orleans. Following two strong annual conferences (in Vancouver, BC and Washington, DC), the conference committee has high hopes for another successful gathering of technology leaders. URISA 2008 will also include a charity event to assist in the renewal of the Crescent City.

      Find out more about each event at www.urisa.org

    2. Where 2.0 2008 Brings New Depth to Location-Based Technology

      Call for participation is now open

      Sebastopol, California, October 15, 2007 — Now in its fourth year, the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference will bring together the people, projects, and issues building new technological foundations and creating value in the location industry. The conference, taking place May 12-14, 2008 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott in Burlingame, CA, will draw over 500 leading-edge developers and innovators from companies who are building location aware technology.

      Happening over three days, Where 2.0 is a single-track conference featuring a unique combination of high profile keynotes with big players, lightning talks, panel discussions, demos, product launches, and Q&A. The most innovative and interesting people in this space are featured on stage, and stay around to debate and discuss with other attendees off stage.

      In the O'Reilly conference tradition, Where 2.0 presents leading trends rather than chasing them. The 2008 program will explore how businesses and entrepreneurs are seeking out location applications, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. Program chair Brady Forrest, "This year we plan to broaden the scope of sessions to include the following topics:"

      • Geo-Tagging Data: As major players add the capability to modify their site maps, who owns the data? How it used?
      • Open Source Geo-Data: Today some of the most intriguing developments in the geo-spatial arena are created by open source developers: where are they pushing the GIS software companies?
      • Sensorweb: From traffic sensing and traffic tickets to flooding and fire detection, cheap sensors are becoming ubiquitous: what are the implications and opportunities?
      • Ultralocal: Wi-fi positioning lets companies know where you are. What does that mean for consumers and companies able to locate them and provide services on a block-by-block basis?
      • Visualization: What new tools and applications will neo-geographers have to look forward to?
      • As virtual worlds continue to mature, what are the implications for exploration in the real world?
      • Local search and advertising is driving a new wave of innovation. What are the new trends?
      • Privacy: With greater access to location and sensor data comes greater concern for privacy.
      • Environment/NGOs: Regardless of political bent, geodata and software will be needed throughout the world by governments and NGOs.
      • Wild Cards: Virtual worlds and Games: People use them to explore their world, but in doing so, what new technology will be gained?

      The deadline for proposals for Where 2.0 2008 is November 26, 2007.

      For the first time in 2008, Where 2.0 will have a full day of tutorials so participants can dig deep into a range of issues and leave the conference armed with new tools and skills. Tutorials are a half day (three hours) in length and will be held on Monday, May 12. Topics we'd like to explore include:

      • Geo Support in Web Application Frameworks: As people design their own mapping applications, there has been a need for built-in geo support. Workshops will teach about Mapstraction, Modest Maps, Open Layers, GeoDjango, GeoRuby, MapCruncher, and other tools.
      • GeoStack: As locations apps are brought in-house, companies need their own geostack. What are the best tools?
      • Mapping APIs: The location space would not have gotten as far as it has today without all of the innovation in the mapping API space. How can you test the limits of these free resources?
      • GeoTargeting: Knowing users' locations has never been more important. Identifying it accurately can be difficult and expensive. What are the best methods?
      • Privacy Implications: As you are collecting user data, keeping track of your users, or collecting geodata, are you aware of the relevant laws? What would you teach others?
      • GeoBrowsers: Google Earth and NASA WorldWind are both amazing geobrowsers. How can you get the most out of them?
      • Data Management: Geo applications work with massive amounts of data. What are the tools, tips, and tricks that can be used to manage it?
      • Protocols & Formats: GeoRSS, GML, KML, EXIF, Microformats, Geo OpenSearch. Which formats are on the way in and which ones are on the way out?

