Tag Archives: ESRI

Batch Geonews: GeoServer WMS Animator, Trimble Custom Topo Maps, Esri at 41% Marketshare, and much more

Here's the recent geonews that we haven't mentioned yet, in batch mode.

On the open source front:

  • You can now animate your maps with the GeoServer WMS Animator Tool
  • Here I found out about oculu-Z, an open source, open data platform for collaborative Computer Vision technology
  • Want to know where OpenStreetMap is heading? Read this entry on the OpenStreetMap Foundation Board. Related to OSM, TripAdvisor now uses OpenStreetMap
  • DM shared the first of a series of articles on open source geospatial software in the classroom, called Open Source Desktop GIS: Let’s Get Started
  • APB mentions the Ushahidi2ArcGIS prototype, which imports Ushahidi data into ArcGIS
  • I could only smile when I learned about the PostGIS Day, a day after 'GIS Day'
  • gvSIG shares 60 new case studies

In the everything-else category:

  • APB reports about an estimation of Esri's worldwide market share at 40.7% in 2010
  • MapQuest wants to make certain we know that they don't have preset limits on their free Map API transactions
  • DM shares an article named Effective Offshore GIS Data Management Services
  • SS informs us that Trimble launched custom printed maps with MyTopo, for the U.S. and Canada
  • The Map Room shares lists of Map Books of to help us with our Christmas gifts, TMR also reviews Maphead by Ken Jennings
  • V1 discuss a EU Geographical Indications (GI) Scheme report, what ? "The aim of this program is to geographically assign product names, for example, champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France."

In the maps category:

  • O'Reilly shares what they call A better U.S. migration [interactive] map
  • The popular xkcd cartoon share a funny and geeky cartoon on what your favorite map projection says about you
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Batch Geonews: Bing Maps Updates, Nokia’s Yahoo Maps, U.S. Geoplatform Launches, GIS and the Cloud, and much more

Here's the latest geonews in batch mode. But first, as a media partner of the Geomatique event, if you participated to the conference, we invite you to fill this survey and get a chance to win an iPad 2.

On the Google front:

  • The GEB introduces the free Maxwell Render Suite to make your SketchUp models more realistic, the screenshots are impressive 
  • You can now Share biking and walking directions with Custom Maps
  • We told you before that Street View is available inside businesses now, and here's a Slashdot discussion about it
  • The Google Model Your Town Competition has begun
  • Google requests feedback for their map news channels, if you fill that survey, you can tell them you're reading Slashgeo ;-)
  • And there was new imagery released yesterday for Google Maps and Earth

On the Microsoft front:

  • Microsoft announced several updates and new features in the Bing Maps REST web services and the Bing Spatial Data Service
  • In another entry, Microsoft informs us that the improved map sharing and Bing Maps route modifications

On the Esri front:

  • Mandown mentions that the ArcGIS API for iOS 2.1 is now available

On the open source front that wasn't mentioned yesterday:

  • Via O'Reilly, I learned about an jQuery open source Country Selector that has autocomplete
  • I also forgot to share this DM article named Experiences Teaching Free and Open Source GIS at the Community College Level

In the miscellaneous category:

  • APB reports that Yahoo Maps is now powered by Nokia
  • The U.S. Geoplatform launched based on Esri's Portal for ArcGIS, here's the direct link
  • V1 has an interesting perspective named What Do You Think GIS in the Cloud Will Be Like? and on the same topic, DM shares an informative article named Is Geospatial Cloud Computing a Commodity?
  • SS mentions a iOnRoad, free Android app that includes colision avoidance
  • MapQuest Vibe is now available for the iPhone
  • O'Reilly tells us about Dark Sky's app Kickstater project for "hyperlocal hyper-realtime" weather prediction, with similarities to NowCasting
  • If you're into podcasts, VerySpatial mentions another geospatial-related podcast now in English, Geografree
  • APB informs us of a OGC survey of the business value of geospatial standards
  • V1 lists what he thinks are the Hottest Jobs In The Geospatial Sector Today
  • APB has excellent coverage of the SimpleGeo acquisition by Urban Airship
  • Remember we told you about Atanas Entchev? There's now a petition to help him

In the maps category:

  • StrangeMaps shares an informative map of electric sockets of the World
  • Here's a Google Maps mashup on disease risk and migration
  • O'Reilly shares an animated map of how dance music travels
  • APB share their disappointment at the map of the American Jobs Act
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Esri CityEngine Released

Mandown informs us that Esri's CityEngine was released. This is a new Esri product, coming from their acquisition of Procedural. I invite you to watch the 2-minutes video on the main page and take a look at the features. To my happy surprise, it's available for MacOS and Linux too.

