GEO: connexion articles from February 2005

GEO: connexion archives from February 2005

No villains, only heroes.(upfront)
February 1, 2005... Natural events, unprecedented in recent history, shook the world as the old year reached its close. Unlike man-made disasters, there were no villains, only heroes as governments, organisations and individuals responded locally and globally to...

Definiens imaging appoints reseller.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Definiens Imaging (Munich, Germany) has signed a new reseller for its eCognition product suite for Scandinavia and the Baltic region, Brock & Michelsen A/S (Birkerod, Denmark). This agreement will strengthen Definiens Imaging's sales and...

What an honour.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Charlie Payne, Ordnance Survey's former data collection & management general manager for Wales, Midlands and West, has been made an OBE in the Queen's new year honours list. The title is in recognition of Payne's dedicated work for Ordnance...

Satellite spies a spill.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... RADARSAT International (Richmond, Canada) has captured imagery of the Terra Nova oil platform spill off the east coast of Canada. The images were collected by RADARSAT-I, which was focusing on the region as part of the Integrated Satellite...

Detailed Deutschland data.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Tele Atlas (Ghent, Belgium) has released the Deutschland 2005 DX navigation CD for Blaupunkt TravelPilot DX systems. It includes details of 90,400 towns and cities, covering 99 per cent of the German population. Approximately 50,000 updates...

FLI-MAP working hard.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... In November 2004, Fugro completed the survey of more than 100,000 kilometres using its FLI-MAP corridor mapping system. The 100,000st kilometre was surveyed for the Portuguese survey and photogrammetry company Estereofoto. The project covered...

Next gen of Indian EO satellites.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Euromap GmbH (Neustrelitz, Germany) has started to receive data from the new Indian Remote Sensing Satellite. IRS-P6 Resourcesat-I (IRS-P6). The Indian constellation of EO satellites is marketed through ANTRIX, the commercial arm of the Indian...

Classifiying the east.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... EuroDirect (Leeds, England) has expanded its product range to include a consumer segmentation and targeting proposition for Eastern Europe with the completion of CAMEO classification systems for the Czech Republic and Hungary. These two...

Intergraph races ahead in GML relay.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions Netherlands (Hoofddorp, the Netherlands) has participated in the third GML Relay at the "Standards in Action" event held at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. The event demonstrates...

Aqualectra elect ESRI.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... ESRI Netherlands (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) has deployed its ArcGIS software platform at Aqualectra b.v. (Curacao, Netherlands Antilles), a water and electricity authority. Included in the ArcGIS installation are ArcSDE, ArcIMS, and...

Make your mark.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... A locating method using GPS/GIS data collection to simplify mapping underground facilities has been developed following a cooperative marketing agreement between 3M (Texas, USA) and Thales' (California, USA) navigation business. Aimed at...

Extended lane attributes available.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... NAVTEQ (Veldhoven, the Netherlands) has integrated three new attributes to provide detailed lane information for its map of Germany. The initial product enhancement includes extended lane information for select critical junctions on German...

Leica's win for innovation.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping, LLC (Georgia, USA) is among the recipients of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) 2004 Innovations in Geospatial Intelligence BAA Award. The winners were announced at the GEOINT 2004 Symposium, held...

Quickbird used for ecosystem mapping.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... The Nature Conservancy is using QuickBird satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe (Colorado, USA) to assess biological diversity and conservation progress in regions across the world. It leverages satellite imagery and geospatial technologies to...

Access massive images online.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Users of 3D Nature's Visual Nature Studio 2.5 (VNS2) can now access large images from anywhere in the world using ER Mapper's (Perth, Australia) Image Web Server and streaming imagery protocol. Terabyte-plus sized images can be used and...

Juicy imagery.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Cranberry juice producer, Ocean Spray, has made use of GeoVantage's (Massachusetts, USA) aerial imagery to complete its fruit harvest. GeoVantage provided imagery of cranberry bogs in two of Ocean Spray's major growing areas in Massachusetts...

Telefonica chooses Intergraph.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Telefonica de Espana S.A.U. has chosen Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions' (Alabama, USA) G/Comms, a geofacilities management-based system on G/Technology, Telefonica will use the system as the enabling core for its Geospatial Resource...

Star power.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... The STAR INFORMATIC Group (Liege, Belgium) has announced that its STAR ELEC suite of spatially-enabled applications for the power supply industry has been chosen by Usine d'Electricite de Metz (UEM), in Eastern France, STAR ELEC was selected...