      O'Reilly conferences provide a great opportunity for the exchange of ideas and networking. For 2008, Where 2.0 will have multiple activities to choose from, including:

      • Where Fair: hands-on, science fair style event brings together the creators of emerging location-based projects to share their inventions with others. Where Fair projects will be selected from research, academia, and yet-to-be-discovered entrepreneurs
      • BoFs: Evening sessions provide face-to-face informal meeting time for those interested in discussing the same topics, projects, and concepts
      • Exhibit Hall
      • Ignite: A high-energy, fast-paced event featuring 5 minute presentations that are a platform for start-ups to make their debut

      Attendees at Where 2.0 will also have an opportunity to learn about the latest technologies and product offerings from companies making things happen in location-based technology. The 2007 event included the following sponsors: Google, MapQuest, ESRI, Autodesk, Garmin, 3DConnexion, deCarta, DigitalGlobe, Fatdoor, Leica Geosystems, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Quova, Schmap, Skyhook Wireless, TeleAtlas, Where.com, and University of Alaska. The exhibit hall will feature even more companies in 2008.

      Registration for both general attendees and media will open in January 2008. Program details will be available in early 2008.

      What past participants have said about Where 2.0:

      • "The Where 2.0 conference is probably one of the most important meetings of the year for developers of new Web 2.0 mapping technologies." — Frank Taylor, Google Earth Blog
      • "I can't remember a conference I have attended in the past few years where there was just so much to take-in. [The next] Where 2.0…will be a show not to miss." — —Ed Parsons, edparsons.com

      The call for participation, now open, closes November 26, 2007. Early registration for Where 2.0 2008 will be open in January.

      Learn more about Where 2008 by visiting:

      http://conferences.oreilly.com/where

      To read the news from Where 2008 visit:

      http://www.oreillynet.com/conferences/blog/where_20/

      If you'd like to stay up to date on information relating to Where 2.0,

      sign up for the conference newsletter:

      http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/nl/home#conferences

      To read the O'Reilly Radar, visit:

      http://radar.oreilly.com/

      If you have ideas about areas you'd like to see included at the

      conference, send a note to: [email protected]

      To submit idea proposals, visit:

      http://en.oreilly.com/where2008/public/cfp/5

      For information about exhibiting or sponsoring at the Where 2008 event, contact Yvonne Romaine (707) 827-7198 or [email protected]

      If you would like to discuss forming a media or promotional partnership with O'Reilly for an upcoming event, contact Avila Reese at (707) 827-7116 or [email protected]

      About O'Reilly: O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying 'faint signals' from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

      O'Reilly conferences bring together forward-thinking business and technology leaders, shaping ideas and influencing industries around the globe. For over 25 years, O'Reilly has facilitated the adoption of new and important technologies by the enterprise, putting emerging technologies on the map.

    3. Dates Announced for 1Spatial 2008 Conference

      Cambridge, UK, 12th October 2007. 1Spatial is pleased to announce the dates for its 2008 Conference. This industry leading Spatial Data Management conference, organised and managed for the second year by 1Spatial, will take place from the 29th April to 1st May at the prestigious Radisson SAS Hotel at Stansted Airport in the UK.

      With, once again, primary support from Oracle Corporation, the 1Spatial Conference 2008 aims to be the year's premier event focussed on the transformation, management and quality control of spatial data. Based around the theme of '1 Source of Truth' the conference will highlight the topics of Simplifying the Supply Chain and Data Certification. Specifically the conference will:

      • Explore the efficient use and re-use of spatial data across organisations, in line with the EC Directive on Public Sector Information Re-use
      • Address the growing phenomenon of CAD and GIS convergence and the data management issues this presents
      • Discuss effective data access and sharing across the spatial data supply chain
      • Stimulate debate for delegates involved in establishing Spatial Data Infrastructures, such as INSPIRE
      • Provide a forum for special interest groups across the Spatial Data Industry to meet and debate focussed issues
      • Present delegates with an insight into all aspects of spatial data management and current best practices, including updates on such issues as Open Standards and the work of the OGC

      The 1Spatial Conference is open to anyone interested in managing spatial data effectively, not just 1Spatial customers and partners. It offers the chance to learn from industry experts and leading practitioners from the mainstream Information Technologies and Open Standards communities, as well as providing excellent networking opportunities. Whatever your role from Chief Executives and Directors, through to expert practitioners and programmers, this conference offers you the chance to learn more about the issues of data management and data quality control across the spatial data supply chain. It will help you determine more effective and efficient use of spatial data throughout your organisation and as part of any activity to build spatial data infrastructures.

