In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Cloud computing, the prevailing and rapidly emerging technology, has become mainstream in most of the industries. Developed by the Information Center, Ministry of The Interior, Taiwan Geospatial One-Stop (TGOS) is the portal which enables users to search, view, query, and access the geospatial data and the web services in Taiwan.

Serving as the geodatabase and web service provider, TGOS contains comprehensive query catalog, Metadata database of national spatial data, and web services, helping government, organizations, academic institutions, and citizens to find information like contents, data providers (departments), and usage limits of the required geodata through searching Metadata on TGOS.

The public spatial data in Taiwan are owned by different departments. To effectively lower the cost of repeated service maintenance of the systems for government institutes, TGOS Cloud is developed to collect, store, and process the spatial data from local governments and then publish diverse APIs such as TGOS MAP API to integrate with their own data.

The existing TGOS only served to collect spatial data and offer physical files. In response to the recent expansion of system requirements, TGOS Cloud aims to fully support the original systems, to demonstrate the functionality such as membership database, browsing authority of spatial data, and service registration management, and to enable users to integrate the spatial data that will be processed and served as APIs on the TGOS portal.

In this project, SuperGIS Server 3 allows TGOS users to create, manage and distribute spatial data as GIS services including map services, feature services, and OGC services and unify map tile types to reduce labor cost in data preparation for government departments. Moreover, the server GIS ensures that new GIS services can be overlaid with the existing ones and easily applied to various mobile applications using Map API.

TGOS MAP API is classified into five elements, including the basic and advanced Web-controllers, stacking for map elements, data structures, and other located services. Users can use frequently-used essential base maps and manipulation tools to display the map data.

TGOS Cloud provides end-users with the ability to query data or employ application with pre-generated base maps. By accessing the TGOS Cloud system for TGOS MAP API and Network Service, users can develop their own map services using TGOS MAP API and achieve seamless data fusion in TGOS database for Web GIS and Mobile GIS applications.

With the development of TGOS Cloud, it facilitates organizations to integrate and publish spatial data as diverse services via connecting with TGOS services. Consequently, users are not only able to apply Map API offered by TGOS Cloud to conduct various analyses such as route analysis and buffer analysis but also to effectively manage their map websites without paying huge costs to publish maps.

For more information about the application story, please visit http://www.supergeotek.com/Library_2_201305.aspx

For more product information about SuperGIS Server, please visit http://www.supergeotek.com/ProductPage_SGS3.aspx

The GeoTrellis team is very excited to announce the availability of GeoTrellis 0.8 (codename “Atlantis”), which is a major new release that is a huge step forward towards our goal of a general purpose, high performance geoprocessing library and runtime designed to perform and scale for the web.

As you delve into GeoTrellis 0.8 in more depth, here are some new features you may want to explore:

• A new suite of raster operations in the focal category of map algebra: http://geotrellis.github.com/operations/raster/focal.html
• Simplified raster rendering with a built-in suite of color ramps for data cartography: http://geotrellis.github.com/overviews/rendering.html
• Zonal summary (by feature) operations, including a caching mechanism for tiled rasters for improved performance: http://geotrellis.github.com/operations/raster/zonal.html
• New vector feature framework for operations on points, lines, polygons with a suite of vector operations, as well as re-engineered rasterization operations: http://geotrellis.github.com/overviews/vector.html and http://geotrellis.github.com/operations/feature.html

For more information, see the Azavea Labs blog here: http://www.azavea.com/blogs/labs/2013/03/geotrellis-0-8-has-arrived/

Introduction

OpenGeo has recently released OpenGeo Suite 3.0. Slashgeo sat down with Rolando Peñate, the Product Manager for the OpenGeo Suite, to discuss this new release. Here are the results of our interview:

Slashgeo: What are some of the most exciting features available in the OpenGeo Suite 3.0 release?

Rolando: We’re most excited about bringing spatial processing to the OpenGeo Suite. With processing, our customers can work with larger data and perform just-in-time analysis with fewer bottlenecks than with a desktop-based GIS workflow. We believe that exposing processing on the web will provide IT professionals the flexibility to solve unique problems in innovative ways—either by directly invoking existing WPS processes, writing new processes in common scripting languages, using rendering transformations to style data, or even in ways we haven’t yet considered.

