Esri's Community Maps Program

Esri has started a Community Maps Program where individuals or organizations can contribute  geographic content to become part of a community map that Esri publishes and hosts online. Your data is integrated with data from other providers and then published through ArcGIS Online as a map service.

This program is available to any Esri user organization and other geographic data providers interested in making their data content broadly available.

Benefits

• Users inside and outside of your organization, including the local business community and the general public will be able to use the online maps with ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS for Server Web mapping applications, or a standard Internet Web browser.
• Eliminates the costs associated with making the data widely available, such as setting up and maintaining the infrastructure.
• Map data is hosted and maintained by Esri at one or more data centers in the U.S. to ensure high availability and performance.
• Your organization retains all ownership of its data.
• Access to your map data through an online map.
• Esri can provide the data in ArcGIS for Server map cache format that your organization can publish for internal use with ArcGIS for Server.

Watch a video to learn more about the benefits of participating in the Community Maps Program.

Introduction Of Usage Limits To The Google Maps API

Strange turn of events in my last two blog posts.  In this post Google announces the introduction of usage limits on their Google Maps API.  This post comes just after the ESRI Insider post highlighting ESRI's effort to offer free web-based GIS For Everyone by Anyone.  Google has made their pile of money through advertizing while offering free services to their many users, and ESRI has made their pile of money through very high priced, but incredibly good, mapping software.  These two posts are opposite of what I would expect.  Kudos to ESRI on making crowd sourcing and community mapping a new part of their corporate direction.  They have talked about it for years and now they have done something about it.  Congrats to Bern Szukalski and the ArcGIS Online Team.

Google has made some changes to their Google Maps API Terms of Service.  Google has added usage limits to the free API and will begin charging for usage that exceeds the limits.  I hope they will reverse this policy now that ESRI'sArcGIS Online offers capabilities similar to those of Google Maps.  Competition is a good thing, something that Google excels at.  Who would have thought with the history of both companies that Google would be charging for a service similar to one that ESRI offers for free.

Here is the entire GeoDeveloper Blog post as written by Thor Mitchell:

When the Maps API Terms of Service were updated in April of this year we announced that usage limits would be introduced to the Maps API starting on October 1st. With October upon us, I’d like to provide an update on how these limits are being introduced, and the impact it will have on your Maps API sites.

The usage limits that now apply to Maps API sites are documented in the Maps API FAQ. However no site exceeding these limits will stop working immediately. We understand that developers need time to evaluate their usage, determine if they are affected, and respond if necessary. There are three options available for sites that are exceeding the limits:

• Reduce your usage to below the limits
• Opt-in to paying for your excess usage at the rates given in the FAQ
• Purchase a Maps API Premier license

To assist in evaluating whether your site is exceeding the usage limits we will shortly be adding the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. Once available you will be able to track your usage in the APIs Console by providing an APIs Console key when you load the Maps API. If you find that your site does exceed the usage limits each day you can opt to pay for your excess usage by enabling billing on your APIs Console project. We will then start billing excess usage to your credit card when we begin enforcing the usage limits in early 2012.

For very popular sites Maps API Premier is likely to be a more cost effective option. It also offers a number of additional benefits, including terms that permit for-fee and internal use, enterprise technical support, a Service Level Agreement, fixed and invoiced annual pricing, and increased quotas for the Maps API Web Services. For more information on how Maps API Premier could benefit your application please contact the Sales team using this form.

We will announce the availability of the Maps APIs in the APIs Console on this blog later this quarter, and provide more details on how to set up an APIs Console account and update your Maps API application with an APIs Console key. We will also provide at least 30 days notice on this blog before enforcement of the usage limits and billing for excess usage begins.

We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning. However with the continued growth in adoption of the Maps API we need to secure its long term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable. By introducing these limits we are ensuring that Google can continue to offer the Maps API for free to the vast majority of developers for many years to come.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Esri Insider : GIS for Everyone, by Anyone

Great post on the ESRI insider Blog by Bern Szukalski on the benefits and simplicity of using ArcGIS Online to create web-based map templates.

Here is the post in its entirity:


Earlier this week I was meeting with one of the directors of a large state agency. Among other topics we discussed, he told me that his organization was adopting a policy to move away from custom application development. Whenever possible they would serve internal and public needs with off-the-shelf applications, or better yet, with those that can be easily custom-configured without the need for programming.