      Once again the 1Spatial Conference will host the annual 1Spatial Community meeting. This group comprises 1Spatial users, practitioners and partner organisations bonded not only though their relationship with 1Spatial, but also through their commitment to interoperable, standards-based, spatial data management.

      It promises to be, for the second year running, an authoritative event in the Spatial Data Management Calendar, The full conference programme will be announced in the coming weeks.

      What was said about the 2007 1Spatial Conference:

      Geoff Zeiss, Director of Technology Enterprise Solutions, Infrastructure Solutions Division, Autodesk: "Many thanks for all your help in Southampton. It really was a great meeting. I would say the pre-eminent geospatial event in the UK and one of the top events across Europe."

      Jeff Thurston, Editor, Vector1 Magazine: "The 1Spatial Conference brings together key individuals and companies who are at the forefront of spatial data quality issues within the industry. This conference addressed the issue of 'Fit for Purpose' which resulted in robust discussions about spatial data quality, reuseability and enterprise processes integral to economic success."

      Registration will soon be open, but in the meantime for sponsorship details or to register your interest in attending the event, please contact us at: [email protected]

      About 1Spatial: 1Spatial has 35 years of experience in providing operational solutions to organisations with large spatial databases. With leading expertise in transforming data from CAD and GIS, quantitative data quality control, and spatial database technologies we also enable reuse and repurposing of such data and access through both internal and external portals. The modern era demands the unconstrained sharing of spatial data between systems, business areas, organisations, and the public. We are the specialists in enabling such cooperative infrastructures. www.1spatial.com

  4. PEOPLE

    1. Infotech Hires New Project Manager

      Sterling, Virginia, October 2007 — Infotech Enterprises America, Inc. (Infotech) is pleased to announce the hire of Mr. Mark Ballard as a Senior Project Manager for Infotech's Geospatial Division. Mr. Ballard brings over 25 years experience implementing enterprise IT solutions in the government and private sectors. Mr. Ballard's extensive experience includes managing IT projects and applications, database management, developer, and consulting.

      At Infotech, Mr. Ballard will be responsible for the management of GIS projects with his niche focusing on Infotech's utility jobs. According to the Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Jim Fass, "Mr. Ballard's strong knowledge and experience within the IT industry is an exact fit for Infotech's growing position within the utility market". Mr. Ballard will be located in Infotech's Austin, TX office and can be reached via email [email protected].

      Infotech Enterprises America, Inc. is a global geospatial and engineering consulting and professional services firm with 16 years experience delivering complex geospatial solutions. Infotech provides a wide range of cost effective IT, GIS, and mapping services in the areas of software development, customization, data management, and photogrammetry. Infotech's US headquarters is located at 330 Roberts Street, East Hartford, CT. For more information, please visit www.infotech-enterprises.com.

    2. TruePosition Appoints Robert Morrison as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Program Management

      Berwyn, Pennsylvania, October 11, 2007 — TruePosition, Inc., a leading provider of wireless location technologies and location-based services solutions, and a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, today announced that Robert Morrison has joined TruePosition as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Program Management. In this role, Mr. Morrison will be responsible for the company's business development process, the management of new business initiatives and ensuring the alignment of strategy with business development.

