CAMBRIDGE, UK, 21st February – Cambridge Wirelessannounced today the latest presentation from the Location Based Systems / Service Special Interest Group in collaboration with CoDE, The Cultures of the Digital Economy (CoDE) Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin University. The event will be taking place on 23rd March and is kindly sponsored by CSR, Cambridge.   This special Location SIG event explores the sensitive issue of privacy vs. personalised services. Most smart-phones have built in GPS and an increasing number of applications make use of the location capability of the phone, with this real and exciting development of new technology comes the time to debate the implications for personal privacy.   Nigel Wall, Shadow Creek Consulting and SIG Champion for this event commented, “The latest in the series of Location SIG events examines the privacy trade-off for users of social networks and advanced smart-phone applications where location information is shared. The risks and opportunities rise significantly when location information is shared. We shall consider the issues from various perceptions: users, suppliers and legislation. This current and sensitive topic will prove interesting and thought–provoking for many.”   Key industry speakers will address the following issues relating to these advancements: • Does use of location technology create real threats to personal privacy? • Do users need to understand what information is collected and the way in which their movements could be tracked? • Is there a healthy trade-off between loss of privacy and provision of personalised services (e.g. advice on services in the immediate vicinity)? • Location determination by image recognition is becoming feasible – does this raise further issues, if individuals can be recognised? • Does the industry need to pay more attention to protecting privacy? • Best practices to adopt.   KanwarChadha, Chief Marketing Officer and Board Member of CSR says “This event will prove incredibly interesting as it addresses the issues of “Relevant Location” with the possibilities of protecting consumers whilst enhancing their service.”   Confirmed speakers include; KanwarChadha, CSR, Dr Andrew Matthews, Nokia Research Centre, Patrick Clark, Taylor Wessing, Prof. Jonathan Raper, Placr and Dr. David Skinner, Anglia Ruskin University.   About Cambridge Wireless Cambridge Wireless is a leading industry forum and vibrant community with a rapidly expanding network of companies actively involved in the development and application of wireless technologies. In addition to high level networking dinners, educational events and business development activities, Cambridge Wireless runs an annual Future of Wireless International Conference along with the Discovering Start-Ups initiative to support emerging, innovative wireless companies. Over 15 Special Interest Groups focused on specific technologies and market sectors, also provide opportunities for members to meet, form partnerships to exploit new commercial opportunities, and share knowledge and information about the latest industry trends and hot topics. Cambridge Wireless has partnerships with other leading industry clusters and organisations around the world to extend its international reach and to keep members up to date with the latest global developments and business opportunities.   About CoDE, Anglia Ruskin University The Cultures of the Digital Economy (CoDE) Research Institute is a multidisciplinary initiative at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. CoDE is a network of academics working in media theory and network culture, media archaeology, digital music and video, fine arts, video games, production and performance, serious gaming and digital text, combined with scientific contributions from colleagues involved with design and technology, audio engineering and computer design and animation. Its key emerging research areas include social media and network politics, digital performance and production, digital humanities and play and serious gaming. The Institute fosters a critical and experimental interdisciplinary research environment and through projects, seminars and published research aims to explore the role of current and emerging technologies in a creative context. CoDE is crucible for thinking outside traditional disciplinary boundaries and a catalyst for establishing connections with industry and local, national and international communities. Its location in Cambridge provides it with excellent potential for collaboration with entertainment, technological, scientific, arts and the heritage industries.   About CSR CSR plc is a leading provider of multifunction connectivity and location platforms. CSR's technology portfolio includes Bluetooth, GPS, FM, Wi-Fi (IEEE802.11), UWB, NFC and other technologies to enable silicon platforms that incorporate fully integrated radio, baseband and microcontroller elements. CSR's Connectivity Centre is designed to enhance the user experience with mainstream mobile devices by intelligent integration of multiple wireless connectivity and location-awareness technologies. CSR's Location Platforms are complemented by wireless connectivity and multimedia capabilities for high-volume mobile consumer devices and commercial applications. CSR's technology has been adopted by market leaders into a wide range of mobile consumer devices such as mobile phones, automobile navigation and telematics systems, portable navigation devices (PNDs), wireless headsets, mobile computers, mobile internet devices, GPS recreational devices, digital cameras, mobile gaming, plus a wide range of personal and commercial tracking applications.   Distributed on behalf of Cambridge Wireless by NeonDrum news distribution service