When asked why, he explained the last custom application they'd deployed had to be abandoned - the programmer had left for another job, had taken knowledge of its internal workings with him, and they were unable to hire (because of budget constraints) the programming expertise needed to make the necessary updates to the application.

What color is your parachute?

This same sentiment was echoed while I was visiting with a user in Florida earlier this year. They'd also been stung when several programmers left, leaving behind a key public application that they could no longer maintain.

But before I incur the wrath of developers everywhere, it's often the case that a totally custom application is the only way to provide a finely tuned user experience, or bring into play additional capabilities and components that are essential to the target user. You can only go so far with a configurable application. Nevertheless, configurable applications are easy to maintain and deploy, can be created more quickly and easily than ever before, and perhaps most importantly can be built by just about anyone.

For example, using ArcGIS Online I can assemble a map and configure how the user interacts with it, including choosing from a variety of basemaps, adding my operational layers, adjusting layer transparency, setting display scales, and also configuring what the user sees and experiences in the pop-up window when they click a map feature.

This easily authored webmap is now a building block that can be used in configurable templates that can be published directly from ArcGIS Online (see this blog post for more details), providing the ability to build a custom-configured application and deploy it literally in a matter of minutes.

In the past, doing all of the above and lifting something by coding from the ground-up would have taken a long time and a lot of skill.

A custom-configured application being authored with an ArcGIS Online map. Simply fill in the blanks and check the boxes to include the tools you want.

For more customized and extensible solutions, ArcGIS Viewer for Flex has been popular among Esri users since its introduction, and there is also a configurable ArcGIS Viewer for Silverlight, currently in beta, that leverages the same webmaps and offers the same ease of configuration; both allow you to build custom applications with little or no programming skills.

The ArcGIS Viewer for Silverlight application builder even lets you plug-in geoprocessing tools to extend the applicaton's capabilities.

While visiting a local government user a few months ago, I spoke with one of the GIS staff members who had been building a custom application using ArcGIS Viewer for Flex. He said he had chosen it not because he was particularly interested in Flex, but because he found it very easy to create a custom application even though he was not a programmer himself.

"Esri has always built great developer tools for programmers and software for the GIS professional," he told me. "My problem is I want to reach non-GIS users in my organization and post some public-facing apps. Now for the first time I feel empowered. Even I can build custom applications."

It's clear that it's easier than ever for anyone to build simple custom applications, and all you need is a browser or a text editor. "This isn't just GIS for everyone," he went on to say. "It's GISby anyone."

I couldn't agree more.

By: Bern Szukalski

New Route 66 Community Map Added to ArcGIS Online

We finished digitizing the primary Route 66 highway from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California on ArcGIS Online.  You can see the map on ArcGIS Online at:  http://bit.ly/ouLaKV or view it from the applet below.

The entire route is digitized along with selected roadside attractions along the route in Illinois.  We would like to solicit your favorite content (places, pictures, postcards, etc) from places along the route.  If you have content you would like to see added to the map please let us know at rick.marshall@verticalgeo.com

You can follow the progress on the Route 66 Community Map on our Digital Route 66 Blog located at: digitalroute66.blogspot.com/


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Google LatLong Blog: New 45° imagery available for 16 cities

The Google LatLong Blog had the following post by Bernd Steinert today:


This month’s update to 45° imagery in Google Maps includes U.S. and international imagery.

Let’s just begin with Graz. It’s the second largest city of Austria (behind Vienna), located in Steiermark. It is a typical Austrian town with a vivid university life, a charming historic center mostly of the Gothic period and is significantly influenced by mediterranean climate which manifests being among the sunniest places in Austria due to its location at the southeastern rim of the Alps. Arnold Schwarzenegger - bodybuilding world champion, movie star and former governor of California - was born and raised nearby.

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During September we have launched imagery for some of the major towns in the Midwest of the U.S. like Canton OH, Grand Rapids MI, Kansas City KS/MO, Springfield MO.

Kansas City was founded in 1830 and named after the Native American tribe of the “Kansa” and since then evolved to the largest city in Missouri and the third largest city in Kansas. During the Civil War the city experienced several violent events. In the 1930s, Kansas City was the center of a creative jazz scene and today the American Jazz Museum can be found there. The Irish-American community that numbers around 250,000 includes a large number of bands.

