The Geospatial Web — How Geobrowsers, Social Software and the Web 2.0 are Shaping the Network Society is book summarizes the latest research on the Geospatial Web's technical foundations, describes information services and collaborative tools built on top of geo-browsers, and investigates the environmental, social and economic impacts of geospatial applications. The role of contextual knowledge in shaping the emerging network society deserves particular attention. By integrating geospatial and semantic technology, such contextual knowledge can be extracted automatically – for example, when processing Web documents to identify relevant content for customized news services.
Arno Scharl, Klaus Tochtermann (Eds.) Advanced Information and Knowledge Processing Series 2007, London: Springer, ISBN 1-84628-826-6
With a Foreword by Patrick J. Hogan, Program Manager of NASA World Wind www.geospatialweb.com – the book will be available May 18
Over at the MSDN blogs Virtual Earth program manager Andy McGovern has come up with the following update: "we've been busy poking around the Virtual Earth forums and blogs, listening to corporate customers and mashuppers alike, and coming up with a list of the top features and fixes that would make the best mapping API even better—better for end users, but mainly better for you, the developer. We think you'll like what we've come up with." The following are just some of the new features:
import polylines and polygons using GeoRSS feeds.
enjoy the same bird's eye panning experience from Live Search Maps that you know and love.
programmatic control of the mini map: show it, hide it, and move it around.
center a bird's eye scene on a latlong more accurately.
faster page load time with a compressed map control code base that is approximately 25% of its uncompressed size (from around 500kb to around 130kb).
initial map now loads faster because we stopped fetching an extra ring of invisible tiles around the map view.
choice of two smaller navigation dashboards.
Find method: you can now remove any or all of the Find method side effects, like the automatic map view change and the automatic display of pushpins.
I’m doing a bit of fishing for leads on some decent GIS certificate programs, specialty programs at various Colleges and Universities etc… do you have some recent experience at an institution of “higher learning” with a cool GIS related program? If so blast me some details about the program – once again you can always contact me via glenn at gisuser.com. I’ve already got a few leads to some programs in this section at GU and your input will help … http://www.gisuser.com/content/section/5/53/
Fresh from the fantastic success of Hack Day in the USA, Yahoo! has announce that they plan to hold a Hack Day at the Alexandra Palace in London on 16th and 17th June 2007. From the creators of the event… We’ll be inviting 500 developers to attend the event, which will begin with hack-related presentations from some of the Web’s most respected developers. See http://www.hackday.org/– See also http://developer.yahoo.net/hackday/
I received details of this interesting event taking place in Toronto early next month. This event from US Commercial Service offers you the opportunity to explore new products, services and business relationships that can add savings and profits to a company’s bottom line. More info at http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/11439/
yaya… here we go again with more rumors about the Google phone, or perhaps the Google PC, or maybe even the Google handheld GPS?? Personally, I would think that a killer Google portable video/music player would be the ticket… throw in support for the Opera mobile web browser that calls up what else… Google search and YouTube… I suppose the sky is the limit when you have such deep pockets and access to a wealth of talent and innovation. So where is this coming from? A recent job listing on the Google Job page is putting the call out for a “Manufacturing New Product Introduction Program Manager” – one of the key responsibilities is to Ensure that Google can manufacture new hardware products in mass production without problems… hmmmmm. See http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=62112
A reader named Matthew contacted me to share details of his very slick hurricane tracking mashup called StormmPulse. The application has a very nice mapping interface and provides tons of information about historical hurricanes. Users can map the storm track, access information about the storm from NOAA, read about the storm’s lifecycle, grab info from Wikipedia, view photos posted to flickr that reference the hurricane and much more (as an example see details of Hurricane Alberto, 2006 http://www.stormpulse.com/200601) – this is a fantastic mashup and I can’t wait to see more from it! See http://www.stormpulse.com
What a great use of Google Earth… Logging giant West Fraser Timber has come under the hi-tech magnifying glass of Google Earth. ForestEthics, an environmental group, has produced a video that “flies” viewers over West Fraser’s operations in endangered caribou habitat in BC and Alberta. The video, Cutting Down Caribou, was posted to YouTube by ForestEthics on Monday, April 23, and can also be viewed on ForestEthics’ website at www.forestethics.org/cuttingdowncaribou
Jefferson County Colorado is the latest policing service to make mapping a key component to their website. The site contains comprehensive sections on crime prevention, community programs, jail information, career opportunities, and obtaining case reports and other records. The new online mapping program allows users to enter their home’s address to view crime in the area. The site also provides users with crime prevention tips and more – Features I like are the quick links to major crimes by area like theft, assaults, and arson… definitely a must use if your moving to the area and want to investigate a potential home purchase before you lay down some cash. The Sheriff’s Office also sends out timely e-mail alerts about crime, crime trends and public safety issues affecting the north, south and mountain areas of unincorporated Jefferson County. Check it out at http://jeffco.us/sheriff/index.htm or jump directly to the application at http://archie.co.jefferson.co.us/website/jcpub_crime/Run.htm
Looks like more familiar faces have departed Intergraph.. this time its CTO Peter Batty (I’m not sure if I actually recognize anyone left at the company any more!). After 18 months at the company Batty has left to ponder his future… looks like for now he’ll be blogging and chasing opportunities… sounds to me like he’s chasing the same adventure that Ed Parsons did (recall Ed just recently joined Google). Batty has made several references to using Google’s technologies … maybe he’ll be joining Ed as a Googler – although he does reference the idea of perhaps starting a new venture. Good luck to Peter and be sure to let us know when you get a new gig! You can follow Petter via his “GeoThought” blog – http://geothought.blogspot.com/