From the website: "Esri CityEngine is a stand-alone software product that provides professional users in architecture, urban planning, entertainment, GIS and general 3D content production with a unique conceptual design and modeling solution for the efficient creation of 3D cities and buildings."

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Blog update on free 3D GIS data

With 3D GIS in the news, here's an ongoing series working though a public 3D subsurface petrodata set from desktop modelling to web broadcasting. While BIM and geodesign have been grabbing the 3D GIS headlines, subsurface datasets for fluid flow are explore here. They will become increasingly important not only in petroleum but also in, say, water resources and underground contamination monitoring, or underground  fault and earthquake tracking.

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MXD2map is released in version 1.0

MXD2map is a free converter for the generation of UMN MapServer-compatible Map files from ESRI ArcGIS MXD files. This program offers the possibility making the map design as usual in the ArcGIS Desktop GIS. A configuration file for UMN MapServer can be generated at the touch of a button. UMN MapServer provides the MXD project as an OGC-compliant WMS or WFS service. This provides a simple yet cost-effective way to publish existing spatial data including design requirements as WMS / WFS service.

"The realization of such a tool helps us tremendously in creation of OGC-compliant WMS services based on UMN MapServer. The usual work on the desktop with ArcGIS remains unaffected and the benefits of the fast UMN MapServer can be used easily for intranet/internet representation.", explains Jörg Gerdes, Head of IT of the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) in Hamburg/Germany. The BSH has been ordered the initial development of MXD2map from Intevation GmbH.

The BSH is an agency within the German Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Affairs with offices in Hamburg and Rostock. The BSH is an important maritime service provider of the federal government and provides the maritime geodata center for digital and analog (sea) map products.

Intevation is an independent IT service provider, which is consistently based on Free Software. The company consists of experts with the experience to develop cost-effective IT solutions and maintain it. For this purpose Free Software (also called "Open Source") is used and all results and all the necessary knowledge, including the source code, is passed to the client.

MXD2map is Free Software. It was released under the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL) version 3.

A Windows installer and the source code are available on the website for download.

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Batch Geonews: ArcGIS for Android 1.0 Released, GeoIQ Social, Business Interiors in StreetView, Income Inequality, and more

First, I'm sorry for not publishing the "batch mode" version of the geonews for the last two weeks - along with several other responsibilities, taking care of two young daughters at home is certainly fun, but engulfs all available time. In this batch mode edition, there are certainly a few geonews that could deserve their own entry - click on what interests you to learn more!

From the Google front:

  • In my previous Google entry earlier today, I forgot to mention the GEB entry detailing even more major improvements of Xavier Tassin's Google Earth Flight Simulator, now at version 0.7
  • This one via APB, Google Maps rolls out business interiors in Street View

From the Esri front:

  • Via VerySpatial, ArcGIS for Android 1.0 has been released
  • Two weeks ago, mandown informed us that the ArcGIS 10 Service Pack 3 Now Available For Download

From the miscellaneous category:

  • GeoIQ launched GeoIQ Social, "the first and only product that provides self-service analysis of social media data by time and location"
  • On the OGC blog, there's an interesting short entry on "Big Data" vs SDI in geospatial
  • Clearly, WebGL is en vogue, mapperz mentiones the new Nokia Maps 3D WebGL, and Nokia is readying LiveView, which blends maps and augmented reality for their upcoming Windows Phone
  • Apple expanded iPhone 4S GPS capabilities with GLONASS support and Apple Siri's support for maps and local search is coming to international customers in
  • MapQuest refreshed their Developer Network
  • The name Atanas Entchev ring a bell to you? He's an active member of the geospatial community and he needs our help, he's facing deportation from the U.S.

In the maps category:

  • Mapperz mentions the UK car crash map
  • Ok, not exactly a map, but trying to find what are the Wall Street protestors are so angry about, here's a breakdown of income inequality, the Gini coefficient, by countries
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Bloogage update

Guns & Roses, or: 3D GIS anyone? behind the colorful history of Teapot Dome in Wyoming, US and its current incarnation that released a comprehensive 3D petroleum dataset, lies this challenge: how is GIS approaching comprehensive 3D treatment (truly with overhangs and multi-Z's per XY, not 2.5D extrusion however useful that may be), with the increasing availability of robust 3D tools some for free (recent slashgeo post). To help with that I posted said dataset on arcgis and started revamping my geoscience classes also coming soon to a screen near you.

