In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Major news for geospatial open source, earlier this week the LocationTech Initiative was launched by the Eclipse Foundation.

From the official press release: "The Eclipse Foundation has launched a new initiative to support user driven development of location aware systems. The new LocationTech working group will allow companies to jointly develop and deploy components that bring location awareness to Enterprise IT. The Eclipse LocationTech initiative is led by Oracle, IBM, OpenGeo, and Actuate."

Its 4 initial areas of focus:

• Storage and processing of massive data volume
• Model driven design
• Desktop, Web, and mobile mapping
• Real time analysis of business critical data

I liked Direction Mag summary of how LocationTech complements the OGC and OSGeo: "In particularly, LocationTech offers a “full-service not-for-profit Foundation providing support for open source location aware technologies.” He ticked off this list of differentiators: 

• software licensed under commercial friendly open source licenses
• intellectual property (IP) management services
• a professionally-supported open source forge
• full-service, not-for-profit staffed by full-time professional staff to support the ecosystem"

Everyone in the geospatial industry should read this, If Mapping is So Big, Why Does GIS Feel So Small?

Brian Timoney offers another great article, which includes: "The continued presence of GIS database middleware in an era where SQL Server, Oracle, and Postgresql/PostGIS all come equipped with native spatial capabilities (the latter two handle raster) has important consequences. First, DBAs in IT want nothing to do with GIS implementations mediated by quirky middleware. [...] But let’s not kid ourselves: what ends up in the geodatabase is a fraction of an enterprise’s valuable spatial data. [...] When Google Earth and Google Maps stormed onto the scene, GIS professionals sniffed that it wasn’t “real GIS”. Of course, Google proved the masses didn’t mind that it wasn’t real GIS –whatever that was– and their basemaps and new easy-to-use file format KML led the web mapping revolution." I encourage you to read the full article.

Directions Mag offers a summary of GeoSearch's geospatial Wage & Salary Survey 2011 for the U.S.

From the article: "In the second quarter of 2010 geospatial job postings and hiring activity started to stabilize. Opportunities for entry and mid-level surveyors, cartographers, photogrammetrists, and technicians housed in engineering, surveying, mapping, and other traditional services firms managed to produce marginal growth and hiring related postings increased.  2011 built on that momentum with new opportunities for mapping technicians and professionals involved in the application development and use of GIS.  Further, demand for digital mapmaking is on the rise due to the mobile market and social network demand for fast, accurate, and complete location based information and this will likely be the main source of continuing job growth."

That's the title of a Direction Mag article, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, After All, It’s About Geospatial Jobs.

The summary: "The geospatial technology professional is at a turning point. The U.S. Department of Labor has identified the need for 330,000 qualified geospatial technologists to fill positions during the next 10 years. On top of that, geospatial technology is embedded in both mobile location apps and enterprise computing, increasing awareness of the technology and the need for those who understand GIS. So, where will we find qualified professionals to do the job? Editor in Chief Joe Francica looks at an important initiative that supports job training and education."

The article revolves around the GTCM: "[...] the completion of the Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM), a descriptive treatise that supports the development of geospatial technology curricula at the community college level [in the U.S.]."