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Canton OH is home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame which opened in 1963 and where the busts of America’s greatest professional football players are enshrined.

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Here is a list of updated cities:

Europe:

Caceres, Spain; Graz, Austria; Montreux, Switzerland; Zurich, Switzerland;

US:

Bakersfield, CA; Boise, ID; Canton, OH; Centennial, CO; Columbia, SC; Davenport, IA; Des Moines, IA; Enumclaw, WA; Grand Rapids, MI; Kansas City, KS/MO; Lawrence, KS; Los Angeles, CA; Merced, CA; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; Payson, UT; Portland, OR; Springfield, MO; St. Louis, MO; The Woodlands, TX;

Posted by Bernd Steinert, Geo Data Specialist

The Rise of The Globe in Web Mapping

Great post on the georelated.com blog that outlines the rapid rise in use of globes and how WebGL can help provide globe-like mapping solutions on the web. Great summary of why globes are important and why they have become so popular.

ESRI TV: What's New in ArcGIS Online

ESRI just released the latest in their ESRI TV video services.  The latest shows us "What's New in ArcGIS Online."  I really like the capability ArcGIS Online brings to those who don't have a server to publish their work online.  I think as this capability matures it will help ESRI catch up to the head start they have given Google Earth and Google Maps.  It is very interesting to see the race to capture the "economy and power of free." 

Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program Grant Awards – 2011

It is good to see several of the roadside icons get matching funding grants for preservation.  Here is a link to the announcement for the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program Grant Awards – 2011.  They are all worthy recipients!  Several places will receive matching awards here locally in Illinois and Missouri.

Route 66: Sign Re-Lighting at the Luna Cafe in Mitchell, Illinois

We have a Great Route 66 event next weekend in Mitchell, Illinois (about 20 minutes from downtown St Louis, Missouri).  It is good to see the old neon signs along Route 66 be re-lit one at at time.  I saw the announcement that matching funds had been awarded to help re-light the Luna Cafe sign and I look forward to seeing the sign in all its brilliance.

The Illinois Route 66 Association provided the following announcement on their webiste regarding the re-lighting ceremony for the Luna Cafe sign in Mitchell, Illinois (a suburb of St Louis in the St Louis Metro East):

Please join your fellow roadies on Saturday evening October 22, 2011 for the special relighting event of the classic neon sign at the historic Luna Cafe in Mitchell, Illinois.

Please find attached for your reference and review the official announcement that I sent to various media sources.

For those of you that may not be exactly sure how to reach the Luna, it is located approximately 5 miles east of the Chain of Rocks Bridge on Route 66 in Mitchell, Illinois. Its actual address is 201 East Chain of Rocks Road, Mitchell, IL 62040.

If accessing the location off of Interstate 270, you can take Exit 6 for Illinois Route 111 North - go to first major intersection and turn left (that's west) on E. Chain of Rocks Road (old Route 66). You'll see the old Bel Air Drive-In sign on the northwest corner of that intersection. The Luna will be on your right about 1 mile or so down.

These annual relighting parties on the Missouri side have been really neat events the last three years, and its a special experience to celebrate the restoration and rebirth of these vintage neon Route 66 signs.

So, grab your calendar and mark the date down now --- plan to get down to the Luna around 6:00 PM so you won't miss the actual "flip of the switch"! We anticipate a well-attended event with roadies from Missouri, Illinois, and other locales near and far.

Jim also says, "We want a big showing of Route 66 roadies for this event, as the owner of the Luna (Larry Wofford) is planning for a big party! In fact he's going to have fried chicken and beans and cole slaw ready for 200 people. And special commemorative t-shirts will be available for purchase at a reasonable price also. Should be quite the event!"

Here is a Google Map of the location of the Luna Cafe:



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Looking forward to seeing you at the Luna!

Step Inside the Map With Google MapsGL

Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth posted a great post today on the Google LatLong Blog explaining the Google Maps Graphics Library (GL) capabilities.  Pretty neat stuff!


You’re now one step closer to experiencing and interacting with a 3D mirror of the real world within your browser withGoogle MapsGL. Google MapsGL takes Google Maps and harnesses the power of Web Graphics Library (WebGL) to create far richer visuals and animations.

WebGL is a new technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without additional installed software. With WebGL your maps experience is much better with 3D buildings, smoother transitions between imagery and the ability to instantly “swoop” into Street View without a plugin.



