In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

InfoQ have published a talk by Gary Gale (@vicchi) called "The Ubiquitous Digital Map (Abridged)" giving a half hour potted history of the digital map. Worth a watch (but not as full screen as you'll miss the slides!) as knowing where we came from might help to understand where we are going.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the Apple front:

• iOS's Find My Friends Gains Customizable Geofences, letting you know when friends are nearby or warning you when kids arrive at home
• Catching up, Apple Expands 'Maps Ground Truth' Hiring to Rest of the World
• Japan? Apple Releases iOS 6.1.3 With Japanese Maps Enhancements

In the everything else category:

• Another interesting entry from Brian Timoney, Your Online Map Is Missing Half Its Audience: More Revealing Web Analytics From the Field
• An interesting short entry on the future of Esri, LA Times Travel Section Interview with Jack Dangermond
• Some of you will be interested in the Ten Things GIS Users Need to Know about GitHub
• Via OR, that's remote sensing, Millimetre-Accuracy 3D Imaging From 1km Away
• Here's an entry on How NASA uses Google Earth
• A new website, TeachGIS: Resources for and by GIS Instructors
• OpenStreetMap's iD editor gets drag and drop GPX support
• If you do surveying Kurt invites us to look at Trey's TrailScribe
• Interesting, Neighborhoods are Just Predefined Geofences
• To be honest, I did not know who was John Snow, Lessons from the ghost of John Snow: "demonstrating one of the first applications of spatial analysis to detect the cholera outbreak in London in 1854"
• The Economist shares an article on MapBox's web mapping offers
• A Slashdot discussion on How To Stay Ahead of Phone Tracking ?
• Another from the same source, virtual reality? USC Launches 3-D Printed VR Headset Library
• An O'Reilly article on the use of sensors for news reporting
• Stamen teams up with Nokia to show their HERE 3D data
• Bentley is doing well, summary at Bentley 2012 Annual Update
• Wonder about Autodesk? Autodesk Rebrands and Launches InfraWorks for Civil Design
• Forcing geospatial knowledge into workers, U.S. DOT To Require GPS Training for New Commercial Truckers

In the maps category:

• GeoCurrent offers many new informative maps:
  • Maps of Global alcohol consumption
  • Maps of Global Geography of Meat (and Fish) Consumption
  • Maps of cheese production and consumption
  • And why not, the Global Geography of Milk Consumption and Lactose (In)Tolerance
  • On Egypt and the World Diesel Price Map
  • A Map of The Countries That Are Most and Least Welcoming to Foreigners
• Via APB, 28,000 rivers wiped off the map of China
• Here's a funny map of all subways of North America
• As a bonus for reading up to here, you have to see this remote sensing 1-minute video of the Arctic / Beaufort Sea February-March 2013 1000-km ice fracture: "While fracturing events are common, few events sprawl across such a large area or produce cracks as long and wide as those seen here." Look at a map of North Alaska first to understand the scope of this.

This is our last batch-mode edition of the year - happy holiday break to everyone!

From the open source / data front:

• MapBox share an interesting entry named The Trouble with Geoportals: "Heavy interface-driven sites based on predetermined data acquisition processes are a key part of a local, state, and national spatial and open data infrastructures, but they do not make open data open and accessible to all."
• Here's a nice demo of OpenLayers 3, read the associated discussion
• Here's news of the QGIS Globe and PostGIS 3D with a video demo
• Here's an entry on how the LGPL license of geospatial software is completely destroying iOS adoption of open source geospatial software
• Here's about the version 1.8.0 release of Libspatialindex (which switches from LGPL to MIT) 
• And Jeff McKenna is the new OSGeo president
• Here's an article on Vizzuality, the makers of CartoDB

From the Esri front:

• Here's a summary of Whats New in ArcGIS Online (December 2012): "This is major update, with new capabilities for authoring web maps, publishing hosted services, sharing, and configuring ArcGIS Online organizations."
• DigitalGlobe Imagery for the United States and Western Europe added to the Esri's World Imagery map
• If you're eager to know, here's What’s coming in the next update of the ArcGIS SDK for Android?

From the Google front:

• Obligatory, Christmas Trees in Google Earth and Street View
• Interesting, Using Google Earth to teach math
• Google shared tips for getting the most from Google Maps on iPhone
• Apparently, the iOS version of the Google Maps app might violate EU privacy laws
• Here's what Google Earth looks like on the Nexus 10
• Here's the Google entry on the Count down to Christmas Eve with Google Santa Tracker
• It's the end of the world right? Predicting volcanic ash with Google Earth
• That's not a reason for not providing New Google Imagery - December 17

In the remote sensing category:

• If you have an iOS device, don't miss ESA's 'Earth from Space: the Living Beauty' free book: "The digital publication has over 100 pages with interactive maps, stunning image galleries and animations that encourage you to discover the various Earth processes. "
• Name change, Copernicus is the new name for European Earth Observation Programme
• Here's a discussion on How to build a microsatellite

