Hugo Estrada's House of Wonder

After yesterday's review of open source geocoders, Google just announced the introduction of the new Google Geocoding Web Service. Improvements, from the announcement: "* A flatter response format for address components that is easier to parse. * The ability to tag an address component with multiple types. * Both full names and abbreviations for countries and states. * Differentiation between rooftop and interpolated geocoder results. * Both the bounding box and recommended viewport for each result. [...] The Geocoding Web Service is intended to enable precaching of geocoder results that you know your application will need in future. For example, if your application displays property listings, you can geocode the address of each property, cache the results on your server, and serve these locations to your API application. This ensures that your application does not need to geocode the address of a property every time it is viewed by a user." See also related stories below.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

GeoTools 2.6.2 has been released. From the announcement: "This release is mostly intended to provide a number of important bug-fixes, but there are also some new features and improvements for your programming pleasure including: * The rendering system now has the ability to draw polygon fills and SVGs as vectors and draw marks with arbitrary sizes. * GeoTools applications can now use the H2 database with a spatial index provided by Hatbox. * Support added for polyconic projections." See also previous stories below.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

The linear thiking blog offers a short review of open source geocoders. From the entry: "All of the engines implement parsing and matching logic purely in code. None of them provide a declarative description language to allow easy modification of parsing, standardization, and matching rules. [...] In all the projects the parser design appears to be fairly ad-hoc and poorly documented. This situation doesn't inspire confidence that it would be possible to modify the parser to support a different address model, or to handle particular kinds of input errors." See also previous stories below.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

About 6 weeks ago I asked the Bing Maps Product Management team about our presence at SXSW. A couple weeks later they gave me a panel. Then, they asked me to proctor it. Oh, and populate it. Hmm, this was a bit more than I was expecting to take on, but always up for a challenge I ran with it and now I’m proud to announce my panel for SXSW jam-packed with location all-stars. My panel is on Sunday, March 14 @ 9:30 AM. Here’s the scoop:

 

Augmenting Maps with Reality

Remember when the utility of an online map consisted of directions and gawking at satellite imagery?  With the recent tide of location-based apps, maps is rapidly emerging as the gateway to socially exploring the world around us.  But that’s not all.   In this future focused discussion, we’ll explore the rise of maps as a social platform and it’s potential beyond.    

Check out this lineup:

Dennis Crowley – foursquare - CEO & Co-Founder

 

 

Laura Diaz – NAVTEQ - Senior Manager, Partner & Developer Program

 

 

Kellan Elliott-McCrea – Flickr - Architect

 

 

Ryan Sarver – Twitter – Director, Twitter Platform

 

 

Proctor: Chris Pendleton – Microsoft – Bing Maps Technical Evangelist

 

I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when I met Ryan, I knew he was one of my own. And my wolf pack... it grew by one. So there... there were two of us in the wolf pack... I was alone first in the pack, and then Ryan joined in later. And six months ago, when I met Dennis and Laura, I thought, "Wait a second, could it be?" And now I know for sure, I just added two more wolves to my wolf pack. And now, finally, Kellan joined the wolf pack. Five of us wolves, running around the desert together, in Austin, looking for music with maps. So tonight, I make a toast!

I hope to see you at my panel…or, somewhere in the streets of Austin.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Here's your weekly dose of geonews in batch mode.

On the Google front, you can now refine Google searches by location, with the "Nearby" tool in the Search Options panel. Google also announced the winners of their StreetView trike contest. There's also Athens in 3D. If you wonder how crazy it can get, here's an entry named solving a murder with Google Earth. There's also new imagery in Google Earth, including Chile. Here's an entry on heat maps with Google Fusion Tables.

On the Microsoft's front, here's a two-parts article on Integrating OpenStreetMap in Bing Maps. Bing Maps also just released their biggest imagery update ever, 6.7 million square kilometers.

On the ESRI front, we mentioned last week the podcast about ESRI's position on open source, via GGNB I learned about the new ESRI page about their position on open source software. The ArcGIS API For JavaScript 1.6 Now Available. And ESRI also announced their new World Topographic base map (screenshots included).

