Planet Georezo » August 25, 2009

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25 août 2009
23:57
K-12 Education in GISGIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Collection of references and tutorials on how to teach GIS to K-12 level students. Find lesson plans, user groups and more in the category. ArcLessons GIS lesson plans for K-12 level. Excellent source of basic step-by-step lessons to introduce GIS to the classroom. You can also upload your own lesson plans to share with others. ArcVoyager Special [...]
22:17
Chinese forum LaunchedGeoServer Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

GeoServer can now add one more language of support to its ever growing list. Kevin Yang has created a web forum for GeoServer users in Chinese. Here is his welcome message. Stop on by and say 你好!
21:34
Associations/Groups – GISCIVerySpatial
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Since I finished my GISP application and FINALLY sent it in I thought it was probably time to highlight the GIS Certification Institute. From their web site the GISCI

“provides the geographic information systems (GIS) community with a complete certification program. GISCI offers participants from the first early years on the job until retirement a positive method of developing value for professionals and employers in the GIS profession.”

While the GIS community itself seems to fall into varying camps regarding the issue of certification, GISCI offers an option for those of us who feel that certification should move forward. The organization has grown out of efforts and conversations at URISA and other educational organizations along with industry. GISCI’s certification process is experience based and relies on documentation of your education, GIS experience and your service to the GIS community (kind of a tenure process for GIS folks really). If you are more interested in a test-based certification you may want to look to the ASPRS.

While there is no universally recognized certification for GIS and geospatial technology professionals, I think that GISCI has made the most significant steps toward such a goal with at least 4,535 GISP members to date.
21:06
Canadian Bill PSAB 3150 Mandates Capital Asset Reporting by Local GovernmentBetween the Poles
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

The sorry state of much of North America's infrastructure is well known through the American Society of Civil Engineer's Report Card. Other parts of the world are also concerned about the state of their infrastructure. A number of years ago the US Federal Government passed legislation under the acronym GASB which was designed to encourage local government to manage and maintain their capital assets.

I blogged earlier about a Canadian bill PSAB 3150 that requires public agencies to report in their annual financial statements the location, condition, and depreciated value of their assets. Michael Schlosser has published a very relevant article, Streamlining Infrastructure Asset Management, about the impact PSAB 3150 is having on local governments, and in particular on the challenge this presents to local government in preparing the required reports. The challenges are the typical ones that agencies responsible for network infrastructure face (here, here, here and here), but the good news is that these challenges can be surmounted and Mike talks about a local government, the City of Lloydminster, which straddles the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta, that has managed to overcome the hurdles to become PSAB 3150 compliant.
21:06
Interview: President of the German Environment AgencyVector One
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Der Spiegel interviews the president of the German Environment Agency Jochen Flasbarth. He speaks about nuclear energy, urban transport and agriculture. He also mentions that 1 million electric cars on the country’s roads is a goal - but also suggests that the famous Autobahns should consider speed limits and that no new coal plants would [...]
20:54
Howard Veregin Named Wisconsin State CartographerNSGIC News
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

The Wisconsin Mapping Bulletin reports that Howard Veregin has been named as that state's new State Cartographer. Mr. Veregin, who is now the Director for GIS for Rand McNally, replaces Ted Koch, who retired earlier this year after a distinguished career, as head of the Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office.

Prior to joining Rand McNally, Mr. Veregin taught at the University of Minnesota where NSGIC President-Elect Will Craig is associate director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs.

"I knew Howard when he taught here at the University of Minnesota," said Mr. Craig. "It has been a while, but I remember him as a thoughtful guy, a solid head, and smart as a whip."

Mr. Veregin received his PhD in Geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He did his undergraduate work, and earned a masters degree, at the University of Manitoba. He has also worked at Kent State University.
20:14
The Science of MotivationFuzzy Tolerance
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Of the 30 odd feeds I have at any given time in Miro (if it wouldn’t cause domestic issues I would dump TV in a heartbeat), TED Talks are always among my favorite. This one is a bit off the beaten path for this blog, but I liked it so much I wanted to share [...]
Head to The Science of Motivation for the full article!

This article is from the Fuzzy Tolerance blog.
20:06
links for 2009-08-25Ogle Earth
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com
- Swiss official tells Google to erase street views AP: Swiss official tells Google to erase street views. Not all faces or license plates are blurred
Comments (0)
19:30
Twitter Geolocation APIBetween the Poles
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Twitter is going to launch a new feature which will make Twitter location-aware. The new geolocation API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. For example, you could restrict the tweets you see to those that are coming from your immediate vicinity. For users this will be an opt-in feature and will off by default. The first release of the geolocation API will be a developers preview.

19:21
[OSM] Élections
sur Faire joujou avec son GPS

[OSM] Élections

18:58
Arterial Traffic Added to Google Maps
sur Google Maps Mania

Google have today added traffic conditions on arterial roads in selected cities on Google Maps. This could prove very handy during rush hour when the highways are jammed.

To view arterial traffic conditions use the traffic button at the top right of Google Maps. When you are zoomed out Google Maps shows the traffic conditions on highways, but as you zoom in on an area in major cities traffic conditions will now show up on other roads.

Via: Google LatLong: Arterial traffic available on Google Maps

_____________

18:54
[OSM] OSMdoc
sur Faire joujou avec son GPS

[OSM] OSMdoc

18:23
Wait! Sensor Webs Do Exist in the Real World Thanks to Google Maps MobileJames Fee GIS Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

OK, I admit it. I’ve laughed at all these sensor web applications that I’ve seen over the years. Really who is going to be able to bring this to the general public (at least that public using Google Mobile apps not on the iPhone). Google of course!

What if you could do a little something to improve the world during your daily drive to work? Here are a few ideas: tell everybody in the city when you’re stuck in slow-moving traffic; warn the drivers on the freeway behind you that they should consider an alternate route; tell the people still at home that they should spend another ten minutes reading the morning news before they leave for work; tell your city government that they might want to change the timing of that traffic light at the highway on-ramp. Of course, you can’t just get on the phone and call everybody, and your one traffic report from your one spot on the road might not help much anyway. But if everybody on the road, all at once, could tell the world how fast their car is moving, and we could make it easy for anybody to check that information on their computer or cell phone, well — then we’d be getting somewhere.