In the miscellaneous category:

• Know the WMS standard? Here's a pertinent entry named Don't "upgrade" to WMS 1.3.0 unless you really have to, stick to 1.1.1
• Here's a pertinent entry on GIS user interfaces and how bad they are
• Here's the Directions Mag summary of A Day at Nokia’s U.S. Headquarters
• While they can't do it anymore with a GPS device, the U.S. government can use location data from cell towers in order to track suspects without a warrant

In the maps category:

• Here's an Interactive map of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the Esri front:

• An interesting entry on Designing the next generation of online Topographic Maps
• There's an ArcGIS Online World Topographic Map New Design which includes High-resolution imagery for South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Afghanistan
• The 2012/2017 Esri U.S. Demographic Data Release

On the web maps front:

• We mentioned it before, and here's more details on JS.geo 2013: A Meeting of Javascript Mappers in Denver
• There's a new site to give you Instant Google Street View (direct link)... worth trying, it's really fast
• Also Google-related, the GEB talks about GPS4Sport that combines GPS with Video and Google Earth
• On Apple Maps
  • Rumors of OS X 10.9 to Include Siri and Maps Integration
  • A lot of geoblogs mentioned that Apple axed the head of its mapping team, Richard Williamson (more here)
• Microsoft added New Imagery Added to Windows 8 Maps App & Bing Maps
• The MapBox iOS SDK hits version 0.5.0
• Two weeks ago, TomTom launched its SDK for LBS Apps, including maps, geocoding, routing, traffic

In the miscellaneous category:

• Launched less than 10 days ago, MarineRegions.org, "towards a global standard of georeferenced marine names" (via Kurt)
• A slashdot story named French Company Building a Mobile Internet Just For Things
• While 3D printing have most of its applications outside of geospatial, I found interesting that it's really going mainstream as demonstrated by Staples To Offer 3D Printing Services, an O'Reilly story named Printing ourselves, the state of 3D Printing Patent Suits (via OR), and yes, you can 3D-print your own drone
• More news about drones:
  • The Make magazine offers a gift guide for aerial drones (via OR)
  • But beware, High Levels of Burnout in US Drone Pilots (via OR)
• VerySpatial offers an entry on Forensic GIS and the Role of Geospatial Technologies for Investigating Crime and Providing Evidence
• Apparently, there's Nokia offline maps available in Firefox OS (alpha)
• If you're excited by OGC standards
  • There's the development of an international standard for 4D archaeological data
  • And soon, Augmented Reality Standard ARML 2.0 in its Final Stage
• If you're in the U.S., you'll be interested by the GAO Report on Federal Geospatial Data Coordination
• You wonder about earth observation satellites from Russia? Here's news about the Resurs-P with 3-m hyperspectral capabilities and other Russian satellites
• As part of Autodesk University, you'll find the Autodesk CEO saying “I do believe that everything is moving to the cloud.” and an entry indicating that Autodesk's future is in the cloud

In the maps category:

• Interesting maps, U.S. Geography of Personality: The United States of Mind

A week ago Nokia announced the HERE brand, and today unsurprisingly Nokia launched the free mapping alternative for iOS: 'HERE Maps'. Get the HERE Maps app here.

From MacRumors: "Features include: 

• Map views – Pick the map you need from map view, live traffic view, public transport line view or satellite view 
• Save map areas & wander without data coverage 
• Maps, search and place coverage for nearly 200 countries 
• Step-by-Step voice-guided walk navigation 
• Walk navigation through pedestrian routes, parks, alleyways, and more 
• Public transportation and driving directions"

MacRumors also quotes The Verge's review: "Obviously this is Nokia's first stab at an iOS client for its new mapping service, and in many ways it's more functional than Apple's native Maps client, but for now, many of the additional features don't work as well as they ought to."

MacRumors report that Nokia will Launch a Free Maps App with Offline Mode and Transit Directions for iOS.

From MacRumors: "Nokia today announced an expansion of its mapping services, launching a new "HERE" brand for the products and announcing that it will be introducing a new iOS mapping app in the coming weeks. [...] Based on HTML5, it will include offline capabilities, voice-guided walk navigation, and public transport directions. The application is scheduled to be available for free download from Apple's App Store in the coming weeks."

Here's the recent Directions Magazine articles I found interesting and that I wanted to share:

• Here's an excellent Q&A named Digging into the Open Source Geospatial Software and OpenGeo Suite 3.0, we're getting less and less good reasons not to consider open source geospatial solutions
• You have to deal with Oracle? Read this, Nokia, Oracle Create Tighter Integration between Nokia Location Platform (NLP) and Oracle Fusion Middleware
• Interesting if your into forest fires; Detection and Monitoring of Wildfires by a Constellation of Small Satellites with Infrared Sensor Systems
• An article on CityGML and The Netherlands’ Open 3D Modelling Standard: Building the Open 3D Information Infrastructure
• For US readers (and others), here's A Brief History of Red and Blue on U.S. Elections Maps

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode, covering a way too long time-span.