Starting today, if you’re using supported browsers (such as Chrome 14+ or Firefox Beta) with compatible video cards, you can opt in to the early beta release. Visit maps.google.com and click “Try it now,” or visit maps.google.com/gl to learn more.

We’ve been using WebGL to create experiences like our Chrome experiments “3 Dreams of Black” and “All is Not Lost,” which happen right in the browser. Previously, such sophisticated 3D graphics have only been possible on traditional desktop applications and have required manual installation. WebGL ushers in a whole new generation of graphics on the web, and with that, we can begin to redefine the expectations of an online map.

Check out Chrome Experiments WebGL for more WebGL-powered applications, and opt in to Google MapsGL to begin using the next generation of mapping today.

PostGIS Version 2: A Game Changer?

There is a great post over on GeoRelated.com about PostGIS Version 2 being a game changer. Good summary of how PostGIS Version 2 relates to PostGRES and the options PostGIS Version 2 provides.  Here's the post:

PostGIS Version 2: a game changer?

PostGIS for PostGres

For many years there has been a limited choice of geodatabases when looking for a single solution for all geodata models. Only Oracle and ESRI offered comprehensive coverage of spatial models. OracleSpatial provided database models and algs for vector, network, raster and topology in addition to the usual database refinements and in database geocoding. ESRIoffered ArcGIS Server with comprehensive support for Vector, Network and raster models but left topology to the clients and had no offering for geocoding.Competitors such as PostGIS, MapInfo Spatialware, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL only offered support for vectors.

It seems the status quo may be about to change. The elephant in the room has started to shuffle its feet towards the finish line. PostGIS version 2.0  not only has big plans but appears to a considerable way into delivering the promise of support for network and raster models. For those of you in the US a tiger geocoder is also available. It looks like the initial support will provide a reasonable coverage of raster and topological models but as always seems to be the problem with open source projects there is very little supporting visual tools.

Raster
Raster support is delivered through dedicated database data types for raster and GDAL based PostGIS drivers to support a wide range of raster formats. There is reasonably rich support for a first edition including:

• Range of functions to access raster metadata
• Raster band manipulation
• Raster processing
• Raster value manipulation/calculation (Algebra, reclass, value manipulation)
• Reprojection
• Vector to raster conversion
• Transform to GDAL formats

Topology
Support for topology is also provided using PostGres data types. The implementation looks less mature than the raster model appearing to offer predominantly CRUD and import/export style capability only at this stage. There are also limited support for transforming data into the topological model in the database.

Vector  Geometry, Geography and Linear Referencing
PostGIS already has comprehensive support for vector geometries including 2D, 3D and linear referencing. PostGIS also supports geography types often used for global representations in its vector model.

PostGIS v2 will be worth watching in 2012 as it heads strongly into the world of GIS. The open source community makes a strong step forward with this release.

What's New in ArcGIS Online (September 2011)

ESRI's Bern Szukalski posted the "What's New in ArcGIS Online" last month in the ArcGIS Online Blog, Lots of great capability coming in ArcGIS Online. I have worked with ESRI products long enough to know that I am banking on ArcGIS Online becoming the best way to display and share geospatial data online for those of us trying to work without a web server.   They have made some great strides in the short amount of time ArcGIS Online has been up and running, and it seems as though they are listening to their customers.  ESRI seems interested in trying to build "mapping communities" rather than just map users. I believe ArcGIS Online goes a long way to building this capability. 

Went for a bike ride Saturday through the countryside of Southwestern Illinois. A southern breeze made for some difficult times going up hills on southern legs. All in all, the St Louis Metro East Area is a great place to ride. Lots of roads with wide shoulders and an endless supply of country roads.

This bike ride is a 10 mile ride that starts and ends at the VerticalGeo office in O'Fallon.


View O'Fallon 10 Mile Bike Ride 20111009 in a larger map

Building an Online Mapping Community

I really like what ESRI has been doing over the last year or so with ArcGIS Online.  I believe they underestimated the value and power of an online collaborative mapping community and were surprised by the popularity of the Google Earth Community.  The last couple of years at their International User Conferences ESRI has been pushing very hard to catch up and create an online collaborative mapping community platform of their own.  I think ArcGIS Online can fill this niche well.  It is nice to see ESRI put resources and effort into this capability.  I have heard ESRI talk for the last couple of years about how important it is to harness the power of crowd sourcing so that everyone can contribute content and create maps, but the price of their software was prohibiting that from happening.  They produce state-of-the-art mapping software, but it is professionally targeted and beyond the ability of the mapping hobbiest to pay for.  What ESRI has done with ArcGIS Online is provide significant mapping capability within the reach of all people.

