All Points Blog

BIM/GIS Integration

nora.parker@directionsmag.com (Nora Parker) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:00:46 -0600

The focus in this session was the increasing need to integrate building information models and GIS. The first speaker, Don Murray of Safe Software, talked about the need to address 3D BIM data as a new data type. "From our standpoint, BIM to GIS is just another kind of spatial data transform [our job is to get users] to be able to move it around to where they want it we had vector and then raster, and now we have this 3D BIM stuff," he said.

Keith Cooke of ESRI and Steve Milroy of Microsoft gave the next presentation as a tag-team. The duo discussed how ESRI's products integrate with Microsoft Virtual Earth. Essentially, you can think of ArcGIS as doing the analytical "heavy lifting" on the back end, and Virtual Earth as a 2D- and 3D-based visualization tool to help make decisions. Milroy offered the example of a plume model in downtown San Francisco.

David Kingsbury of Autodesk made some bold statements about the 3D revolution. He said, "We are right now on the verge of a whole new paradigm of using spatial data. In the next 5-7 years, we will think of everything in a 3D context, in an object context. It's a requirement that CAD, BIM, GIS, visualization and collaboration come together now." He also addressed how the GIS industry is relating to this change: "There's a big of a firestorm among the vendors right now rushing to [prepared for] this switch to 3D."

Spatial Data Management session

nora.parker@directionsmag.com (Nora Parker) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:52:14 -0600

Three interesting speakers gave presentations during this session on Wednesday at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference. Each addressed a different topic under the loose category of spatial data management.

Joel Lawhead of NVision talked about Oracle Spatial, Oracle Locator and ESRI. NVision is a company with 44 employees that does GIS-related projects. He said, "Oracle [usage] is steadily on the rise." When the company was founded in 2002, they did no Oracle work, but now about 40% of their projects involve Oracle, and the company has hired an Oracle specialist. He described a variety of projects the company has helped with one for the Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service, and one for the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD). The last application he mentioned was one that was built just for fun a tracking application for the TV program, "Deadliest Catch." It shows boats going out to supply the fishing boats that are trying to land that deadliest catch.

Damon Dougherty of Bentley Systems talked about the "geospatial federated approach" to spatial data management. According to Dougherty, the federated approach combines the traditional spatial search of GIS with the unstructured text search style of a search engine like Google. The example he gave was highway projects in New Hampshire. The federated search allows you to look for the GIS data as well as the graphic data and business data. As Dougherty put it, it's all about "finding information in chaos."

Bruce Westcott of Intergraph is known in the industry as being the "metadata guy." He talked about the fact that we need to move past the "withered business case" for building metadata into databases. He described that business case as one built on good will and desire to do the right thing: "You should produce metadata because other people might want to use it." That business case, for the most part, has not been successful, especially in cases where an internal mandate or business case isn't present. Westcott suggested that reexamining the legal tradition in the US of accessing government-produced data for free would be appropriate. Government entities would be given an incentive to include metadata if there was the possibility of generating revenue by providing access to the data.

Dangermond Acknowledges GIS Professionals on GIS Day

nora.parker@directionsmag.com (Nora Parker) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:32:09 -0600

It's always special to be with somebody on their birthday. Being with Jack Dangermond on the 10th anniversary of GIS Day (which falls during Geography Awareness Week) is in that same category. During his keynote presentation at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference in Huntsville, AL on Wednesday, Dangermond (president of ESRI) made special mention of the occasion. His central theme was honoring GIS professionals and what they do in the context of making the world a better, and more sustainable, place.

While cataloging numerous applications (planning, transportation, land information systems, public safety and law enforcement, managing natural disasters, natural resource management, social issues, and human health), Dangermond discussed mapping foreclosure patterns. He ran an animation that clearly showed the pattern of higher numbers of foreclosures two hours away from major metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. "It isn't the downtown areas, or even the near suburbs, but way out the consistent pattern of increased gas prices caused the foreclosures. Geography tells that story. GIS is about telling stories."

