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James Fee GIS Blog

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14 février 2012
19:34
Happy Birthday Arizona, You Don’t Look 100
sur James Fee GIS Blog

100 years ago today Arizona became the 48th and last of the contiguous 48 states to gain statehood.

It only took about 500 years after the Spanish first set foot in Arizona looking for gold.
03 février 2012
19:41
Sophia Parafina — Open Source Mapping in Windows
sur James Fee GIS Blog

The real game changer is the release of TileMill for Windows.

She’s right, lots of great new options for Windows users. As Brian Timoney says:

PSA for GIS grads: the industry is already full-up with folks with no Python, no Javascript & marginal database skills—
Brian Timoney (@briantimoney) February 03, 2012

Those are universal skills no matter if you are on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux. Cross platform apps gives you the ability to use your skills everywhere, rather than scripting VBA Microsoft Access “databases”.
02 février 2012
20:13
France Says Google Maps is Guilty of Being a Free Resource
sur James Fee GIS Blog

You got to love France.

A French commercial court has found Google guilty of abusing the dominant position of its Google Maps application and ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.
In a ruling Tuesday, the Paris court upheld an unfair competition complaint lodged by Bottin Cartographes against Google France and its parent company Google Inc. for providing free web mapping services to some businesses.
The court ordered Google to pay 500,000 euros ($660,000) in damages and interest to the plaintiff and a 15,000 euro fine.

Bottin Cartographes’ webpage is sparse on what actually they do that people want. Rule number one of failing, sue the rich competitor when your own stuff falls flat. Clearly Europe has it’s eye on Google and I suspect we’ll see many more of these “judgements”. And god forbid, don’t let Bottin find out about OpenStreetMap. They dump just about anything on the market for free.

The French Judge in the case was quick to "pass" on the ruling.
31 janvier 2012
16:55
TileMill: Now Available in Windows
sur James Fee GIS Blog

TileMill has been out for about a year, but Windows users have had to run it on a Virtual Machine. Until now!

We’re excited to bring you TileMill 0.9.0. The latest release of our map design studio adds native Windows support, a new plugin system, and key core improvements. Whether you’ve been meaning to try TileMill or are a longtime user, expect a more powerful, accessible map design experience starting today.

There is a whole lot more than just a Windows release, plugins, tons of performance issues and some slick new UI features. As always, it is available at tilemill.com

And even more cool stuff from Development Seed, MapBox for iPad 1.8 is out.
24 janvier 2012
17:24
FOSS4G North American 2012
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Not much notice, but there will be a FOSS4G in North America this year.

On the heels of last year’s successful and well-attended international FOSS4G event in Colorado, many of us in the community of free and open source geospatial software developers, users, and advocates in North America recognized the need for a regular gathering in North America. So this year we have come together to plan the first ever FOSS4G North America conference, an event to take place April 10–12, 2012 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. FOSS4G-NA will bring together many public and private-sector stakeholders at the forefront of some of the world’s most innovative free and open source software to discuss and work on building tools to help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

I can’t decide if I’m closer to China or Washington DC. Remember nobody gets kicked off the plane for playing OSGeo with Friends.
20 janvier 2012
5:23
Bing Maps gets Nokia Brand and Possibly the Boot
sur James Fee GIS Blog

The Microsoft/Nokia relationship gets a little confusing these days. According to Pocket-Lint:

Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company’s own phones.

“You’ll starting seeing the word ‘Nokia’ on a map that you get from Microsoft properties over a period of time,” Elop explained to Pocket-lint in an interview behind closed doors at CES in Las Vegas. “Even if you are on a BlackBerry device, who recently said they were going to start using Bing Maps.”
Interesting isn’t it? Nokia Maps on other devices. Here is the kicker…
“Part of the relationship we established with Microsoft is that we are clearly placing a bet on the Windows Phone platform. [In return] they are placing a bet on our location-based platform: mapping, navigation and so forth,” said Elop.
Thus it appears, at least in Nokia’s mind, that Bing Maps might eventually be replaced with Nokia Maps. Clearly Nokia believes that they bring navigation and location to the partnership. I’m sure though, as with everything Microsoft related, this is going to be much more complicated than it should be. In a perfect world, Microsoft and Nokia would agree that Bing Maps should be replaced by Nokia Maps and get it done quickly and with minimal fuss. The reality is that there will probably be three mapping platforms. The old Bing Maps, the old Nokia Maps and this new hybrid Nokia Maps (powered by Bing?) that blends the two services. Ugh, right? Check with Pocket-link tomorrow to see the full interview with Elop and hopefully more detail into what this means. Almost a year ago I talked a little bit about this scenario, maybe it is finally time.
19 janvier 2012
19:24
A Minimalist OpenStreetMap Baselayer
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’m a sucker for these simple background base maps.

I am designing a new minimal OpenStreetMap base map in TileMill to use with MapBox hosting platform’s map builder. The goal for the design is a general OpenStreetMap layer that can be used as a light, very subtle background for compositing further data on top of. Here is an early look at the features and design aspects I have been working on for the map.

Read the post, this is how you create a baseman you can actually use. Stop putting your data on top of map services designed for navigation that end up clashing/competing with your story. Oh and MapBox and TileMill are still very awesome! Windows users should note that TileMill will be available on Windows any day.
16:42
I Can’t Figure Out a Use For This, But I Want A 65-inch Multi-touch 3D Display
sur James Fee GIS Blog

CES is boring, all companies do is announce products that by the time they hit the shelves they are stale. But this Ideum MT65 3D Display feels so right:

Engadget says it is available in either Windows 7 today or Linux by March, so you can totally be rolling with either your Esri or Open Source GIS tool of your choice. It costs about $18,000 so start saving those pennies!
17 janvier 2012
16:48
It’s Only Evil if You Get Caught, Right?
sur James Fee GIS Blog

From RWW

The official blog of Open Street Map reports tonight that someone at a range of Google IP addresses in India has been editing the collaboratively made map of the world in some very unhelpful ways, like moving and deleting information and reversing the direction of one-way streets on the map.

I’m not going to bring up the don’t be evil quote, but clearly Google is beginning to lose control of their empire. Rouge employees do what they think is best for the company, but cleaning house won’t change things. It’s a culture of attack competitors and apologize later. I’m sure Google will eventually “make right” what happened, but what about all those times they haven’t gotten caught?

Googlezilla is a dangerous beast. It comes out of the water and starts messing with your pretty little town.

Truthfully, this is a management problem. The chair moisteners from Sector 7G are being either told to do this directly or indirectly by someone else. Hopefully Google changes their management style to clamp down on these issues.

Update: RWW has confirmation from Google that these were two people doing unauthorized edits on the company dime. Again, clearly this is a management problem.
13 janvier 2012
18:15
Best Way To Future Proof Your Web Map Service Choice? Could Be Mapstraction.
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So there are a lot of companies leaving Google Maps for other services. But you read about others who can’t leave because their customers demand Google Maps. Quite a fluid situation isn’t it?

Someone asked me yesterday what should they do. How can they plan for the inevitable changes they’ll be making to their web map services. A good solution might be Mapstraction. It’s a programming library that allows you to easily switch between web map providers without having to change much if any of your code.

Why Mapstraction?

By avoid dependency on any specific mapping provider (or versions within a provider) your code is easier to maintain.

A book I reviewed about a year ago, Map Scripting 101, is a great starter for those who want to read up on Mapstraction. I mentioned that Mapstraction might be a good choice for beginners, but I think with the uncertainty of licensing and costs with web mapping APIs, Mapstraction might be a good choice for anyone.
12 janvier 2012
21:30
Urban Airship Shuts Down SimpleGeo
sur James Fee GIS Blog

The crazy ride is over:

In order to deliver on this aggressive vision in the shortest amount of time possible, we need to focus our product development efforts. So, after lots of internal discussion and customer conversations, we will wind down the availability of the current versions of Places, Context, and Storage over the next few months. We will do everything we can to minimize the impact to customers as we look to end the availability of these services on March 31, 2012

And just like that, SimpleGeo API is headed out to the dead zone.

What a world! (side note: I didn't know the GeoMonkey could fly)
11 janvier 2012
21:36
Goodbye Google Maps? A Trend Appears
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Good bye, Google Maps… thanks for all the fish

We at StreetEasy decided to build our own maps using, among other tools, OpenStreetMap, TileMill, MapBox and Leaflet, instead of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to Google. And yes, the money pushed us into doing it, but we’re happier with the result because we now control the contents of our maps.

The free ride had to end for most companies. But what is surprising is how easy it is to change your tile map service. Plus see a theme here? OpenStreetMap, TileMill, MapBox and Leaflet is a trend. Giddy up!
17:57
Google Maps – The Game
sur James Fee GIS Blog

In about a month, Google is going to release a game on Google+ based on Google Maps and built using WebGL (Sorry IE users).

…there’s a video preview of a new Google Maps for Google+ app – shown below – which uses WebGL and apparently user-location to collect points as you travel around floorplan maps. Full details haven’t been shared, but the game will apparently arrive in February.

Now the video doesn’t show much about the details for the game but navigating a 3d mapping world (using the Google Maps API) in a WebGL application in a browser is pretty awesome. Plus going inside and outside the buildng? Sign me up!

Looks like fun to me, but we'll have to wait a month.

It is a shame about WebGL support not being exactly cross-platform, but with a little work you can get it enabled on any browser. Cools stuff is on the horizon with 3D web mapping applications.
10 janvier 2012
21:15
GDAL 1.9 Brings Esri FGDB and Google Fusion Tables Support
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Good news for users of GDAL/OGR:

The GDAL/OGR team is pleased to announce the release of GDAL/OGR 1.9.0.
This is a major new release including the following major new features:

* New GDAL drivers: ACE2, CTG, E00GRID, ECRGTOC, GRASSASCIIGrid,
GTA, NGSGEOID, SNODAS, WebP, ZMap
* New OGR drivers: ARCGEN, CouchDB, DWG, EDIGEO, ESRI FileGDB, Geomedia,
Google Fusion Tables, IDRISI, MDB, SEGUKOOA, SEGY, SVG, XLS
* Significantly improved drivers: NetCDF
* Encoding support for shapefile/dbf (#882)
* RFC 35: Delete, reorder and alter field definitions of OGR layers
* RFC 37: Add mechanism to provide user data to CPLErrorHandler (#4295)
* gdalsrsinfo: new supported utility to report SRS in various form
(supercedes testepsg)

Some nice new formats in there. How does it all work? Paolo Corti takes a look and says, “Brilliant!”.
17:05
Pitney Bowes and Autodesk get “Strategic”
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So out of the blue, this just rolls out:

Autodesk, Inc., a world leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, and Pitney Bowes Software, Inc., a global leader in customer data, location intelligence, analytics and communication software and services, today announced they have entered into a strategic alliance agreement. The new agreement will serve as a framework for both companies to provide resources, services and solutions to help infrastructure owners and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) organizations make more informed decisions and drive greater efficiencies across the plan, design, build, manage lifecycle of infrastructure.

As with others, I’m not sure what this means for the geospatial space moving forward. As Joe Francica points out, unless both companies have “skin in the game”, there is no real incentive to work together. What is clear though is both companies are going on the offensive which might make 2012 very interesting. Hopefully both companies will spell out in greater detail what this means in the next month so we can all figure out where we might want to align our efforts moving forward.

Wonder Twin powers activate! Shape of ????!!!! Form of ????!!!!
09 janvier 2012
19:05
OpenStreetMap Has Momentum, Apparently
sur James Fee GIS Blog

All joking aside, this is great news for the project.