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The Royal Institute of Navigation, London, UK, the Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy, University of Nottingham, UK, and the Faculty of Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka, Croatia have a pleasure in welcoming you to the 5th GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions Conference to be held 23 - 25 May, in Baška, Krk Island, Croatia. This traditional and unique world-wide event aims to gather GNSS experts and focuses on GNSS problems and vulnerabilities, as well as to developments aiming to improve the accuracy and reliability of GNSS. The unique environment of Baška and its natural resources and rich history, combined with friendly hospitality will again create an inspiring atmosphere for ideas and knowledge exchange, well known to those who attended the last year's conference. A photo-gallery of Baška, a well known tourist resort with the range of 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels. Conference activities will be organised in the following sections:

• Core satellite navigation systems (plenary),
• Space Weather and Ionospheric Effects on GNSS,
• Safety- and Mission-Critical Applications for Air, Marine, Land and Personal Navigation, and Search and Rescue Operations,
• Location-Based Services (LBS),
• Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), and
• Regulatory and legal aspects of GNSS utilisation.

Interested parties are kindly invited to submit the extended abstracts (300 - 500 words) of the proposed papers to Sally-Anne Cooke, the RIN conference and events manager no later than 25th March. Submitted papers will be considered by the International reviewing committee, with the acceptance report to be distributed before 15 April. You are kindly invited to join the leading GNSS experts and discuss the most important issues related to further exploitations of satellite navigation systems in the wonderful Mediterranean environment of Northern Adriatic. In addition, the organising committee kindly appreciate your efforts in informing your colleagues about the event. Finally, you are invited to contact either RIN, or Dr Renato Filjar, FRIN for any further information or assistance you may need in regard to your participation to the 5th GNSS Vulnerabilities and Solutions Conference in Baška. The latest developments in regard to the fothcoming conference can be followed. The conference organisers are looking forward for a privilege to welcome you to Baška. With my best regards, Dr Renato Filjar, FRIN MIET The Royal Institute of Navigation Read More »

Here's recent geonews in batch mode. I will be away the reminder of the week, so expect less stories, but we'll take care of your submitted content. From the Google front:

• Here's Google Maps JavaScript API: A Year in Retrospect
• A third official entry, this time on how to Monetize your Maps API v3 application with AdSense for Maps
• The GEB mentions a collection of hearts in Google Earth
• There was new imagery published to Google Earth last Friday
• The GEB explains the 6 markers in Building Maker
• Here's an entry on planning new roads with Google Earth

From the ESRI front:

• Two entries on the File Geodatabase API: Esri releases the File Geodatabase API Beta 2 and the File Geodatabase API is now available on Linux
• The ArcGIS API for Android Public Beta is now available
• Here's a review of a new Estri book named GIS Tutorial for Humanitarian Assistance, by Firoz Verjee

From the open source / open data front:

• There's new 3D OpenGL-based OpenStreetMap rendering, for more on 3D OSM, head to the wiki
• Here's an entry on Harvard's WorldMap, an open source tool to support academic collaboration. Expect more news once the tool become Beta next month
• Here's an entry on cross layer filtering directly in GeoServer
• An entry on web based printing with QGIS server and a nice comparison of MapInfo to QGIS Styling

From the Microsoft front:

• Certainly major news in the smartphone arena, Nokia and Microsoft signed an important alliance, APB summarizes the tidbits related to their location and mapping business
• Microsoft also shared an entry named Next Gen Spatial Search Comes to the Bing API

In the miscellaneous category:

• MapQuest Introduces Walking and Transit Directions
• Here's O'Reilly on IssueMap, a U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) tool to convert "open data into information that people can distill into knowledge and insight."
• TMR provide links related to Canon and Pentax cameras with GPS and another entry on the Casio Exilim EX-H20G Geotagging Camera
• SS shares a short entry named The Cloud Gains Favor as GIS Storage Solution
• Wikileaks informs us that the U.S. and Australia signed a secret geospatial intelligence deal in

In the maps category:

• Via the OSGeo mailing list, here's a map of U.S. copyright treaties
• Here's a new approach to mapping the digital divide
• Here's a new map of global obesity
• The U.S. Census Bureau launched an interactive map

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A story discussed over Salshdot goes like this Gov App Detects Potholes As Your Drive Over Them. Their summary: "The City of Boston has released an app that uses the accelerometer in your smartphone to automatically report bumps in the road as you drive over them. From the article: 'The application relies on two components embedded in iPhones, Android phones, and many other mobile devices: the accelerometer and the Global Positioning System receiver. The accelerometer, which determines the direction and acceleration of a phone’s movement, can be harnessed to identify when a phone resting on a dashboard or in a cupholder in a moving car has hit a bump; the GPS receiver can determine by satellite just where that bump is located.' I am certain that this will not be used to track your movements, unless they are vertical."