Dangermond highlighted the following trends.

Growth in the number and sophistication of "Fusion Centers" (centers built around the country to support emergency management)
Increasing popularity of mashups, which will bring the notion of GIS to "virtually everyone"
Increasing integration of imagery
More support for mobile applications (LBS)
Geobrowsers are becoming the norm
Content (not just data) will become an integral part of GIS, and it will be delivered by services.

Dangermond delivered what can only be described as a pep talk for GIS professionals. "Climate and global warming - loss of biodiversity there is no 'bailout' for this increasingly challenging situation. [But] GIS is doing good - it's a counter-balance to some of the negative things that are happening in our society and our world," said Dangermond. "Our world needs a new approach I don't think it will work out without deliberate and conscious thought about how to do things to chart a better future. Right now we are certainly doomed. I travel a lot, I see it, and it's not a good future. On the other hand, what you guys are doing all those things are making a difference. These [applications you develop] are all improving the world."

A Perfect Educational Story for GIS Day Ripped from the Headlines

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:13:14 -0600

Someone pulled post codes for all the members of UK British National Party and plotted them on a Google Map. Despite specific notes that the map was built not on addresses but on post codes, there was confusion about accuracy (though not necessarily privacy concern, from what I read). So, the map was redone as a heat map.

- Guardian

ESRI UK Survey for Geography Awareness Week/GIS Day: Same Old Same Old

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:46:39 -0600

ESRI-UK is retracing the well worn path of "people don't know geography" to stir up interest in Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day. The online survey of 2000 individuals (press release) reveals that most don't know where things are or what's the most widely spoken language in the world. There are also questions about travel and tourism (Have you been to a town new to you recently? A museum?)

The release quotes Dr Rita Gardner, Director of the Royal Geographical Society:

It is particularly encouraging to see that the sample survey recognises map-reading at the core of all good geography whether in schools or in our daily lives as an important geographical skill. If you can read a map you can work out where places are without needing to remember such factual detail. However, there are wider geographical issues of much greater importance to our futures. In the coming years climate change, food and water security will differ in their effects in different
places across the world, further exacerbating world tensions. Geography lies at the heart of understanding, predicting and helping to find solutions to those challenges, and to natural disasters such as hurricanes, many of which transcend national boundaries.

I completely agree with her; alas the survey didn't explore map reading/interpretation skills. A few of the questions posed could have been answered by interpreting the appropriate map including this one: "Rank a list of UK cities, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham and Luton, in the order they are located, from north to south."
I know that "we don't know geography" is the classic way to get press coverage of geography's importance. On GIS Day I want to challenge organizations like ESRI to find new ways to raise the issue. A simple suggestion? A quiz based on a map.

Old Poll, New Poll

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600

A month ago we asked: What single factor besides pure functionality most influences your selection of a geospatial software app? With just 13 votes it's hard to take the results too seriously, but here they are:

Ease of Use/Interface - 62%
Data format support - 16%
Support for standards - 16%
Something else - 8%
Speed - 0%
Cross platform support - 0%
Extensibility - 0%
Print/output capability - 0%

On to the next poll: How important is it that a job candidate be familiar with more than one GIS product/platform? Vote in the lower right hand side of our main page.

UK Gov Speeds Survey, Saves Money with GIS

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600

The UK government saved £700,000 by using geographic information software (ESRI) on mobile computers to produce the latest detailed Countryside Survey. In the past the survey used paper and took two years to complete. The survey of England, Scotland and Wales covers a sort of environmental change detection. This year's data was available the same day the survey was carried out.

The data capture was done in half the time.

- Computer Weekly

Qualcomm/Skyhook Deal: Exit Strategy?

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:03:15 -0600

You probably saw the PR on Qualcomm's announcement yesterday that it would put Skyhook's locating technology into its location platform. Silicon Insider suggest if things work out it could be a fine exit strategy. Skyhook's funding comes from Bain Capital, RRE Ventures, and Intel Capital.