Of course I don’t always have open Google Maps when I’m rolling around Phoenix, but I’m sure many people do. Lack of iPhone support isn’t surprising, but I’m sure it will be in the works soon. It took a company with large resources like Google to pull this off, but I can’t help but gaze to the sky to just think about all the sensor web applications out there that are just around the corner. Maybe Goodchild was right after all, VGI is a huge promise that may get fulfilled really soon.

I can’t help but think about my post from yesterday though. Just really great data being collected by Google, but locked up in their API. Maybe if we had our act together, there would have been a viable open sensor web that companies such as Google, Verizon, AT&T, Microsoft, Oracle, etc could have joined and we’d be able to share data between platforms. Taking part in Google’s transit project will only continue to reinforce their dominance over content. I’m torn, but still excited.

Looking at OGC’s sensor web graphic you have to wonder how much of this will actually come true. Clearly not all sensor webs will be open and usable outside of the platform they are intended.

18:23
Wait! Sensor Webs Do Exist in the Real World Thanks to Google Maps Mobile
sur James Fee GIS Blog

OK, I admit it. I’ve laughed at all these sensor web applications that I’ve seen over the years. Really who is going to be able to bring this to the general public (at least that public using Google Mobile apps not on the iPhone). Google of course!

What if you could do a little something to improve the world during your daily drive to work? Here are a few ideas: tell everybody in the city when you’re stuck in slow-moving traffic; warn the drivers on the freeway behind you that they should consider an alternate route; tell the people still at home that they should spend another ten minutes reading the morning news before they leave for work; tell your city government that they might want to change the timing of that traffic light at the highway on-ramp. Of course, you can’t just get on the phone and call everybody, and your one traffic report from your one spot on the road might not help much anyway. But if everybody on the road, all at once, could tell the world how fast their car is moving, and we could make it easy for anybody to check that information on their computer or cell phone, well — then we’d be getting somewhere.

Of course I don’t always have open Google Maps when I’m rolling around Phoenix, but I’m sure many people do. Lack of iPhone support isn’t surprising, but I’m sure it will be in the works soon. It took a company with large resources like Google to pull this off, but I can’t help but gaze to the sky to just think about all the sensor web applications out there that are just around the corner. Maybe Goodchild was right after all, VGI is a huge promise that may get fulfilled really soon.

I can’t help but think about my post from yesterday though. Just really great data being collected by Google, but locked up in their API. Maybe if we had our act together, there would have been a viable open sensor web that companies such as Google, Verizon, AT&T, Microsoft, Oracle, etc could have joined and we’d be able to share data between platforms. Taking part in Google’s transit project will only continue to reinforce their dominance over content. I’m torn, but still excited.

Looking at OGC’s sensor web graphic you have to wonder how much of this will actually come true. Clearly not all sensor webs will be open and usable outside of the platform they are intended.

18:04
Bing Maps WMS ServiceSlashgeo
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Found an article on All Points Blog about this. Don't know how it's legal, but here is OnTerra's description : "This is a beta service is provided by the experts at OnTerra Systems. It allows you to access Bing Maps base data such as ortho imagery, road data and hybrid layers (road + ortho) in Open Geospatial Consortium (OCG) - Web Mapping Service (WMS) format. This service works in conjunction with any WMS capable application. Currently this beta service supports WMS 1.3.0 and 1.1.1 standards, and primarily using web Mercator projection. We are working to make sure we can correctly support the majority of WMS enabled applications."
Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

17:52
Microsoft's Popfly Shuts Down
sur All Points Blog

Like much of the rest of the world I didn't realize the shutdown occurred yesterday. But I noticed today. I was reviewing next week's lesson for my students where I reference the customization power of both Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft's Popfly. That's where I found the notice that it was no longer available. A more complete explanation was made on July 16 on the Popfly blog.

Pipes and Popfly are visual development tools aimed, for the most part, at non-programmers.

I'm pleased Yahoo Pipes is still with us. But, the fact that Popfly never made it out of beta gives me pause. Why did Popfly not make it? More broadly, why are these very powerful visual modeling tools not more popular? I know that Safe's Workbench, the first one of these I ever saw, IS well used within its user base. (I even used it fairly effectively as a complete newbie at the FME User Conference.) I wonder about ESRI's ModelBuilder. I like to think it's used, but don't hear much about it or about people sharing models.

Are these types of metaphors just not that useful? Is there really no audience for programming between casual or heavy duty that would use such interfaces? Are they too complex to use?

17:52
Microsoft's Popfly Shuts DownAll Points Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Like much of the rest of the world I didn't realize the shutdown occurred yesterday. But I noticed today. I was reviewing next week's lesson for my students where I reference the customization power of both Yahoo Pipes and Microsoft's Popfly. That's where I found the notice that it was no longer available. A more complete explanation was made on July 16 on the Popfly blog.

Pipes and Popfly are visual development tools aimed, for the most part, at non-programmers.

I'm pleased Yahoo Pipes is still with us. But, the fact that Popfly never made it out of beta gives me pause. Why did Popfly not make it? More broadly, why are these very powerful visual modeling tools not more popular? I know that Safe's Workbench, the first one of these I ever saw, IS well used within its user base. (I even used it fairly effectively as a complete newbie at the FME User Conference.) I wonder about ESRI's ModelBuilder. I like to think it's used, but don't hear much about it or about people sharing models.

Are these types of metaphors just not that useful? Is there really no audience for programming between casual or heavy duty that would use such interfaces? Are they too complex to use?

17:25
Suggérez les sites exceptionnels de France que vous souhaitez retrouver dans Street View.
sur BloGoMaps - google maps france

Pour la première fois, à l’occasion du passage du tricycle Street View sur les routes de France, Google et Atout France (l'Agence de Développement Touristique de la France) invitent les internautes à suggérer les sites exceptionnels de notre patrimoine qu’ils souhaitent retrouver dans Street View.

En effet, depuis le lancement de la fonctionnalité Street View en France, de nombreux internautes nous ont contactés pour nous suggérer des lieux à ajouter à la couverture existante. Nous essayons de répondre au mieux à ces demandes et tentons continuellement de compléter la fonction Street View avec de nouveaux endroits. Malheureusement, certains d'entre eux comme les quartiers historiques, les châteaux, les monuments... ne sont tout simplement pas accessibles en voiture !

