In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's the recent open source / open data geonews in batch mode.

Software-related:

• On the iD Map Editor, the new OpenStreetMap editor, reached the Beta 1 state, if you want to see it in action, here's a nice 1-minute video
• It was mentioned in our press release section, but deserves additional attention, "GeoServer Beginner's Guide is a new book from Packt that teaches the readers to build custom maps using the dynamic real-time geospatial information. With the help of this book, readers will learn sharing of real-time maps quickly" Here's Jody's review of the book
• Via OR I learned about the release of Titan 0.3 which supports georeferenced data: "Titan is a highly scalable graph database optimized for storing and querying large graphs with billions of vertices and edges distributed across a multi-machine cluster. Titan is a transactional database that can support thousands of concurrent users."
• Here's about Scribe - A tool to facilitate the creation of Maps with MapServer
• Via OR, here's the code for WebGL Heatmap "a JavaScript library for high performance heatmap display"
• An open source Desktop GIS we never mentioned before, VSceneGIS Desktop v0.9.5, which seems to have only Spanish documentation
• Interested by the desktop GIS uDig? Here's a course on geographic scripting in uDig
• Amongst other updates, New final version of i3Geo available: i3Geo 4.7 and deegree 3.2.0 webservices released
• You can't wait? Here's Some cool new features in the upcoming QGIS 2.0
• And yes, OpenLayers 3 is getting closer to reality, the latest code sprint summary

Open data:

• Related to OpenStreetMap, the LearnOSM website got a major facelift and there's OSM PLUS - the OpenStreetMap Commercial Users Summit, the first meeting to occur on June 10th in San Francisco... with Garmin being another of the major companies diving into OpenStreetMap
• Geoff tells us about EuroGlobalMap, a free and open authoritative European geospatial data site
• The City of Chicago now offers its data on GitHub, most of it being georeferenced: "This is a new experiment, where we can see if it’s possible to crowdsource better data. GitHub provides the necessary functionality."
• On the topic of open data, you can read the new entry named The Flawed Economics of Closed Government Data by Brian Timoney

Everything else:

• Here's an entry on Map overlays with WebGL: affine, polynomial, TPS transformations in JavaScript with GLSL
• There's a new Open Source Geospatial Laboratory established at the University of Warwick, UK
• Here's the Keynote speakers at FOSS4G-CEE 2013

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• Google released updated maps for 10 countries and regions in Europe: "Andorra, Bulgaria, Estonia, Gibraltar, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain". Data comes from authoritative sources part of the Ground Truth project (screenshot below)
• Google released a major update to the Google Maps Android API: it "features vector-based maps that load quickly and enables users to easily navigate 2D and 3D views, and tilt and rotate the map with simple gestures"
• There was an entry on the Crisis Response map for Typhoon Pablo (Bopha) and the digital archives of buildings in Japan affected by the 2011 tsunami

From other sources:

• The GEB informs us that we can see NASA's "black marble" in Google Earth: "an amazing view of the earth covered in darkness with only city lights glowing"

I learned on Slashdot from this story named Galileo: Europe's Version of GPS Reaches Key Phase.

Their summary: "The third and fourth spacecraft in Europe's satellite navigation system have gone into orbit. The pair were launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana. It is an important milestone for the multi-billion-euro project to create a European version of the U.S. Global Positioning System. With four satellites now in orbit — the first and second spacecraft were launched in 2011 — it becomes possible to test Galileo end-to-end. That is because a minimum of four satellites are required in the sky for a smartphone or vehicle to use their signals to calculate a positional fix."

An addition from the ESA: “By late 2014, 18 satellites are scheduled to have been launched, by which time early services to Europeans can begin."

Of course, we regularly mentioned Galileo since 2005.

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• My iPad 2 invited me to update iOS's Google Earth to version 7: "With today’s release of Google Earth for iOS you can literally fly through breathtaking 3D city landscapes and images and follow virtual tours of places you’ve never been [...] The growing list of 3D cities include Boulder, Boston, Charlotte, Lawrence (Kan.), Long Beach (Ca.), Los Angeles, Portland (Ore.), San Diego, Santa Cruz, Tampa, Tucson, and the San Francisco Bay Area (including the Peninsula and East Bay) as well as Rome, Italy. [...] Also new in this release is a “tour guide” to show you interesting places to explore." This topic is discussed at Slashdot in a story named Google Outs 3D Maps For iOS Ahead of Apple.
• Google also announced more detailed maps in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia: "And today, we’re launching updated maps of Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lesotho, Macau, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore and Vatican City to do just that."