On the FOSS4G front, here's how to create contour lines in QGIS. There's also a new Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) mailing list.

In other news, several geoblogs mentioned that Platial is turning off their services. APB offers an entry named GIS Used to Help Decrease Stroke, Heart Disease, and Cardiovascular Risk 25%. There's also an entry about large shapefiles on small screens using a drawable spatial index. Engadget does a head-to-head comparison of three GPS smartphone navigation systems: Google Navigation, Ovi Maps, and VZ Navigator. TMR also points to the testing of the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger.

In the maps category, via Mapperz, I learned about ProtectedPlanet, the latest initiative of the World Database on Protected Areas. Here's a named Which Burger Chains Dominate the U.S. Landscape? Here's another map, linking the affordability of housing and transportation in the U.S.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

kstreith writes "Opticks 4.3.3 is now released along with a new Spectral processing capability and Python scripting capability. Also includes updates to the existing IDL scripting. The release highlights include better support for scripting and support for loading FITS data. The new Spectral Processing extension provides algorithms to work with hyper-spectral and multi-spectral data and visualize and perform signature matching. The new Python scripting extension allows a user to combine the power of Python with the visualization power of Opticks. The IDL scripting extension now supports IDL 7.0 and IDL 7.1." We mentioned the open source project Opticks before, see previous stories below.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Last month we pushed out our largest amount of new imagery EVER in terms of square kilometers. This month, we’re blowing THAT record out of the water. You thought 1 million+ sq. km. was large? How about 6.7 million square kilometers! It’s pretty much unfathomable. The big winners? Aerial: The Russian Federation, Australia, Mexico and most places in the US where we had black and white imagery. Bird’s Eye: Sweden. Deets:

 

Aerial

Australia    524,645 sq. km.
Botswana    61,433 sq. km.
Estonia    618 sq. km.
Hungary    3,369 sq. km.
Mexico    236,624 sq. km.
Morocco    13,303 sq. km.
Namibia    72,162 sq. km.
New Zealand    14,987 sq. km.
Poland    6,254 sq. km.
Romania    3,695 sq. km.
Russian Federation    553,244 sq. km.
South Africa    123,138 sq. km.
Turkey    16,148 sq. km.
United Kingdom    15,221 sq. km.
United States    4,961,758 sq. km.

Oblique (Bird’s Eye)

Austria    238 sq. km.
Belgium    898 sq. km.
Denmark    718 sq. km.
Finland    1,634 sq. km.
France    2,001 sq. km.
Greece    931 sq. km.
Ireland    1,340 sq. km.
Netherlands    1,709 sq. km.
Norway    2,425 sq. km.
Portugal    2,184 sq. km.
Romania    1,534 sq. km.
Spain    5,143 sq. km.
Sweden    6,747 sq. km.
Switzerland    424 sq. km.
United Kingdom    13,094 sq. km.
United States    56,007 sq. km.

Check out the Bing Maps World Tour for visuals. Also, Johannes has a sweet application for viewing imagery based on shape files. Niiiice.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

Slashdot discusses a story named 3D Graphics For Firefox, Webkit. Webkit is the open source engine behind Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome browsers. Their summary: ""A group of researchers plans to release a version of the Firefox browser that includes the built-in ability to view 3D graphics. They've integrated real-time ray tracing technology, called RT Fact, into Firefox and Webkit. Images are described using XML3D, and the browser can natively render the 3D scene." The browser will be released within a few weeks, the researchers say, and they are checking with the Mozilla Foundation about whether they can call it Firefox."