Nestoria is one of those companies that was told it would have to start paying real money for Google Maps. When Google couldn’t tell it exactly how much, Nestoria kicked Mountain View to the curb and switched to OpenStreetMap, a free, collaborative effort to map the globe.

A couple of thoughts about this article and OSM/Google Maps.

1. Google has to tell people how much they are going to charge for their maps sooner rather than later. No one can run a company without a clear idea of costs (well at least run a company for longer than 6 months). While Nestoria could have done better due diligence before banking on Google, clearly it is easy enough to move platforms. Lock-in is something that online mapping APIs do not have.

2. Freyfogle is completely wrong:

… Freyfogle says, and they must render what Google wants them render — a criticism Google did not address when we asked the company for clarification. “You can make your maps look however you want. Rivers can be red instead of blue if you wanted…. With Google you’re not getting any data. You just get a map on your page.”

You can make the Google Maps look anyway you want dynamically. That’s pretty awesome because you don’t have to create your own tiles. He says Google didn’t respond to his questions, but I would assume someone using an API would know what it does (seriously, how can you not research an API that is critical to your app?).

3. Steve Coast is still alive. Hey Steve!

4. OpenStreetMap is growing and will continue grow if Google fails to address the customer service aspects of the Google Maps API. Leaflet is the key to gaining control over your applications (Nestoria uses it). Learn it, use it, love it.

One by one, the Gorillas are choosing OSM.
16:59
GeoDesign Summit 2012 — A New Direction
sur James Fee GIS Blog
In all fairness to my previous post, I want to share some GeoDesign links. The feedback I’m getting from those who attended is that it has become an education type initiative, rather than working toward changing how we actually do work. I guess bottom up change works sometimes, but these kids graduating with “GeoDesign emphasis” have no chance at changing how established companies are doing business. So here you go if you want to try to figure out what was discussed:
- Will GeoDesign help design tools get out of the way of workflows?
- GeoDesign Summit Illustrates Breadth of Projects
The GeoDesign Little Red Book is ready to teach a generation of students what won't work in the commercial sector.
06 janvier 2012
20:38
Let’s Call Esri’s ArcGIS Online What It Is — A Spade
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So the Esri GeoDesign Summit is in full session, or at least we know it is because at least two people showed up. Matt (one of the lucky two) showcases the latest Esri initiatives being demonstrated at Esri’s shindig.

Bernie Szukalski, product strategist and technical evangelist at Esri, spoke today at the GeoDesign Summit about ArcGIS Online initiatives and coming capabilities. Web mapping has morphed from sharing maps and geospatial information to a geospatial content management system that supports collaboration. The new iteration allows for the publication and sharing with others, as well as the access to rich global base data through cloud services.

So yea, da cloud roxxorz! We’ve all tried to figure out what ArcGIS Online is (beyond the kitchen sink of Esri’s cloud), but this week it’s content management.

Maps can be shared with others by making them publicly available, sharing a link or embedding in a website or blog. Additional content can be found via the gallery where maps are vetted by the community, with ratings and comments. These maps contain documentation with details regarding the source, providing metadata that allows you to understand how they were created. There is also flexibility in how these intelligent maps can be accessed, with options to open in your desktop, open in Explorer Online, and in the map viewer.
If you dropped off the turnip truck, you probably like most of the paragraph. Sounds like a nice open shared world, where everyone wins. But the last sentence leads to the truth about ArcGIS Online and their vision of content management. Flexibility in the sense that if you’ve standardized on Esri’s suite of ArcGIS products, you can share their proprietary formats. Things like ArcGIS Server, File Geodatabases, Layer files and the rest are not formats we can share with the world.
C'mon people now, Smile on your brother; Ev'rybody get together, Try and love Esri right now

Lets look at it this way, SharePoint is Microsoft’s Content Management System. Imagine if Microsoft only allowed you to upload Microsoft file formats. Crazy right? But that is what ArcGIS Online is. Sure you can upload shapefiles, but those really are so limited you can’t really store data in them. There is a reason why nobody uses DBF anymore. No, you have to use Layer Packages, MXDs, etc to get any “value” out of ArcGIS Online. It is a little better on the server-side, Esri supports WMS (probably so they can check off OGC support in some contracts), but nothing else. ArcGIS Online is what it is, an Esri Content Management System that lets you share Esri files with other Esri users.

I don’t fault Esri for creating such a product, they feel there is money to be made doing this. But let’s not pretend it is a GIS content management system because it just doesn’t support open standards let alone other formats such as TAB, DWG or whatever Intergraph is doing these days. It is an Esri Content Management System.

But what does that really mean? Basically Esri’s ArcGIS Online is Google My Maps, but with $10,000 client software. Creating a map to share with Esri’s online APIs doesn’t make it content management. There is no geneology of data, no lifecycle to the product. Just some simple polygons or pushpins on a map that at its core isn’t what customers want. The biggest reason why Esri is pushing ArcGIS Online so much is that Google Earth Builder is a direct play toward some vision that Esri has to where GIS may go in 2012/2013.

The problem with both solutions is that they don’t actually manage your data that goes into your products (the pushpin maps you share during GIS Day 2012). The important data is still strewn across hard drives and servers in your organization just hoping that it will never get lost. That doesn’t sound like progress to me and the focus is not on workflows but some mythical federal contract that the big boys are fighting over.

Cutting edge maps have pushpins on them.

UPDATE: Looks like I missed Sean McGinnis’ take on ArcGIS.com a couple weeks ago.
16:00
Bing Maps Has New Routing Engine
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Being self-aware is always best. From the announcement of the New Bing Maps Routing Engine:

Did you happen to notice the new routing engine we implemented on Bing Maps? No?

Yea, I can’t recall the last time I used Bing Maps. I’m just so used to using Google’s services, it feels unnatural to not type google.com into my browser. Also I’ve chosen to use Waze for navigation on my iPhone leaving them to handle routing and navigation while I’m out and about. So yea, its been some time since I’ve used Bing Maps. But I guess that’s water under the bridge.

Coupled with the bizarre patent that tells you not to go down a dark street alone without a shotgun, Microsoft seems interested in mapping again after what seems like years of not caring about Bing Maps. I suppose Windows Mobile devices use Bing Maps for routing, but who else uses them these days? It does sound like Microsoft has a cool algorithm going on the backend and I wish them the best of luck.

How many versions of Microsoft Maps will it take for them to be successful?
05 janvier 2012
16:24
Let’s Make This New Year’s Resolution
sur James Fee GIS Blog

When was the last time you referred to the Internet as the “Information Superhighway”? Probably not since you upgraded from GEnie to AOL back in the early 90′s and saw there was this HTML world out there. Early on you figured out calling the Internet the Information Superhighway stupid and the world thanks you for it.

In 2012, lets stop using the term “the Cloud” to refer to some arbitrary hosted service. It’s like nails on a chalkboard. Just think about this statement in a year:

The Cloud roxxorz my proprietary GIS Server!

It’s like that picture of you wearing that Members Only Jacket to your Senior prom. You so want that picture to go away, but Mom keeps showing it to your friends.

Same here, don’t be that guy who uses “the Cloud”. It’s a marketing term for newspaper writers who learned how the Internet works from Ted Stevens. In a year you’ll be on to the next Gartner Hype Cycle fetish (I hear the self driving Google car is right around the corner) anyway so call it what it is, hosted services.
04 janvier 2012
16:00
2011 Was the Year of Python
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So last year I said this:

Remember AML fondly if you must, but today with Python you have tools that run circles around what AML gave you. I find myself opening up a command window and running python commands to manipulate data over starting up ArcCatalog these days and I love it.

No more excuses to not use Python.

‘Twas a very good year for Python. Seems like we’ve finally gotten out of proprietary scripting languages and picked a winner in Python. Personally, WeoGeo couldn’t do what we do on our back end without Python and I know many other companies can say the same thing. I’ll go out on a limb and say 2012 will also be a very good year for Python. *cough*

There are snakes on this GIS!
0:31
Getting Paid by the Hour to Watch GIS Software Start Up
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’ve had it, I’m done waiting for old, slow, bloated GIS packages load while I do nothing. My new resolution this year is to focus on GIS products that start up quickly and let me start working immediately.

Seriously, what’s up with the bloated code? Features have trumped usability in GIS for far too long. This isn’t rocket science.

GIS Day is a celebration of slow moving software.
09 décembre 2011
18:30
Atanas is out!
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Boy, you get sick, go to bed early, then you miss some great news.

Out on day 65. Thank you all for everything. Details later on tenthcave.com. #freeatanas—
atanas entchev (@atanas) December 09, 2011

It is so good to have you back my friend!

If only Atanas had such a card to overcome bureaucracy.

HT: geoMusings

UPDATE: Atanas has more info on what happened on his personal blog.
05 décembre 2011
22:06
White House to Open Source Your Business Model
sur James Fee GIS Blog

This is the inevitable conclusion of Government Data Portals.

As part of a joint effort by the United States and India to build an open government platform, the U.S. team has deposited open source code — an important benchmark in developing the Open Government Platform that will enable governments around the world to stand up their own open government data sites.

Government is trending to be open, open sourced and thus transparent. Clearly selling against such a tidal wave is going to be very difficult.

You hear that? That is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound... of your death.
17:54
Users Demand Google Maps or They’ll Leave Your Service
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’m sure there were good reasons for Garmin to use Bing over Google Maps, but their users weren’t sold on it.

…a year later, Garmin acted. Users may now select which of the two providers to use. It’s a bit of a cop-out fix, likely due to the positive things some users said about Bing. Or, perhaps it is based on an agreement with Microsoft, as many forum posters wondered.

As ProgrammableWeb points out, this has to be expensive to offer both Google and Bing.

Most likely, Garmin is now paying twice for its mistake. Both Google and Microsoft have enterprise versions and Garmin is likely not eligible to use the free versions.

For consumer applications, clearly Google Maps is the only choice you can offer. Even with pricing changes, companies will continue to have to offer Google Maps otherwise they’ll face unhappy users.

A little pepper spray removes that Bing Maps from your apps.
30 novembre 2011
17:42
Wacom Inkling — Could be Just What Designers Need
sur James Fee GIS Blog
So what exactly is the Wacom Inkling? Many in our space are familiar with the Adapx pen which allows for capturing forms and other simple data inputs from special paper. The Inkling is sort of the right brain answer to the left brain Adapx. So what exactly does the Inkling do and why would I pay $199 for it?

Simply put, Wacom designed the Inkling to be a digitizer that works on any piece of paper. That’s a huge difference from the Adapx pen which requires their special paper with dots on it. This means the Wacom pen can be used like an “ordinary” pen. Draw what you want and there it is. This is great for designers, but it means that the Adapx pen and the Wacom Inkling are after two different markets. There is no OCR or other recognition software, it just captures what you write as lines (heck, these are vectors baby!).

The Wacom Inkling has a very nice travel case that contains everything you need to use the pen.

So what do you get with the Inkling? The case that the Inkling comes in does a great job of holding all the pieces together and charges the pen and receiver when plugged into a USB port using the included cable. The pen itself is a tad thinker than I’m used to which means that id doesn’t always feel quite right in my hand. But for GeoDesign type applications, it is probably going to work out fine (think of writing with a sharpie size pen). It takes regular ink refills which is great in that it isn’t going to cost you, but the thickness was greater than I’m normally used to. I suppose you could get different refills, but I didn’t test that out.

The Inkling Receiver clips on to any piece of paper.

The Inkling Receiver clips on to your paper and uses some sort of infrared connectivity to figure out where the pen is. You can see the infrared beam area at the bottom of the receiver in the picture above. Yes, this means that if you put your hand in front of that beam, the pen becomes lost. It quickly rediscovers it, but you’ll want to keep that in mind while drawing. The other important fact about the receiver is that it only works on paper 8.5×11 inches or smaller. That means you can’t clip it on to some huge ANSI E plot and start working, you have to make smaller plots to work with.