OpenGeo Suite 3.0 adds the ability to perform spatial processes on the server and designates the server as the place where processes are defined. The OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) specification makes powerful processing tools available for broad consumption on the web. Combined with server-side scripting libraries, this makes it possible for web developers to create processes that perform complex analysis using familiar languages like Python or JavaScript. This enables IT professionals to build web applications that can run spatial processes on-the-fly against data from anywhere using standard web development practices.

One place we’ve implemented this is a prototype for the USGS National Hydrography Dataset that allows editing of data while validating against strict topology rules across multiple layers. Their current tools require up to six hours for a single edit, but our prototype drastically reduced the effort—down to about one minute—by using a web-based editor.

We are also working to make processing operations easier in browser-based visualizations. Rendering transformations enable just-in-time use of any WPS process as part of a layer’s style. The process is applied on-the-fly to transform the area being viewed, rather than the full data set (as it would with desktop based GIS), and provide immediate visual feedback. For example, NASA’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program leverages this feature for fast, dynamic presentation of interpolated surfaces derived from environmental measurements collected at schools around the world. Similarly, one could create topography maps in real-time by applying a process to a digital elevation model and defining a style for the resulting contour lines.

Slashgeo: How does OpenGeo Suite 3.0 measure up to comparable proprietary solutions?

Rolando: One of our goals for the OpenGeo Suite is to solve many of the same problems as proprietary solutions, though not necessarily by providing the same tools. Our product and proprietary solutions can both publish data from a variety of enterprise databases, including Oracle Spatial and Microsoft SQL Server. Both offer web services for querying and editing features, publishing and caching map tiles, and running processes on spatial data. Both provide tools for building web mapping applications or mobile applications.

The primary differences are in approach. While proprietary solutions use server-client architecture that’s been adapted to accommodate web services, the OpenGeo Suite was built for the web from the ground up and encompasses best practices from the IT field. Rather than build a kitchen sink product with many highly-specialized features, we focus on developing a powerful base of functionality and providing tools for building applications to solve specific problems. While traditional GIS requires ‘certified’ experts with extensive training to pull data into expensive desktop tools and provide derivative data, the OpenGeo Suite exposes similarly powerful functionality on the web in ways that are integrated with the tools that IT professionals use every day.

Slashgeo: How does cloud computing factor into OpenGeo’s plans for the future?

Rolando: Many of our customers already use our software in the cloud and we offer support for those who wish to deploy OpenGeo Suite on Amazon Web Services (AWS). As cloud computing steadily gains acceptance, we will continue to ensure that our products are reliable and scalable. We’re keen to expand these offerings so stay tuned and we’ll make sure to keep you updated on what we expect to do in the future.

Slashgeo: What major trends in the geospatial technology arena do you see developing in the next 5 years, and how will those trends impact OpenGeo?

Rolando: Much like how source code is managed with distributed version control, we anticipate a future where spatial data will live in a collaborative infrastructure that is able to track data’s origin and evolution. Although spatial data is really just one aspect of the greater information technology landscape for any given enterprise, it has traditionally been siloed and forced through specialized workflows. As with other types of ‘big data’, we foresee increased difficulty storing, managing, and maintaining spatial data across enterprises. Thanks in large part to the reactions to geospatial crowd-sourcing efforts like OpenStreetMap and Ushahidi, we see a significant shift in how geospatial data is conceived of, stored, and distributed.

Adopting the distributed version control model pioneered with source code will play a critical role in alleviating the difficulties that have historically plagued users of geospatial data. A distributed version control model can better address such problems as collaborating between users or organizations, maintaining authoritative data, and enabling offline, low-bandwidth, or intermittent connectivity. Just as access to source code enables a developer to change software by adding to or changing its functionality and appearance, access to underlying geospatial data enables cartographers and analysts to fix mistakes, conduct analysis and modeling, and update datasets. We foresee true collaboration around geospatial information having profound implications for users of geospatial data and have begun investing in solutions to support them.

Slashgeo: Is OpenGeo an example of a successful business model built around open source software? If so, what can other organizations learn from this business model?

Rolando: Given how much we’ve grown in the last several years we believe that a business built around open source software can not only succeed, but thrive. The appetite for open source software is growing; companies like RedHat and JBoss have proven that an open source development model does not inhibit growth, but can often enable it.

