In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

GIS Monitor published part 2 (here's part one) of their industry survey named What was big news this year and what do you wish for next year?. ESRI's answer regarding next year includes: "ESRI will be releasing ArcGIS 9.2, which is a major introduction of new functionality and server-based architecture. Included will be better cartography, data management, modeling, temporal GIS, and new tools for accessing GIS functionality across the Web. Also, ESRI will introduce the Image Server, which will provide on-the-fly image processing by simultaneously processing and distributing images in a Web services environment. ArcGIS Explorer will be a new Web client that is free, and promises to support a new way for GIS users to share and access GIS services of all types."

Slashdot offers a story from the Official Google blog. The slashdot summary: "Google Earth can be used to track Santa Clause, beginning at 2pm GMT December 24th. From the article: 'While we didn't work a deal for Naughty or Nice data layers, we did negotiate the rights to track this user on his big trip. If you've already got Google Earth, you can too.' So, if you have Google Earth, track Santa!"

Directions Mag have an article named bridging the economic divide in Africa. From the article: "GIS technology has proven itself to be a great equalizer throughout the world in the acquisition, management and distribution of information. In many cases, this technology can be applied to humanitarian and sustainable development initiatives and is proving to be a critical component in a variety of development efforts throughout Africa."

The Topo Employees blog released the first of a series about USA's Geospatial One-Stop website. From the blog: "Topo Employees believes Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) is a window into the confused state of the USGS national mapping program. [...] Competent and experienced managers were replaced with people who had no knowledge of the organization and no interest in its programs. [...] we contend it also hurts the civilian geospatial community in general."

Not trying to start a flame war, but this story from The New York Jewish Times, linked from the GeoCarta blog, about a UN-sponsored event where Israel is missing from the map indicates that maps matters. The Cartography blog links to the map. The GeoCarta summary: "United Nations Ambassador John Bolton promised to pursue the issue of what he termed, UN-sponsored anti-Israeli campaigns. Ambassador Bolton specifically mentioned the UN sponsored, "Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People." At the event, there was displayed a, "Map of Palestine" from which the nation of Israel had been expunged."

de_valentin writes "Hi I'm a student Geodesy in Utrecht. I have to write a program in Excel that can calculate (geografical) Phi, Lambda to (UTM) N, E coordinates. And vise versa, is there someone that could help me out because I am a bit stuck. No matter what I do I'm still off about 1000m in the N and 100m in the E. My guess is that there is something with radials and degrees because in our paper it sometimes specifically says radials where it otherwise never does. Are there times where you have to use radials and others where you need degrees?? To all that will help a merry christmas or happy holidays (which ever you prefer) and to all those who don't.... oh well you too have a merry christmas or whatever you prefer."

Directions Mag offers their Top Ten of 2005 within the geospatial universe. From the editorial's introduction: "Each year for the last five I've put together the top ten "things" of the past year. Some are events, some are non-events, some are products, some are people. It's my opportunity to look back and highlight some topics worthy of attention as we head into the New Year."

After numerous live discussions, reader emails, reader comments and the poll itself, we are happy to welcome you to slashgeo.org! This is our new official name. It wasn't an easy decision and the name won't change again. The old URL will work for at least a year, but please update your bookmarks and mail rules if necessary.

We'll make the site reflect that change in the coming weeks as time allow. Time is also the new poll topic as some have already noticed. Expect a lower quantity of stories published during the holidays. We'll be back with replenished strengh in January! I sincerily wish great holidays to all :-)

Spatially Adjusted tells us ArcGIS 9.1 service pack 1 is now available along with some updates to their support pages. Read the SP1 website for more info, including issues addressed.

Slashdot links to a The Independant article about Britain being the first country to monitor every car journey. The Slashdot summary goes like this: "Using a network of cameras that can record license plates, Britain plans to build a database of vehicle movement for police and security services: rollout begins in March. Can't someone just swap/steal/disable the tracking device? Seems to me just another way to track the average citizen and not those wishing to avoid authorities."