      Robert Morrison brings more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications and IT industries to TruePosition. Prior to joining TruePosition, Mr. Morrison was head of business operations with Sprint Enterprise Mobility, a mobility-focused consulting and systems integration subsidiary of Sprint. Before joining Sprint Robert was with British Telecom, where he held key customer-facing roles in sales, business development and business management, within their systems integration business, Syntegra. Robert was a member of the executive team at Syntegra from 1998 to 2005, managing major operations in the UK, Germany and the United States. Robert studied at Queen's University in Belfast and holds a BA in Social Sciences.

      "We are pleased to welcome Robert to our senior management team," said Stephen Stuut, CEO of TruePosition. "Robert brings extensive management and business development experience. His professional services experience will be an asset to TruePosition and our customers as we build on our success in delivering end-to-end location based services worldwide."

      About TruePosition: TruePosition is dedicated to the development and implementation of advanced wireless location products, services and devices, providing complete solutions to support the wireless location needs of the global marketplace. In addition to providing industry leading core location technologies, TruePosition supports all levels of the wireless location value chain to offer turnkey solutions.

      TruePosition's foundation was built on the development of advanced location systems, which include handset, network and hybrid location solutions. Today, TruePosition can offer hybrid location systems that incorporate Cell ID, Enhanced Cell ID, Uplink Time Difference of Arrival, Angle of Arrival, and Assisted GPS to power the next generation of location-based services. TruePosition is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation that is attributed to its Liberty Capital Group (NASDAQ: LINTA, LINTB, LCAPA, LCAPB). For more information, visit www.trueposition.com

  5. OTHER

    1. ITT Navigation Payload Enhances Latest Generation of Global Positioning System Satellites

      White Plains, New York, October 17, 2007 — ITT Corporation announced today its contribution to the latest U.S. Air Force Global Positioning Satellite to join the constellation.

      The GPS IIR-17 satellite, built by a team led by Lockheed Martin, was just launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta II rocket. This satellite is the fourth member of the Block IIR-M and its ITT payload features a number of important improvements over earlier generations including two new signals: one civil (designated L2C) and the other military (called M-code). Block IIR-M satellites also feature higher output power, including the ability to vary signal levels to prevent unwanted interference.

      "ITT is proud to be a provider of payload equipment on every GPS launch to date," said Chris Young, president of ITT Space Systems Division. "This latest Block IIR-M satellite is proof of our commitment to incorporating technological advances to benefit civil and military users worldwide."

      The launch of the fifth GPS Block IIR-M satellite, designated IIR-18, is tentatively scheduled for December 2007.

      ITT's Space Systems Division provides innovative remote sensing and navigation solutions to customers in the Department of Defense, intelligence, space science and commercial aerospace to help them visualize and understand critical events happening on Earth, in the air, or in space in time to take effective action. Leveraging comprehensive capabilities, Space Systems' solutions span from image and data collection through processing and dissemination. Key applications include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; high-resolution commercial imaging; space science; meteorology and Earth sciences; GPS navigation; and image and data processing and dissemination. For more information on ITT's Space Systems Division, please visit www.ssd.itt.com.

      About ITT Corporation: ITT Corporation (www.itt.com) supplies advanced technology products and services in several growth markets. ITT is a global leader in the transport, treatment and control of water, wastewater and other fluids. The company plays a vital role in international security through its defense communications and electronics products; space surveillance and intelligence systems; and advanced engineering and related services. It also serves the growing leisure marine and electrical connectors markets with a wide range of products. Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company generated $7.8 billion in 2006 sales.

    2. MAPPS Praises Administration's Space Commerce Bill

      Reston, Virginia, October 17, 2007 — MAPPS (www.mapps.org) the association of private geospatial firms, today praised legislation being sent to Congress by the Bush Administration to restructure the Office of Space Commercialization. (See http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/20071016_osc.html)

      The bill would rename the agency as the Office of Space Commerce and establish as one of its statutory missions to "promote the advancement of United States' geospatial technologies related to space commerce."