In a recent presentation at the Texas GIS forum, Paul Ramsey delivered a compelling introduction to open source and why it’s being adopted faster than ever. Among the many takeaways was the simple fact that startups love open source. Why? Because startups cannot afford artificial limits on their growth. While the cost of computing hardware falls every year, the cost of proprietary software licenses does not. If you’re using software licensed per CPU or core, the primary driver of scaling cost is software cost, and that math does not benefit the consumer. Larger enterprises are being strangled by the immense license costs they are being forced to pay year-over-year. Today we’re all expected to do more with less. With open source functionality meeting or exceeding proprietary solutions, license costs are quickly being targeted as an obvious way to cut costs.

While open source software lacks explicit license costs, all software has maintenance, operating and other related costs.  Unsupported open source software shifts these costs to the end user, which isn’t an issue if the end user or their enterprise has expertise in the relevant software and is willing to pay for support using staff time.  Commercial open source provides the option to save time and reduce direct labor costs by outsourcing maintenance and support to experts. OpenGeo steps in when enterprises lack the time, resources, or internal expertise to maintain open source software. OpenGeo’s mission is to lower costs while continually enhancing the functionality of open source, and our customers value that highly. We expand on these idea in our white paper, “The Value of the OpenGeo Suite”, which outlines our model and why it’s beneficial to all parties involved.

Conclusion

We appreciate the participation of OpenGeo, and of Rolando, in this interview. We hope you enjoyed reading it.

London - Zagreb, March 20 2012- GIS Cloud has announced they are re-shaping their service to better fit their users’ needs. GIS Cloud will be even easier to use, more cost efficient, provide more flexibility with a focus on solving particular users’ challenges. New solutions will be provided for organizations, governments, consultants and system integrators.

GIS Cloud says they are closely collaborating with their users to be able to better understand their needs and deliver better services. Having a modular and flexible service at their hand helps their users to:

• Cut unnecessary GIS software and IT costs
• Integrate GIS Cloud easily into existing work-flows and software setups
• Improve data exchange and management
• Reduce time to projects delivery

The new GIS Cloud offer is focused on reducing pain for many GIS professionals. This is mostly related to publishing data online, but also providing users with more cloud based geo applications and solutions.

The innovative HTML5 mapping engine released a few months ago has opened up new horizons and provided new ways of visualizing spatial data online. Publishing big data maps with several millions of features, rendered on the fly on a client, has opened up new possibilities.

For full information on the upcoming solutions take a look at GIS Cloud blog post.

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About GIS Cloud

GIS Cloud is a leading cloud platform delivering simple and easy to use geo applications and solutions. Company is focused on providing geo services for visualizing and publishing spatial data through its innovative HTML5 mapping technology.

The mission of GIS Cloud is not only to supplement desktop solutions, but to extend and enrich their capabilities through the potential cloud computing provides.

With a strong focus on using latest web and cloud technologies, company believes in moving traditional GIS industry into to the world of modern software.

Contact:

Dino Ravnic, co-founder and CEO
[email protected]
London - Zagreb

Cambridge, UK, 7th March 2012. Andrew Zolnai, an expert in GIS, has utilised Socium’s Online Validation Service (OVS) to automate the quality assurance process in his Medieval Fenlands wealth analysis project.  

The Medieval Fenlands Data is made up of base Ordnance Survey data and associated attribute information with the latter being populated through a manual process. To ensure the validity of the information being produced and therefore its value, a full data validation and correction process was required.

Andrew’s option for this validation was a manual inspection until learning about Socium’s OVS. By utilising a combination of standard rulesets and working with Socium to build specific validation rules, Andrew was able to automate the entire data validation process. This not only ensured the accuracy of the resulting changing wealth demographics, but as the OVS is cloud based there were no capex or infrastructure costs, a key aspect to Andrew when working within a limited budget.

The automation that the OVS provided Andrew meant that what would have been a lengthy quality assurance process was a simple and extremely time efficient activity. It also enabled Andrew to confidently publish his results on a number of online data sites.

Andrew Zolnai commented:

“Having been in this business for decades, I cannot see how data validation can be made any easier, while maintaining - indeed increasing - data integrity. I would highly rate the Online Validation Service and recommend other users of spatial data to get online and try the service out. If you have an issue or problem you are working with in a particular dataset, I would suggest getting in touch with them to see what rules they can create to help you overcome it.”