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

The open source project GeoMOOSE 2.2 has been released two weeks ago. Since it's been a while we mentioned the GeoMOOSE project, here's a reminder of what it is: "GeoMOOSE is a Web Client Javascript Framework for displaying distributed cartographic data. GeoMOOSE has a number of strengths including modularity, configurability, and delivers a number of core functionalities in its packages. GeoMOOSE is also very light weight for servers making it easy to handle a large number of users, with a large number of layers, and a large number of services without stressing a server. The GeoMOOSE core is written using JavaScript and HTML. It is entirely possible to run GeoMOOSE with nothing more than a basic webserver (Nginx, Apache, IIS). But besides the basic client core, GeoMOOSE also comes prepackaged with a number of built in services written in PHP. These services add the ability to perform drill-down identify operations, selection operations, and search datasets. If you have existing scripts that perform similar functions, GeoMOOSE can be tuned to work with those services, no matter which language they were written." See also related stories below.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

A friend sent me a link to an IBM article named "Make your own map-based mashup, create a KML service from ESRI shapefile data", using open source geospatial software. The summary: "Map-based mashups abound these days. Mashups require services that can be mashed up. Location-based mashups need services that provide boundary information. With Web-based mapping providers, you can easily create a map-based mashup with little or no capital investment. In this article, learn how to create a KML boundary service from an ESRI shapefile to be used in mashups."

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Via O'Reilly, I learned about the free (but not open source?) software named SaTScan. What it is? "SaTScan is a free software that analyzes spatial, temporal and space-time data using the spatial, temporal, or space-time scan statistics. It is designed for any of the following interrelated purposes: * Perform geographical surveillance of disease, to detect spatial or space-time disease clusters, and to see if they are statistically significant. * Test whether a disease is randomly distributed over space, over time or over space and time. * Evaluate the statistical significance of disease cluster alarms. * Perform repeated time-periodic disease surveillance for early detection of disease outbreaks. The software may also be used for similar problems in other fields such as archaeology, astronomy, botany, criminology, ecology, economics, engineering, forestry, genetics, geography, geology, history, neurology or zoology. "

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Version 1.11 of the open source Java Topology Suite (JTS) has been released. From the announcement: "The version contains numerous enhancements, including: * Delaunay triangulation and Voronoi diagrams * AWT Shape reading and writing * Geometry similarity metrics * support for Geometry densification * Numerous improvements to the JTS TestBuilder" See also related stories below. The JTS is the source of GEOS. See also related stories below.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Slashdot runs yet another geo-related story, this one named Google Awarded Broad Patent For Location-Based Advertising. Their summary: "Mashable has a report of a patent that just issued (6-1/2 years after filing) — apparently Google now has a lock on location-based advertising. It's not clear that the search company intends to assert the patent against any other companies (such as emerging rival Apple), but it's useful as leverage. Here is the patent."

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Bertrand writes "Hi people at slashgeo, I am a long time reader of slashgeo, big fan of your work as a geospatial professional, and this is the first time I am submitting a link. I am currently working with a partner on a project called RadarVirtuel.com, that we started last summer and that we are currently developping on our free time, besides our day jobs. Our goal is to display real-time aircraft traffic on the web, using all latest geospatial technology. In order to do so, our system is based on a network of contributers (private persons, companies) owning some ADS-B receiver and willing to share their data with us. In exchange, we make their data available online for anyone, and we will develop advanced services for them to analyze airplane traffic. We believe that this information can be useful for various needs (locating an airplane for personal or business purposes, computing statistics), and notably it can lead to a better public understanding of what happens above our heads. Our coverage area is mostly over Europe, thanks to the many aviation enthusiasts we have here. But we would love to have the same coverage over USA, Canada (all over the world, actually), and we hope people will want to contribute to our project everywhere. We hope you will be interested by our project, and that you will want to share this story with your readers. Since my English is not perfect, do not hesitate to write me if you have any question. Bertrand." See also related stories below, including the OpenFlights database.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

There is plenty of geoblogs sharing information on Chile earthquake mapping efforts. Brady Forrest of O'Reilly offers several links in an entry named 'Lessons From Haiti Will Aid Chile'. Off the Map offers other links, including Ushahidi Chile situation room. The Map Room offers map screenshots of the tsunami wave. The GEB offers satellites images and links. Map Hawk criticizes the New York Times maps for being highly confusing. Finally, both Google and OpenStreetMap offer their whole set of resources for the Chile earthquake response.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