Around the world.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... ESRI France, the French distributor for ESRI (California, USA), is supporting the Vendee Globe race by providing real time GIS mapping which displays the participating yachts. ESRI France is the technical partner for several sailing races which...

Spinning the ArcWeb.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... ESRI (California, USA) has added to the data offered via its ArcWeb Services. Highlights of the added data include premium aerial and satellite imagery from GlobeXplorer and North American road network data from NAVTEQ. Also available is...

Setting sail for India.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Fugro Geonics (Maharastra, India) has acquired a former diving support vessel which it will be converting into a survey vessel. The newly named Geo Endeavor will sail under an Indian flag and provide Fugro Geonics enhanced capability in the...

Intergraph's Geospatial world.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Denver, USA) will be running a series of seminars, site tours and an education symposium as part of its fifth annual GeoSpatial World conference. The theme this year is "Enabling the Spatial...

A busy year.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association has released an end of year report with details of its activities in 2004, the first year it has operated as a formally incorporated non-profit organisation. During the last year. GSDI...

ICES president visits China.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... The president of the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES), Robert Fleming, has visited China following an invitation from the Chinese International Contractor's Association (CHINCA). The visit, which took place last November, was...

No such thing as a free ride.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... A research project funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology is currently developing an online 'ridesharing service' through which navigation capabilities are integrated into a ridesharing service to help...

MapMechanics update.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Kingswood MapMechanics (London, England) has released several updates to its product range. The first is a new collection of tools for change-only updates, de-duping and PAI positioning within its GeoConcept GIS. Using automated processes it is...

Strategic Scandinavian alliance.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Ten Sails (Cambridge, England) and breakoutimage (Copenhagen, Denmark) have entered into a strategic alliance, the aim of which is to mutually support growth of both companies. The two companies will jointly enter into location-based projects...

An open portal.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... ICONIC (Grace-Hollogne, Belgium) ICONIC has been chosen to build an intranet/internet portal for the Luxembourg National Department of Cadastral Information. The portal will be built incorporating the latest OGC standards, including a...

CPS solution selected by Sichuan Yingda.(LBS News in Brief)
February 1, 2005... Sichuan Yingda (Sichuan, China) has selected CPS's Matrix high accuracy location system to drive its enterprise location-based services on China Unicom's network. The commercial agreement will see the Matrix solution used to locate and track...

Mobile workforce put to work.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Telmap (Herzlia, Israel) has launched the Vega Workforce management system, a real-time information service providing the location of mobile workers. The system is offered as a value-added service by Partner Communications under the Orange...

Peace of mind for parents.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Multimap (London, England) and Creativity Software (London, England) are working together to provide a service for parents. They can now view the location of their children's mobile phones on a webmap. Chris Lee, Creativity Software said, "It...

Get in line.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Exor and Laser-Scan (Cambridge, England) have announced a new partnership to provide network integration tools for the merging and management of linear network data. The benefits of merging linear networks are now being recognised by many...

Growing fast.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... McCarthy Taylor Systems Ltd (Gloucester, England), creator of the LSS survey software, has been awarded a place in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 competition for sustained business growth over the past five years. "Because the Deloitte...

Trimble expands.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Trimble (California, USA) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pacific Crest Corporation (California, USA) in a cash transaction. No financial terms have been disclosed but Mark Sellers, president and CEO of Pacific Crest said....

On the move.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Alabama, USA) has been awarded a contract to provide an outage and mobile workforce management system based on its application InService, to ETSA Utilities (Australia), an electricity distribution...

Leica look to Singapore.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Leica Geosystems' (Heerbrugg Switzerland) surveying and engineering division has announced that it will be establishing a new Singapore subsidiary, Leica Geosystems Technologies Pte Ltd. This new company combines its carved-out business in...

Esri's groundbreaking agreement with Shell.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Building upon a successful multinational enterprise contract signed four years ago. ESRI (California, USA) and Shell International Exploration and Production B.V. have agreed to expand their relationship and implement a comprehensive agreement...

MapInfo Corporation.(RESULTS)
February 1, 2005... MapInfo Corporation (New York, USA) has announced that it expects to record net charges totalling approximately [euro]0.8 million, or [euro]0.04 per share, for the first fiscal quarter of 2005 ending 31 December, 2004. The net charges relate to...