You clip the receiver to the top of the paper and start writing.

As you can see in the picture above, you clip the receiver on the paper and just start working with it. The green light blinks as you draw showing that it is getting data from the pen. There are two buttons on the receiver, the left one is a power button, but the right one is much more interesting. It is a layer button. You can start drawing, click that button and then work on a new layer. These layers are compatible with Illustrator and Photoshop (more later).

Once you are done drawing, you unclip the receiver and plug it into a mini USB cable. The one included with the unit was short, so I used a longer cable that I had in a drawer. This shows up as a USB flash device and includes software that Wacom includes to download and convert the drawings.

The Sketch Manager could be the weakest link to the package.

The Sketch Manager is used to transfer the sketches off the receiver and into formats that you can use. Unlike the well hardware, the software feels like a bad Windows 95 application. It is confusing and menus options seem randomly tossed around where you least expect it. The sketch manager recognizes Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and puts some export buttons at the top to make it easy to get sketches in to those applications. The problem with this is that you need Adobe installed to export to AI. You can’t save as these formats, it does some sort of OLE thing where the vectors just show up in the application.

You can see the layers in this sketch.

But don’t be too sad about true EPS/AI support missing. It does support SVG export (as well as PDF and the regular raster exports such as jpg/tiff) which means you can get those vectors out and into applications that use it. I was able to export out the sketch into SVG and then upload it to my personal WeoGeo Library where I could then work with it how ever I needed it. The SVG was able to be imported to Illustrator, ArcGIS Desktop and other applications that support SVG without issue. This means that you can make edits with your pen on paper and then bring those back into your digital tools for fine tuning.

So here are the export options, don't look for Illustrator, Photoshop or Autodesk Sketchbook Pro

I’m no artist, but I have spent many times in the past 20 years marking up output from GIS systems using a pen on paper. From this perspective, I think the Wacom Inkling shines. Designers and planners love to sketch by hand and then expect others to convert that to digital maps. I can see putting and Inkling in all their hands so that I can just grab the SVG output and bring it into my software. There are limitations of course, you can’t use anything bigger than 8.5×11 inch paper, the pen is a tad large, the ink is not fine enough; but I was able to start working with the pen immediately and produce great results without any problems. The price of the pen is reasonable considering other options (including digitizer tablets) and since it takes ordinary ink refills, future costs should stay low.

I come from a design/planning background and I can’t tell you how much I would have loved to have a pen like this years ago. I’ve handed it to architects and planners and had them produce output that went right into projects with minimal editing. That really puts a smile on your face and produces great work that normally would have had to be digitized on-screen. I can totally see Wacom produce a line of Inkling products like they have with their Bamboo line. But for now, if you ever mark up maps or other documents and wish to get those lines into Adobe Illustrator or Esri ArcGIS, the Inkling is clearly the way to go.

Other reviews (including videos) of the Wacom Inking:
29 novembre 2011
23:03
GIS Doesn’t Go Inside Buildings Guys
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Clearly Google doesn’t understand anything about Professional GIS. 30 years ago, GIS and CAD came to a conclusion. GIS would work outside the building shell and CAD would handle the inside. Clearly this has been respected for a generation of GISPs.

But in typical Google fashion, they ignore the truce and now their GIS system (yes I’m not crazy) supports inside the building queries.

Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you’re viewing the map and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. The familiar “blue dot” icon indicates your location within several meters, and when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the interface will automatically update to display which floor you’re on. All this is achieved by using an approach similar to that of ‘My Location’ for outdoor spaces, but fine tuned for indoors.

So it is a stupid Andoid app and nothing more, for now. But clearly there is an API in there just waiting to be used. Of course New Yorker’s fear being tracked on their cell phones so it remains to be seen if Google will feel any backlash for tracking your cell phone (cue the old “opt-in” defense).

Now I’m not sure how stupid Google thinks users are though. Is “Find my Favorite Coffee Shop” still something that people need help with?
21 novembre 2011
19:13
GIS Cloud Removes Beta From their Logo
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Two months ago, GIS Cloud released a HTML5 client that was very slick. My thoughts at the time:

The latest company to release a HTML5 client is GISCloud. While other visualization companies offer JavaScript maps as an option, GISCloud has made them default. By using the HTML5 Canvas element, GISCloud is rendering vector data right inside of the browser, with no plugin. Oh and you don’t need to use some sort of weird API to get it to work on iPhones or iPads. It just works, browsing 2 million features on my iPad in Safari without a native app. Crazy!

Well for those who view the Beta tag as something to avoid, GIS Cloud has now gone full production on their code.
Today’s GIS Cloud differs quite a lot from when it was first created, and so does the team as well. We have both grown and improved a lot; learned how to provide GIS users with what they need. GIS Cloud got:
- redesigned
- much simpler to use and more intuitive
- more focused on the map and data visualization
- reborn with the HTML5 map engine
- moved to Amazon Cloud
- its very own platform for creating geo applications
There are some great demo’s on GIS Cloud’s website that really showcase how far HTML5 has come in supporting millions of features in a browser. Plus they work on iPad without needing to download a client app. Now that I love!
17 novembre 2011
23:25
MapQuest Map API Transactions Are Now Free
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So Google did the right thing by actually charging for their API. We all expected other APIs to jump in and show the world how they are either cheaper or better. Well MapQuest jumped in with free with no transaction limits for their “Open Data” Map API.

MapQuest is excited to announce a change to our limits, which includes no preset limit on maps within our free Community Edition license!

Ah, but what about their licensed map versions?

In addition, we are setting higher limits on our other service calls (the highest in the industry), with 5,000 geocodes, 5,000 routes and 5,000 search calls allowed per day.

If you click over to their blog post, you can see a chart that outlines all the features of the different options. What is interesting is the Community Edition/Open Data tier allows free on Private and/or Paid Commercial Web Apps and Mobile Apps. I can’t think of any apps that use MapQuest offhand now, but I suspect these new changes will at least get people to look.

MapQuest is still in a tight spot, but at least they are running faster.
20:46
Esri Says They Have Your APIs Covered
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So Silverlight, Flash and Flex are dead. Or maybe not. Honestly we’ll probably see all three around for years. Enterprises love to hold onto outdated or deprecated software (er IE6) so they’ll probably continue using these three until the development tools are dead. Given how many VB6 and VBA apps I still see out there, it will probably be years before they are gone from our browsers.

The big question of course is what will Esri do with those APIs? Well don’t fear, they are totally committed to you writing apps in libraries that have no future.

We’re committed to providing the best technology for GIS developers and giving choices from the most widely used developer platforms in the market. By offering many options, we enable developers to address different customer needs and expectations. Our commitment is not based on a specific technology, but based on supporting the GIS developer regardless of the platform chosen. Each of these areas: JavaScript/HTML 5, Flex, Silverlight, and native application code, gain significant improvements in the upcoming ArcGIS 10.1 release.

See? No worries. Plus you can use their JavaScript (notice they now append HTML5 to the end?) API to stay “current”. Of course you have to use Dojo which gives you just enough bloat to call that a nice Enterprise API. Plus you can still use the ArcGIS for SharePoint to fulfill all your Enterprise API coding needs.

Seriously, if I was Esri… I’d totally get Leaflet working natively with Esri APIs out of the box and use that. Lightweight and fun. Something Esri’s heavy APIs lack.
16 novembre 2011
18:16
Merry GIS Day 2011
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Who knew that way back when the great communicator was President and signed a proclamation, we’d be having a celebration around the world for GIS.

Later that week, Reagan told Gobry to tear down that wall.

I’m just wondering when we’ll have Geography Month. I can’t get out all my 3D Globes in time to pull them right back down the day after. Will Obama sign the Geography Month proclamation so we can have the time we deserve. November is a lost month between Halloween and Christmas, we might as well celebrate something[ref]I’m all for Thanksgiving, but even the Canadian’s won’t celebrate that with us.[/ref].

Am I the only one who has GIS Day sneak up on them? I didn’t get a chance to head down to the card store to buy Paul anything.
10 novembre 2011
22:00
Geoplatform.gov — Yet another Government Portal to Ignore
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So I saw this early this morning:

The federal government and its geospatial partners today unveiled www.geoplatform.gov, a prototype Geospatial Platform website providing an initial view of the future of user-friendly, integrated, federal data collections on common geographic maps.

This prototype version of the Geospatial Platform combines map-based data and tools with the latest internet technologies to deliver geospatial information in a simple, understandable package. Users—including the public, federal agencies and their partners—can easily find federally-maintained geospatial data, services and applications, as well as access data from our partners across State, Tribal, Regional and local governments.

“The Geospatial Platform will provide a user-friendly ‘one-stop shop’ for place-based data you can trust, and the tools to display that data on a map platform,” said Anne Castle, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science.

So it is just like every other government portal, irrelevant to most people and has a quirky interface most users can’t figure out. These geo-government portals just remind me of a movie where they day keeps repeating.
03 novembre 2011
19:28
Atanas Entchev’s Motion Has Been Denied
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Unfortunately, this is not good news.
17:14
NASA’s OnEarth Has Been Abandoned
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Paul Ramsey noted this morning that OnEarth is no more.

This server no longer provides full WMS services for any of the datasets. Furthermore, the MODIS daily mosaics are no longer being updated. The tiled WMS access, described in the Tiled WMS and Google Earth KML support will stay operational. This includes access to the archived of MODIS daily mosaics, which were built from 2006 to the end of 2010

Interesting as this was a great resource that I’m not sure was freely available elsewhere.

It's the One Earth that I know...
02 novembre 2011
18:24
SimpleGeo is Acquired/Merged with Urban Airship
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Update: SimpleGeo has posted a FAQ that will “answer many of your questions”.

The topic of SimpleGeo is usually a fun conversation starter in geospatial circles. Figuring out their business model was always sort of crap shoot, but boy did they sure put together an all-star team. Arrington broke the news earlier this week that SimpleGeo, who had raised $10 million in VC money, was acquired by Urban Airship for $3.5 million of “stock”. I’m no math genius, but that sounds brutal for the investors of SimpleGeo. Clearly what the money guys valued at SimpleGeo was the staff so we’ll have to see what plans Urban Airship has for the SimpleGeo team.

Hey! What happened?
17:58
It Still Blows My Mind That Google Owns SketchUp
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Seriously, this thing is actually free for most users. When it comes to design, designers always seem to choose SketchUp over solutions from Esri, Autodesk, and others [ref]Believe me, I know. I used to work at one of the best.[/ref]. Now I’m not sold on this being something that drives use of Google Earth which I guess in turn drives use of clicking on ads. Basically SketchUp was acquired when companies like Google bought things without thinking of how they will fit in with the company 5 years later. But lucky for us, SketchUp has survived and thrived with a free version driving users to design on their platform.

Now the SketchUp team has new project called “Making Ideas Real“.

Here’s how you can pitch in: Use this form to tell us your SketchUp story. Send us an image of a SketchUp model with an accompanying photograph that shows your completed project. Anything goes for subject matter; architecture, archeology, industrial design, construction, woodworking, personal fabrication, model railroading, mousetrap design — as long as SketchUp helped you make it, we want to see it. Professionals, semi-professionals and proud amateurs are all welcome.