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The FGT blog offers a detailed entry named How The FCC Plans To Destroy GPS – A Simple Explanation. From the entry: " [...] the FCC has given conditional approval to LightSquared’s 4G LTE proposal. If implemented as planned, all current GPS receivers will no longer operate correctly in areas covered by their system, which include the overwhelming majority of the US population. [...] This GPS interference isn’t just a hypothesis. Members of the US GPS Industry Council, Trimble and Garmin met with the FCC on January 19th to present and discuss Garmin’s tests of the LightSquared proposal, and its potential for interference with GPS receivers. [...] And yet, on January 26th, waiving many of their standard procedures, the FCC gave conditional approval to LightSquared’s proposal. The only bone thrown to the GPS community was the requirement that LightSquared work with the GPS community to resolve these interference issues. But since LightSquared is funding the study, there are concerns about how unbiased the results will be. Unless you can change the laws of physics, and principles of electrical engineering, you can’t resolve this problem directly with existing GPS equipment as-is." But if LightSquared does cooperate and don't mess with GPS signal, then this may become a non-issue.

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Geo Horizon 11 is the largest student event of its kind in India, Conducted by Society of Geo Informatics Engineers, Institute of Remote Sensing, Anna University, Chennai, India. It provides a platform for Students and Young Researchers to showcase their reserch. We are looking for Sponsors and Exhibitors to this Event.

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February 7th - Augmentra, the maker of the award winning outdoor navigation app ViewRanger GPS has partnered with Cumbria Tourism to publish walking & biking routes in the Lake District on their mobile platform. The deal means that residents & visitors to the Lake District with a smartphone will be able to use the ViewRanger mobile app to access these tourist board endorsed routes as downloadable, interactive guides - with maps, GPS navigation & detailed, reliable local information. The aim is that it will drive an increase in accessibility to the countryside and landmarks, while encouraging more people overall to visit Cumbria in and beyond. Available from 7th February, the initial 30-plus walking & biking routes to be released by Cumbria Tourism & ViewRanger includes favourite routes in the region. The partnership re-interprets existing materials published on the Cumbria Tourism website. Publishing on mobile with ViewRanger, goes one step further than the existing web based access to visitor information about the Lake District and enhances the visitors’ experience by providing the peace of mind of GPS mapped location and location specific information. The popular ViewRanger GPS app is available for Apple, Android and Symbian smartphones and can run 1:50K or 1:25K OS mapping. ViewRanger is already popular with Outdoor enthusiasts around the world. The fact that it is used by a growing number of UK Search & Rescue teams is a testament to its accuracy & reliability. Each route with full navigation and local information can be purchased (£1.50/route) and downloaded to the visitor’s smartphone using the ViewRanger app. Visitors can purchase ViewRanger from their app store or even via Cumbria Tourism own web e-shop together with OS mapping for the whole of the Lake District. Importantly, it is the first time that a regional tourist board has implemented this approach. Ellis Butcher, a spokesman for Cumbria Tourism, said: "The Lake District and Cumbria is the best walking and cycling destination in Britain. With increasing numbers of our visitors packing smartphones it makes perfect consumer sense to give them the chance to download some of this area's best routes direct to their handsets. When visitors are in the area they often need additional information which is not necessarily always found on traditional maps. This is where the new project comes into its own by utilising the information we have on our tourism website and putting it into the hands of visitors when they need it. Craig Wareham, CEO of Augmentra - the company that develops ViewRanger commented – “This is a great partnership. The Cumbria Tourism has been really forward thinking about this project. Obviously, they have unparalleled regional knowledge and we have offered them a way to ensure that it is made available to a wider audience. Hopefully this will encourage more people to visit Cumbria in the next twelve months. I believe we will see many more Tourist boards across the UK adopting similar approaches very soon, as it offers an innovative way to generate additional income from existing content”. -Ends- About Augmentra Augmentra Ltd is the Cambridge UK based Angel funded software development company behind ViewRanger GPS, and is partnered with national mapping agencies across Europe including Ordnance Survey in the UK, BKG in Germany and with a range of content publishers, including National Geographic in North America. ViewRanger GPS is their award winning mobile phone application which delivers GPS navigation, mapping and location-based content to outdoor activity enthusiasts and outdoor professionals worldwide. ViewRanger has been running on a range of Symbian S60 mobile devices for over two years and in launched on Apple iOS (iPhone/iPad) and on Android OS. ViewRanger GPS uses global map coverage from Open sourced mapping, and can be upgraded to run premium topographic map data available for a growing number of countries, including Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, parts of Italy, Norway, New Zealand, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, USA.