NovAtel Inc.(RESULTS)
February 1, 2005... NovAtel Inc. (Calgary, Canada) has announced its results for the third quarter ending 2 October, 2004. Revenues were [euro]8.6 million compared to [euro]6.8 million in the same period last year. NovAtel has reported a net income of [euro]1.81...

PriceWatch*.(CEO:news)
February 1, 2005... PriceWatch* stock price change Autodesk 4.9 -1.39 Intergraph 21.28 +1.12 MapInfo 9.08 -0.12 Trimble Navigation 23.91 -0.52 * Share price...

Rapid growth.(GEO:news)
February 1, 2005... Multimap (London, England) has made its first appearance in the Fast Track 100, as published by the Sunday Times in December 2004. According to the report, with sales growth averaging 82 per cent a year, from [euro]813,128 in 2000 to [euro]4.9...

Preserving Iraqi heritage.(GEO:middle east)
February 1, 2005... In November last year a team from English Heritage participated in a joint international training initiative--the GCI-WMF Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative: Methodology for Rapid Assessment of Archeological and Historic...

Sime and K & A cooperation.(GEO:middle east)
February 1, 2005... Space Imaging Middle East (SIME. Dubai, UAE) has signed a cooperation agreement with Khatib & Alami (K & A. Lebanon), an architectural and engineering consulting company. The agreement will enable SIME to bring specialised GIS solutions to the...

Rapid response.(GEO:africa)
February 1, 2005... The European Space Agency (ESA) is supporting a consortium, Respond, in its task to provide earth observation-derived maps and other geographical information products direct to humanitanan workers in Darfur, Sudan. Organisations such as the...

BGS charts success in Madagascar.(GEO:africa)
February 1, 2005... A UK/US consortium, led by the British Geological Survey (BGS. Keyworth, England), has won a [euro]5.3 million contract to prepare a geological map of northern and central Madagascar. The consortium also includes the United States Geological...

Muir joins Trimble.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... Trimble's Mapping and GIS business area has appointed Craig Muir to the role of marketing manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The appointment, based at Trimble's facility in Raunheim, Germany, is directed at providing...

Bubenheim is good for business.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... Thales has appointed Christian Bubenheim as general manager of its Magellan consumer business. Bubenheim brings with him nearly 15 years of experience in consumer electronics, during which time he worked at Apple, Compaq and Intel developing...

Paraskeva for VP.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... Autodesk has promoted Mark Paraskeva to the newly-created role of vice president, Northern Europe. In this role, Paraskeva will be responsible for Autodesk operations across UK and Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, Sweden,...

New COO at ORBIMAGE.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... ORBIMAGE Inc has appointed William Schuster as chief operating officer; he brings experience from careers in both government and industry. Schuster has worked most recently for BAE Systems but began his career with the CIA where he worked for...

Burney on board.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... The board of directors for IDELIX Software Inc has a new member, Derek H. Burney. He will advise IDELIX on its work in new markets including digital imaging, CAD and modelling. Burney is a former Canadian prime ministerial chief of staff, he...

Farley joins Leica.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping division has appointed Jim Farley as vice president, business development. Farley has spent more than twenty years in the information technology industry in both mainstream IT and GIS, working in the public and...

New appointment at Tadpole-Cartesia.(GEO:people)
February 1, 2005... Tadpole-Cartesia Inc has appointed a new executive account manager for its North American utilities business. In his new role, Ian Martin is responsible for the further development of Tadpole-Cartesia's revenues from utility industries through...

EuroGeographics Cadastre workshop: Paris, France.(GEO:connect)
February 1, 2005... EuroGeographics, the umbrella body for Europe's National Mapping and Cadastral Agencies, convened a two-day workshop on the Future of the Cadastre in early September. Specific objectives of the gathering, held at the organisation's...

INTERGEO 2004: Stuttgart, Germany; New product roundup Pt. 3.(GEO:connect)
February 1, 2005... Those showcasing new and improved data and software at last October's INTERGEO Congress and Trade Fair included: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 1: Geo-Strategies (Sibiu, Rumania, and...

ESRI 2004 European & Scandinavian User Conference: Copenhagen, Denmark.(GEO:connect)
February 1, 2005... Some 600 delegates converged on the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen over three days last November for ESRI's 2004 European & Scandinavian User Conference. Although on a much smaller scale than its international counterpart in San Diego, the...

Map & Guide developer day.(GEO:connect)
February 1, 2005... The Dorint Hotel in Map & Guide's home town of Karlsruhe, Germany, provided the venue in late November for a developer day meeting. Although a small-scale event for a company whose mapping and routing products have sold in their tens of...