I have been using ArcGIS Online extensively over the last couple of months and I believe ESRI has created a great collaborative mapping platform.  We are using ArcGIS Online as the platform to host our first online mapping community, the Route 66 Mappers.  I have posted the map of Illinois segment of Route 66 on ArcGIS Online and plan to develop the route from Chicago to Santa Monica via a community format through ArcGIS Online.

Community mapping is a powerful medium to share data in an online environment.  But beyond that, Google Earth has shown us the incredible capability and significant amount of information crowd sourcing can provide.  What ESRI does through ArcGIS Online does that Google through Google Earth can't do is bring professional mappers (GIS Professionals) and collaborative sourcing together into one mapping community. I think ESRI has hit a homerun with ArcGIS Online.

VerticalGeo plans to develop several online mapping communities and leverage ArcGIS Online as the platform for all of them.  No one is more passionate about what they do for a living that GIS Professionals, that is why ESRI's User Conferences continue to grow so quickly.  I am eager to see what projects can be done with this platform.

Route 66 Collaborative Map Effort

VerticalGeo has started a Route 66 Collaborative Map on ArcGIS Online. Please help us by contributing your content to the Route 66 map. So far we have only completed the Illinois portion of Route 66, but we will be adding more segments as we complete them. You can see the contents of the map below or on the Route 66 Project Page in the VerticalGeo website. If you would like to contribute you can use ArcGIS Online to add content. The editable version of this map can be found on ArcGIS Online at: http://bit.ly/r7yW2e


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The Future of Cloud-based GIS Analysis with ArcGIS Online

Last August the ESRI Insider posted Bern Szukalski's ideas on the future of cloud-based GIS analysis.  We heard some of this during this summer's ESRI User Conference, but it is good to see it put in writing.  Here is the post:

The cloud is growing in importance for GIS professionals, with cost efficiency, scalability, and flexibility as major drivers. We can see the beginnings of cloud options for many organizations with the ability to run ArcGIS Server in the cloud and also via Esri's managed services in the cloud.

On a similar, but yet somewhat different and exciting frontier, ArcGIS Online is a key part of the Esri vision for ArcGIS in the cloud. However, up until recently the focus for ArcGIS Online has been on the data part of GIS - making and sharing maps, apps, and other resources, and organizing online communities.

At the 2011 Esri International User Conference we introduced new ArcGIS Online capabilities - hosted services from Esri that enable anyone, not just GIS professionals, to be able to publish Web services using CSV files, shapefiles, and other sources. These capabilities also enable GIS users to publish maps via hosted services directly in the cloud from their ArcGIS Desktop, leveraging data in their enterprise and making ArcGIS Desktop the premier dashboard for Web publishing.

Currently in closed beta, these emerging ArcGIS Online capabilities will enable anyone to publish geographic information in an efficient, scalable, and cost-effective manner. And perhaps most importantly, they will make publishing GIS services that can be accessed by anyone easier than ever before.

During the Esri User Conference plenary Jack Dangermond spoke about the evolution of ArcGIS Online, and Jeremy Bartley and I demonstrated new capabilities that included publishing web services directly via ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Desktop:

As significant as these capabilities are, they are focused on publishing maps and layers. But what about the ability to use ready-to-run geoprocessing tools and perform analysis via the cloud? 

To answer that question, here's an Esri Insider peek at some very exciting work in progress from the ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Explorer Online development teams. Below is a screen capture showing the current development version of ArcGIS Explorer Online using cloud-based buffer and clip services to find the locations of wells within 200 meters of any stream:

The capabilities will include a long list of what could be described as "classic" ArcGIS capabilities, before only available to GIS professionals but soon offered via cloud-based services to non-GIS professionals alike. These promise to change how ArcGIS can be used, leveraging GIS throughout existing organizations and empowering many new users with GIS capabilities.

These capabilities will also be available in a variety of applications including the built-in ArcGIS.com map viewer, configurable Flex and Silverlight applications, and Web APIs. Stay tuned for more announcements over the next few months.

