In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

The recent geonews in batch mode, covering a larger timespan than usual.

On the open source front:

• The OSGeo presented an Open Letter to OGC on the GeoServices REST API standard, and it's pretty well documented and informative
• Here's an interesting entry on comparing OpenLayers and Leaflet
• The schedule for FOSS4G-CEE 2013 is now known
• Sean pointed me to  Tom MacWright's online GeoJSON editor
• In releases, there was GeoServer 2.3.2 released and GeoTools 9.2 Released
• Getting closer to QGIS 2.0, here's nice examples of the alpha channel in QGIS color ramps
• If you did not see the press release, OpenGeo is not non-profit anymore

On the Google front:

• The influx of Google Glass stories continues, now Facial Recognition Comes to Google Glass
• Here's Kurt's list of maps-related videos from the Google I/O 2013 conference

On the Esri front:

• ABP reminds us of Esri's Severe Weather Map, including tornadoes...
• An entry on why Esri is excited about the Android Location APIs
• Data updates, World Topographic Map updated with content for the Middle East, North Africa, and the United States
• along with other updates, including Additional DigitalGlobe and community imagery added to the World Imagery map
• Also updated, ArcGIS for Windows Phone and ArcGIS API for JavaScript v3.5 Released

In the everything-else category:

• MapBox tells us they got a huge satellite update, now cloudless and with aerial imagery, but also interesting are the OpenStreetMap updates making they way to MapBox maps in only 5 minutes
• Here's a Make article on mapping buildings with a Kinect
• Some of you might be interested by the GiT4NMD conference, Geo-information Technologies for Natural Disaster Management
• Space Daily share an article named World's major development banks look closer at Earth observation
• Here's links regarding the history of apostrophes in place names
• Via SL, an article named China's Drone Program Appears To Be Moving Into Overdrive
• Those interested in the exciting MapBox work may also want to read about vector tiles of MapBox Streets
• While CAD and GIS have come closer, they remain distinct, here's an entry named Integrating geospatial into construction: the challenge
• Geoff also shares two other interesting entries, one named Economic value of big geospatial data could reach $700 billion/yr by 2020 and the other Estimating the economic and financial impact of poor data quality

Slashdot discussed a few minor geo-related stories:

• One involving GPS named Researchers Are Developing Ad Hoc Networks For Car-To-Car Data Exchange
• Privacy stories goes on, UK's 4G Network Selling Subscriber Tracking Data To Police, Private Parties and this one Congress Demands Answers From Google Over Google Glass Privacy Concerns
• Along with new challenges to locating North itself, Global Warming Shifts the Earth's Poles

In the maps category:

• Here's The Best Geographic Visualization I’ve Seen In Ages according to VerySpatial, basically a circle centered in Asia where over half of the world's population resides
• In Paris? Apple Maps for iOS Adds 3D Flyover Coverage in Paris
• MapBox shares a Q&A of the City Guides by National Geographic mobile app

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the open source front:

• Both Leaflet and MapBox are current hot topics, today you get both in the same announcement: Announcing MapBox.js 1.0 with Leaflet
• With open data, there's no limit to new services... here's OpenSnowMap.org, leveraging OpenStreetMap and MODIS snow cover data (via OGD)
• GeoTools 9.1 has been released
• And GeoServer 2.3.1 too
• Here's the open source OSCAR-js javascript map API, which "extends OpenLayers and uses popular UI libraries (jQuery UI and YUI)"
• The FOSS4G CEE 2013 conference completed their Keynote Speakers lineup

On the Google front:

• The GEB informs us that Google Earth 7.1 has been released, with enhancements mostly for the Google Earth Pro 7.1 version
• Google is Celebrating the 50th country on Street View, with Hungary and Lesotho being the latest additions, with expansions in Poland and Romania
• For those interested, The Boston Marathon Manhunt in Google Earth
• If you prefer Ice Hockey, here's The world of Hockey in Google Earth
• Canadian Public Alerts are now included in Google Now, Google Search and Google Maps