Sounds pretty awesome, I know many people who as a hobby recreate the world around them in Google SketchUp. It also makes a huge 3D library available to the world for free. Seems like a great opportunity for the geospatial community to share our models with Google and get some great recognition. I love using SketchUp with my Wacom DTU-2231 Pen Display. It really frees me up to work with 3D models how I think spatially. Cool stuff!
01 novembre 2011
20:10
Lead Dog Vector Datasets are now on WeoGeo.com
sur James Fee GIS Blog

One of the more interesting companies selling location-based data is Lead Dog Consulting. Chances are if you saw a map in the New York Times recently about the Arab Spring, you probably saw a Lead Dog Map. They specialize in making vector data products in areas that most companies don’t even know exist. Well over the weekend, Lead Dog pushed out over 350 datasets to the WeoGeo Market which are now available to customize and use.

If you are looking for data in Libya, Syria, Yemen or even Osama Bin Laden’s compound there probably isn’t a better, more up to date data source than Lead Dog. I love their new data in Mogadishu, Somalia which is very detailed and available in just about any vector format anyone might need.

Detailed vector data in Mogadishu, Somalia from Lead Dog Consulting in WeoGeo Market

If you sell location-based data and want to see your maps on WeoGeo Market like Lead Dog or Pitney Bowes, just let me know and I can let you know how you can get started for free.
28 octobre 2011
23:36
Esri Dev Meetup — Phoenix
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Looks like there will be another Esri Dev Meetup in Phoenix next month. This one will be fun as it is in Tempe, rather than Phoenix so there will be ample opportunity to have drinks afterwards. If you are in the Arizona area, you should drop by and say hi to everyone. This one is at Robbie Fox’s so it should taste really good.
0:23
Google Charging for Google Maps API Access? So What?
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Something happened that is not to surprising:

Introduction of usage limits to the Maps API

To assist in evaluating whether your site is exceeding the usage limits we will shortly be adding the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. Once available you will be able to track your usage in the APIs Console by providing an APIs Console key when you load the Maps API. If you find that your site does exceed the usage limits each day you can opt to pay for your excess usage by enabling billing on your APIs Console project. We will then start billing excess usage to your credit card when we begin enforcing the usage limits in early 2012.

You know what? Good for them. I’d like to think that proving good-looking map tiles with a great API is a good business model. When Google gave away the farm, there was no business model. Everyone just used Google’s tiles and thought nothing of it. The rest of the world who tried to price their tiles so that they could build a business around it were beaten down (Remember something called deCarta?).

Now I suspect we’ll see some great creative choices out there that will give users with many options. I think back to this great blog post by Paul Ramsey many years ago. Now there is hope for everyone in this space to succeed because free beer isn’t sustainable.

Googlezilla's foot seems to not be coming down just yet.
26 octobre 2011
19:13
Atanas’ Lawyer Publishes a Public Appeal
sur James Fee GIS Blog

For those who are following (and hopefully have donated) here is an update from Atanas’ lawyer:

As you are well aware, on June 17, 2011 ICE Director John Morton issued a memo to ICE Field Office Directors to provide guidance on the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. As has always been true pursuant to prior policy, prosecutorial discretion can be exercised at any point in the removal process, including after entry of an Order of Deportation. The memo lists the factors, both positive and negative, that should be considered when evaluating requests for prosecutorial discretion. An analysis of these factors shows that many positive factors and no negative factors apply to Atanas, Mayia and Enislav.

It will take a couple of minutes to read through the post but it is worth it to better understand immigration in the United States and how nuts it all is.
20 octobre 2011
0:19
#freeatanas — Best Thing You’ll Read All Day
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Brian Timoney has a way with words.

Having little faith in the efficacy of appealing to the better nature of politicians, I would nonetheless urge you to, in addition to the methods of support listed above, drop a line to Atanas’ Senate and Congressional representatives asking why taxpayer money is being wasted on imprisoning a non-criminal immigrant entrepreneur and his family members

If everyone who will read this post in the next 24 hours gives $3 to the Atanas Entchev support fund, we’ll have over $5,000 raised for Atanas’ defense. It doesn’t take much.
18 octobre 2011
17:55
Latest on Atanas Entchev – Donate to help with his legal expenses
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’ve lifted this directly from his blog:

A Plea For Help
After living legally in the United States for over 20 years, I was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on an immigration charge, and am currently facing deportation. My son Eni, 21, who came to the United States at the age of two, is also detained and wears an orange jumpsuit through no fault of his own. We continue to pursue all possible legal avenues to remain in the US – our home.

However, our 18-year immigration ordeal has depleted our resources. My detention is about to cripple my small IT consulting business. We cannot keep up with our growing expenses, and I have no other choice but to turn to the community for help.

I ask friends and sympathizers of our cause to donate to our legal fund. No donation is too small. Please spread the word.

Thank you for your kindness, and God bless you.

Posted for Atanas Entchev, by his daughter, Christina

Atanas Entchev

It is disturbing to hear this happen to Atanas. There is a Paypal donation link on his blog to fund his legal defense and I’d urge everyone reading this to give at least a few dollars. What I do know about Atanas is that he would be the first to give to anyone else’s cause so we should pay him back in kind.
17 octobre 2011
22:04
Stand Up for Atanas Entchev
sur James Fee GIS Blog

UPDATE: More news on Atanas from Bill Dollins. Randal Hale was able to login to the ENTCHEV blog and post a note. Caitlin Dempsey also has an entry on GIS Lounge. Please don’t forget to send in a support letter making sure you put your signature to it. Hopefully this can all get figured out for Atanas and his family.

Both Atanas and his wife may be in detainment!

John Reiser blogs about a serious matter happening to a close friend of all of us, Atanas Entchev.

Last week, I received an email from Mayia, his wife, asking for letters of support as he is facing deportation.

Says Mayia:

I am writing you on behalf of my husband, Atanas Entchev, and our family. As you may know, Atanas and I emigrated to the U.S. from Bulgaria 20 years ago. Today, our immigration case is at a crossroads, and it is pertinent that we obtain letters of recommendation from the community. I am reaching out to you because you have been a colleague, client, or valued business contact of Atanas’. I am hoping you may be able to write a letter of recommendation for him. Time is of the essence, and it it crucial that we gather these letters as soon as possible, by today would be best.

There are instructions on that page letting you know what you need to do to help out Atanas. If you’ve ever had any interaction with Atanas, I’d urge you to give him some help. I’m going to write my support email right now.
04 octobre 2011
23:31
WhereCampPHX 2011 — Success!
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Last Saturday, we had the first ever WhereCampPHX in Arizona. I was very happy with the attendance and after the first jitters of never being to a unconference before, the crowd totally got into it. In fact, I had many people come up to me after and say they wanted to do another one right away because they had no idea how much fun they can be if you take part. In what was unique for me at a WhereCamp, there seemed to be two tracks that people created. One of “traditional” GIS (scripting geoprocessing, map servers, analysis) and then another one that focused on new technologies. I spent most of my time in the second one where there was discussions on Google Fusion Tables/Google Earth Builder, TileMill, Places APIs, Vectors in the browser (Polymaps, Raphael) and back-end databases.

Checking the board to see where the next session will be.

It was a nice change of pace to have a WhereCamp in my hometown and not having to travel to another state or country. The feedback from those who attended clearly shows that there is a need for these more informal sessions as opposed to the traditional conferences. Having the first one of these here in Arizona gives us a leg up on the next one since most of the crowd now knows what to expect and they can propose their own topics.

We also had a great time at the Turf Pub for the after party (thanks Bentley for the food) watching Arizona State fall behind and then blow out Oregon State. My plans are to have some sort of event (maybe an Ignite style talk program) or another unconference in the spring so we can continue what we’ve started. Everyone who attended seemed to have their minds filled with new ideas after the day so there needs to be some downtime to implement all the new stuff we’ve learned.
03 octobre 2011
18:29
Mapnik, the Cartography Engine of GIS, Goes 2.0
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Mapnik 2.0 has been released:

The Mapnik team is pleased to announce that Mapnik 2.0 is finally here! We’ve jumped from 0.7 to 2.0, not because we got confused with our numbers, but to reflect that this release represents a big step forward for the project. We believe Mapnik 2.0 will provide a much more flexible and expressive platform for creating beautiful maps.

For details you can read the milestone list or change logs. Unless you are under a rock, Mapnik is everywhere and used by everyone. FOSS4G 2011 was dominated by two projects, Mapnik and PostGIS. Good company if you ask me.
30 septembre 2011
20:17
Open Source Update Friday
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Everybody’s working for the weekend, especially on Friday. But there is good news for those who like to install updates to software on their Friday; QGIS 1.7.1 and OpenLayers 2.11 are available.
- QGIS 1.7.1 was released this week. This is a bug fix release so there isn’t much new there other than cleaning up issues. Check out those release notes to see what was updated.
- OpenLayers 2.11 also was released this week. Don’t let the .01 update fool you, this is huge. Specifically “native” support for touch devices (you know, like that thing called an iPad) and some big performance updates. Clearly this is an update all who are running OpenLayers 2.10 should look at very closely.
- Esri Canvas Maps are now available in ArcGIS.com (er ArcGIS Online). Now your paleo maps can have a little neo map flavor. Everyone is a winner! Yea that’s not really open source, but you can use it in OpenLayers so that’s a win for libre.
29 septembre 2011
17:44
Esri “Depreciates” ArcGIS
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Who says selling “enterprise software” can’t be fun? Part of the job is writing deprecation plans for software. Esri has updated theirs to tell you that even though you are still stuck on ArcGIS 9.3.1, ArcGIS 10 will be dead before you get there.

Time to get out the "Building a GIS" book to see the way forward!

Update: Esri has updated their blog title to “deprecation”. Why change it now?
28 septembre 2011
19:28
WhereCampPHX is this Saturday
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Just a friendly reminder, WhereCampPHX is this Saturday in Downtown Phoenix at the Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism. We are on our way to over 150 people registered so it will be a great time. You can still sign up to attend but space will be limited. It all starts at 9am Saturday October 1st. We’ll also be having an after-party at Turf Pub across the street from the WhereCampPHX site. That will start a 7pm, food will be provided.
27 septembre 2011
18:43
Autodesk is Now Cloud Ready
sur James Fee GIS Blog

This is a new one, using a buzzword to hide a licensing model. Well played Autodesk!

Autodesk was nowhere to be seen at FOSS4G 2011 so I assume they’ve gone back to their roots and away from location. The world is much cleaner when you work in paper space.
20 septembre 2011
19:07
GISCloud Releases HTML5 Client
sur James Fee GIS Blog
OK, I know what you are all thinking. Esri told me 5 years ago HTML5 was for small mash-ups and those serious about mapping should use Silverlight or Flex. Well if you haven’t been paying attention in the past year you’d be totally wrong. Not only is HTML5 based maps becoming standard practice, they are performing as well as Flex or Silverlight in most applications ¹.

The latest company to release a HTML5 client is GISCloud. While other visualization companies offer JavaScript maps as an option, GISCloud has made them default. By using the HTML5 Canvas element, GISCloud is rendering vector data right inside of the browser, with no plugin ². Oh and you don’t need to use some sort of weird API to get it to work on iPhones or iPads. It just works, browsing 2 million features on my iPad in Safari without a native app. Crazy!

Plus when you are working with vectors in the Canvas element, you can interact with them, the potential is limitless. I’m glad to see some of the innovative companies step up with amazing HTML5 clients that work as good or better than anything else out there. This is what happens when you have no legacy holding you back. You innovate and lead.

So who will blink first? Flex, Silverlight or HTML5? My money is on Silverlight, but it sure won’t be HTML5.

Notes:
1. Now for sure one could come up with a demo where Flex can display a gazillion points, but nobody wants a gazillion points on a map at once ↩
2. Right I know, IE supports nothing. Upgrade to IE9 or stop using the Internet. Your choice! ↩
14 septembre 2011
18:40
FOSS4G 2011 Begins
sur James Fee GIS Blog

There are over 900 people attending FOSS4G 2011 in Denver.