Qu’à cela ne tienne, nos ingénieurs « vedettes » ont développé le tricycle Google, un engin à 3 roues équipé d'un appareil photo Street View et conduit de main de maître par un cycliste chevronné et courageux !

Et qui mieux que les français eux-mêmes pour recommander les lieux exceptionnels de nos régions ?

Ainsi, qu’il s’agisse d’un château, d’un parc naturel, d’un monument historique ou encore d’un complexe sportif, glissez vos propositions dans l’urne Google Maps à l’adresse [https:]]

Et restez connectés car à l’issue de cette phase de recueil de suggestions, les meilleures propositions seront rassemblées et soumises au vote des internautes.

Alors dépêchez-vous, vous avez jusqu’au 2 septembre pour faire entendre votre voix ici.

Posté par Sarah

16:51
Wired Picks Up Maps of 7 Deadly SinsSpatial Sustain
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

The map of the 7 Deadly Sins that was created by a team at Kansas State University generated quite a buzz at the ESRI/UC Map Gallery this year. The infographic has now been picked up by Wired magazine and can be found online here. Read more related Spatial Sustain posts: District 9 Movie Creates Online Crime Map Mining [...]

16:31

Looking at JPEG 2000

sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

ER Map Viewer JPEG 2000

Fig 1 - NAIP TX JP2 in ER Viewer 7.2

I ran into a problem at the end of last week. I was attempting to use a set of NAIP county mosaics for Texas. These are very nice 1m GSD images available from the USDA Data Gateway as 4 band JPEG 2000 image files. The 4th band falls into the infrared region and allows analysts to see more vegetation type details. I don’t need it, but it helps out the Dept of Agriculture who is, after all, funding this very useful public imagery. I just wish they published NAIP in an OGC service, WMS or WCS.

Here is a metadata description. These are useful high resolution images and I was providing them for a cable routing contractor to use in his engineering ‘as built’ documents. I’ve done this in the past without much problem using NAIP images from 2006 - 2007 furnished as MrSID compressed files.

The process is to create a corridor in AutoCAD along the proposed route. Next, draw a series of page rectangles along this route making sure the entire corridor is covered, stepping through the route. This is fairly straight forward AutoCAD drawing. After exporting as DXF, these tiles can then be processed through a small Java program to create a batch file for clipping imagery.

This batch file makes use of gdal_translate to clip out a subset of the source image and create a new GeoTiff result. The resulting batch file is just a text file with a lot of lines like this:

gdal_translate -of GTiff -co “TILED=YES” -srcwin 27537 45649 24951 5046.003420858178 C ortho_1-1_1m_j_tx375_2008_2.jp2 potter.tiff

The image files are large so compression is mandatory. Especially since the images are furnished for ftp download from USDA servers. Wavelet compression is very efficient and has become the compression of choice with very large images like these. JP2 is also interesting for web applications due to its progressive transmission by pixel and resolution accuracy. Now that JPEG 2000 implementation libraries have been out for awhile, more and more jp2 files and tools are available. I didn’t anticipate any problem with the 2008 switch from MrSID to JP2.

However, I was very wrong.

A few hours later I had a list of viewers that did not work:

GDAL: gdal_translate - black except small northern strip
OpenEV-FW - same
ER Viewer 7.2 - same
TatukGIS Viewer - same
AutoCAD Map 2007 - same
GeoJasper attempted jp2tif geo.jp2 geo.tif failed
OPJViewer - fails

and a couple that did: (but didn’t export to tiff gtiff)

Fig2 - NAIP TX JP2 in TatukGIS Viewer	Fig 3 - NAIP TX JP2 in OpenEV Viewer
Fig 4 - NAIP TX JP2 in Kakadu kdu_show	Fig 5 - NAIP TX JP2 in ArcView
Fig 6 - NAIP TX JP2 in Global Mapper

Hmm that is strange. It has a cimicine odor to it, but JPEG2000 has been in the works for years and has a good range of well used tools? NAIP is very popular imagery, however, a quick Google search didn’t turn up any very specific issue. This 11/19/2008 PostMortem ppt lists some JPEG2000 problems but nothing as catastrophic as my problem:

“JPEG2000 Compression format required for 4-band CCM under the NAIP contract. APFO is experiencing the following problems/issues with JPEG 2000 compressions:

Blurring images.
Difficulty with program settings
Limited customer support from open source software libraries
Image loss with advancing zoom
Rendering issues due to DVD exceeding ArcGIS 9.1 file capacities
Rendering issues on other viewers (consumer use) have been resolved.”

This link is an interesting summary from the 11/19/2008 NAIP coordination meeting. Note that the seamless NED resolution has ramifications for processing these higher resolution national imagery programs. Sounds like another reason to move to a national high resolution LiDAR survey of at least the continental US. I suppose LiDAR collection could happen simultaneously with imagery collection and save a bundle of flying costs.

USDA was prompt when I asked about my issue, but since it was viewable in their ArcInfo all was right with the world … and their data. I couldn’t really quibble with that, but I don’t have access to an ArcInfo License so in my world … all is still not right.

Next I took a look at the header records as output from gdalinfo

C:\Program Files\FWTools2.4.2\bin\gdalinfo ortho_1-1_1m_j_tx375_2008_2.jp2
Driver: JP2ECW/ERMapper JPEG2000
Files: ortho_1-1_1m_j_tx375_2008_2.jp2
       ortho_1-1_1m_j_tx375_2008_2.j2w
Size is 59292, 57976
Coordinate System is `’
Origin = (208978.447721050060000,3947556.455350011600000)
Pixel Size = (1.000000000000000,-1.000000000000000)
Corner Coordinates:
Upper Left  (  208978.448, 3947556.455)
Lower Left  (  208978.448, 3889580.455)
Upper Right (  268270.448, 3947556.455)
Lower Right (  268270.448, 3889580.455)
Center      (  238624.448, 3918568.455)
Band 1 Block=59292×1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Undefined
  Overviews: arbitrary
Band 2 Block=59292×1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Undefined
  Overviews: arbitrary
Band 3 Block=59292×1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Undefined
  Overviews: arbitrary
Band 4 Block=59292×1 Type=Byte, ColorInterp=Undefined
  Overviews: arbitrary

There is a small anomaly in the Coordinate System, but all seems fine otherwise. It is interesting to see the Driver listed for gdal is “Driver: JP2ECW/ERMapper JPEG2000″. Erdas ER Mapper makes ER Viewer with the same problem. I don’t know which sdk is licensed by Tatuk and AutoDesk, but possibly they also use the ER Mapper’s JPEG2000 sdk.