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A story discussed over Slashdot goes like this: 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness. Their summary: "Every year, more and more Americans are dying in deserts and wildernesses because they rely on their GPS units (and, to some degree, their cellphones) to always be accurate. The Sacramento Bee quotes Death Valley wilderness coordinator Charlie Callagan: 'It's what I'm beginning to call death by GPS... People are renting vehicles with GPS and they have no idea how it works and they are willing to trust the GPS to lead them into the middle of nowhere.'"

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Slashdot currently discusses a story named US Authorities GPS Tagging Duped Indian Students. Their summary: "Indian students duped by Tri-Valley University in California have been fitted with GPS devices by US immigration authorities. Scores of Indian students were caught in a scam where the university violated immigration norms and illegally got the students F1 visa and immigration status. To keep a track on the movements of the students, the authorities have fitted them with GPS devices. This is spiraling into a major diplomatic row between India and the USA, with the former calling the practice inhuman and unwanted." A geo-related story discussed by Slashdot during the weekend was named Connecticut AG Opts For Street View Settlement, Without Seeing the Data. Their summary: "Verifying Google's data snare is crucial to assessing a penalty and assuring no repeat,' said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal last December in response to Google's 'accidental' collection of payload data from WiFi networks. 'We will fight to compel Google to come clean-granting my office access to improperly collected materials and protecting confidentiality, as the company has done in Canada and elsewhere.' That was then. Luckily for Google, there's a new AG in town, and Blumenthal successor George Jepsen said Friday that his office will enter into settlement negotiations with the company without reviewing the pilfered data, which Google has steadfastly refused to share with it. 'This is a good result for the people of Connecticut,' Jepsen said in a statement. A separate Jepsen press release suggested some of the blame for the privacy offenses laid with Google's victims, who were advised to 'turn off your wireless network when you know you won't use it' to thwart those who 'may be watching your Internet activity without your knowledge."

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 Here's Friday geonews in batch mode. Exceptionally, the last two weeks are covered. From the Google front:

• Google now offers 'Follow Your World', an alert system to let you know when new imagery is available for your area of interest
• The official entry on this week's imagery update
• Google discontinues the real estate feature in Google Maps
• The California Bay Area is now in 3D and the GEB discusses the nice 3D models of Belgrade

From the open source / open data front:

• MapQuest is providing an update on their increasing use of OpenStreetMap data, 8 new countries is now using OSM data, MapQuest also continues to financially support OpenStreetMap. There's even a new MapQuest Directions API based on OSM.
• It seems SPRING GIS is now open source software (GPL) [post in Spanish]
• Fortius One announced their new tool called Acetate, "a brand-new custom styled map that is designed for visualizing data and reintroduces the idea of a multi-layered basemap". Here's their technical introduction to Acetate, and the software they've used is open source.
• The city of Paris now offers open data and Finland's Land Survey opened its data too
• Ushahidi will be using the open source GeoDict free form geocoder. GeoDict is described as "a simple Python library/tool for pulling location information from unstructured text"

From the ESRI front:

• The Geodatabase Toolset for ArcCatalog 10 is now available

From the Microsoft front:

• Microsoft released a new Bing Maps Drupal module

In the miscellaneous category:

• Here's an entry named playing with the HTML5 Geolocation API
• O'Reilly offers an article named Social data and geospatial mapping join the crisis response toolset, another one on Urban Mapping's Mapfluence and two articles on health and location: New geolocation app connects citizen first responders to heart attack victims and Healthier living through mobile location data
• Via TMR, MacWorld offers an article named Apps with Maps: 11 iPhone GPS apps compared
• The FGT blog mentions iCMTGIS, a free field GIS data acquisition tool for the iPad
• ESA's budget rises to $4 billion, with 14 nations boosting contributions. And the GALILEO program is on track. And guess what, a Wikileaks cable forced a GALILEO head to step down.
• TMR also mentions U.S. Defense Department testing may affect GPS signals in Southeastern U.S. until Feruary 22nd
• TMR also note that the book "Map Projections: A Working Manual" published in 1987 by John P. Snyder is now available online.
• NAVTEQ is still selling more and more data

In the maps category:

• Here's a discussion on a map of worldwide suicide statistics, let's hope you don't live in Mari El
• Here's a map of scientific collaboration

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