      "MAPPS has long called for an office within the U.S. Government to act as an advocate for the private geospatial community and an inside voice for eliminating government competition and maximizing government use of the private sector. We strongly supported the 'IMAGE Act', S. 4006, that was introduced in the last session of Congress by then-Senator George Allen (R-VA) and we are pleased the Bush Administration has endorsed the MAPPS idea of an in-house proponent for commercial geospatial firms," said MAPPS Executive Director John Palatiello.

      "While we may still seek amendments and improvements to the bill, we are delighted the Administration is sending this proposal to Congress and we look forward to working with the Administration and Congress to pass as strong a bill as possible," Palatiello said. "Although the proposed bill does not go into all the detail of the IMAGE Act, it does endorse the basic tenet - that there is tremendous potential for growth in the geospatial field if only the government would get out of the way."

      The "Space Commerce Act" would strengthen and provide more focus for the new Office of Space Commerce (OSC). An office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the OSC, would lead the Federal government's effort on space commerce policy. While it has recently been involved in satellite, airborne and value-added geospatial activities, in addition to GPS issues, the OSC would be more engaged in all aspects of commercial geospatial promotion and advocacy under the proposed legislation.

      MAPPS has long believed an office, modeled after the Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy and the Office of Private Sector Initiatives in the U.S. Department of Transportation's Urban Mass Transit Administration (now Federal Transit Administration) established by President Reagan in the 1980s, should be empowered to be an inside-the-government advocate and watchdog to promote utilization of commercial geospatial firms to the maximum extent possible. "For its entire 25 year history, MAPPS has fought unfair government competition. To now have an ally - a place to go to inside the government - will be a great benefit to MAPPS and our member firms," Palatiello said.

      About MAPPS: Formed in 1982 and currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of the association, MAPPS is the only national association exclusively comprised of private firms in the remote sensing, spatial data and geographic information systems field in the United States. Current MAPPS memberships spans the entire spectrum of the geospatial community, including Active Member Firms engaged in satellite and airborne remote sensing, surveying, photogrammetry, aerial photography, hydrography, charting, aerial and satellite image processing, GPS, and GIS data collection and conversion services. MAPPS also includes Associate Members Firms, which are companies that provide hardware, software, products and services to the geospatial profession in the United States and other firms from around the world. MAPPS provides its members opportunities for networking and developing business-to-business relationships, information sharing, education, public policy advocacy, market growth, and professional development and image enhancement. For more information on MAPPS, please visit www.MAPPS.org.

    3. DigitalGlobe Unveils First Worldview-1 Images

      First Photos from Next-Generation Satellite Capture Half-Meter Views of Houston, Yokohama, and Addis Ababa

      DigitalGlobe, provider of the world's highest-resolution commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information products, today revealed the first images from WorldView-1, the highest resolution, most agile commercial satellite ever flown. WorldView-1 was successfully launched on September 18 from Vandenberg Air Force Base and has been undergoing a routine calibration and check-out period.

      DigitalGlobe expects WorldView-1 to be fully operational and delivering imagery products by the end of the year if not sooner. DigitalGlobe is the only company operating a constellation of sub-meter commercial imaging satellites and in late 2008, will complete WorldView-2 which will provide eight bands of multi-spectral data for life-like true color imagery.

      "The quality and resolution of WorldView-1's first images is demonstrative of the superior level of imagery and geospatial information we expect to deliver to our customers," said Jill Smith, chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe. "Knowing that the satellite continues to undergo final calibration in the coming weeks, we expect the quality of WorldView-1's imagery to improve even more."

      WorldView-1's first images include half-meter snapshots from:

      • Houston, Texas, USA acquired October 2, 2007
      • Yokohama, Japan acquired October 5, 2007
      • Addis Ababa, Ethiopia acquired October 5, 2007

      WorldView-1, built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation with the imaging sensor provided by ITT Corporation, is a high-capacity, panchromatic imaging system featuring half-meter resolution imagery. With an average revisit time of 1.7 days, WorldView-1 is capable of collecting up to 750,000 square kilometers (290,000 square miles) per day of half-meter imagery. Frequent revisits increase image collection opportunities, enhance change detection applications and enable accurate map updates.

