In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Bloggage update: "Google multi-modal maps are so significant to greater London Area commuters that I cannot pass it up. Ed Parsons posted it on his blog and I immediately tried it: it's just the ticket (pun intended) living near Cambridge about an hour north of London and travelling around London only by public transit..."

Okay, there is much more geonews that were waiting for me than I expected. Please give me some time to catch up everything. Anything worthy, I'll aggregate and share with our users.

There has been several interesting articles and entries posted in the past two weeks about OpenStreetMap. Here they are!

• Ogle Earth shares an interesting article on what's happening in Syria with Google Map Maker and OpenStreetMap relying on crowdsourcing for their maps, in the context of the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising
• Cédric highlights an article on TomTom data vs OpenStreetMap data, specifically for Germany
• Cédric also enumerates 13 reasons why OpenStreetMap fails to replace official or proprietary base maps in a sustainable way - this list identify several interesting 'challenges' for OpenStreetMap
• Meanwhile, James Fee was one of many that reacted to Wired's article named Open Source Maps Gain Ground as Google Paywall Looms
• Related and worth reading, Nestoria explains why it dumped Google Maps in favor of OpenStreetMap, served by MapQuest
• James also linked to an article about OpenStreetMap data and what makes spatial data 'authoritative'
• Mapperz mentions the nice OpenStreetMap Terrain layer for the U.S.
• The OSM summary links to the video of OpenStreetMap edits for 2011, but don't expect to see details in this video
• The State of the Map 2012 conference will take place in Tokyo, September 6-8th
• Sadly, I still haven't found an appropriate iOS app to contribute to OpenStreetMap, anyone has?

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode. I've been overly busy lately - like a lot of us are at that time of the year I guess - please allow the unusual delay of this entry. Have a nice holiday break!

On the Esri front:

• Via an Esri email, I learned about the National Geographic World Map to be used as a basemap with Esri products and services

On the Google front:

• Again, there's new 45° imagery available, now for Detroit, Fayetteville, Nashville, Baton Rouge and Huntsville
• The GEB has an entry on Google Earth on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• The GEB also shares another entry on using Google Earth in the classroom
• Finally from the GEB, here's an entry named Visualizing Google Analytics data in Google Earth
• Slashdot is discussing a story about British Telecom suing Google over Android, including several location-related patents
• Here's the official entry on last week's imagery update

In the miscellaneous category:

• APB shares their top 10 GIS stories of 2011
• SS informs us that France's Pleiades-1 high-resolution is now in orbit: "Pleiades-1 has a 70cm resolution, mulitspectral views in the visible and near-infrared bands, and a swath width of 20km"
• Read this if you want to grasp how important geospatial intelligence is to the US Department of Defense
• We often mentioned the LightSquared debacle, now they want the FCC to rule now, not a bad idea since they might run out of money in the coming months
• SS also informs us of an hyperspectral imager that can be deployed on UAVs
• We mentioned GeoSMS before, here's the OGC blog the use of GeoSMS for disaster management
• APB informs us that Facebook added Location Tagging to their Timeline Rollout
• Two weeks ago in a PR we mentioned GISLounge's GIS job skills and employment survey
• Also from a recent PR, we never mentioned before the free Dinamica EGO software, now at version 1.8, EGO standing for Environment for Geoprocessing Objects
• V1 informs us that Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system is officially global again
• Slashdot discusses how the brain's structure changes with your spacial and navigation skills, at least for taxi drivers
• Another location-related story discussed at the same place is named Japanese Use Wild Monkeys To Track Radiation
• Finally from the same source, DigitalGlobe's satellite spotted China's first aircraft carrier
• WebMapSolutions reviews 8 mobile GIS apps for iOS and Android
• Microsoft tells us about the Updated Spatial Features in the SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release
• MapQuest updated their Mobile Flash Maps API to v7.0.7, but with Flash for Mobile officially abandoned by Adobe, what's the future of Flash?
• O'Reilly shares a long entry on the Public Mapping Project for gerrymandering the U.S. elections, which we mentioned before
• Hum... APB shares an entry named Confidence Key to Women Doing Well at Spatial Tasks

In the maps category:

• While I'm a bit late for Christmas gifts, VS mentions interesting typographic maps of various U.S. cities on sale, VS also links to reasonably priced 'vintage' geography gifts
• Here's OWNI's list of Best Maps of 2011, a few of them previously mentioned here
• Discussed over Slashdot, a New All-Sky Map Shows the Magnetic Fields of the Milky Way
• O'Reilly shares this British map of traffic casualties

Mapperz made me aware of the open source Google Vector Layers project, allowing you to overlay your data over Google Maps.