Routing round-the-clock: Karlsruhe, Germany.(GEO:connect)
February 1, 2005... Generating much interest at the Karlsruhe meeting was 25h, Map & Guide's aptly-named routing package for those needing to squeeze as many visits as possible into their busy work schedules. Unveiled in Munich towards the end of October and...

The value of geography: can we put a price on GIS? We've all heard the statistic that 75-80 per cent of government data has a geographical reference but what does this really mean? Bob Barr examines how the value of the technology is often understated and in some cases, overstated.(dangling segment)
February 1, 2005... For almost as long as computerised geographical information systems have existed questions have been asked about the costs and the benefits of the technology. These have proved to be very elusive. It is not because there are no benefits, but...

Crossing continents: universities on two continents work to develop a common curriculum in GIScience.(FOCUS)
February 1, 2005... Three years ago, the European Commission launched the AsiaLink programme as a means of promoting intercontinental networking in Higher Education. In response, three UNIGIS-affiliated European GIS-Labs together with three partners n South Asia...

Elearning with EuroSDR.(NEWSROUND)
February 1, 2005... EuroSDR (formerly OEEPE) will run three short (three-week) eLearning courses commencing in April 2005 for providers, users, students and teachers of Geographical Information-related topics and services in Europe and beyond. Subjects to be...

Briefing from Becta.(NEWSROUND)
February 1, 2005... A recent briefing paper from Becta, the British Educational Communications & Technology Agency, reviews the benefits of incorporating ICT in geography teaching. The report (downloadable in full from...

Looking ahead at central Europe's oldest University.(NEWSROUND)
February 1, 2005... Charles University of Prague is the first university in the Czech Republic to sign an Institute of Higher Education Master Site License Agreement with ESRI. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Both ESRI president Jack Dangermond and Stanislav...

Educational bundles from LizardTech.(NEWSROUND)
February 1, 2005... LizardTech, Inc. a leader provider of software for managing, distributing and accessing digital content such as aerial and satellite imagery and scanned colour documents, has launched an Educational Licensing Programme. Under the scheme,...

Success breeds success ... so they say. With this in mind, GEO:connexion met with Andrew Overton, managing director of Overview Mapping solutions, to find out how thought translates into deed.(interview)
February 1, 2005... GEO:connexion: How would you describe the Overview business? Andrew Overton: If you rolled our distinct product areas--mapping, telecoms, Internet delivery and ASP services--into one. I guess you would end up describing us as a mobile phone...

Portsmouth plays it safe: as UK local authorities ponder their response to the new Civil Contingencies Act, public-private sector collaboration promises a GIS solution geared to the needs of emergency planners and first responders. (1).(public safety)
February 1, 2005... The government's Civil Contingencies Act 2004, which received Royal Assent in November of last year, prescribes a number of new and enhanced duties for local authorities. These include formal risk assessment, maintaining business continuity,...

Shock & awe ... nature's way.(public safety)
February 1, 2005... Part I: into the maelstrom [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the first part of this special coverage devoted to the earthquake and Tsunami in Southern Asia, we track events as they unfolded, sample the GI industry's response, and look at how...

'Slip sliding away': Municipal authorities in Vejle Amt, Denmark, are waging a county-wide campaign to prevent soil erosion and safeguard water supplies from contamination. Rodney Leek reports on the pivotal role of spatial modelling in devising effective countermeasures.(government)
February 1, 2005... Often described as 'Denmark in miniature', the county of Vejle Amt in Eastern Jutland is a green and pleasant land with a sizeable of population and thriving commercial sector (see thumbnail sketch facing page). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Doing it better in Barnet: as e-government targets assume top priority, one of London's biggest boroughs raises its game with GIS.(government & public sector)
February 1, 2005... Extending across a sizeable chunk of north London, from the shopping mecca of Brent Cross, to Hampstead Garden Suburb--an internationally-important example of early 20th century town planning--to the executive belt of leafy Hertfordshire,...

Keeping one step ahead; GEO:connexion reports on how a new mapping and routing system will help keep Rotterdam on the move, whatever the weather.(government & public sector)
February 1, 2005... Although traditionally a nation of cyclists, between three and five hundred thousand people in the Netherlands spend some time in their cars on a daily basis. And with vehicle use oustripping the capacity of the road network, new techniques are...