On the open source / open data front:

• GeoWeb Guru reviews the OpenLayers Cookbook by Antonio Santiago Perez: "The book is formatted as a series of 60 'recipes' that demonstrate how to perform various tasks." And here's another review on the same book.
• Some Province of Quebec open geodata and public WMS layers (in French)
• There was some OSGeo-Incubators announcements, the ZOO-Project, Opticks, OGC TEAM Engine and the Marble Virtual Globe are all part of the OSGeo incubation now
• The Cartaro CMS in now available as beta
• GeoTools 8.2 has been released
• Here's how to create a nice seafloor map using shaded relief and open source software

On the Esri front:

• Several sources pointed to the ArcGIS Online Service Credits Estimator

On the Microsoft front:

• For those interested, Bing Maps SDKs for Windows Store Apps Now Available

Geo-related stories discussed over Slashdot:

• Nokia Keeps Quietly Mapping The World
• The Case That Apple Should Buy Nokia
• 3D input device: Microsoft's Hand-Gesture Sensor Bracelet
• And Microsoft Patents 1826 Choropleth Map Technique
• Image classification crowdsourcing: ForestWatchers Lets Anyone Monitor A Patch of Forest
• LightSquared Wants To Share Weather-Balloon Frequencies for LTE
• An academic Android trojan that take pictures of your home and more, PlaceRaider Builds a Model of Your World With Smartphone Photos
• Can Foursquare Data Predict Where You Live?
• That candy bar that tracks you, Nestle's GPS Tracking Candy Campaign

More on Apple Maps from MacRumors and APB:

• Apple's 3D Maps and Imagery See Incremental Improvements
• Apple Turning to Select Retail Store Employees to Help Improve Maps for iOS 6
• Insiders Detail Steve Jobs' Role in Apple's Mapping Effort
• APB tells us Why is the Press Still Talking About Apple Maps

In the miscellaneous category:

• O'Reilly warns us of drones for warfare
• Yes, Wearable LIDAR Sensors for Mapping (via OR)
• APB informs us of MyDigitalGlobe cloud service to make DigitalGlobe imagery more discoverable with OGC catalog services (CWS): "A unique feature of the service is that alerts can be set to notify a user when a new image is added to the library of a specific area of interest."
• For those in hydrography, look at the U.S. National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2

In the maps category:

• It's worth taking a look at the Information is Beautiful Awards Winners, it's not all maps, but still pretty
• Via Mapperz, here's the CEC North American Environmental Atlas which is actually pretty interesting
• A Google Maps of Ancient Rome, via OR
• Here's a map of the The World’s Most Expensive Cities

That's the name of a Slashdot discussion, Nokia Bets Big On Mapping.

Their summary: "Nokia and Oracle have joined forces on mapping, with details of the deal to be announced at the Oracle OpenWorld conference. To differentiate its smartphones from the competition, Nokia is betting big on location as well as imaging technology. Oracle is expected to add Nokia's mapping technology to its applications. Part of Nokia's location strategy is signing deals for the use of its Navteq mapping technology with as many companies as possible. Besides the deal with Oracle, Nokia has recently announced contracts with car makers BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Korean Hyundai, which will all use Navteq map data in some of their vehicles. Garmin will also start using Nokia data on transit services and walking routes to power a new Urban Guidance feature, which will be available as part of its Navigon app for Android and iOS. Nokia's most important partner on navigation, though, is Microsoft. All smartphones based on Windows Phone 8 will have Nokia's Drive application as standard, while Microsoft's Bing Maps geographical search engine uses Nokia data."

Here's the recent Esri-related geonews. Last week was the 2012 Esri International User Conference, we already mentioned the launch of Esri Maps for Microsoft Office.

• Prior to the conference, Esri shared a very long list of Q&A: "We do this every year to keep you informed on our efforts in software development, products, education, and support; future plans in these areas; and thoughts on GIS and the industry as a whole." Since the document is very long, APB graciously shared a useful entry named Digging into the Esri UC 2012 Q & A. James took the challenge of providing funny answers.

• The Esri UC 2012 Plenary Session Videos are already available

• Mandown provided several related entries:
  • The Top 10 Productivity Improvements In ArcGIS 10.1, the first 3: Sharing, Improved Server Functionality and Performance Improvements

  • Esri And Microsoft To Provide Online Maps And Applications During Disasters

  • ArcGIS For Local Government 10.1 Now Available

• Directions Magazine also share several related entries:
  • A list of pre-conference summits links
  • Nokia Location & Commerce and Esri completed a deal for Location Intelligence
  • An APB entry named ArcGIS Online is Not the Answer to Every Question, James has a related entry I still don't know what ArcGIS Online is
  • An informative entry named Takeaways from Esri UC 2012
  • Here's a summary of Dangermond on Executives Empowering Executives
• It was published as a press release (but it's not one), information on the Advanced Utility Network Analyst (AUNA) extension