You probably should have come.
12 septembre 2011
20:30
Off to FOSS4G 2011
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Tomorrow I’m heading up the hill to Denver (bringing my jacket it looks like). I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and basking in the huge open source geospatial community. It’s been a long time since FOSS4G was in North American and it could be a long time until that happens again.

We don’t need a bunch of cats in location, we need more dogs. FOSS4G 2011 will make dogs of all of us.
17:00
ArcGIS 10.0 Service Pack 3
sur James Fee GIS Blog

For those who still use ArcGIS, it looks like the next Service Pack has a release date. The Service Pack 3 announcement is a PDF which is classic Esri.

All this goes without saying…
22 août 2011
17:00
WhereCampPHX Update and Hack the Map
sur James Fee GIS Blog

WhereCampPHX is getting close to being filled up so if you are still on the fence, now is the time to secure your spot. Saturday October 1st will be something special at the Cronkite School at Arizona State University. Don’t miss it!

For those who want to continue the hacking, Hack the Map will be held October 2nd at Co+Hoots also in downtown Phoenix.
18 août 2011
18:04
Weather in Google Maps? Natch!
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Is there nothing Google Maps can’t do?

Now we’ve got a weather layer in Google Maps that will probably end up replacing the need for things like Weather.gov or even NOAA.

Given the budget issues in Washington, why not outsource the Weather Service to Google? While they are at it, why not the Postal Service ¹ to Google Mail?

Seriously though, after the coffee shop example, is there a better GIS mapping demo than weather?

Notes:
1. Why does every U.S. government entitity end in “service”? ↩
17 août 2011
8:15
Planet Geospatial and the DNS
sur James Fee GIS Blog
UPDATE: Nothing fixes the DNS like a good night sleep. Planet Geospatial is up and running. Let me know on Twitter if you notice any issues.

In the spirit of no good deed goes unpunished, the internet is giving me the preverbal middle finger on my move of Planet Geospatial to a new host and a new backend. Some of you may see the old website built on WordPress and some of you may see the new ¹ website built on Venus.

I picked the wrong week to quit PHP!

So for now Planet Geospatial goes 404, 500 or works perfectly and you’re wondering why I’m complaining.

Use this backdoor into Planet Geospatial until planetgs.com gets updated on the interwebs.

Notes:
1. Well Planet Geospatial used to be based on Venus, but my old host screwed up Python and I had to migrate it to WordPress. That was a big mistake and I’ve regretted it ever since. This is to make up for thinking PHP is a good choice for any website scripting language. ↩
16 août 2011
19:52
AutoCAD LT 2012 for Mac
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Unlike the other “large” proprietary vector editing program in our space, AutoCAD now has a version in the Mac App Store.

The new AutoCAD LT for Mac software brings powerhouse drafting tools to the Mac. Providing native support for DWG™ file format, AutoCAD LT for Mac helps you efficiently document and share designs. With the powerhouse tools you expect from AutoCAD LT software – along with an intuitive Mac OS® X interface – it’s now easier than ever to create design documentation on your platform of choice.

In a past life I would have been all over that. Today though I don’t use DWG enough to justify paying $900 for AutoCAD LT. Too bad though, it looks very nice.
18:50
SEXTANTE in ArcGIS
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Now SEXTANTE is one of those projects that not only has some really useful tools, but also has a wonderful name. I love bragging to my friends that I was working with SEXTANTE (said with a latin accent) all day. Seriously though, if you work outside of ArcGIS for Desktop, you probably already use SEXTANTE for your geoprocessing. But what about the idea of using SEXTANTE in ArcGIS itself?

Here is a first video of SEXTANTE for ArcGIS, so you can see what it is like to access the power of SEXTANTE from the popular ESRI product.

Still a bit of work to get done before it can be released, but I have to admit, I like the idea of using SEXTANTE in all my GIS apps.
15 août 2011
19:07
Esri ArcGIS Flex API to iPad App
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’m the first to admit I’m not a huge Flex supporter, but maybe this is interesting to all those who tell me Flex is where the magic is happening.

WebMapSolutions.com seems to be working with ArcGIS Flex 2.4 and Flex Builder 4.5 and ported them to AIR for mobile devices. For those organizations who are locked into Flex, this might be a simple solution to get their apps on mobile devices.
04 août 2011
18:58
WhereCampPHX — October 1st, 2011
sur James Fee GIS Blog

We’ve soft launched the registration for WhereCampPHX but you can still sign up to attend (its free). Right now, registration stands at 71 so we are well on our way to being a sellout. We’ve been lucky enough to be able to have the event at the Arizona State University Cronkite School of Journalism in downtown Phoenix. The space is full of awesome so we should all have a great time. I’d also like to thank our sponsors for stepping up and helping us put on this free event.

This will be the first WhereCamp in Phoenix so it should really be a special time. Make sure you register to attend if you are going to be there. I know I will and so will many others.
11 juillet 2011
23:13
2011 Esri UC Plenary Video Available
sur James Fee GIS Blog

If you want to see the morning Esri UC Plenary, it is now available online.
17:32
2011 Esri UC Plenary
sur James Fee GIS Blog
15,000 of my closest friends and I are packed in to the San Diego Convention Center waiting to hear from Jack and company how they are changing the geospatial world. I’ll be updating this post as much as the spotty WiFi connection allows me with details on what is being said on stage from Esri.

8:33 — Jack hits the stage and welcomes us to the conference and tells us how much he appreciates everyone attending. Jack says that there will be over 15,000 in attendance for the whole week ¹. He says 1/3 of the attendees are here for the first time. Now lets all shake hands and say hi to the person next to you.

8:37: – Now we are on to showcasing people’s use of Esri products and what they are doing ².

8:43: – Jack seems a bit ornery this morning. Could be a fun time at the plenary.

8:47: – Over 140 SAG award winners this year.

8:48: – Esri Enterprise GIS award went to the Singapore GeoSpatial Collaborative Environment (SG-SPACE).

8:49: – Esri Presidents Award went to the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Mapping (ROSREESTR). Russians offered to help out us sorry ass Americans get our data fixed. Oh no he didn’t! Wait… he’s right, we suck…

8:55: – On to Jack’s vision of GIS in 2011. Jack is always really big on how humans are causing change and this year seems no different Jack says, “We need collective intelligence and understanding” to deal with these challenges. Jack says GIS extends our minds and is coevolving with other technologies ³ A new GIS pattern is emerging making GIS accessible to everyone. It appears this includes using servers, desktop, mobile and probably some PDF. We’ll mix in a little authoritative love in it. Esri is the link between GIS Professionals and the world.

9:01: Esri’s Work — 10.1 will arrive in 2012 as was stated early. Jack mentioned that 10.1 has some “game changers” in it. Beta isn’t out for the UC, but Jack says he hopes it comes out by the end of the month. New basemaps are included such as Landsat history for the last 40 years and updates to existing maps. New tools are available, I wish I had the grouping analysis back years ago.

Dynamic legends are finally built into ArcGIS Desktop as well as feature edit tracking ⁴ and some great new generalization tools. At 10.1 direct SQL access to SQL Server, Oracle, Postgres, DB2 and NETEZZA. I can’t tell you how awesome this is. Finally!

Google bragged about their mosaicing tools with Google Earth Builder, but it appears that Esri will blow them out of the water with 10.1. Also Lidar will be available to these mosaicing tools as well. Read in LAS and dynamically “convert” to rasters/TINs/point clouds.

Esri has bought a company called Procedural that gives Esri now 3D content creation tools that are used in movies such as Cars 2. Clearly this is a huge move for Esri and could put them in markets they haven’t been in before.

ArcGIS Runtime is new at 10.1 and is a new “MapObjects” type development platform. Jack said it runs in 64-bit mode.

ArcGIS Server continues to improve and will be 64-bit only, Linux (no REH only) and it appears some new standards such as WMTS and WPS. APIs continue to be pushed out faster and better than the old says with the Web ADF ⁵

Jack started talking about the way ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online work together. Simple as a right-click to share. Take that Google Earth Builder. Esri also has released ArcGIS for home use that costs $100/year and includes support and training.

9:18: ArcGIS Online is an “open platform” for maps and geographic information. From desktop, to server to “cloud”. The thing about ArcGIS Online vs GEB is that Esri sees their analytic tools are their secret sauce that will take other companies year (if ever) to replicate. One map that works on anywhere. This is where the Esri APIs and mobile tools they’ve cultivated over the years fit in with the master plan.

Bernie Szukalski got top billing at the Esri UC and showcased ArcGIS Online to great applause. Clearly this crowd loves the promise of ArcGIS, we’ll have to see if Esri can deliver. I talked a bit about ArcGIS Online last week and he’s going over much of what we saw back then. I have to say, Esri has doubled down on ArcGIS Online and it appears to be much deeper than previous Esri online attempts. Google Earth Builder may be a threat, but Esri has something that they can show runs rings around what Google is offering. Esri is calling “products” that you author in ArcGIS Online as apps which I think will go over very well inside the beltway.

9:37: – ArcGIS Online could be the standard geospatial analytical visualization engine moving forward. Nothing else is this deep or this usable. Sorry guys, Esri moved the bar way forward… Jack says this Fall, you can host your maps in ArcGIS Online that you author in your ArcGIS Desktop content creation tools. 10.1 will integrate ArcGIS Online into the whole package.

9:40: – Jack looks at ArcGIS Online as the catalog tool we’ll use for finding geospatial data. Jeremy Bartley is up talking about ArcGIS Online for Organizations. Basically ArcGIS Online for Organizations is a private version of ArcGIS Online for organizations for storing and sharing your data. The one area of ArcGIS Online might be limited is their support for formats. The world isn’t just shp, fgdb, kml, csv ⁶.

9:53: – Esri has only talked about ArcGIS Online this morning. After the break we’ll apparently see some of the “old school” classic GIS tools. Esri is also now providing managed services for companies. Pay Esri to set up your GIS for you, how is that for you business partners?

10:02: — Morning Break, we’ll be back in 30 min with some ArcGIS Desktop and Server news.

10:33: – John Calkins is up and running the second half of the morning plenary session. First up is some guy with a Boston accent talking about the Red Sox. So the Boston “way” is talking about how awesome Boston is. You can see what they are doing here, but I don’t see what is “wicked” about it. Anytime a city comes up with an example of using a city run app to find where to eat or use a mobile phone of where potholes are, you know they have way too much time on their hands. What I did like is that they are going to give away the code ⁷.

10:46: John shows a demo of the City of Pasadena totally rendered in 3D using ArcGIS. It was smooth and detailed, but not much new beyond what we’ve seen before. ArcGlobe and ArcScene still suck, but maybe a 10.1 things will get better.

10:48: Clint Brown was up next talking about ArcGIS for Local Government. Clint says it is about opening information and brining it to live and sharing it with the world. This is a template example apparently. Esri has canned apps ready to deploy so you don’t have to pay an Esri Business Partner implementation costs.

10:59 — Jo Fraley is up showing some Sharepoint stuff. Sharepoint is just brutal, I get that enterprises use Sharepoint, but it looks like 2002 called and wants its UI back. Still I get how this is critical for many organizations to integrate their Esri silo ArcGIS Server instances into company intranet websites. I missed the IBM Cognos Viewer integration before, that’s going to be popular with many companies.

11:03 – John talks about updates to their webservices. Maps are being updated and geocoding is moving international.