Next I fired up Eclipse and took a look at some JAI. First I tried rewriting the jp2 as tif:

package com.mmc.image;

import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;·

public class J2KTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
      final BufferedImage bi = ImageIO.read(new File(“C:/temp/JP2_test.jp2″));
      File dest = new File(“C:/temp/test.tif”);
      ImageIO.write(bi, “tiff”, dest);
      System.out.println(“Complete”);·
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

“no bing!” Just another clue pointing toward the MetaData though:

Exception in thread “main” java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KMetadata.replace(J2KMetadata.java:962)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KMetadata.addNode(J2KMetadata.java:631)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KRenderedImageCodecLib.readImageMetadata(J2KRenderedImageCodecLib.java:1006)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KRenderedImageCodecLib.createOriginalSampleModel(J2KRenderedImageCodecLib.java:673)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KRenderedImageCodecLib.(J2KRenderedImageCodecLib.java:261)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KImageReaderCodecLib.read(J2KImageReaderCodecLib.java:364)
	at javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(ImageIO.java:1422)
	at javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(ImageIO.java:1282)
	at com.mmc.image.J2KTest.main(J2KTest.java:19)

Time to take a look at that Coordinate System record in the header using the debugger to look at the IIOMetadata object.

package com.mmc.image;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.imageio.ImageReader;
import javax.imageio.metadata.IIOMetadata;
import javax.imageio.stream.ImageInputStream;
import com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KImageReaderSpi;

public class JP2_metadata {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
	    //final File file = new File(”C:/temp/JP2_test.jp2″);
			final File file = new File(“C:/temp/JP2_test.jp2″);

			final ImageInputStream iis = ImageIO.createImageInputStream(file);
			J2KImageReaderSpi readerSPI = new J2KImageReaderSpi();
			final ImageReader reader = readerSPI.createReaderInstance();
			reader.setInput(iis);

			IIOMetadata iioMetadata = reader.getImageMetadata(0);

		} catch (IOException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}

“no Java!” Just the same problem reading the metadata?

Exception in thread “main” java.lang.NullPointerException
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KMetadata.replace(J2KMetadata.java:962)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KMetadata.addNode(J2KMetadata.java:631)
	at jj2000.j2k.fileformat.reader.FileFormatReader.readFileFormat(FileFormatReader.java:279)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KMetadata.(J2KMetadata.java:135)
	at com.sun.media.imageioimpl.plugins.jpeg2000.J2KImageReader.getImageMetadata(J2KImageReader.java:419)
	at com.mmc.image.JP2_metadata.main(JP2_metadata.java:22)

Too bad I don’t have source code for IIOMetadata. I’d like to step into IIOMetadata and look at header boxes. Perhaps I could actually see where the problem is, maybe even fix it. However, now I’ve put way too much time into this. Also I’m not sure where to find the JP2 sources for JAI ImageIO. Next stop a purchase of Global Mapper and finish the job before I get into trouble. Global Mapper is adequate and it meets my predisposition to Jurassic solutions i.e. cheap.

Summary:

I really tried to find a solution in the Open Source world. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Fortunately Global Mapper was able to read the 4band images as a composite and export the images as GTiff. Global Mapper would have taken days for export of full 800Mb jp2 images to GTiff. Fortunately an added bonus let me overlay my clipping page rectangle vectors and then export clipped subsets, which are much smaller and faster. The only drawback is the manual tedium of selecting one clip export at a time. Perhaps, if I knew much about Global Mapper, there is a handy scripting approach. In the meantime, I was able to finish the job on time and I was only a little disappointed about not finding an Open Source solution.

Postscript

USDA added another clue to my puzzle, noting that apparently there is some difference in the interpretation of the standards for JPEG 2000. I imagine that could be the underlying issue, but in the meantime 2008 NAIP 4 band imagery has some anomalous problems with viewer access out here in the wider world.

16:22
Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship at UVAHigh Earth Orbit
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

This November, I’ll be a faculty member at the UVA Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship along with several other well known geo hackers.

We’ll be holding a series of talks on software tools, data formats, techniques, and scholarship of geospatial data. The institute is accepting applications for attendees until September 1 – so you can apply through the UVA Scholar’s Lab.

Through the generosity of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Scholars’ Lab will host a three-track Institute for Enabling Geospatial Scholarship at the University of Virginia Library in November 2009 and May 2010. This Institute will bring scholars, cultural heritage professionals, and software developers together to support and develop geospatial projects and methods in the digital humanities. The NEH’s Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities program will support travel and lodging for 40 attendees as well as Institute faculty members. Dedicated funding is available for graduate students as well as faculty attendees.

You can read more on Bethanie’s blog

In addition, to cap off the institute, I will be giving the GIS Day Plenary talk on Wednesday, November 18 in Charlottesville, VA. The event will be open to the public.

It’s truly an honor to be teaching at my alma mater – albeit in quite a different discipline than the one I learned while attending.
16:13
Educational Uses for Google EarthGoogle Earth Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com
Nearly every year at this time, I make sure to remind educators - and students - that Google Earth is a great tool for education. It's not just about learning about geography, Google Earth is a platform that lets you put practically any learning into geospatial context. Not only that, but it is a very versatile 3D presentation tool for teaching things, or for students to present their assignments (and maybe get a great grade for such an innovative way of presenting their hard work!).

And, don't forget that Google Earth isn't confined to Earth. Google Earth 5 also has Sky (perfect for astronomy classes), Mars for Google Earth, Ocean for Google Earth, and the brand new Moon for Google Earth. And, you can add on other planets as well - see Jupiter for example.

Another new feature in GE 5 that could help teachers and students is the touring capability. Here are two great examples of what tours can do that might open your eyes for educational applications: Apollo 11 Tour, and a news overview Tour of Afghanistan. Read more about Tours.

Here are some links to some important resources on the subject of Google Earth for education:
- Educational Uses of Google Earth by GEB - links to many resources
- Google's Earth for Educators web site
- Many layers in Google Earth useful for education
- Google Earth Basics - many tips from GEB on using Google Earth.

