In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's recent geospatial open source software releases. All minor but welcomed updates.

• QGIS 1.7.1 released, to be honest, I only recently started using QGIS for real work, and I've been impressed by the advanced features that worked flawlessly (but I wasn't impressed by the user documentation though) 
• GeoServer 2.1.2 released, mostly a bugfix release, here's previous recent GeoServer news
• GEOS 3.3.1 released, GEOS is the C port of the JTS and incorporated into many other geospatial open source projects, see this previous story
• GeoTools 2.7.3 released, that too, a maintenance release

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the open source front:

• Wonder where GeoTools is? Here's the Status of GeoTools presentation from FOSS4G 2011
• Here's about Metatools, a metadata management plugin for QGIS, now at version 0.2
• Here's the GeoServer Aggregating DataStore, enabling the republication from several data sources, including remote ones
• The slides and videos of OpenStreetMap's State of the Map 2011 conference are now available
• Sean Gillis' at it again, he started a new project called Fiona, an OGR API which wants to be "a clear alternative to the complex layers and cursors and fussy geometry objects of OGR and ArcPy"
• Ok, not directly geospatial, but Gource is the nicest tool to visualize source code changes I've seen yet (works with Git, SVN and others), and here it is showing the changes in QGIS from version 1.6 to 1.7

On the Esri front:

• ArcGIS Explorer Build 1750 is now available
• Mandown summarizes what’s new on ArcGIS Online for September 2011
• There's also an ArcGIS API for iOS 2.01 update for those developing with iOS 5 and another one for ArcGIS API For JavaScript 2.5
• Here's the Best Practices For Using Custom State Highway Shields In ArcGIS

In the everything-else category:

• Here's another entry on the New KML features in Google Earth 6.1
• Iran is releasing Basir, a Google Earth competitor, to counter Google's cultural aggression 
• Microsoft has an entry on the recent updates to Bing Maps: REST API, AJAX Control v7, and Account Center
• We mentioned a few times vertical datums, via Kurt, now NOAA is releasing VDatum, "designed to vertically transform geospatial data among a variety of tidal, orthometric and ellipsoidal vertical datums"
• That's how far sensors can go, millions of geolocated seismic sensors wirelessly connected for oil and gas exploration by Shell and HP
• V1 mentions a comprehensive guide on 3D spatial relationships
• Here's a Maperitive tutorial for Generating OSM Map For Adobe Illustrator
• In the neverending series of cellphone tracking, Slashdot discusses a story named Surveillance Case May Reveal FBI Cellphone Tracking Techniques
• And regarding car tracking Slashdot offers another story named Canberra Police Want Drones To Track Cars
• In the trivia category, Slashdot discusses a story named Swedish Daycare Tracks Kids With GPS Devices

In the maps category:

• O'Reilly mentions the Global Adaptation Index map, which "rates a given country's vulnerability to environmental shifts precipitated by climate change, its readiness to adapt to such changes, and its ability to utilize investment capital that would address the state of those vulnerabilities"
• V1 shares a map of the gas infrastructures in Europe

Still in catch up mode, here's the last three weeks of geospatial open source news in batch mode.

• Of huge pertinence to the geospatial open source and open data communities, the FOSS4G 2011 and State of the Map conferences are set to being in a few days. If you're in the Denver area and still hesiting, don't, they are really worth. I'll have to miss them myself this year, but Slashgeo's editor Nicolas Gignac will be attending and provide coverage.
• Directions Mag share an interview with Peter Batty on what to expect at FOSS4G 2011
• Another recent article at DM is named Open Source Licensing: Risk and Opportunity, risks related to intellectual property and governance
• Sextante, the open source spatial java data analysis library, can now work in ArcGIS, and run SAGA and GRASS GIS in ArcGIS via Sextante, and why not, use Sextante algorithms in ArcGIS Model Builder
• PostGIS's Paul Ramsey continues to share insightful comments in an entry named Open source is not free (as in beer) ...
• Users of Autodesk's MapGuide Open Source will be happy to know MapGuide Maestro 3.5 has been released. We already know that MapGuide Maestro 4.0 is introducing 'Local Conneciton Mode'
• V1 mentions updates to the open source multi-modal routing software OpenTripPlanner, which now supports Canada, Poland, India, Spain, Ireland, and Israel (we covered OpenTripPlanner in May 2005) 
• Tim links to a generic article on Quantum GIS in the GeoInformatics magazine, and here's a tip on modifying SVG symbols in QGIS
• Here's an entry on getting GPS data (GPX format) into SpatiaLite, either from QGIS, CSV or OGR
• Here's web-based PostGIS geometry and raster viewer, no need to install anything
• GeoServer now has extensions to monitor and audit your GeoServer installation