In the everything-else category:

• Here's the U.S. New Strategy for Earth Observations, directly from the White House: "The new Strategy outlines a process for evaluating and prioritizing Earth-observation investments according to their value to society in critical areas such as agriculture, global change, disasters, water resources, and weather."
• The Spatial Law blog offers a summary on Privacy of geolocation: the new European and American law
• Indications that Facebook and Google Would Like Apple to Feature Them More Prominently on iOS
• An interesting entry on crisis cartography
• Discussed over Slashdot, Should California Have Banned Checking Smartphone Maps While Driving?
• Also discussed by the same site, Why Local Is So Damn Hard For Startups: Foursquare Borrows $41M To Try Again
• On standards, interesting read the consequences of the GeoJSON 1.0 axis order policy (via James)
• Also on standards, in this OGC blog entry, you'll learn about the efforts related OGC OpenPOIs Registry: "A database of points of interest information containing names and point locations for millions of businesses and civic places across the globe"
• The GEB tells us about the new Geo3D Market website, a place to buy and sell 3D models
• APB informs us that Microsoft Updates Maps App in Windows 8
• From the same source, a definition of geoblocking: "Geoblocking is the system used to limit your access to the internet, based on your geographic location."

In the maps category:

• APB links to a Greenpeace Map of the Arctic, nicely wrapped I must admit
• In Vietnam, you may get a 2,400$ fine for National Map violations
• A New chart shows the entire topography of the Antarctic seafloor in detail for the first time
• Via APB, an article named Can quality of life be mapped?

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

• Statistics Canada, aka StatCan, will offer a lot (but not all) of its data under an open data license beginning February 2012
• OpenStreetMap now has nothing less than 500,000 registered users, here's new tile sets for the Transport Layer and the MapQuest Open layer, and V1 discusses the idea of OpenFarmMap
• Here's an interactive QGIS tutorial by Harvard's Lex Berman, a detailed entry on the creation of Map Books in QGIS via the EasyPrint plugin, a first glimpse at the pgRouting layer for QGIS, and more on the fusion of QGIS Desktop with web technologies
• Mike at OpenGeo discusses the Esri white paper about using an hybrid approach; using both open source and proprietary GIS software
• A few sources mentioned the 'Public Mapping Project' which develops the open source 'District Builder' redistricting software, this was also discussed over Slashdot
• PostGIS gets GeoJSON support and here's an entry on Topology cleaning with PostGIS
• If you're into Python, here's Kurt lecture on writing KML and SQLite with Python
• We just shared with you the new global GMTED2010 dataset, here's how to seamlessly access to remote Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 with GDAL
• GeoSolutions shared an entry named Serving Meteo data with GeoServer, GeoBatch and GeoNetwork: the LaMMA use case 
• DM shares an article from a Slashgeo editor, named Open Source Software and OGC Web Services: Life-saving Components in Québec’s Emergency and Disaster Management
• Geopaparazzi 2.5.0 has been released

Ogre is a web client (service) that translates spatial files into GeoJSON and now from GeoJSON using the ogr2ogr command line tool for use in JavaScript web applications and frameworks (like OpenLayers).  Built on NodeJS.

This release adds:

• Stability improvements/updated UI
• More format support
• Conversion from GeoJSON to Shapefile

[Editor's note: we introduced Ogre last year, another tool on the same theme is named OGR2GUI]

geojsp is a project developed by Inventis (inventis.ca) at the initiative of the UNHCR (unhcr.org).
geojsp is an opensource (GPL) component written in Java that adds geography to business intelligence systems.

With geojsp you can connect to a postgreSQL database containing geospatial features (with PostGIS), query the data via MDX queries and encode the geometries in GeoJSON format in order to display it in a OpenLayers web-mapping interface.

geojsp is compiled with the SOLAP server GeoMondrian in order to create MDX queries incorporating a spatial component. It also includes JFreeChart, a graphic generator used to display graphs superimposed on geographical elements.

You can download the application at http://geojsp.org