15:49
Amnesty Campaign Google Map
sur Google Maps Mania

Protect the Human

AmnestyUK are currently running a campaign called Make Shell Come Clean. The campaign's aim is to get Shell to clean up the decades of pollution they have been responsible for in the Niger Delta.

There have been 5,000 major oil spills in the Delta in the last five years. If you want to know more about the effect of this pollution on the lives of those who live there, Lars Johansson has made an excellent documentary about the subject (below) called Poison Fire.

AmnestyUK's campaign aims to target Shell on Google Maps, turning Shell stations into ‘hell stations’ to publicly highlight the damage Shell is doing in the Niger Delta. The idea is for individuals to take photographs of Shell's gas stations with the 's' in Shell's name obscured and then post the photographs to a Google Map.

The campaign isn't quite working as planned. Although a lot of people have already added their names to the map, at the moment there seems to be only one uploaded photograph. I guess Amnesty would argue that the names added to the map, although not the asked for photographs, clearly show people's support for their campaign.

Via: Mapperz

_____________

15:40
Bing Maps via WMS
sur All Points Blog

Jeff Harrison at The Carbon Project let me know about a new beta offering from On Terra Systems that makes Bing Maps data available via a WMS. You can join the beta and test it out for free.

15:40
Bing Maps via WMSAll Points Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Jeff Harrison at The Carbon Project let me know about a new beta offering from On Terra Systems that makes Bing Maps data available via a WMS. You can join the beta and test it out for free.
15:15
Map LibrariesGIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Looking for a map? Browse these map libraries to find scanned versions of contemporary and historic maps. Bodleian Library Map Room With over a millian sheets and 20,000 atlases, the Bodleian Library Map Room (Oxford, England) bills itself as the 7th largest collection of maps. Scanned maps available for downloading for private use. CIA Maps Select maps from [...]

14:52
Quote of the Week
sur All Points Blog

"The GPS bases are loaded on the iPhone it now remains to be seen if developers can knock it out of the park."

- But as Patrick Connolly, research director of IMS Research, in a TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics) article about GPS apps for the iPhone

14:52
Quote of the WeekAll Points Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

"The GPS bases are loaded on the iPhone — it now remains to be seen if developers can knock it out of the park."

- But as Patrick Connolly, research director of IMS Research, in a TWICE (This Week in Consumer Electronics) article about GPS apps for the iPhone
14:44
Two minute video - where maps differentiateUnited Maps
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Content rich maps bring much more value.

You only recognize that if you overlay conventional map service like Google Maps (base data by Tele Atlas), Microsoft BING (base data from Navteq), OVI maps, Yahoo! Maps or OpenStreetMap with United Maps' professional vector data.

Stunning.

If the detail is gone - you suddenly want to have it back.

A 2' video is on the frontpage, also on YouTube and Vimeo:

14:30
$80 GPS Watch for Waypoints, Geotagging
sur All Points Blog

The ChinaVision GPS watch is not for the Garmin Forerunner crowd (where pace and distance are key measures). No, this bulky and utilitarian device allows you to save your path, set waypoints and have it guide you back to them (not necessarily on roads, but as the crow flies) and it can time stamp locations so that digital photographs can be later linked to those locations.

The price is good; all the detailed specs are here.

Via Crunchgear

14:30
$80 GPS Watch for Waypoints, GeotaggingAll Points Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

The ChinaVision GPS watch is not for the Garmin Forerunner crowd (where pace and distance are key measures). No, this bulky and utilitarian device allows you to save your path, set waypoints and have it guide you back to them (not necessarily on roads, but as the crow flies) and it can time stamp locations so that digital photographs can be later linked to those locations.

The price is good; all the detailed specs are here.

Via Crunchgear
14:09
A Review Of The Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver – Part II: Out In The FieldFree Geography Tools
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Yesterday’s post reviewed some of the hardware and software characteristics of the Magellan Triton 2000 GPS receiver, comparing it to my old Garmin 60Cx. But the real test of any GPS receiver comes out in the field – how good a job does it do at determining your position, and recording data? I took both [...]

13:59
Map Projecting Gadget Takes Silver at Design Competition
sur All Points Blog

I've learned that when a device wins a design competition, there's a good reason: elegant design. That does not mean the device is practical or in demand.

Take the Maptor, designed by Jinsun Park and Seonkeun Park of South Korea's Samsung Art & Design Institute, which received a silver award at the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).

The not-yet-available tubular device fits in your hand (or hangs around your neck) and projects a map image on any flat surface. The device is battery powered and downloads maps via Bluetooth. And there's a GPS inside so there's a "you are here" pin on the map.

- Crave

13:59
Map Projecting Gadget Takes Silver at Design CompetitionAll Points Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

I've learned that when a device wins a design competition, there's a good reason: elegant design. That does not mean the device is practical or in demand.

Take the Maptor, designed by Jinsun Park and Seonkeun Park of South Korea's Samsung Art & Design Institute, which received a silver award at the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA).

The not-yet-available tubular device fits in your hand (or hangs around your neck) and projects a map image on any flat surface. The device is battery powered and downloads maps via Bluetooth. And there's a GPS inside so there's a "you are here" pin on the map.

- Crave
13:58
GSA Awards Laser Scanning ContractsLiDAR News
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com
1. The high profile GSA IDIQ laser scanning contracts have been awarded.
2. It will be interesting to try to track the amount of work that is actually generated.
3. There are some valuable LAS utilities that have been noted in the comments recently.
I have been told that the GSA notified the winners of the IDIQ contracts on Sunday. The public announcement should have been made in FedBizOpp, but I have been checking and as of right now it is not there . I’ll keep looking, but let me know if you see it before me.

The Interested Vendors list for the solicitation is an interesting read in itself. This is a Who’s Who of the laser scanning industry here in the US.

It will be interesting and I suppose challenging to actually track the work that is generated from these awards. Hopefully there are a number of projects that are ready to go.

If you are working with LAS data please have a look at the recent Comments from Martin Isenburg. He has a number of utilities that sound valuable.

