In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

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It's Friday, here's your dose of geonews in batch mode. Expect more next week (I failed to share everything in the queue for this week).

On the Google front, they added 18 new countries where you'll get driving directions: "Albania, Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, French Polynesia, Guam, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, New Caledonia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam." They done this thanks to user contributions to Google Map Maker, a direct competitor of OpenStreetMap.org.

It seems there's also new imagery added to Google Earth and Milan and Miami now in Google Building Maker.

There's a Google patent regarding replacing billboards ads in StreetView with their own ads.

Here's two summary entries on the GeoDesign Summit, one from James Fee and the other from Directions Mag: " I like that it is very distinctly not "just" putting dots/lines/polygons on the map and analyzing them; it's aimed at redefining those dots/lines/polygons toward a better world. I like that it stretches how we visualize and share our output (3D, physical models) and pushes us to reconsider methods for input (sketching, melding clay, drawing in charcoal pencil). I like that it reaches out to the design community, a community to which many involved in geospatial have little exposure." Here's the Geodesign wikipedia entry.

The high spatial resolution satellite DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 is now fully operational.

Here's an entry on how you can build interactive 3D models on an iPhone yourself.

Edmonton (Canada) opened up its City data, most of it is geospatial data.

With the quantity of remote sensing data now available, including from drones, the U.S. military can't handle it all.

In the FOSS4G front, to me, these geotagging photos with FOSS steps are a demonstration that in some (some!) cases, geospatial open source is lagging behind in terms of user friendliness.

On the Maps front, here's a before-after comparison of OpenStreetMap contributions to the Haiti disaster response. See also previous Haiti earthquake stories copied below.

Before that event, you could find an entry on Kibera (Nairobi) mapping data added to OpenStreetMap.

Here's another tool to compare maps from different providers, this one named Switch Maps.

Here's more on the Vinland Map controversy, authenticity is still debated.

India lost land to China over a dispute on border due to poor mapping.