Here's what it is: "Google Vector Layers allows you to easily add one or more vector layers from a number of different geo web services to a Google Maps API based application. Currently there's support for ArcGIS Server, Arc2Earth, GeoIQ and CartoDB with more planned."

​And how it's done: "Google Vector Layers works by listening to map events (pan and zoom) and then fetching features within the map bounds after each event. This method works great for data sets with lots of features that you want to interact with, but not load all at once."

There's demos if you want to try it live.

Slashdot discusses a story named Google Outlines AI-Based Number Reading For Street View Photos.

Their summary: "A recent Google research paper [pdf] outlines how it might use AI to read digits in natural images — specifically Street View photos. The idea is to automatically extract the number of each house as captured by Street View and then use this to improve the geocoding data returned by Google. When you next ask for directions to a particular address the new data could be used to show you a street view looking directly at the house you specified."

We mentioned a few times in the past the reading and mapping of license plates.

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• There's new 45° imagery available for nothing less than 21 cities: "U.S.: Albuquerque (west), NM; Benton, AR; Boulder, CO; Eldridge, IA; Boston (east), MA; Centennial (south), CO; GooglePlex, CA; Indianapolis (south), IN; Las Vegas Strip, NV; Montgomery (outskirts), AL; Olathe, KA; Petaluma, CA; Tulsa, OK. South America: Brasilia, Brazil"
• ​On a similar topic, there's new cities in 3D in Google Maps: Rome, Seville, Las Vegas and more - the full list: "US: Foster City, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Norfolk,Palo Alto, Portland, Redwood City, Riverside, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Sunnyvale. Europe: Rome, IT, Rotterdam, NL; Seville, ES; Stuttgart, DE, Amsterdam, NL"
• Google Map Maker has been revamped with a new user interface, my hope is that one day Google will surprise us and link Google Map Maker with OpenStreetMap - they could eventually do it, since Google doesn't make money out of the data directly anyway and they're already great supporters of open data - am I delusional? :-)
• Somewhat related, Google Maps data got improved in the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland and Sweden
• The official Dev blog shares an entry named The power of visualization with the Google Analytics API and Google Earth
• We also previously mentioned Liquid Galaxy, and now they're running Google Earth on 48 screens! The code is open source is your living room is big enough 
• Here's a new entry on the tsunami-affected areas of Japan in Street View
• Here's an entry named Exploring ancient ruins in 3D with Google Earth

From other sources:

• The GEB reports about new high-resolution imagery in Antarctica in Google Earth
• APB mentioned Google blocking a first person shooter "game" in Google Maps
• The GEB also has an entry on the reorganization of the 'Ocean' layer
• Still from the same source, here's how to View your Google Latitude history in Google Earth
• Ed Parsons mentioned that satellite images revealed a “secret” Nevada UAV site
• Finally, the GEB is excited about the 3D tours of Mount Urgull in San Sebastian, Spain
• SS informs us that Google purchased Clever Sense, which tagline was "Never Miss Places You’ll Love", and APB informs us that Google launched Schemer, a non-checking location-based service for finding what to do, it's in invite-only beta

A lot of interesting geonews in this 'batch mode' edition.

On the Google front:

• Unsurprisingly, you can track Santa Claus again this year in Google Earth, thanks to NORAD
• As SA points out, Garmin went back to Google Maps in addition to Bing, due to popular demand 
• Google Maps improved its handling of the display of multiple stores in a shopping mall or doctors in hospital  
• Here's the official entry on last week's imagery update

On the Esri front:

• Esri is phasing out their Certified Trainer Program

In the miscellaneous category:

• In this press release, it was the first time I heard about MapInfo Stratus, a web based mapping application, related, PBBI also recently launched Geosk, their data as a service platform
• The GEB mentions access to seamless topographic USGS maps
• This O'Reilly entry details the GreenGoose stickers that are used as sensors
• LAS, the Lidar exchange format, has been updated to version 1.4
• Via O'Reilly, here's a new data structure for spatial search, named VP Tree, "Vantage Point Trees"
• Mapperz mentions qrd.by, a Geottager for QR Codes
• APB mentions the size of the Chinese GIS market
• Slashdot is discussing a 3D display we can touch, using cold fog and lasers
• DM shares an article named What are the Latest Developments in the Mobile LBS Market in Europe?
• James Fee reviews the Wacom Inkling digitizer for GIS work
• These five disruptions from Autodesk's CTO are interesting
• Here's a perspective from SS named Is it inevitable for BIM and GIS to force different pathways?