13:56
SIG 2009 en ligne de mire
sur arcOrama, un blog sur les SIG, ceux d ESRI en particulier

arcOrama a ralenti la fréquence de ses articles ces dernières semaines pour cause de congés mais surtout pour cause de préparation de notre conférence utilisateurs SIG 2009. Nous sommes à un mois environ de l'événement et vous pouvez dès maintenant consulter l'ensemble des manifestations de ces deux journées. Le thème de cette année est "Concevoir notre avenir avec les SIG" et vous constaterez

13:51
Vancouver Develops Cycling Map with ElevationSpatial Sustain
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

The City of Vancouver has developed a cycling map, with the help of the University of British Columbia, that factors in such things as maximum slope restriction, least traffic pollution, most vegetated route, shortest path, and least elevation gain. The route finder also returns such details as estimated time, the amount of greenhouse gases prevented, [...]

13:36
French Street View Suggestions
sur Google Maps Mania

In the UK, Google partnered with VisitBritain to hold a public vote for where Britain's would like the Street View trike to visit this summer. A similar competition was also held in the Netherlands. Now it is France's turn.

Google have teamed up with Asset France (the French Tourist Development Agency) to ask people to suggest locations that the Google Street View trike should visit this summer.

If you have a suggestion you can make it here.

_____________

12:27
EcoDesign - Maps - EconomicsVector One
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

What are the maps of ecodesign and how do they tie into economics? The Journal of Ecological Design uses the term ‘“Ecologonomics” to describe the combination of housing as a system related economics. Other folks have used the term “EcoDesign” which is oriented toward ecology and design where the combination suggests they go hand in [...]
11:52
Open Street Map gets Official Isle of Man DataMapperz - The Mapping News Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com
Open Street Map gets Official Isle of Man Data

The OpenStreetMap gets a pleasant boost for #OSM Mappers for the Isle of Man.

This is excellent to see. Encouraging for the whole aspect of the project.

OpenStreetMap now has access to Isle of Man Government 1:25,000 data - this contains much detail that can be used to improve the already abundant data in OpenStreetMap.

OSM now has access to two datasets from which can be derived from for the project:
- the 1:25,000 tourist map (2007) [above], provided as a set of four GeoTIFF images
- the high resolution aerial imagery (2001) [below], provided as a set of three MrSID images
High Resoultion imagery will help capture detials with out the leg work, and anyone can help contribute to the data capture.

"There is a massive amount of information which we can gain from these datasets still, and I will be posting some ideas soon about different possibilities, such as collecting place names, paths and tracks, historic sites, outlines of the national glens, open rambling land, etc. as well as using the data for error checking and correction in the existing OpenStreetMap dataset.
I am planning to make these datasets available as a WMS server that can be used in JOSM (and Potlatch) for editing, once I've had a chance to organise it, and have had an official license document through."
Dan Karran

This is a good way to see cartographic features and imagery overlaid - making digital data capture much easier for users.
acknowledgement:

Isle of Man Government map data and aerial imagery © Crown Copyright, DLGE; OpenStreetMap data © OpenStreetMap and contributors, CC-by-SA.
Now would the UK Ordnance Survey allow this? I think not.

source and more information:

[www.dankarran.com]

Mapperz News Blog

11:18
Google Maps recueille les suggestions des internautes pour Street View
sur GeoInWeb

Google Street View connait un fort succès en France. Souvenez vous, son premier lancement était il y a un peu plus d’un an lors du Tour de France 2008.

Pour la première fois, Google Maps et ATOUT FRANCE recueillent les suggestions des internautes pour enrichir la couverture Street View en France.

Pour ceux qui ne connaisse pas ATOUT FRANCE, c’est l’agence de développement touristique de la France, un groupement d’intérêt économique, placé sous l’autorité du Secrétariat d’Etat en charge du commerce, de l’artisanat, des petites et moyennes entreprises, du tourisme, des services et de la Consommation.

Depuis cet été, le tricycle Google sillonne quelques villes de France pour réaliser des captures de « lieux remarquables ». A cette occasion, Google Maps et ATOUT FRANCE invitent les internautes à soumettre en ligne les noms de sites qu’ils souhaiteraient voir figurer dans Street View. Toutes leurs suggestions seront recueillies du 25 août au 2 septembre 2009 au moyen d’un formulaire en ligne accessible à l’adresse :

[services.google.com]

Les internautes pourront soumettre leurs préconisations selon 5 catégories :
- châteaux,
- édifices d’architecture contemporaine,
- lieux naturels remarquables,
- bâtiments et monuments historiques,
- complexes sportifs

Suite à cette première phase de recueil des suggestions, les internautes seront de nouveau invités à voter pour leurs sites favoris du 10 au 16 septembre. Seront ainsi sélectionnés des nouveaux lieux pour lesquels le tricycle s’efforcera de collecter les images.

Alors quels lieux allez vous suggérer?

[communiqué de presse Google]

10:32
Design Portfolios on Google Maps
sur Google Maps Mania

Using an application, like CASA's Image Cutter or the Automatic Tile Cutter, you can create your own map tiles for Google Maps. It is therefore possible to replace Google Maps tiles with other maps.

Among the first to take advantage of this were game fans, producing maps for World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto. Graphic designers and artists, however, soon woke up to the fact that the the Google Maps interface is a great way to present a design portfolio. All you need to do is create map tiles from a collage of work.

The Google Maps' navigation tools can then be used to zoom in on designs and map markers to provide further information about an individual work.

Here are some of my favourite design portfolios using Google Maps:

Markus Dressen

German book designer Marcus Dressen has created a Google Maps mashup of his designs. The mashup replaces the Google Maps tiles with map tiles showing Dressen's cover work.

Dressen also uses map markers, shaped like ink blots, to provide information about each of his designs.

Blaubo Design

Blaubo Design have stitched together shots of a number of their website designs and created map tiles from the image.

Using the Google Maps interface to browse the designs enables the user to centre on any design and zoom in to view details. Blaubo Design have also used map markers for each design. This means the user is able to click on the relevant marker and open an information window with a link to the actual web page shown.

Design With An Accent

News Zealand web designer Stas Kulesh has used the Google Maps API to produce a portfolio of his work.

The portfolio map replaces the Google Map tiles with custom map tiles showing Stas' web designs. The result is an interactive portfolio that can be used to scan and zoom in on examples of Stas' web designs and photography.

Stas has has also produced a menu, with links that open information windows above some of the designs.