Having two daughters at home does require a lot of energy! That's why this edition of the 'pertinent geonews in batch mode' covers the last two weeks.

On the open source front:

• A new GeoServer 2.1 workshop is freely available
• From the OSGeo-discuss list, I learned about Open Indicators Consortium's Weave (in beta), an open source visualization environment supporting geography
• The MapFish Framework version 2.2 has been released
• ImageI/O-Ext 1.1.0 has been released
• uDig gets its plugin Image Georeferencing View at version 1.0
• The Orfeo ToolBox 3.10 and Monteverdi 1.8 have been released
• GeoTools 2.7.2 has been released

On the Google front:

• Google their biggest ever update of Street View imagery, available for 13 countries: Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
• Google added lots of oblique 45 degrees imagery to Google Maps
• If you visited Google Maps, you probably noticed the new interface

On the Microsoft front:

• Microsoft announced that Bing Maps unveiled exclusive high res imagery with Global Ortho Project
• They also offer a new Microsoft Local Impact Map
• Their dev tip is Uploading Excel Data to the Bing Spatial Data Services

In the miscellaneous category:

• Via AGISRS, I learned about the charter edition of LiDAR Magazine is available free online
• Via email, I learned about the new online SDI Magazine, SDI meaning spatial data infrastructure in this context
• Regarding MapQuest, you can save maps and directions to your mobile and you can now add your business to MapQuest
• APB mentions TimeClock for iPhone, an app that logs your time spent at a specific location, such as work 
• MacRumors details the diverses mapping companies for iOS 5 in an entry named Evidence in iOS 5 that Apple is Building Its Own Mapping Solution
• Via a Twitter friend, I tried Rome's '3 Dreams of Black' interactive 3D music "video" in WebGL, reminiscent of Arcade Fire's interactive Google Maps / StreetView video

Slashdot ran a couple of geo-related discussions:

• Supreme Court To Weigh In On Warrantless GPS Tracking
• Tracking Bracelets for Autistic Kids and Senior Citizens
• Franken Bill Would Protect Consumers Location Data
• Weather satellites are losing funding

In the maps category:

• TMR shows a map of the increase of the new Normal Temperatures, years 1971-2000 vs 1981-2010, for the U.S., scary
• The same site mentions ESA's map of of the Arctic Sea Ice
• MapTogether mentions Mapnificent, allowing you to learn how far you can go from a certain point in a certain time using public transit

The GeoServer team is happy to announce the release of GeoServer 2.1.1.  This release is primarily a bug fixing release, with patches and enhancements submitted from many users.  The GeoServer development team would like to thank the contributors for their development efforts, the users for their feedback and the companies the provided sponsorship to implement new features and bug fixes.  In particular, we would like to thank the following contributors whose patches have been included in this release:

• Rudi Hochmeister for improvements to our logging configuration and documentation.
• Gianna Barrotta, Andrea Di Nora and Pietro Arena for the addition of three new WPS processes.
• Robert Coup for efforts to bring KML and GeoRSS formats in line with normal URL-assembling practises.
• Matt Bertrand for adding character set support for to uploads.

Thanks also go to LISAsoft for sponsoring this release.

--
The GeoServer Team

Here's the geonews in batch mode, covering a bit more than a week (exception made of a few minor geonews I forgot to mention in our last 'batch mode' edition).