11:05 — Community Analyst is being shown and how it allows community “activists” to perform the same types of analytics that business leaders do with Business Analyst type tools. The UI is classic old Esri, but I suspect they’ll get this thing cleared up soon. I’m not sure I could figure out how to use it myself, maybe there is online training. You’ll want to bring your checkbook though, this thing isn’t cheap.

11:11 — Spatial Analytics demo on what’s coming up in 10.1 which is next. Grouping Analysis is going to be a great tool for people trying to understand the patterns that are appearing in your data. I like the simplicity of the tool. The demo got into using the new areal interpolation and exploratory regression tools. I think these will be popular and the beta that will arrive later this month will be something to check out.

11:20 – John highlighted the new World Ocean Map. I like this one because it makes a great background map for my data, even if the data is on land. Soon we’ll see the new National Geographic World Map which is beautiful, but I wouldn’t call it subtle as John did.

11:21 – So at 10.1, Esri raster and image analysis tools are just killer. Clearly this is an Erdas killer package. I have no idea what pansharpening is, but damn this stuff looks sweet and performed on the fly. The image manipulation tools are just crazy impressive.

11:30 – Lidar is big news at 10.1. LAS files can be dragged and dropped into ArcMap and then use the 3D preview tools to view it. Also you can convert on the fly LAS to raster, TIN and point clouds. Its pretty amazing to watch this demo. Working with Lidar is a PITA, but it appears that Esri has some good tools to get your hands on it and work it.

12:00 — Lunch

2:00 — Afternoon session is the award/keynote part. The first making a difference award went to Professor Haruo Hayashi working on emergency management for his work during the 2011 Japan tsunami. The second went to Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. Pretty amazing stuff on how they are saving lives by finding and removing mines from war zones.

2:13 — Jane Goodall video on Roots and Shoots.

Notes:
1. The graphics package that Esri has put together for this years UC is beautiful ↩
2. “Esri is in your apps fondling your maps” I’m probably paraphrasing Jack on that… ↩
3. Jack said crowdsourcing. We can now drop VGI safely now. ↩
4. awesome! ↩
5. I still need to work out my Web ADF issues so bear with me on this ↩
6. Right? ↩
7. at least that is what I heard ↩
04 juillet 2011
17:09
Happy Fourth of July!
sur James Fee GIS Blog

God bless America!

Until tomorrow…
30 juin 2011
22:57
Reviewing the Esri UC Q&A
sur James Fee GIS Blog

It’s that favorite time of year again. The one where we all get to read Esri’s Q&A for the Esri UC. Let me prepare a drink and get started.

Some of the points of interest…

Q: How is Esri doing?
A: Doin’ fine, thank you. (glad we got that out of the way)

Q: What is Esri’s position about open source and its products?

A: Well we love all god’s creatures. Also we’ve got a couple open source products that we opened up but we know you won’t support because you are a bunch of freeloaders.

Q: Why should I use the Esri family of products? Why not Google Earth and Google Maps?

A: So Google will be the white elephant in the room at all times at this Esri UC. Basically Esri has you covered so don’t worry about the Google.

Q: Is Esri working on simplifying end-user licensing for software products?

A: Some of this is old (borrow license manager license), some of it is pretty new (one month ArcGIS Server license). None of it really changes anything.

Q: When will ArcGIS support OGC’s web tiling service?

A: 10.1 baby!

Q: When will Esri provide full support for KML/KMZ?

A: Looks like 10.1 will be the release that almost does what you want. I say almost because KML/KMZ read/write is a dirty business.

Q: Is Python a replacement for VBA?

A: Here come the VBA questions. Look, the writing has been on the wall long enough. if you are still asking this question, it might be time to move along and find a job in another industry. Python is a replacement for VBA because unlike VBA it is useful and has a future.

Q: When can we expect the next release of ArcGIS?

A: Early 2012 with the beta out in July. 10 SP3 is out this fall.

Q: Will ArcGIS run on Linux?

A: This is such a cute question. There is this wacky hope that Linux or Mac Desktop support could be around the corner. It isn’t guys, Windows only! Now that super secret next verision of ArcGIS will support everything, right?

Q: ArcGIS 10 seems slower than pervious releases for some areas, why?

A: Esri posted some scientific reasons why this is the case but we all know you never use even number releases of Esri software. 10.1 will be fast and wonderful. 10.2 will be a nightmare, but that 10.3 release will make it all worth the pain.

Q: Going forward, how will Esri leverage the cloud?

A: My own personal feeling on Esri’s strategy here is they’ll keep using the word cloud until it has no meaning. It may be better summed up with this video.

Q: What is the future of ArcGIS Desktop? Will it be replaced by ArcGIS Server?

A: Don’t worry button pushers, your job is safe. For now…

Q: Will Esri continue to ship ArcInfo Workstation with the 10.1 release?

A: A moment of silence please for ArcInfo Workstation.

Q: Will Esri release ArcIMS at version 10.1?

A: I swear to god, I’ll buy anyone a steak dinner at the UC that can prove to me this was an actual question. I refuse to believe anyone cares about this product or has in the past 2 years.

Q: Will ArcGIS Server support deployments in Azure?

A: Microsoft and Esri team up to take on the Google.

Q: When will ArcGIS Online support WMS?

A: So this is probably an INSPIRE or Federal Government requirement. I can’t imagine any ordinary person just thinking to themselves… “I’d totally be all over ArcGIS.com if it just supported WMS”. Right?

Q: Is ArcGIS open?

A: Oh boy. Again, see here.

Q: Is VBA supported at ArcGIS 10.1?

A: Stop it right now, you are killing me with these VBA questions. As I look over at the calendar on my wall, I see the year 2011. VBA was not the answer 10 years ago.

Q: How is Esri planning to support HTML5?

A: I love the answer, basically HTML5 is awesome, but they realize that most of their user base is stuck on old versions of IE. Thus as awesome as it can be, it isn’t.

Q: What is the role of ArcGIS Explorer Desktop in ArcGIS?

A: ArcGIS Explorer is the one product I don’t get. The team Esri put on its development is awesome, but is this product really needed?

Q: When will 2D and 3D viewing be integrated into a single application?

A: Not yet, but soon. Remember what I said about even releases of ArcGIS. If this comes in 10.2, you’ll want to wait for 10.3 for performance reasons.

Q: What happened to FGDC metadata support in ArcGIS 10? It seems to be missing.

A: FGDC Metadata fans are such drama queens. Nobody cares about FGDC metadata so lets move on.

Q: Will Esri support Netezza’s TwinFin database at 10.1?

A: Wait… Is that a direct connection to Netezza? No SDE?

Q: Will Esri be supporting SQL Server Denali at 10.1?

A: Stop using beta software and asking us to support it. You’ll get it when you get it.

Q: When will ArcGIS support direct access to spatial DBMSs?

A: Nothing else needs to be said.

Q: What are some of the enhancements to the geodatabase in ArcGIS 10.1?

A: Lots of good new stuff there. I like the new Geodatabase Administration Toolbox. That should make things much easier for managers of the Geodatabase.

Q: Will Esri be hosting GIS services for its users?

A: Paid subscription stuff here. Looks like you are going to be able to upload your data and visualize it on ArcGIS.com. Then share the map with anyone. Where have I seen that idea before?

Q: How will ArcGIS Online be sustainable? Who is paying for it?

A: Wonder why this question was put in by Esri? Are they getting pressure from someone asking if they are committed to ArcGIS.com? Bottom line is Esri thinks it will be sustainable beause they think they’ll convince you to pay for hosting on it. Wouldn’t bet against that thinking for sure.
21:45
New Banner Ad
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I hope you like my new banner ad in celebration of the Esri UC.
21:09
The Esri ArcGIS for Home Use Program
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Via mgcopping:
ArcGIS for Home Use makes GIS available to everyone. This offer is ideal for existing ArcGIS users who want to use the same powerful software at home for noncommercial personal use and for individuals who want to expand their GIS skills. However, anyone can participate in this program.

For a $100 annual fee, the ArcGIS for Home Use 12-month term license includes:
- ArcView
- ArcGIS 3D Analyst
- ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst
- ArcGIS Network Analyst
- ArcGIS Publisher
- ArcGIS Schematics
- ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
- ArcGIS Tracking Analyst
Wow, there you go. Use ArcGIS at home for non-commercial use. That’s an incredible deal!

You don’t win friends with salad, but you do with ArcGIS for Home!
29 juin 2011
23:09
Google+ Demo Site Uses Google Maps API
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Have you seen the Google+ Demo site? It uses the Google Maps API as a presentation canvas. That’s pretty slick!

Google Maps, you put the boom boom into my heart!
22 juin 2011
23:05
The Esri Ocean Basemap
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I might have mentioned this a couple times on twitter yesterday, but I really like the new Esri Ocean Basemap. My only wish would be that it drops down one more zoom level. So close to being perfect. Here it is in all it’s glory…

View Larger Map
21:05
Esri Java State of the Union
sur James Fee GIS Blog
So in my small brain, I see Esri Java Server solutions as the only way to effectively and economically deploy and scale ArcGIS for Server in any hosted environment ¹. The idea that I’d scale any ArcGIS for Server on Windows in AWS is simply crazy talk. Because of this line of thinking, I’ve been watching for the “new” Esri Java Server products that hopefully are right around the corner. Well Esri has posted a “Java State of the Union” for everyone to read:

Esri’s ArcGIS and Java strategy is pervasive, in and through all of the key computing environments that Java is found in, from Mobility to the desktop and to the Enterprise. This makes Esri’s GIS and Java a perfect match for any Java-based implementation that requires the delivery of geospatial or location services and capabilities.

So it looks like Esri is continuing to invest in ArcGIS for Server Java and hopefully we’ll see it available on platforms other than RHE and SUSE ². Java still feels like an afterthought for much of Esri’s push, but at least we’ve got a dedicated team trying to get Server where it belongs.

OK, everyone together…. “Java…… in the Server…… Make me happy……. Make me feel fine. Java….. Make me warm all over…”

Notes:
1. I refuse to use the “c” word that rhymes with loud ↩
2. cough Fedora cough ↩
20 juin 2011
20:08
Y U NO DO MAPS GUD
sur James Fee GIS Blog

This showed up in my inbox this morning, enjoy!
19:58
QGIS 1.7 is Officially Released
sur James Fee GIS Blog
So this awesome happened over the weekend:

We are pleased to announce the latest release in our 1.X series of releases. To download your copy, please visit the QGIS download page. This release is named after the town of Wroclaw in Poland. The Department of Climatology and Atmosphere Protection, University of Wroclaw kindly hosted our last developer meeting in November 2010.

The release has some great new symbology and data management improvements continuing the push of QGIS as a full fledged GIS client. I use QGIS much more than any GIS client these days ¹ and coupled with FME, there isn’t anything I can’t do.

Notes:
1. Most of that has to do with me being on Mac OS X but it is a reality. ↩
16 juin 2011
17:27
Esri REST API Could Be an OGC Standard
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Update: @ThomasG77 gives a head up on Twitter the confirmation by the OGC on the status of the Esri REST API and the OGC process.

Now I’m sorry if I butchered that name, I don’t recall being briefed on what the API Is called these days. ¹ It appears that over last weekend Esri announced that they were “giving” their REST API to OGC as a standard. Big news if you ask me given that the OGC has just never been able to get an OGC REST Standard adopted. Plus it might make more sense given that the Esri REST API is pretty damn awesome and you got to think that the OGC would rather have awesome over a committee standard that no one uses.

One curious outcome of this is that we could now have a JSON standard in OGC, in this case Esri JSON. GeoJSON, despite the fact that almost everyone uses it, is a community standard ² not an OGC one (like GeoRSS). If the OGC adopts the Esri JSON standard in the REST API, we could finally have a JSON standard for the INSPIRE project ³ Brian Flood thinks it make sense and I tend to agree with him. Bill Dollins isn’t so sure.