By Bern Szukalski

The Future Looks Bright for Spatial Thinkers

Great post the other day in the ESRI Insider Blog by ESRI's Jack Dangermond about the future of the geospatial industry.  Dangermond said:

Many industries have suffered during the current economic downturn.  So why is it that during this same period, demand for geospatial technology professionals has grown significantly?

I think that this trend is due to the growing understanding of the value of spatial information and analysis.  There are many reasons to implement GIS, but the benefits that we see driving organizations in lean times are cost savings resulting from greater efficiency.  And as we come out of this economic downturn, the efficiencies realized from GIS will become a standard way of doing business, so the need for geospatial professionals will increase even more.

Government has long been at the forefront of this movement, and there will be opportunities here for people with geospatial knowledge, most notably in the area of homeland security and in anything to do with increased transparency and accountability. But we’re now seeing a huge shift in momentum in the commercial arena.  Many of the future career opportunities for geospatial professionals will be in the private sector, as businesses increasingly realize the benefits that government has understood for some time.  

The current high unemployment rate is sending a lot of experienced workers “back to school” to learn new skills more relevant for the 21st century workplace. This is one factor driving the growth of focused geospatial programs at universities and community colleges, both at the degree level and the certificate level.  These programs are doing a great service by training the geospatial workforce of tomorrow. They are also providing many opportunities for seasoned geospatial professionals to take on new roles themselves—passing on their vast knowledge by instructing and teaching the next generation of geospatial professionals.

As the reach of spatial information expands, new opportunities are created for spatial thinkers in many areas.

But the career opportunities here are not just for the people who sit in front of keyboards and “do GIS”. It’s much bigger than that.  I think that the real growth opportunity is in the area of spatial thinking.  As people in all types of positions become more familiar with the value of geography, they begin to ask more intelligent questions about the world, and they begin to make more informed decisions. The coming opportunities for spatial thinkers will be even greater than those we are seeing for geospatial technology professionals.

By Jack Dangermond

GIS On The Web Is OK, Sometimes....

Mapbutcher has a great post on Web-Based GIS.  He makes some good observations and provides some great examples about how difficult and complicated the mapping tools have been in the past.  I appreciate what he has to say, and I have a some comments:

I think part of the frustration we have as GIS Professionals is that we sometimes fail to understand the separation between the data authoring tier of software and the data presentation tier of software in our GIS.  With the availability of cloud storage and a larger emphasis the last few years on data sharing through Service Oriented Architecture and OGC Data Standards I believe we have inserted the third tier of data sharing between the data authoring and data presentation tiers.  As a GIS Professional I hated it when advocates of Google Earth or Google Maps would talk about their system being a GIS.  Both programs are great data presentation tools, but not very good data authoring tools.  But, today I can author data using my favorite ESRI software and share it via web services so that the user can display it on their presentation tool of choice. I think the creation of the data sharing tier has helped many users have a more positive experience using geospatial data and at the same time has opened up what we do to an entirely new user base, one that loves using geospatial data, but doesn't want the complicated data presentation tools we have used in the past.

I think we currently have a good assortment of web-based data presentation tools (ArcGIS Server, Google Maps, GeoServer, ArcGIS Online). What I would like to do next is to create a community of GIS Professionals who collaborate together to produce a great set of free open source web-based data authoring tools that we can all benefit from.

I'd love to hear your comments either here or off-line.  If any of you would like to discuss off-line you can reach me at rick.marshall@verticalgeo.com

Study: 60% of Drivers Scream at SatNav

Thanks to the All Points Blog for pointing me to this study.  The results make me ask whey th average driver uses a GPS at all:

In a study of 2000 British Drivers age 17-45, Skobbler, a company that uses OpenStreetMap as its SatNav (GPS) BaseMap found:

-  One in five frequently become angry with their SatNav
-  The average motorist will travel 1,292 miles in the wrong direction during their life because ‘The SatNav told me to’
-  47% said they had a love/hate relationship with their SatNav
-  Three in ten hate having to put up with losing the satellite signal
-  One quarter struggle with getting the SatNav to stick to the windscreen
-  The average Brit takes about 9 journeys in their car per week and uses their SatNav on at least two of the journeys
-  Half of the drivers admit to swearing at their GPS systems while suffering “SatNav Rage”

You can read the entire article on the Telegraph.