      The satellite is capable of collecting, storing and downlinking more frequently updated global imagery products than any other commercial imaging satellite in orbit, allowing for expedited image capture, processing and delivery to customers where speed is a driving factor. WorldView-1 is equipped with state-of-the-art geo-location accuracy capability and exhibits unprecedented agility with rapid targeting and efficient in-track stereo collection.

      About DigitalGlobe: Longmont, Colo.-based DigitalGlobe (http://www.digitalglobe.com) is the clear leader in the global commercial Earth imagery and geospatial information market as well as the only company operating a constellation of sub-meter commercial imaging satellites. The company's technical superiority and innovation, unparalleled commitment to customer service, extensive business partner network and open systems philosophy make DigitalGlobe the preferred supplier of imagery products to government and commercial markets.

      DigitalGlobe is the only geospatial content provider to take an end-to-end approach to geospatial imagery, from acquiring proprietary high-resolution images through a leading-edge satellite and aerial network, to integrating and distributing that data through GlobeXplorer, a proprietary web-based search and retrieval system that makes it easy to find, purchase and download global imagery. DigitalGlobe currently operates the world's highest-resolution commercial satellite constellation with QuickBird and the first of two next-generation satellites, WorldView-1.

      The company plans to complete construction of its second next-generation satellite, WorldView-2 in late 2008. The company's updated and growing ImageLibrary contains more than three hundred million square kilometers of satellite and aerial imagery suited to countless applications for people who map, view, navigate and study the earth.

    4. USGIF Announces Geospatial Intelligence Award Recipients

      Herndon, Virginia, Oct. 11, 2007 — The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation today announced the winners of the 2007 USGIF Awards Program.

      This year's recipients are Ms. Gabriella Farris; Dr. Swen Johnson; the Space and Naval Systems Warfare Command C4I Support Team; the Defense Intelligence Agency's Missile and Space Intelligence Center; and Mr. Matt O'Connell of GeoEye.

      "On behalf of USGIF, our Membership and Board, I would like to congratulate the Award Program winners on their accomplishments, earning them these notable honors," said K. Stuart Shea, USGIF President and Chairman of the Board. "Their successes have greatly contributed to our field and we are pleased to recognize them for this."

      The 2007 USGIF Awards Program recipients received recognition for:

      Academic Achievement Award — Ms. Gabriella Farris of the Geospatial-Intelligence Training Program (GITP) distinguished herself not only academically with a 98.16 GPA, but also by her ability to be a leader in the classroom and willingness to be a team player. Farris was named the GITP Student of the Year—an award given to students in the top 20 percent of his or her class who demonstrate outstanding academic performance, teamwork, professionalism, and uphold the highest standards of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence College. Farris showed a zest to become the best analyst possible, returning for additional training after graduation. Her present assignment is with the Office of Central and Southwest Asia.

      Academic Research Award — Dr. Swen Johnson was recognized for developing innovative methods of blending the social sciences with recent advances made in geospatial predictive technology to help address some of the U.S. intelligence community's most challenging intelligence problems in tactical and operational environments. Backed by the Naval Research Laboratory, fellow academic social scientists, geospatial and military colleagues, Johnson founded Socio-Cultural Intelligence Analysis Inc. and dedicated himself to creating Human Terrain Analysis Teams across the Defense Department. His teams' empirical, quantitative and group-based sociological focus have transformed traditional geospatial models of human behavior into more accurate geo-social models, bringing GEOINT to the cutting edge of intelligence analysis.