• As part of the 40th anniversary  of the Landsat satellite program, Google now includes more Landsat imagery: "We’re working with the USGS and Carnegie Mellon University, to make parts of this enormous collection of imagery available to the public in timelapse videos of the Earth's surface. With them you can travel through time, from 1999-2011, to see the transformation of our planet."
• There's new additional panoramic imagery of historic Antarctic locations
• Google also shared an entry named Maps for good: Google Earth Outreach Developer Grants 2012

From other sources:

• The GEB shares an entry on exploring the 2012 London Olympics in Google Earth
• The same source mentions 'Google Earth Studio', a tool for the media, in an entry on Google Earth's relevance for news
• The GEB also shares an entry on exploring fake deserts of the world in Google Earth

• Slashdot ran a discussion named Ox Bow Lake Formation, As Seen By the Google Earth Time Machine
• Tens of sources mentioned that Marissa Mayer, Google's former vice president of Local, Maps & Location Services was appointed CEO of Yahoo

"The European Space Agency is looking for student coders to join the Summer of Code in Space. ESA will pay 4000 Euros to each student for contributing to a space related open source project for the summer. Accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios. Mentor organizations have been selected. Students now have until July 27 to submit their applications. Check out the ideas pages of each project such as for the NEST SAR Toolbox"

A similar post was posted to Slashdot followed by clueless and immature comments. Hopefully this will reach the right audience here on Slashgeo.

Via the AGISRS mailing list I learned about today's announcement that Envisat is having problems and services are interrupted.

From the ESA announcement: " After 10 years of service, Envisat has stopped sending data to Earth. ESA’s mission control is working to re-establish contact with the satellite.
 
Although this landmark mission has been in orbit twice as long as it was designed for, ESA hopes to keep the satellite in service until the launch of the successor Sentinel missions."

The 3rd annual Location Business Summit Europe, to be held in May 22-23 2012 in Amsterdam, is the biggest meeting place for hands on knowledge and networking within the mobile and location industry. Following our blockbuster events in Silicon Valley and Amsterdam last year, the biggest and best companies in the community will come together at the most influential LBS focused summit in the world.

From LBA, indoor positioning, and SoLoMo, to business models, key strategies and the hottest market analysis, this is a sure-fire roadmap to solidify your strategies for the coming year.

Hear case studies from leading brands such as Starbucks and the BBC, to in-depth analysis around payments from PayPal. You’ll be able to benchmark your company against the Giants such as Google, and Microsoft, and hear from the agencies such as Ogilvy, AKQA and JiWire.

Find out more information here.

Slashgeo was a media partner of the Location Business Summit USA in 2010.

Here's the articles from Directions Magazine published during the last month that I found interesting.

• DM published an article on maps with comprehensive and detailed coverage of postcodes and administrative boundaries for all African countries
• Here's an article with maps on European 2010 retail data, including purchasing power, spendings and more
• Don't we all want to save money? Here's a generic example named How One Utility Company Increased Productivity While Decreasing Costs Through Integration to its GIS Technology
• In an article named Do the “Hot Topics” in Geospatial Unite or Divide Us?, Adena says "The discussions of LBS, geospatial intelligence, planning, satellite remote sensing, open source and crowdsourcing made me feel more like the geospatial community players are taking off in many directions rather than coming together to find and use our tools and data for their highest purpose." Do you agree?

European users will be glad to know Google added live traffic information for 13 European countries.

From the announcement: "The new road traffic information is in the traffic layer on Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile, and Google Maps Navigation (Beta). Today we’re announcing new coverage in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland. Coverage includes all freeways and highways, as well as large roads in major cities. Users in the UK will also benefit from a finer grain of street level coverage.

[...] The live traffic layer is regularly updated to show information for traffic events from the last 5-10 minutes. Finally, you can learn more about typical traffic conditions for specific times and days of the week by clicking the “change” link in the traffic legend on Google Maps, and setting the day of week and time."

Slashdot discusses a story named EU Demands Explicit Geo-Location Permissions.

Their summary: "Apple, Google and employers are already contravening new European Union rules that will require companies to get explicit permission from users before any geo-location data can be used to track them, whether for the purposes of targeted advertising or monitoring employee behavior. This could be the start of the next big privacy argument. The hopes of companies planning to use geo-location data to push products and services to mobile device users have taken a beating in the European Union, following a pronouncement from the European Data Protection Supervisor, Peter Hustinx."