If this is all going to happen, we’ll see a couple things come out of this. First off we’ll probably see Geoserver and Mapserver start supporting this standard ⁴ which means that Esri Desktop users can add these servers without having to use WMS or WFS. It also may mean that clients such as QGIS, gvSIG and OpenLayers will have native Esri REST API ⁵ reading.

If OGC was an open organization, we’d probably know more. Heck, something to talk about at the UC next month, right?

Wonder how Esri was able to do this?

Notes:
1. Seems like REST API for ArcGIS Server would be right ↩
2. And there isn’t anything wrong with that ↩
3. Does anyone else use OGC on purpose or is it only by law? ↩
4. Though we’ve seen Esri’s REST API documented for months, no one that I know of has implemented it ↩
5. And thus Esri ArcGIS for Server ↩
15 juin 2011
18:25
Drama for ArcGIS
sur James Fee GIS Blog
When I wrote about the Esri ArcGIS new naming convention yesterday, you’ll notice there was one thing I didn’t mention. Basic, Standard, Advanced are the new View, Editor, Info. And you know what? It makes perfect sense to me, I’ve been telling Esri to fix this problem for years and finally they’ve had to guts to do so. ArcView has been devalued in the Esri stack for years. It can’t edit SDE Geodatabases, it can’t edit advanced cartography and it sure as heck can’t handle advanced analysis. Editor is the standard authoring tool in the Esri world and if that bothers you, take your money elsewhere. There are lots of other tools out there that duplicate or exceed ArcGIS for Desktop Basic that are either a fraction of the cost or free.

ArcView users are nothing but a drain on Esri resources. They don’t want to pay for the features Esri wants to sell, clutter the support forum with questions about NAD83/WGS84 conversions and want VBA to continue as a scripting engine in ArcGIS for Desktop. Getting emotional about a product that didn’t change what it was ¹ and is now more aptly named given its purpose is a distraction to the reality you live in. Finally I can look at Esri’s desktop lineup and understand the purpose of each application. View/Editor/Info are confusing arbitrary terms that mean nothing to anyone but a small niche of users.

The cold hard facts of the matter is that if you wish to play in Esri’s silo, you need to have ArcGIS for Desktop Standard. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Notes:
1. ArcView has the same features it did last week ↩
14 juin 2011

22:12

ArcWhatever

sur James Fee GIS Blog

18:01
FOSS4G 2011 Updates
sur James Fee GIS Blog
The FOSS4G 2011 Local Organizing Committee has been hard at work ¹ at preparing for the best geospatial conference in the world. By now, those presenters who submitted talks should know if they were accepted or not. You, being lazy of course, who did not submit can see the schedule now online.

Remember, the early bird registration ends at the end of this month (June 30th) so go ahead and get registered. Tyler Mitchell blogged about the hotel rooms at the conference ² so make sure you book a room at the Sheraton as well.

FOSS4G 2011 will be a huge Rocky Mountain High my friends. Don’t miss out on epic awesomeness.

Notes:
1. I know because somehow I volunteered ↩
2. Who wants to walk home after beers anyway? ↩
31 mai 2011
17:00
The Consultants – Sweco
sur James Fee GIS Blog
While I was in Sweden at the Sweco developer conference, a really awesome video was shown that was done in house ¹ by the Sweco team. Anyone who’s done any consulting will get an absolute kick out of it. Glad to see it was finally available on YouTube. Enjoy!

Notes:
1. clearly ↩
20 mai 2011
19:17
GIS on the Blackberry Playbook
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Now I’ll be the first one to admit, I’m a total Apple fanboy ¹, but I love looking at other platforms. The webOS platform from HP is one that I’m very interested but Blackberry is one that is sort of a wildcard. Blackberry has taken its lumps from Apple and Android, but it seems to be holding their own in market share. The Blackberry Playbook has gotten some mixed reviews, but given that Blackberry is very enterprise, I have to expect them to sell quite a bit of the Playbooks.

WebMapSolutions.com has posted a couple examples of some BlackBerry Playbook geospatial applications. First off they’ve got an OpenScales demo application running on the Playbook. If you are a Flex/AIR application developer it is a good overview of how one can leverage these technologies on non-iOS tablets running Adobe technology.

The second demo is yet another AIR application, though this one running ArcGIS Mobile. Looks early one, but clearly WebMapSolutions.com has an extensible AIR application running on a tablet that integrates with either open source technology or proprietary GIS systems.

Could it be that Adobe Air and the Blackberry Playbook are about to score a basket?

Notes:
1. That said, I’m still rolling around with an iPhone 3GS ↩
19 mai 2011
17:38
ArcPy + Visual Studio 2010
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Yea so maybe you like Visual Studio 2010 ¹ and want to write some ArcPy goodness. You’ve installed PythonTools for Visual Studio, but where is the ArcPy Intellisense? Right here my friends!

Update: David Howes has a detailed walkthrough on how to accomplish this.

Clearly Visual Studio and Python are teaming up in 2011. I just want to know which one is the octopus and which one is the ice unicycle…

Notes:
1. It isn’t that I dislike it, I just use a Mac these days… ↩
17 avril 2011
18:08
And With a Wimper, I Turn Off Comments
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’m indebted to my blog readership for many reasons and high quality blog comments is near the top. There has been some great discussions on this blog over the years and I’ve learned a ton from those who took the time to add their thoughts. I used to think blogging and comments went hand in hand, but these days the conversation happens on Facebook and Twitter.

The conversation has died down on this blog, it took 3 years to get 10,000 comments and since then only 4,000 have been posted. It just isn’t my blog, you see it everywhere. Facebook and Twitter have enabled people to talk directly to each other over their social networks rather than trying to do so on a blog comment thread.

Thus with this post, I’ve disabled comments and say thanks for the memories. I’ll still be blogging, but if you want to engage me, you know where to fine me. On Facebook or Twitter.
15 avril 2011
1:08
GRASS GIS 6.4.1 Goes Native on Windows
sur James Fee GIS Blog

GRASS GIS 6.4.1 released

GRASS 6.4 brings a number of exciting enhancements to the GIS. Our new wxPython graphical user interface (wxGUI) is debuted, Python is now a fully supported scripting language, and for the first time since its inception with a port from the VAX 11/780 in 1983, GRASS runs natively also on a non-UNIX based platform: MS-Windows.

I know right, you thought the same thing I did. If only you had known in 1983 that there was a VAX port think of where you’d be today.

Cue the dramatic prairie dog!
01 avril 2011
19:46
More Command Line GIS Goodness
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’ve been talking quite a bit about using ArcPy and Python as a means to go back to using the command line for GIS analysis. You get such a better understanding as to what you are doing with the geospatial analysis functions when you type them in manually rather than using a wizard.

There are other ways to do this though. Darren Cope has a short blog post on using OGR for clipping GIS data files. Simple and sweet!

It’s just that easy, and best of all it just works when all other methods fail!

That’s just it though, command line usually works when GUI’s fail. The logical outcome is stop using the darn GUI!
0:14
Data.gov Could Be “Tabled”
sur James Fee GIS Blog

RRW is reporting that sources say Data.gov and other open gov sites could be turned off.

Today the Sunlight Foundation and Federal News Radio reported that the public projects Data.gov, USASpending.gov, Apps.gov/now, IT Dashboard and paymentaccuracy.gov as well as a number of internal government sites including Performance.gov, FedSpace and many of the efforts related the FEDRamp cloud computing cybersecurity effort would be taken offline in coming weeks due to budget cuts by Congress.

So the spring of open data websites has hit the autumn of budget cuts. Don’t worry about bigger budget issues as our government is totally on top of things. Remain calm, all is well…
22 mars 2011
5:48
Heading to TUgis 2011
sur James Fee GIS Blog
By this time tomorrow night, I’ll be in balmy ¹ Baltimore, MD at Towson University for the 2011 edition of TUgis. I’ll be giving a talk on scripting and GIS ² that I’m sure you won’t want to miss.

Play me out The Clintons!

Notes:
1. I can only assume so as it’s been in the low 90s here in Tempe. I assume the rest of the country is dry and warm as well. ↩
2. Now before you get all depressed, trust me it will be fun plenary stuff, not dry keynote fare ↩
04 mars 2011
17:42
LBS and Fusion Tables and Vector Tiling, Oh My!
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Another week has passed and we are all still alive and kicking. Humanity never fails to surprise me. Anyway, Geo ¹ continues to roll on and keep us excited.
- Skyhook Wireless and Sony are hooking up to give the next generation PSP some location capabilities. Good news for Skyhook, but aren’t devices like the PSP and Nintendo DS on their way out? I guess we’ll see this summer when everyone is playing the latest EA games on their iOS devices.
- Work with R? Check out RStudio! IDEs are usually hit and miss with me but this has enough awesome to warrant a download. (HT: PHXGeo)
- Protected Maps in Google Fusion Tables? Yes please! 2011 may be the year of Google Fusion Tables ²
- Google Maps labels look better, but why? Justin again analyses how Google does this and compares it to Bing and Yahoo!. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you’ve got to be following Justin’s blog!
- IBM puts out a weird blog series on the “The Case Against Google Maps in IBM Cognos Reports” (parts two and three). To me I’m left wondering where the content is on that case to use Esri map services. They sum it up this way, “In solid Boolean logic: NOT Cognos BI AND Google Maps.” Say whaaat?
- Lastly, Matt Kenny brings us the awesome that is TileStache. Seriously now, why are we still using WxS and Esri ArcGIS Services? ³. Read Matt’s blog and get cracking. Bonus points for rolling TileMill and TileStache together!
Notes:
1. That is “Geo” with a big “G” vs “geo” with a little “g”. ↩
2. oh and the iPad 2, right? ↩
3. Sure, you can give me thousands of edge cases where such overhead is needed, but rarely does one need such things. We need to break out of our bad practices and embrace the future. ↩
18 février 2011
17:28
Friday Web Map Fun
sur James Fee GIS Blog
So yea, Friday should be a good day to prepare yourself for the weekend. To help ensure that I’ve got a couple interesting links to share.
- TileMill – If you haven’t heard about TileMill yet, clearly you aren’t on the Internets. One of the biggest issues with creating maps online is you usually either needed a bug bulky desktop application to style them, or you had to go all ninja on notepad. Either way you end up hating yourself which is never good on a Friday. TileMill leverages Carto for styling which uses CSS ¹. CSS to me is a natural way to style maps unlike AXL, SLD and MapFile. All this cartography greatness is rendered with the awesome Mapnik. Right now you need to stop how you are styling maps and move to TileMill, there is no other choice. Look at the awesome people are already creating.
- I’ve been called a Flex/Flash hater ², but clearly Flex is here to stay for web mapping. We’ve seen some APIs from proprietary vendors, but if you want to roll in the open/free/beer crowd, you need to check out OpenScales. Matt Sheehan has a good overview for open source developers that want to use open source for a web mapping front end, but not OpenLayers.
- Lastly geographika ponders if HTML5 will change how we map raster graphics. I embrace that new world and hope it gets here sooner than later.
Enjoy your Friday and weekend folks!

Notes:
1. CSS for map creation has been a huge goal of mine for years ↩
2. Actually I’ve been called worse, but I can’t repeat it on the Internet ↩
09 février 2011
20:03
FOSS4G 2011 Call for Presentations
sur James Fee GIS Blog

The FOSS4G 2011 Local Organizing Committee has opened the call for presentations for the FOSS4G 2011 Conference September 12-16, 2011. All you open source geospatial users (which is pretty much everyone out there since almost every GIS program has some sort of OSGeo project in it) need to take note and submit your presentation before the April 15th deadline.