      Intelligence Achievement Award (Government Division) — The Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Missile and Space Intelligence Center (MSIC) team has contributed greatly to the understanding of adversary military capabilities by developing and deploying a GEOINT-enabled Foreign Missile Test Range Analysis architecture. The ability to store, manage, query and view vast amounts of geospatial intelligence data in seconds is a significant achievement. MSIC's daily savings of 2-3 hours per analyst of data search time has been reinvested into analysis. The new architecture greatly enhances the availability and usability of GEOINT data and results in more all-source analysts leveraging the full potential of GEOINT data as a contributor to their analysis.

      Intelligence Achievement Award (Military Division) — In support of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command's Command Control Systems Directorate, Mr. David McKinley, Mr. Chris Mayfield, Mr. Dave Gokey and Mr. Gary Koch of the Space and Naval Systems Warfare Command C4I Support Team, began an ambitious program to create a user defined operational picture called Situational Awareness Geospatial Enterprise (SAGE). Its goal is to make GIS a commodity within the command by instituting an enterprise GIS capability that everyone can use and configure to their own precise needs. SAGE was fielded for the 2007 hurricane season and is a fine example of how this team is making great contributions to the accomplishment of the Homeland Defense and the Defense Support of Civil Authorities mission sets.

      Intelligence Achievement Award (Industry Division) — Since the merger of Space Imaging and Orbimage created GeoEye, the newly formed company has overcome many of its predecessors obstacles and has since grown into one of the largest remote sensing companies in the world, having more than 370 employees at four key locations in the United States, along with one of the foremost providers of geospatial imagery. Mr. Matt O'Connell joined Orbimage in 2001, the year the company had a failed satellite launch and went into bankruptcy. Through his expertise he brought Orbimage back to life and led the new company to win a coveted $500 million NGA NextView contract to build the next-generation GeoEye-1 satellite.

      Lifetime Achievement Award — The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented, upon selection by the USGIF board, to an influential member of the geospatial intelligence community for his or her lifelong commitment to the tradecraft. The recipient is annually announced and presented with his or her award during the USGIF Hall of Fame Dinner and Awards Banquet during the GEOINT Symposium. This year, the event will be held on October 24 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio.

      "The purpose of the USGIF Awards Program is to give our community the chance to come together to nominate and recognize those who continue to build upon the tradecraft's foundation," Shea said. "Additionally, this program further validates and reminds us of the value the geospatial intelligence field has to our national security."

      The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation is a Virginia-based nonstock, not-for-profit corporation. The Foundation is dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and developing a stronger community of interest between government, industry, academia, individuals and professional organizations who share a mission focus around the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security objectives. For more information on the Foundation, visit www.usgif.org.

    5. New GITA Chapter Chartered in Oklahoma

      Aurora, Colorado, Oct. 11, 2007 — The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is pleased to announce that a GITA Oklahoma Chapter has been officially approved by the board of directors.

      Robert Stokes, Topographic Mapping Company and Oklahoma Chapter president, said local interest has been strong, and 60 people attended the preliminary meeting in support of the chapter. "This represents a watershed moment in Oklahoma history and reflects the dramatic advancement of geospatial activities in the state of Oklahoma. My thanks go out to the Oklahoma members of GITA for all their hard work and dedication. The chapter is on the map—now it is time to get to work!"

      Chapter meetings will alternate between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and the first meeting will be next week, Oct. 3, at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, OK. Anyone interested in getting involved with the geospatial community on a local level should contact Mr. Stokes at [email protected]. Also look for a chapter web page at gita.org soon.

      GITA North American regional chapters sponsor local educational sessions and provide a forum for technology information exchange in the areas they represent. Chapters are established by the Board of Directors in response to written petition from the members in the area. GITA members are automatically members of the chapter serving their area. The Oklahoma Chapter joins 22 other GITA chapters. For more information visit gita.org/chapters.

      The mission of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) is to provide excellence in education, information exchange, and applied research on the use and benefits of geospatial information and technology in infrastructure applications worldwide. Visit GITA on the Web at www.gita.org.

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