Academie Arnhem Portfolio Map

The Academie Arnheim have used custom map tiles with the Google Maps API to present the work of the final examination candidates of The ArtEZ Academy of Arnhem. The academie has replaced the Google Map tiles with custom tiles created from images of the students' work. The images represent the artistic work of the students after four years of studying at the acadamie and mark the start of their career as artists, designers or teachers of visual arts and design.

The acadamie has also done some impressive programming (with jquery I think) to overlay text links on each of the student's work. Clicking on any of the links loads information about the art work directly onto the map, .

Kalle Hagman

Graphic designer Kalle Hagman has created a Google Map of his art work. When the page first loads the map is zoomed in on an image of Kalle's business card. The user can then use the Google Maps navigation tools to zoom in and examine in close up any of Kalle's featured work.

_____________

10:17
Métro Paris 3.0 intègre de la réalité augmentée
sur Géographie 2.0

Transport durch RADIS

Sie können bei RADIS folgende Möglichkeiten anfragen:

* Die Fachleute der Möbelspedition tragen das verpackte Umzugsgut
zum LKW und beladen diesen. Bei engen Treppenhäusern oder mehreren Stockwerken wird der Möbelspediteur eventuell auch einen Umzugslift einsetzen.

* RADIS stellt einen Möbelwagen mit Fahrer und Umzugsausrüstung wie Packdecken, Schonbezüge, Kleiderkisten, Reserve-Faltkartons, Tragegurte und Werkzeug zur Verfügung .

8:33
US Heat Maps
sur Google Maps Mania

LocaleTrends

LocaleTrends uses heat maps to present a detailed view of important housing, education, employment and demographic trends in distinct geographic areas in the USA. The site has a number of Google Maps for each state or you can select regions within each state.

For each area it is possible to view heat maps showing real estate data, public school test scores, demographics and employment data. The home page shows the most viewed maps on the site and you can navigate to distinct areas via two drop down menus.

Via: Programmable Web

_____________

8:00
Podcast: Government Data as Platform for InnovationAll Points Blog
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Enclosure: [download]

Three news stories this week address (1) federal govt technology change, (2) a city opening up its data and (3) a grant funded hyperlocal website being acquired. We think they are related and provide some pointers about what technologists, policians and citizens can expect regarding access to data, including geodata.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.

8:00
Podcast: Government Data as Platform for Innovation
sur All Points Blog

Enclosure: [download]

Three news stories this week address (1) federal govt technology change, (2) a city opening up its data and (3) a grant funded hyperlocal website being acquired. We think they are related and provide some pointers about what technologists, policians and citizens can expect regarding access to data, including geodata.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.

8:00
Podcast: Government Data as Platform for Innovation
sur Directions Media - Podcasts

Enclosure: [download]

Three news stories this week address (1) federal govt technology change, (2) a city opening up its data and (3) a grant funded hyperlocal website being acquired. We think they are related and provide some pointers about what technologists, policians and citizens can expect regarding access to data, including geodata.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index.

7:24
Deprecation Plans For ArcGIS 9.3.1 And ArcGIS 9.4. An Important Document To Readmandown, geo.geek.nz
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

The deprecation plans for ArcGIS 9.3.1 and ArcGIS 9.4 have now been released. With every release, platforms not being used as much anymore or at the end of their supportability are assessed. With platforms, these can include operating systems,...
7:11
Ortelius for Macintosh Has LaunchedGIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Ortelius, a “map illustration software” per the Map Diva web site has launched. The debut of this software package adds one more selection to the very limited mapping software options out there for Macintosh users. A free trial download is available and the Map Diva site is offering a lower introductory price until September 30th. [...]

6:35

Creating GeoGeekTV: Setting up Routesdavebouwman.com

sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Welcome back to my on-going series about the creation of GeoGeekTV.com. Having solidified the design, we can move on to the implementation.

Since ASP.NET MVC abstracts the requested URL from actual files on disk (as in /foo/bar.htm does not actually load a the bar.htm file in the foo folder), we have a lot more control of the Urls. Thus, it’s worth taking a little time at the beginning of a project to decide how we want the Urls to work

For GeoGeekTV, we have a few main areas: Home Page, the Live Stream, Upcoming Shows, the Archive, a Contact page, Backstage and Admin.

Since most of these are pretty simple pages, we can use the default routing for the most part.

The default route uses the /{controller}/{action}/{id} pattern to make an incoming request to a controller and action (aka a method).

When we setup routes, we assign defaults to the components of the route. So for our site, we users to land at the home page, so we setup the default for the route to be “home”. As for a default action, we usually use “index”. Since an id does not have much context on some controllers, we default that to an empty string.

This is what the route looks like in the Global.asax.cs file:

routes.MapRoute(
    "Default",                                              // Route name
    "{controller}/{action}/{id}",                           // URL with parameters
    new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = "" }  // Parameter defaults
);

I like to map out the urls for an application in a table. This helps get an idea of how the routes should be setup, and it also provides a development road map for the controllers and actions we’ll need.

Url	Controller	Action	Description
/Home	Home	Index	The home page
/Live	Live	Index	The live streaming page. If we are not live, show a list of recent shows
/Archive or /Archive/List	Archive	List	Paged list of Archive shows
/Archive/View/{name}	Archive	View	View a show from the archive
/Archive/tag/{tag}	Archive	tag	View list of shows that have a particular tag
/Contact	Contact	Index	The Contact form
/Backstage	Backstage	Index	The backstage page
/Upcoming	Upcoming	List	List of upcoming shows
/Upcoming/Edit/{id}	Upcoming	Edit	Edit an upcoming show
/Upcoming/Create	Upcoming	Create	Create an upcoming show entry
/Archive/Create	Archive	Create	Create an entry in the archive
/Archive/Edit/{id}	Archive	Edit	Edit an entry in the archive
/Login	Login	Index	Login screen
/Admin	Admin	Index	Main Admin Screen

Conveniently, for GeoGeekTV.com we can pretty much live with this default route, with one exception. We are going to support a simple tagging system on the shows, and it would be handy to have a url that would list all the shows related to a tag. Now, if we wanted to use the ID of the Tag in the url (i.e. the “Unit Testing” tag has an ID of 27, so the url would be /Archive/Tag/27) our default route would still work. But I think it would be more useful to have human readable tags, so we’ll use the actual tag in the url.