Gimme Some OSGeo Lovin’!
07 février 2011
22:01
Phoenix Dev Meetup This Thursday
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Don’t forget folks in the Valley of the Sun this week, there is a Esri Dev Meet Up you should be going to. I’ll be speaking there as will some other great geospatial devs in the Phoenix area. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone there, so make sure you stop by. This will double as the monthly PHXGeo group meet up as well so kill two birds with one stone and show up.

Who knows what fun we’ll have but I’m sure we’ll see gringos falling from the sky.
20 janvier 2011
22:37
The File Geodatabase API Is Available
sur James Fee GIS Blog
So I guess there really is news at the Esri FedUC (was beginning to wonder if it was just more of the same from the last year). Esri has finally released their File Geodatabase API. Without having looked into it yet Esri says you can do the following:
- Create, Open and Delete file geodatabases ¹
- Read the schema of the geodatabase
- Create schema for objects within the simple feature model
- Read the contents of datasets in a geodatabase
- Insert, Delete and Edit the contents of simple datasets:
- Perform attribute and (limited) spatial queries on datasets
A couple points here. First off there is no raster support. Second you are totally on your own here. You have total control over screwing up your geodatabases here. Some may want to continue using ArcObjects as it gives you some framework to work within. Lastly this is a C++ API, while I don’t see the need for .NET or Java “versions” feel free to continue complaining about Esri ignoring you below.

I still can’t believe they finally released this thing.

Notes:
1. we be talking about little g, not big g – more GeoDesign jokes for no reason ↩
18 janvier 2011
23:23
FME 2011 Is in the House
sur James Fee GIS Blog
Well that yearly update has happened once again. Safe Software has released FME 2011 on the world. Rather than rehash some good resources on the subject, let me point you to a couple that should showcase what is new:
- Dale Lutz: FME 2011: A Retrospective on Today’s Release – very nerdy look at what it took to get FME 2011 out the door
- FME 2011: Spatial Data at Your Command – The official guide to what’s new (spoiler: lots of LiDAR).
- Matt Ball: FME 2011 Takes on Point Clouds – More LiDAR goodness.
I’m looking forward to working with 2011 myself. WeoGeo’s ETL functionality is built on Safe’s FME Server which is why I’m never worried a customer will come up with a format that FME doesn’t support (unless it is cough Revit cough Dale cough Don cough).

Now that 2011 has happened I’m looking forward to the 2012 beta builds.

pause FME goes to eleven!
03 janvier 2011
16:00
Off to the 2011 GeoDesign Summit
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Just like last year, I’m headed off to the GeoDesign Summit to start the year. I’m looking forward to hearing how things have changed in the 12 months since we last sat in Jack’s new building, but I’m not sure I’m that hopeful.

As with most things when you involve those in a University setting, it starts getting way too complicated to implement in the real world (and by real word I mean a situation where you don’t have grad students to implement your every whim). For GeoDesign to be embraced in workflows, it needs to get more zen and more pragmatic. We’ll have to see if there is more engagement from the private sector this year to keep GeoDesign from falling into just something you learn in College and never use again (like Shakespearian Literature).

I’ve been prototyping using WeoGeo in GeoDesign workflows and I think there is some really great ways we can use hosted GIS services to help get faster feedback on designs.
25 décembre 2010
3:13
Merry Christmas Everyone
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Another year has come and gone and we are all huddled around the Google wondering when Santa will visit the Fee homestead. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and I wish all the best for the new year.
21 décembre 2010
18:28
Using R to Visualize Facebook Friends
sur James Fee GIS Blog

You may recall seeing this great visualization from Facebook last week on the links between friends. Well the creator of that graphic has blogged about how he did it using R and some amazingly simple processing. R is one of those tools that isn’t used in our space enough (really, you use Excel for analysis?) and if this doesn’t open your eyes to its great potential, your priorities are in the wrong place.

Click to view full resolution version
20 décembre 2010
20:00
New Bing Tile Layer Type in OpenLayers
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So this was some really great news for those of us using OpenLayers; Bing Tiles for OpenLayers:

As of today, OpenLayers has a new layer type: OpenLayers.Layer.Bing. “Why that” you may ask, “there is OpenLayers.Layer.VirtualEarth already”. So why is this new layer type so special? It is the first time that we access tiles from a commercial service directly. Others (e.g. Google Maps) do not provide direct access to their tiles, but Microsoft does through the Bing Maps Web Services.

Yea direct tile access is pretty awesome. Bing Bang!
18:06
Manifold Being Sued by Uniloc
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Manifold is being sued by an alleged patent troll¹ based on some wacky patent some crazy government agency gave some Aussie 20 years ago (Isn’t that always the case?). The actual complaint is available here. You may recognize Uniloc as one of the most prolific (and successful) patent trolls around. This goofy patent seems to be the trouble. Manifold seems distracted, but this will only exacerbate their predicament. From this OCBJ article a couple months ago:

Uniloc pioneered the idea of using a 25-character product key or serial number embedded into each copy of a disk loaded with software. The key seeks to ensure there’s only one registered user per copy of the software and limit it to being loaded on a select number of devices. Uniloc’s patent only has about three years left before it comes to the end of its life. After that, Uniloc can’t sue to enforce the patent or collect royalties. “We thought the timing was right to say, ‘Well, it’s not just Microsoft,’” Davis said. “Some of the biggest companies in the world began to use it.”

Boy, best of luck everyone…

Invasion of the patent trolls!

1: Google search is littered with their name and patent troll
16 décembre 2010
18:13
MapQuest Finally Goes OSM in USA
sur James Fee GIS Blog

So apparently our work is done in the USA with the OpenStreetMap data because MapQuest opened up their USA version of their open initiative.

Open.Mapquest.com provides the same features as our 10 sites in Europe and Asia, and also debuts a new error-reporting tool (which has been added to all of MapQuest’s open sites). For many, this tool may be their first step in becoming OSM contributors. Now, on any open MapQuest site, errors can be reported directly and are displayed in near real-time. These errors can range from an incorrect speed limit or directional changes on a street to a missing parking lot or a new cultural institution.

Bing Boom goes the dynamite! I guess now we can’t complain about the quality of the map anymore because it is my own fault it sucks in Arizona. This is a very gutsy move on MapQuest’s part as I’m not sure the map is really good enough to use in the United States, but we need something like this out there to get it moving forward. Rather than fix errors in the Google Map, now we can fix errors in the MapQuest Map and send them on to the root OSM map. Good work MapQuest!

As an Arizona State alumni, I’m planning a trip to see the NCAA this weekend to correct a horrible wrong done to our fair university. Looks like I’ll be making that trip with MapQuest and OSM.
15 décembre 2010
20:40
Bing Updates Their New Map Style
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I love the new look for Bing Maps. I think they have made their background map perfect for basemaps. Nice and subtle. But their new look had some drawbacks. Well Microsoft has addressed some of those and has a new version up and running.

We’ve updated our map style to reflect user feedback so it’s even easier for people to find where to go, how to get there, and what to expect along the way. Key changes are:

A. Increased city density while preserving a clean, visually appealing map
B. Clearer differentiation between major and minor city streets
C. Greater color contrast at the city-level so streets “pop” out more
D. Altered font sizes and contrast for crisper, less cluttered map labels
E. Improved highway shields for US and added new shields for 7 countries

Two thoughts come to mind here. First off the changes all seem to really improve Bing Maps for the better and the second is my amazement at how agile Microsoft Bing Maps team is. Could 2011 be the year of Bing Maps?

Bing it baby!

Update: Justin has a great overview of what’s new.
30 novembre 2010
0:55
Keeping Up With the GeoSEO
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Yea so what blogger wouldn’t write about a new version of Google Earth arriving. Got to keep up the page views.

What kind of traffic can I generate with a picture of Steve Jobs holding a MacBook with a picture of a kitten on it?
25 novembre 2010
15:00
Happy Thanksgiving!
sur James Fee GIS Blog

Time to reflect on what we are thankful for. I count my blessings each and every day to be working for such a great company, in a great industry with great people. Enjoy your Turkey folks!

From our family to yours -- Happy Thanksgiving!

Clockwise from the lower left; Steve Coast (stevec), Peter Batty (@pmbatty), Learon Dalbey (@learondalby), Thea Clay (@theaclay), Andrew Turner (@ajturner), Mikel Maron (@mikel), Kate Chapman (@wonderchoock), Paul Bissett (@pbissett), James Fee (@cageyjames).

HT: Norman Rockwell
23 novembre 2010
23:51
WhereCamp5280 – The Take-Away
sur James Fee GIS Blog
So yea, great time had by all. As far as an unconference goes, it was a nice improvement over last year. These things take time to get right and WhereCamp5280 is looking like its going to be a very successful gathering. So what did I see that I think I need to pay attention to in the next year.
1. Google Fusion Tables — Are you kidding me? These stuff is “teh awesome”. Fusion tables are going to be more “killer” than Google Maps was. Yup, pay attention.
2. Polymaps — I have no idea how I’m going to use this thing or even how the darn thing works (voodoo is the general assumpition), but damn it works and it kicks butt. You can’t be serious if you want to actual serve up vectors via WFS. Another game changer…
3. Raphael — I was playing with this a couple months back and forgot about it. Don’t get me wrong, Google Chart API is sweet, but Raphael is like chocolate syrup (with whipped cream and a cherry on top). Hey look at that two SVG rendering projects in a row.
4. SEO for Mapping — Brian Timoney talked about SEO and how data needs to be found better. I can’t find a link to his topic anywhere, but just know what is good enough for John Elway should be good enough for the City GIS Department. Seriously though, if you want your data found, you need to think about how Google crawls it.
There was a ton more discussed (see Andrei’s blog). What caught me off guard was the general lack of interest in Microsoft technology. In a huge shift from last year. Silverlight, .NET, SQL Server and Windows were all lacking in representation.

As I said, great time was had and it was good to get me focused on where I want to go in the next year.
18 novembre 2010
20:16
SHRUG GIS Workshop 2010
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I’ve been in Tallahassee, FL on the campus of Florida State University this week for the 2010 edition of Seven Hills¹ Regional User Group (SHRUG) GIS Workshop. They were nice enough to invite me for to speak during the keynote which I focused on the disruptive nature of GIS. I was also able to sit on a panel that talked about the struggles that local government is dealing with working with the cloud, data sharing and cost recovery. Some of the SHRUG leadership team was also kind enough to take me on a walking tour of Tallahassee at night through the Kudzu. Fun times, fun times.

There is quite the vibrant GIS community in the Tallahassee area. I had a really good time meeting everyone and look forward to coming back in the future. Now I’m off to Denver for a little WhereCamp 5280 debauchery. I sure hope I packed a jacket!

1: And here I thought Florida was completely flat, there are at least 7 hills in this state and I jogged up them in the morning.

Name Prior to ArcGIS 10.1	New Name
ArcGIS Desktop	ArcGIS for Desktop
ArcInfo	ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced
ArcEditor	ArcGIS for Desktop Standard
ArcView	ArcGIS for Desktop Basic
ArcGIS Server	ArcGIS for Server
ArcGIS Mobile	ArcGIS for Windows Mobile
ArcGIS Mobile SDK	ArcGIS SDK for Windows Mobile
Esri Data and Maps	Data and Maps for ArcGIS
Esri StreetMap Premium	StreetMap Premium for ArcGIS
ArcGIS Data Appliance	Data Appliance for ArcGIS
ArcGIS Mapping for SharePoint	ArcGIS for SharePoint

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