As part of Microsoft Learning, we’ve updated our exam for application development against the Bing Maps Platform. What’s this all about? For those of you who are new to Microsoft Learn, it’s all about getting certifications. Certifications lead to qualifications. Qualifications lead to being added to respective lists. Being added to respective lists means you’re up for getting business referrals from Microsoft; and, that means revenue. Here’s a bit about the exam:

About this Exam

Candidates for Exam 74-544: TS: TS: Bing Maps Platform, Application Development work on teams that create  solutions for medium or large environments using Bing Maps.  This exam is a rebranding of exam 70-544.

Audience Profile

Candidates for Exam 74-544: TS: Bing Maps Platform, Application Development work on teams that create Bing Maps solutions for medium or large environments. Candidates have experience with using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 to build Web solutions that search for and display geographic information for the Microsoft Bing Maps platform. Candidates should have at least one year of experience developing Web-based applications by using Visual Studio 2005 and be able to demonstrate the following.

• Experience consuming XML Web services

• Experience binding to Bing Maps data

• Experience using the Bing Maps mapping tools

Credit Toward CertificationWhen you pass Exam 74-544: TS: Bing Maps Platform, Application Development, you complete the requirements for the following certification(s):

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Bing Maps Platform, Application Development

For all of the Microsoft Partners out there who are interested in becoming a Bing Maps Partner, you can get free training from the Microsoft Partner Network site.

Finally, and most important for some of you, starting in May, 2010 The Bing Maps Application Development Exam will fulfill one of the two exam requirements for the Business Intelligence Competency. So, if you’re looking to get the BI competency in your portfolio and you have experience in Bing Maps Application Development your path to completion will be getting much shorter.

CP – Follow me on Twitter @ChrisPendleton

A friend sent me a link to the open source project Sourcemap.org. From their about: "Sourcemap helps you find and share the stories behind products. Your everyday product choices have a significant impact. Some decisions have impacts that stretch across the world, whereas others are regional. [...] We want to empower organizations to connect with their consumers by sharing their product stories. Sourcemap is an open source project dedicated to tracking, documenting, and mapping where all of the components for our everyday goods come from. We believe transparency is the first step towards global supply chain improvement"

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Here's the last geo-related story that Slashdot discussed over the weekend: Repossession Men Using New Technology To Track Cars. Their summary: "The NY Times has an article about how real-time license plate scanning is changing the car repo business. MVTRAC is one of several companies providing technology to track car license plates automatically, in order to populate private databases. This new tech is used by car repo companies to help banks or other lenders repossess cars; by police to find stolen cars or to locate ticket scofflaws; or really for whatever application MVTRAC and its competitors feel like pursuing, as the new-found industry lacks any kind of government oversight."

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Slashdot ran another geo-story this weekend: Gaming With GPS On Your Smartphone. Their summary: "If your handset doesn't get you out and about, tramping through mud, climbing around and hunting for hidden treasure, then something needs an upgrade. The iPhone, Blackberry's Storm and Bold lines, and many Symbian and Android handsets, now sport GPS, which makes your smartphone the ticket to join a global movement of outdoor games. These are outbound challenges that pit teams and solo players against themselves and each other in the search for hidden treasure, undiscovered landmarks, and hidden spots all over the world. This article delves into several of the best smartphone-friendly real-world games, each of which is a bridge between the online and offline worlds." We mentioned geo-games quite a few times in the past, please do a search to find them.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.

Found on slashdot : "Google has launched a competitor or counterpart to Microsoft's Photosynth, which employs user-contributed photos of much-photographed sites to supplement the street-level view in an immersive way. Google's offering is called simply Navigate through User Photos, and unlike Photosynth — which requires Sliverlight and therefore is not available on Linux — is implemented in Flash. This YouTube video (also embedded at the link above) offers a quick tour of the new feature, which can use photos uploaded to Panoramico, Flickr, and Picasa."

Here's the official Google Lat Long entry about the new major feature, screenshots included.

Read more of this story at Slashgeo.