Paving the way with GIS: Paul Clements outlines a logical method for making the most of highways maintenance budgets that must be made to stretch ever further.(government & public sector)
February 1, 2005... To ensure safety and serviceability of the road network, highways maintenance can involve reconstruction, resurfacing, surface treatment or a mix of all three. Ongoing maintenance is also needed to remedy localised defects such as potholes,...

Putting the 'e' in Medway: just as the new Medway Viaduct speeds Eurostar services to and from the continent, so Medway Council is engineering integrated solutions based on Ordnance Survey MasterMap to speed services to its citizens.(government & public sector)
February 1, 2005... Britain's e-government targets for online service delivery are driving the information strategies of local authorities up and down the country. Medway Council in Kent already provides citizens with electronic access to information and services...

What's eGIF got to do with it? John Maslen asks the question--and attempts an answer.(standards)
February 1, 2005... Doubtless many readers will have come across "eGIF", the UK eGovernment Interoperability Framework. Not a few will have visited the Office of the eEnvoy web site, downloaded and read it. Some may even have written a system specification that...

3D viewing for photogrammetry: eyewear or screen-based? Active or passive? Frame sequential or lenticular? Mike Bedford explores the viewing options.(photogrammetry)
February 1, 2005... Although major advances have been made in automatic feature extraction from aerial imagery, photogrammetry continues to rely--to a significant extent--on the human observation of stereo pairs. Here we look at the hardware available for...

Definiens Imaging.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... Definiens Imaging (Munich, Germany) has launched an academic software subscription programme for eCognition Professional. Through the programme, academic customers can purchase subscriptions for a minimum of three years to run multiple licenses...

eSpatial (Dublin, Ireland) and NAVTEQ (Chicago, USA).(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... eSpatial (Dublin, Ireland) and NAVTEQ (Chicago, USA) teamed up to demonstrate the capabilities of NAVTEQ data delivered using eSpatial's iSMARTR platform and hosted on an Oracle 10g spatial database at the Oracle OpenWorld event in December...

Eurimage (Rome, Italy).(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... Eurimage (Rome, Italy) has released a new price list, effective from 15 December 2004. The most significant changes are a unification of European and international price list and the simplification of Landsat 5 pan-European prices--only two...

Leica Geosystems HDS.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... Leica Geosystems HDS (California, USA) is setting up a programme for academic institutions to take advantage of special laser scanning product discounts for geomatics, engineering and applied sciences curricula and research. The Education...

MapInfo Ltd (Windsor, England) is to become a partner reseller for Snowflake Software's (Southampton, England) GO Loader.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... MapInfo Ltd (Windsor, England) is to become a partner reseller for Snowflake Software's (Southampton, England) GO Loader. Under the agreement MapInfo will resell GO Loader to public and private sector customers in the UK and Europe. The...

NovAtel Inc.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... NovAtel Inc. (Calgary, Canada) has received an order for additional Wide Area Augmentation System receivers (WAAS-Gll) from Raytheon Company in support of the US WAAS Final Operational Capability programme. NovAtel has been working with the US...

Positive Systems Inc.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... Positive Systems Inc. (Montana, USA) has been authorised to resell ESRI's (California, USA) ArcIMS. Founded in 1990, Positive Systems is a professional services and software development firm specialising in the acquisition of aerial imagery and...

Racurs.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... PHOTOMOD, the software package from Racurs (Moscow. Russia), has passed the main tests performed by Space Imaging (Colorado, USA) to receive the certification for RPC Block Adjustment. PHOTOMOD allows the loading and display of coordinates and...

Woolpert Inc.(Business Briefs)
February 1, 2005... Woolpert Inc. (Ohio, USA) has purchased an ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor from Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping, LLC (Georgia, USA). Layton Hobbs, group manager of Woolpert's mapping operations. "The ADS40 will allow us to be more efficient in our...

AED-SICAD Aktiengesellschaft.(Software Briefs)
February 1, 2005... AED-SICAD Aktiengesellschaft (AED-SICAD. Bonn/Munich, Germany) has released the latest version of its standard application ArcFM UT with the segment specific applications for electricity, gas and water supply. ArcFM UT covers products for all...

Applanix.(Software Briefs)
February 1, 2005... Applanix (Ontario, Canada) has issued Service Pack 1 for its POSPac 4.2 post-processing software. Aimed at airborne and land-based Position and Orientation System users operating a variety of sensors such as aerial cameras, lidar, Synthetic...