Yandex API Available

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:25:42 -0600

I wrote about Yandex, an online search engine company, and its map service for Russia when it launched back in September. Now, the API is available.

- HitSearch

Remote sending via thrown "ball" camera

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600

A Scottish company is developing the "grenade-like" device called the I-Ball (cute) which shoots realtime video after being thrown by hand or via a launcher, then again when it lands. The idea is to provide information on "what's ahead" to soldiers. The camera delivers 360 degree views wirelessly.

IT Pro via Slashdot

U.S. Healthiest City? Burlington, VT

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0600

My training partner sent me this link since she recalled I ran the marathon there on Memorial Day and stayed with my aunt and uncle. The Centers for Disease Control put the city on top.

The most interesting part of the article is the comparison of this "top" city in health, with its opposite, Huntingdon, WV. The two are similar in some ways: out of the way, colleges town with mostly white populations. But, Burlington is a bit younger, more community focussed, has more people with college educations and has less poverty.

Podcast: What We'd Tell the World on GIS Day

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:00:00 -0600

GIS Day provides a chance for geospatial practitioners to tell the world about what they and why it matters. Our editors share the key themes they'd want to get across to the public on this special day.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here's the index with all the info.

Pitney Bowes Offers Silverlight-based FireLocator

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:57:47 -0600

Arthur R. Berrill, Vice President of Advanced Concepts and Technology at Pitney Bowes let us know about the new FireLocator app, currently in beta, thinking it may be of use to readers and those dealing with the current California fires. The app was created by Pitney Bowes Advanced Concepts and Technologies (AC&T) in collaboration with Pitney Bowes MapInfo. It provides geocoding to find fires (current and historical) around specific addresses. Data comes from the usual "fire" places including:

- NASA Modis Data
- Incident Information System (InciWeb)
- GeoMac Multi Agency Coordination (GeoMac)
- California Wild-Fire Zones

And there's other fire-related content including:
- pictures from Flikr
- news from San Bernardino Sun

Underneath you'll find Virtual Earth, Silverlight, BP MapInfo's Envinsa and BP MapInfo's geocoding. This is the first I've heard of AC&T.

You can access a video (movie reel icon) about the app and the "about" information ("i" icon) on the right of the tool/search bar. I didn't see them on my first visit. The main interactive feature (at this point) seems to be the ability to save specific locations which can be visited in the future.

Which Geogadgets are overpriced?

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:39:43 -0600

PC World has a listing of all the tech gadgets it thinks are outrageously expensive, including a some geo-ones.

GPS Devices with 5-inch (or Larger) Screens
Price: $600 and up
GPS Analyst Craig Ellison says: In general, I found that GPS devices with a screen size of 5 inches or larger seemed disproportionately higher priced with less features compared to the traditional 4.3-inch ones. Such products are the Magellan Maestro 5310 ($800) and the Garmin nüvi 5000 ($600). Sure, Garmin can get away with high prices since its models have a unique featurevoice recognitionthat none of the other products have, but they're still priced way too high.

MSNBC Maps Mayoral Advice for Obama

(Adena Schutzberg) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:10:34 -0600

MSNBC asked mayors of more than 200 cities in 48 states and Puerto Rico to share their advice and requests with president elect Obama. The result? A Virtual Earth map and the detailed responses.

Al Tompkins (of Al's Morning Meeting) at Poynter.org notes:

The work is remarkable not just for its content but for the interactive display msnbc.com used to tell the story. You will see a legend on the right side of the map that lists the advice by topic. You will also see the responses plotted by city. I have never seen a survey like this one.
...
This is not only worth your time -- it is worth sharing in your editorial meeting as a smart and useful way to tell stories online.

From a Directions Media perspective, I'm pleased to see both Huntsville, AL and Cambridge, MA are represented. This is an interesting way to get a snapshot of what your local officials think are important.