On the open source / data front:

• A new MapGuide Instant Setup utility has been introduced
• Here's a detailed entry on scale-dependent generalization in PostGIS and QGIS
• Here's an entry on time and elevation support in GeoServer
• If you're new to OpenStreetMap or want to introduce new people, here's OpenStreetMap editing for beginners videos
• Plenty geoblogs mentioned the Magicshop Frontdoor (Beta) tool, with which you can easily improve address search results for Bing Maps and OpenStreetMap

On the Google front:

• Ogle Earth mentions Google JV applied for online mapping license in China
• Ogle Earth also mentions the constraints on high-resolution satellite imagery of Israel in Google Earth/Maps
• There's New Building Maker cities available in Argentina and Canada
• Google unveiled the new My Places tab on Google Maps, "which helps you quickly view and interact with your saved maps, starred locations, and rated businesses"
• ​They also introduced descriptive terms in Local Search results
• The GEB mentions the Touristo and Skydiver games for Google Earth
• Some readers like to know when there's new imagery available in Google Earth, well, there is 

On the Microsoft front:

• An entry on The Value of Bing Maps Spatial Data Services

In the miscellaneous category:

• Mapperz informs us of the Yahoo! Maps APIs Service Closure, due 13th September 2011     
• James Fee summarizes What Was Up at the Pitney Bowes Business Insights Conference, with news of MapInfo 11, and APB has more on MapInfo Spatial Server
• APB shares a long article named Intergraph and ERDAS: From GeoMedia to IMAGINE-The Big and Little Picture for this Geospatial Marriage, Spatial Sustain also shares an entry on the same topic, named Intergraph ‘Reinforces the House’ Under Hexagon
• A study concludes that Schematic Transit Maps Affect Passengers' Travel Choices
• Slashdot discussed a story named New Projects Use Phone Data To Track Big Cities' Mass Transit Use
• Slashdot also offers a story named NASA's Aquarius Launched To Help Map the Oceans' Salt
• Still from the same site, we learn the Nissan LEAF Leaks Speed & Location To RSS Feed
• And last story from that site, if you're interested in tools to map wifi networks, this discussion named What's Killing Your Wi-Fi? will interest you

In the maps category:

• The Strange Maps blog offers maps of the U.S. States, with what they do best and worse, worth a quick look of you're American
• Slashdot mentions a map of the Universe called the 2MASS Redshift Survey
• Not a geographic map, but O'Reilly has an article on generating a map of your LinkedIn contacts with InMaps, I found the result pretty interesting

Here's the geonews in batch mode, covering the last two weeks, and thus, longer than usual. But first, a quick note to let you know that we updated our open budget after the last donation from WebMapSolutions.com.

From the open source front:

• Quantum GIS is being ported to Android tablets
• Here's SpatiaLite for Android smarphones
• The Java Topology Suite (JTS) is being ported to JavaScript as JSTS
• Paul Ramsey shared his PgCon notes #1 and notes #2, from a PostGIS developer perspective
• We mentioned a few times the 'PostGIS in Action' book, here's a new review from Geoweb Guru this time. Here's the book on Amazon: 
  PostGIS in Action
• We also previously mentioned OpenLayers 2.10, a Beginner's Guide, here's a new review from James Fee, here's the book on Amazon:
  OpenLayers 2.10 Beginner's Guide
• MapGuide Maestro 3.1 has been released, along with its SDK
• Here's about Turning GeoServer into an ImageServer
• EasySDI V2 is now available

From the Google front:

• Today Google announced Google Wallet, enhancing mobile payments with smartphones
• Google Maps 5.5 for Android has been released
• The new Google Correlate tool supports geographic data as input

From the Esri front:

• SS offers a sneak peek at ArcGIS 10.1 improvements
• Via APB, ESRI offers a Live Severe Weather Map
• SS also has an entry named Jack Dangermond Addresses the Origins and Future of GIS
• The latest Arc2Earth allows you to legally use Google Earth imagery in ArcMap
• ArcGIS API for JavaScript 2.3 is now available

In the miscellaneous category:

• APB shares an Oracle Spatial User Conference 2011 Wrap Up and two related entries named Oracle Spatial Clients Have ‘‘Big Data’’ Issues and Oracle Exadata Database Machine the Focus of Oracle Spatial User Conference
• V1 reports on the CNN and Nokia Partner to Map More News and informs us the Ovi Maps brand has died in favor of the Nokia Services name
• MapTogether mentions the Stats America data portal
• James Fee recap GIS on the BlackBerry Playbook tablet from WebMapsSolutions
• APB offers three updates on LightSquared GPS jamming
• MapQuest integrated gas prices in their main maps
• The GEB has an entry on Pix4D, turning 2D aerial photos in 3D
• Here's the track of a tornado seen by the ASTER satellite and from GeoEye

Recent geo-related stories discussed over Slashdot:

• Wikipedia Edits Around the World and Places With the Most Wikipedia Articles
• "Space Archeology" Uncovers Lost Pyramids
• 3D Aerial Photos For the Common Man
• From Austria, the World's Smallest 3D Printer
• Hack Targets NASA's Earth Observation System
• How Companies Are Using Data From Foursquare

In the maps category:

• Ok, not exactly a map, but this world countries OCDE Better Life Index is still pretty and interesting, and you can specify what matters to you and see the matching countries (via IiB)

One of the most popular and mature open source web mapping server just got better, GeoServer 2.1.0 has been released.

From the announcement: "The release of a new major version update is a big deal (the last one was 18 months ago), and while we’ve talked about all of the new features that have been incrementally showing up, let’s put them all together here in one place:"

• WMS Cascading
• Virtual Services
• Layers from SQL
• Web Processing Service (WPS)
• Unit of Measure
• DPI Scaling
• Graphical File/Directory Chooser
• Core improvements to support a database-backed catalog
• Font Improvements
• Upgrade to Spring Security 2.0.6
• WCS Limits
• WMS 1.3.0
• SLD 1.1 / SE 1.1 enhancements
• GeoWebCache Integration
• Improvements to RESTConfig
• Improved Raster Reprojection Performance
• WCS Request Builder
• Run multiple GeoServer instances from a single data directory
• Tons of bug fixes

I just copied the paragraph titles. Please head to the announcement entry to learn more about all of these new features.

Here's the recent geospatial open source / data news for the last 8 days or so.

On geospatial open source:

• The Autodesk-supported web mapping software MapGuide Open Source 2.2 was released
• Here's a preview of GeoRepository, and advanced authorization manager for GeoServer and the new GeoServer-Manager, a simple Java client library for GeoServer
• OpenGeo introduced the OpenGeo Gallery, to answer the question 'who uses the open source software that OpenGeo supports'
• There's the first release of Image Georeferencing View for uDig 1.2.1
• GeoTools has a new User Guide and so does Sextante GIS
• Shapely 1.2.10 has been released

On open geospatial data, mostly OpenStreetMap:

• We mentioned the book last September, and now Geoweb Guru offers a review of the book 'OpenStreetMap: Using and Enhancing the Free Map of the World'. From the review: "Due to the overview nature of a wide range of different applications and projects, it is likely that quite a bit of the book will become out of date quite quickly. It is also likely that the data model will evolve."
• Here's an entry on directions (and correcting erroneous routing behavior) with OpenStreetMap
• Spatial Sustain shares a perspective asking Is Open Location the Next Open?
• Here's a screenshot of JOSM on a tablet

The new version of AcidMaps has been released with a great change, it works as a Geoserver plugin.

That means you can use your own configured WMS layers to build Heatmaps, Isolines and other interpolated maps ON THE FLY!

For who doesn't know about AcidMaps:

• AcidMaps is an open source library that generates interpolated images from a set of valued points in real time.
• It's can be used to generate advanced visualizations with point datasets: (e.g.: sales, temperature, atmospheric pressure, population, etc...)

You can see a full demo built using Flex/OpenScales where you can play with the parameters to see different results.

If you want to give it a try with you own data, take a look to the Quick Start instructions, it is really simple!

There's a reference doc where you can get more details.

Please, let us know your opinion because it's still in beta and your experience will be very helpful.