Cloud GIS Is?

SlashGeo has an interesting poll going on just what people’s thoughts are on Cloud GIS.  The Poll Questions is:

“Cloud GIS Is?”

With 105 votes here are the results:

-  Just a buzz word that will pass away: 12%
-  Useful to only a few: 12%
-  Will eventually rule enterprise GIS: 11%
-  The natural evolution of enterprise GIS: 50%
-  The cloud will engulf everything: 11%

That is a pretty wide array of answers that goes all the way from people burying their head in the sand and hoping Cloud GIS will go away, to the cloud will engulf everything.   I will follow the results and report them as the poll matures.

Geo APIs Summer Learning Series: Map Your Business, Inside and Out

Google posted this great video and update last week on their GeoDeveloper’s Blog about the Google Maps API:


http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/09/geo-apis-summer-learning-series-map.html

They sure have some great stuff and smart people at Google.

SlashGeo Poll: Esri ArcGIS Online vs Google Earth Builder?

SlashGeo conducted a poll to find out which platform people preferred with regard to the ESRI ArcGIS Online vs Google Earth Builder debate.  The results are totally split.  Here are the results of the poll:

ESRI ArcGIS Online will prevail:  24%

Google Earth Builder will prevail: 24%
Both will be successes in their own way: 42%

Microsoft Bing Maps will rule them both: 2%

VerticalGeo is an avid user of both ESRI and Google Products.  This poll should have been a little more explicit in the question it asks.  ArcGIS Online and Google Earth both both do a great job with the presentation tier when producing geospatial data.  Neither do a very good job with the data authoring tier when producing geospatial data.  As far as VerticalGeo is concerned the ESRI suite of software products can’t be beat with it comes to authoring geospatial data.  The ESRI suite of software tools though is very expensive.  I believe there will soon be a proliferation of open-source geospatial creation and presentation tools that will compete against both ESRI and Google Earth.  What we really need if we want to develop a geospatial powerhouse are the robust tools that ESRI provides with the open source pricetag.

VerticalGeo will be venturing more deeply into the open source market to help provide just that.  We intend to combine cloud computing, open source tools for geospatial data authoring and maintenance, with a top notch presentation layer, all with a web-based interface, for free, in an attempt to help guild a community of geospatial users that will have a new alternateive to the ESRI vs Google Earth debate.

OpenLayers 2.11 Released

OpenGeo has announced that Open Layers 2.11 has been released.  VerticalGeo has been using Open Layers 2.10 and it has proven to be a powerful open source web-based visualization platform.  Open Layers does a great job of combining services and static content into a web-based map.  You can read the OpenGeo release article here:  Link.

VerticalGeo will be adding a “Maps” tab this week to our website where we will showcase what some of the open source mapping applications can provide.  We plan to open our “Maps” tab with an Open Layers Map.  These maps will not always be a finished product, but will contain some maps that are works in progress.

Helicopter view of your driving directions on Google Maps

Thanks to Google's LatLong Blog for posting this on Friday:

Getting directions is one of the most popular features on Google Maps, whether it be for driving, walking, biking or transit. Today, we are launching a new feature that allows you to bring your upcoming trip to life, by allowing you to preview your route in 3D.

Let’s say you’re planning a road trip down the beautiful coast of California’s Highway 1 and want to be able to see what the route really looks like. California’s rugged coastline is not to be missed, but the top-down view really doesn’t give you a good sense of what this majestic terrain is like. Using the 3D preview; however, you can get aerial view of the route, as if you were in a helicopter flying above the road.

To preview your own route, it is as simple as clicking on a button. Start by entering your starting point, destination, and mode of transport like any directions; in this case, driving directions from ‘Carmel CA to Big Sur CA.’ Then, just click on the “3D” play button. The map will switch to Earth view and automatically start flying you along your recommended route.

You can pause the flight at any time by clicking anywhere in the 3D view or on the pause button in the lower left. While the flight is paused, you can explore the surrounding area in 3D by clicking and dragging the map. When you are ready to resume the flight, simply click on the play button in the lower left of the 3D view.

To help you keep track of which step you are on, the current leg of the trip is highlighted in the left panel. You can also jump to a different part of the trip by clicking on a different step.

You can get back to 2D mode by clicking on the “2D” button in the left panel at any time.

We hope you enjoy your flight.

Paul Yang, Google Maps engineer