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Tuesday Geonews: OSM Inspector, Single-Language Labels in Google Maps, TomTom Teaming with Oracle, and much more

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode. Some of those news seem important enough to deserve their own entries, but I dare share them in a single one. Yes, that's another unusually long post. Normal posting frequency should resume next February!

From the open source / open data front:

  • SS shares an entry named MIT Releases Smartphone Data Tracking Tools as Open Source Software, it's called Funf
  • There's now an OpenStreetMap Inspector, a quality evaluation service to help improve OSM data
  • Here's a short entry on using OpenStreetMap data, tidbit: the entire database is 250GB
  • Here's an entry on generating contours using GDAL (via shell or QGIS)
  • Paul explains Indexed Nearest Neighbour Search in PostGIS
  • Here's the FOSS4G WMS Performance Shootout slides, and I haven't shared this yet, James Fee's Guide to what was important at FOSS4G

From the Esri front:

  • Mandown reports that Esri updated their deprecation plans for ArcGIS 10 and 10.1
  • SS indicates Esri Releases a Map Story on Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions

From the Google front:

  • Finally, single-language labels made their way to Google Maps, that's making it much less confusing
  • Here's in simple words why Google offers Google Maps / Earth
  • Ogle Earth shares an entry on using Google Earth to hunt illegal mining in Goa, India

From the Microsoft front:

  • Bing Maps added detailed airport maps, 42 U.S. airports so far 

In the miscellaneous category:

  • SS reports that TomTom Launched a Geospatial Platform with Oracle: "The service will offer geocoding, vehicle routing and mapping information, all hosted on Oracle’s 11g database."
  • V1 writes about INTERGEO, the German geospatial conference that attracted 17,000 attendees, making it one of the largest geoconferences in the world (the largest?)
  • James Fee linked to the U.S. and Canadian top 10 largest cities GIS web maps
  • We mentioned it before, but here's another article on the completion of the ERS satellite missions after 20 years
  • O'Reilly shares an entry named Why indoor navigation is so hard and another entry on the state and future of local news
  • If you have interest in the GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification), here's data model diagrams
  • MapQuest launched a Mobile Flash Maps API
  • VerySpatial mentioned the National Geographic Challenge game for the PS3, XBox360 and Wii
  • On a more serious topic, VS shares an entry on The Geography of the Death Penalty

Slashdot discussed a few geospatial-related stories:

  • Don't you wish you were a student again, Put On Your 3D Glasses — Class Is About To Start
  • Not the first time we hear such news (from any OS phone), HTC Android Backdoor Leaks Private User Data, including GPS locations
  • US Military Seeks Non-Cooperative Biometric Tracking Technology
  • A story named California Governor Vetoes Ban On Warrantless Phone Searches, including GPS logs
  • An on the same theme, a Senator Goes After 'Brazen' OnStar Privacy Shift
  • With a search, you'll find plenty of similar stories, German Researchers Crack Mifare RFID Encryption, in other words, RFID can be of great use, but can't be considered secure 
  • There's also a story about using stereo-vision mapping to visualize the oldest submerged city

In the maps category:

  • TMR shares a few map books for Fall
  • Here's the first global map of ocean salinity
  • Here's the Japanese tsunami mapped in detail for the first time

In the coming days, I'll be at Géomatique, the major geospatial event in the province of Québec. Slashgeo is a media partner of the event.

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“Hey, you, get off of my cloud”

Outage issues from service providers and differing strategies in response to that are the subject of this latest blogpost. A very brief overview on how to store, edit and protect your data online from my own experience, echoes slashgeo's poll on Google vs. Esri web pre-eminence - there likely will be a dichotomy of open and custom solutions.

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Poll Results on Esri ArcGIS Online vs Google Earth Builder, and New Poll on Cloud GIS

Thanks to Andrew who found out that the poll engine was strangely behaving, it gave me an excuse to offer you a new poll on 'cloud GIS'.

The previous poll on Esri ArcGIS Online vs Google Earth Builder generated 213 votes. 42% of users anticipate that both will be successes in their own way, and funnily enough, two distinct groups made of 24% of users believe that one will prevail on the other. For what's left, 7% think neither will gain momentum and there's even 2% of users that wish that Bing Maps will prevail over the two front runners.

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