In the maps category:

• APB links to the new Wikileaks Spyfiles interactive map
• SS shares an entry named Himalayan Glacier Reductions Mapped
• Here's every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010 mapped

And as a bonus for reading this, see this wonderful time-lapse movie from the International Space Station around the world in 90 minutes

Here's the recent Google geonews.

From official sources:

• Here's another entry providing even more information on understanding how the Maps API usage limits affect your sites
• Google shared another entry on indoor mapping in Google Maps
• Street View goes to Belgium
• Here's the official entry on on the ski and snow edition of the Street View special collections
• For those using the Google Maps API, here's Four Tips for Improving Your Mobile Web Map App
• They also have an entry on visualizing water and energy solutions in a warming world
• Here's a story about using Google Fusion Tables along with Google Maps
• Via Ed Parsons, here's a short nice stop-motion movie using Google Street View named 'Address is Approximate'

From other sources:

• If you don't want to use Fusion Tables, here's how to Dynamically Map your Google Spreadsheets with GeoCommons
• You might be interested in previewing the 2012 London Olympics in Google Earth
• Kurt reminds of what Google Oceans is all about
• Ogle Earth today shared an entry named Iran missile base post-explosion imagery, now hi-res in Google Earth
• In Google Earth, you can see Captain James Cook's circumnavigation of New Zealand
• Here's NASA using 'Google Earth Portable' in Canada
• Oh, and last weekend, there was another round of imagery update to Google Earth

Lately there was a not much surprising news about Google products and services. Among other things Google has changed the Google Maps API use policy and will charge to those users that exceed some download limits.

It is well known that Google Maps is one of the most (or the most) famous mapping service used around the net and it starts the web GIS revolution some years ago but hopefully it is not the only API we can use. Bing and the discontinued Yahoo Maps, are great competitors but there are great and open alternatives to use.

I wrote this post to summarize the most important JavaScript API alternatives to Google Maps.

[Editor's note: this anonymous submission mainly discusses OpenLayers, Polymaps and Leaflet]

Two days ago (yes, I was busy) Slashdot discussed a story named Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google Chase 'Got Milk?' Patents.

Their summary: "Among the new iOS 5 features is Reminders, which Apple explains this way: 'Say you need to remember to pick up milk during your next grocery trip. Since Reminders can be location based, you'll get an alert as soon as you pull into the supermarket parking lot.' But does Reminders infringe on a newly-granted patent to Amazon for Location Aware Reminders, which covers the use of location based reminders to remind a user 'to purchase certain items such as, for example, as milk, bread, and eggs'? Or could Reminders run afoul of Google's new patent for Geocoding Personal Information, which covers triggering a voice reminder or making a computing device vibrate when a user approaches a location if 'one of the user's events is a task to pick up milk and bread'? Not to be left out of the 'Got Milk?' patent race, Apple also has a patent pending for Computer Systems and Methods for Collecting, Associating, and/or Retrieving Data, which covers providing a reminder to a user whose 'to do' list includes 'get milk' when the user's location matches 'a store that sells the item "milk."'

That should not be confused with Microsoft's pending patent for Geographic Reminders, which allows users to specify reminders such as 'pick up milk if I am within a ten minutes drive of any grocery store.' That all four tech giants chose to pursue remember-the-milk patents — and the USPTO is considering and granting them — is all the more remarkable considering that Microsoft suggested location-based reminders were obvious in a 2005 patent filing, which informed the USPTO that 'a conventional reminder application may give the user relevant information at a given location, such as 'You're near a grocery store, and you need milk at home.' So much for that immediate patent quality improvement promised by the America Invents Act!"

​You bet the patent system needs to be overhauled!