Duncan Guthrie, Managing Director, Socium said:

“We were delighted to work with Andrew to create the rules he needed to validate the data in his Medieval Fenlands GIS project. We offer the service of rule creation to all of our users and are very happy to hear about and help them with the many different challenges that they face with their spatial data. By creating the rules and adding them into the service, we are always making sure that our users are getting the best value and benefit from the service and would encourage anyone to get in touch with us that has a data challenge so that we can provide something that will quickly and easily be able to help them overcome it.”

For more information about the Online Validation Service or Socium in general, please visit: www.socium.co.uk

For more information about Andrew Zolnai’s Medieval Fenlands GIS project please read Andrew’s Blog at: http://blog.zolnai.ca/2011/12/on-line-spatial-data-validation-part-ii.html

About Socium Limited

Socium is a wholly owned subsidiary of 1Spatial Group Ltd. As a Software as a Service company it opens up the world of data quality to everyone by offering new, online data validation and management services in the cloud. By doing so Socium are embracing technology trends and eliminating the need for users to invest in software or infrastructure, whilst still benefiting from state of the art technology.

Socium’s first offering, the Online Validation Service, provides an independent, simple and easy to use way of validating data against a set of standard or user-defined business rules in seconds.

For more information, visit www.socium.co.uk

It’s no secret that many of the valuable benefits of GIS technology have proven elusive. And recently, amid the tough economy, staff reductions and budget cuts, GIS success has become a mission impossible for many municipalities. Fortunately, cloud computing holds the answer to many of government’s GIS, budget, and technology adoption difficulties.

Welcome to the Cloud GIS Era is an educational webinar presented by Digital Map Products that will cover recent developments in Cloud GIS, share real life examples of how cities are embracing and succeeding with this technology and provide tips for how to get started with the cloud.

Drawing on its more than a decade of experience delivering cloud-based GIS applications and geospatial data, Digital Map Products will highlight how GIS in the cloud can relieve overburdened IT staff, save money and resources, and increase citizen engagement. In addition, Cloud GIS best practices and product examples will be featured.

You can register for this webinar here: http://www.digmap.com/campaigns/CloudGISEra.html

We look forward to having you attend!

[Editor's note: while this may sound as an advertisement, the topics seems generic enough to be of interest to many of our users. Topics:

• Recent Developments in Cloud GIS
• How GIS is different (and better) in the cloud
• Real Life Cloud GIS Success Stories
• Tips to succeed with Cloud GIS]

The INTERGEO conference and trade fair is the world’s largest event for geodesy, geoinformation and land management. From September 27th through 29th, suppliers, practitioners and researchers from all over the world gather in Nuremberg to present and discuss current technological trends and practical developments.

At con terra’s partner booth (hall 7A booth: C39), 52°North presents state of the art Sensor Web technology supporting seamless integration of live sensor data into Spatial Data Infrastructures via OGC Sensor Observation Services. A suite of open source tools is available for easy and efficient visualization and analysis of time series information. Applications in water management, environmental monitoring and meteorology impressively vouch for the benefit of this innovative technology and point the way for other fields of application.

What is a process app? 52°North’s new WPS “Appstore” provides many advantages for users and providers of processes (e.g. hydrological models, EO algorithms or geostatistical functions). Come and see how you can choose a process appropriate for your needs from the Appstore, integrate it in your private WPS execution environment, and include the results in applications, such as ArcMap and Model Builder. Instead of bringing data to the algorithms, the algorithms now come to the data!

In addition, discover how to transform your existing IT infrastructure into a hybrid cloud and use commercial, public clouds, such as Amazon, as a back bone for peak demands to ensure availability and performance for your geoinformation services and applications, e.g. in the INSPIRE context. Or let us demonstrate how to implement the OSM2NetworkDataset process to create traffic networks from free OpenStreetMap geodata according to individual requirements. The results can then be used in network analysis.

Don’t miss our presentation at the INTERGEO Forum:

• Wednesday, September 28 th, 9:30 – 10:00: INSPIRE Quality of Service – master the demands with the “Cloud” {Anforderungen meistern mit Hilfe der ‚Cloud’}. Bastian Schäffer

52°North is an international Research and Development Network of partners from research, industry and public administration - an excellent address to emphasize the value of new technologies in the form of innovative solutions in practice.