So I’ll create an additional route.

routes.MapRoute(
    "Archive",                                                // Route name
    "Archive/Tag/{tag}",                                      // URL with parameters
    new { controller = "Archive", action = "Tag", tag = "" }  // Parameter defaults
);

This new route is very specific – it only applies to the /Archive/Tag url, and will now pass in a parameter named “tag” to the controller method.

Testing the Routes

We can write unit tests to ensure that the routing is working as designed. Since this is just testing the routing, we don’t actually need to create any controllers or views – we are just testing the routes in Global.asax.cs

[Test]
public void archive_tag_tag_route()
{
    MvcApplication.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
    var [httpContext] = MockRepository.GenerateStu [HttpContextBase>();] 
    [httpContext.Stub(x] => x.Request).Return(MockRepository.GenerateStu [HttpRequestBase>());]     [httpContext.Request.Stub(x] => x.PathInfo).Return("");
    [httpContext.Request.Stub(x] => x.AppRelativeCurrentExecutionFilePath).Return("~/Archive/Tag/foo");

    var routeData = RouteTable.Routes.GetRouteData [httpContext);]     Assert.AreEqual(routeData.Values["controller"], ("Archive"));
    Assert.AreEqual(routeData.Values["action"], ("Tag"));
    Assert.AreEqual(routeData.Values["tag"], ("foo"));
}

Although this is somewhat long-winded, and there are other more elegant options, I just keep this snipped of code lying around and drop it in as needed.

Although pretty simple at this point, I’ve pushed this into the repository over on assembla.com if you want to check out the code.

Up Next:

We’ve already created a simple out of the box ASP.NET MVC 2 web application. Next time we’ll layout the other projects in the solution, clear out the un-needed cruft from the MVC project and setup our dependency injection. From there we’ll actually start writing some code!

2:43
SXSW Panel – Time + Social + Location.High Earth Orbit
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Voting is now open for next spring’s South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference, and I was kindly asked by Josh Babetski to be on his panel SXSW Panel: Time + Social + Location.

As more devices become location aware, social uses will continue to evolve beyond just who and what, to WHEN. Adding the temporal dimension creates new opportunities for social interaction. Learn about ways to leverage and use technology to add features at the intersection of temporal, social, and location.

The panel is quite a great group – from the inceptive MapQuest that led the way in internet mapping, to the more modern social location networks of Brightkite and the recent Twitter announced location support.

We’re now carrying the equivalent of super-computers in our pockets that have near ubiquitous connectivity, location, media capturing, and sensors. We can easily lookup businesses, cabs, and directions. But what else is next? Is it really just people checking for the closest coffee shop or hotest hookup?

Or do people want to ask “The Big Here” questions: to inquire about their location and context – the history, environment, perception, and culture that surrounds them or guides them through place. Will we have tricorders, or will mobile devices be relegated to toy devices and glorified media viewers?

This panel includes the foremost implementers and leaders in the field that are building real tools that are used by thousands and millions of people around the world. What have we learned, and where are the next steps leading us?

SXSW panels work by people voting. So please vote up the panel. Last year I moderated one of the only location-based panels, but fortunately this year there is a much wider aspect of geospatial discussions and presentations. So while you’re at it, check out the other good panels.
0:29
The Marketing of Transparency: Beware Wolves in Sheep’s ClothingOff the Map - Official Blog of FortiusOne
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

It should not come as a big surprise, but with the success of the “transparent government” movement and open data, everyone is now branding themselves as such. Sadly the majority of investments are taking the same old government approach and repackaging it as “transparent”. Add a few new collateral pieces, a fresh web page, then place an article in a government magazine proclaiming it all true.

I’m all for folks jumping on the transparency bandwagon - the more support and progress the better. What does not get me terribly excited is when it’s the same old thing repackaged. It is classic bait and switch. Call it something new then buy more of the same old approach. Take, for instance, this article from Government Computer News entitled “Visualization tools improve transparency by making sense of raw data”. GCN talks about how government can enable transparency through visualization tools, which boils down to vendors selling the government a bunch of stuff to make pretty pictures. I think this sums it up best “Agencies are being graded about how transparent they are, and a quick and easy win is to get some data and visualize it on the Web site,” said Susie Adams, chief technology officer at Microsoft’s federal division.

Buy our tools to make some pretty pictures, and magic presto you are “transparent”. So, what passes as transparency in this new regime? Well the mapping highlight was this implementation by Pitney-Bowes MapInfo for Cumberland County, NC. If you are on Firefox, Safari, Chrome or any browser other than IE you, of course, can’t see the map. So, I’ve added an image from it:

Yup - this is what passes for transparency. Including an egregious license saying you can’t use the data for anything - including my favorite bit, “The reader should not rely on the data provided herein for any reason.” Further, no ability to download the data even though you could not use it for anything and user interface from 1995. I’m not sure what is worse GCN picking this out as something to highlight or MapInfo and Cumberland County advertising it as “transparency”.

The sad bit is this is not an outlier. I’ve been seeing press releases, marketing slicks and articles like this on a regular basis. So, how to tell real transparency initiatives from the masquerading wolves? I’d suggest the following guidelines:

1) You should be able to download the raw data or subscribe to a feed of it

2) Data formats should be open standards and not be proprietary

3) Data should be under a license that allows reuse and remixing (creative commons, public domain etc.)

4) Users should be able to dictate how they want the data visualized and filtered if a visualization option is included

The take away this confirms for me is that the government is not very good at building software. The goal with transparency and open data was to let the government focus on data and open it up to the market to do cool tech things with it. You get better accountability and transparency because the data is all open, and better tech because it is not beltway bandits building it.

Unfortunately all to often it is the opposite. No open data and really bad web application to look at canned information. It is all to easy to skew data with maps and charts. Just allowing users to look at one view of data in not adequate. If you are going to add vizualization, in addition to data access, agencies need to allow the users to slice and dice the data and visualization. Other wise it is not really transparency, but instead spoon fed mono-culture.
0:23
Macintosh Resources for GISGIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems
sur Planet Geospatial - http://planetgs.com

Resources, software and reviews on the use of GIS and in the Macintosh Operating System. ArcExplorer ArcExplorer is the Java based free data viewer from ESRI. This program allows you to view and geocode data in shapefile format. ArcVoyager Special Edition A free package designed expressly for school use, based on ESRI’s ArcView, and available for both Windows and [...]

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