Contact: Ann Hitchcock, 52°North, [email protected]

The Future of GIS is in the Cloud

In the past year we’ve seen Cloud Computing come on the scene in a big way, revolutionizing how local government implements and uses technology. GIS (Geographic Information System) has especially benefited, as the cloud removes many of its traditional challenges, making it more affordable, faster to deploy, more widely available, and easier to use. The cloud revolution is here and Cloud GIS is a must-have technology for cities of all sizes.

The future is clearly in cloud computing. Municipalities who’ve adopted Cloud GIS find relief for their overburdened IT staff, constrained budgets and technology adoption woes, and even experience increased citizen engagement. Cloud GIS lets local governments realize many of the long-promised benefits of GIS that have largely remained elusive.

If you’d like to learn how to leverage cloud technologies and heighten your GIS success then be sure to attend our information-packed session “The Cloud Revolution: Transforming GIS for Local Government” at the ICMA Conference in Milwaukee. We’ll arm you with the latest developments in Cloud GIS, illustrate how the City of San Juan Capistrano, California embraced this transformative technology and provide tips for how you can get started with the cloud.

For more information about our presentation & the ICMA visit: http://www.digmap.com/campaigns/CityGISatICMA.html

If you're unable to make it to our presentation at ICMA you can still learn about the latest Cloud GIS tips and trends by watching our recent webinar, "Cloud GIS: The New Rules for GIS Success". Don't miss this great opportunity to learn more about this transformative technology.

Position: Level 2 - Customer Support Lead

Company Description:

Digital Map Products (www.digmap.com) has an immediate opening for a Level 2 Technical Support Analyst.  Digital Map Products is a fast-paced and growing company in Irvine, CA who is leading the next generation of embedded Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the preeminent pioneer in integrating land-related information into a single visual map-based interface.

Candidate Description:

As Digital Map Products’ (DMP) Customer Support Lead, the position will play a critical role in the success our clients have with our product and services.   

Our products are used by a wide range of users in both public and private enterprises.  As a result of our growth, we have created this position to ensure that our clients are able to get the most out of our service.

Primary Job Description:

• Personally handle customer account issues via both phone and email, as well as escalate when necessary.
• Manage the efforts of the company’s Customer Success Team resources to ensure that customers are retained and satisfied. 
• Implement improved process and/or operational policies. 
• Recommend changes to products, services and documentation to fulfill customer needs.
• Provide high level training to users on our DMP Products
• Monitor the department’s key metrics and drive continuous improvement.
• Develop and maintain a proactive and productive working relationship with the company’s sales, product development, and engineering teams.
• Assist in software testing efforts.

Prerequisite Knowledge:

• Best Practices for customer service and training.
• Familiarity and experience with MS CRM software.
• Basic GIS knowledge.
• IT experience or skill is highly desired.

Skill Set:

• Proven self starter
• Self-directed contributor to a high-performance team.
• Analytical thinker.
• Possess a high level of verbal and written communication, presentation, and critical thinking skills.
• Demonstrate the highest level of professionalism.
• Comfortable dealing high volume contact with customers.
• Highly motivated and dynamic.
• Ability to set priorities, manage a varied and heavy workload, and work extended hours to support project timelines is a must.

Other Information:

• Growth opportunities.
• No travel anticipated.
• Reports to Customer Success Manager.
• Business casual environment.

Email your resume to [email protected]

In today's world of in-demand location technologies, no real estate site would be complete without mapping. Because this technology’s rapidly evolving, it’s critical to stay abreast of best practices and the latest features users are requesting so your mapping advantage doesn’t turn into a mapping faux pas.

We invite you to join us for a complimentary webinar where you'll learn all of the information you need to succeed with mapping, improve your user experience, and make your site stand out using location technologies. Plus, we’ll share with you secrets to make mapping much easier to implement, maintain, and use.

Event Details:

• What: Complimentary Educational Webinar
• When: Wednesday August 3, 2011 10AM – 11AM PST
• Topics:
  • Tips and success stories from industry leaders
  • Mapping faux pas to avoid on your site
  • Why real estate sites need mapping
  • How to make location tech easier to implement, maintain & use

Follow this link to register: http://www.spatialstream.com/microsite/MappingTaboos.html