GEO: connexion articles from June 2004

GEO: connexion archives from June 2004

Welcome aboard!(Upfront)
June 1, 2004... No prizes for spotting the new image occupying pole position in this month's Up Front. For those who don't recognise the face, welcome to Rosie Waddicor, our new full-time assistant editor. Rosie arrives at GEO: connexion from Geomatics...

City models from Vexcel.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... Vexcel Corporation (Boulder, Colorado) is producing 3D 'urban authoring capabilities' by enabling the merging of data collected by satellite and aerial sensors with images captured by handheld digital cameras. The resulting 3D city models are...

New pan-European datasets.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... EuroGeographics (Pans, France) the association of European national mapping and cadastre agencies, has released new versions of its pan-European digital topographic datasets SABE and EuroGlobalMap. Both have common specifications, are seamless...

Mapsolutely fabulous.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... Mapsolute GmbH (Eschborn, Germany) has launched a new version of the Map24.com web portal for routefinding across the whole of Europe--from the Atlantic to the Urals. It has also been nominated for the 8th Webby Awards in the technical...

Intergraph wins major German contract.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Huntsville, Alabama) has announced that envia Mitteldeutsche Energie AG (enviaM) is deploying Intergraph's G/Net and G/Electric modules for utilities, to optimise work processes and automate network...

Slovak farmers choose PROGIS.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... Aurus (Bratislava, Slovakia) has become a distributor for PROGIS Software AG (Villach, Austria) in Slovakia. Aurus was founded in 1990 to distribute the ERP system and expert systems to the agricultural market. Aurus has carried out several...

A word to the GeoWise.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... Building on experience of ESRI ArcIMS solutions, GeoWise (Edinburgh, Scotland) has been appointed by Moximedia (Vancouver, British Columbia) to resell its Internet Mapping Framework (IMF) in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe. This is an...

Norway and Poland implement ArcGIS.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... ESRI (Redlands, California) has announced that Statnett, Norway's government-owned national electrical transmission system operator, is implementing an ArcGIS system. Arve Indrehus, who is in charge of new technological investments at Statnett,...

Vodafone Hungary moves to FlexiTon.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... To support the rapid growth of the network and customer base, Vodafone Magyarorszag Rt. (Hungary) is to implement a network inventory and path planning system based on ARIADNE/MNM from FlexiTon Kft (Budapest, Hungary). The system uses Bentley's...

AED-SICAD successes.(Geo:News)
June 1, 2004... The German Landes of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein have awarded AED-SICAD (Munich, Germany) a contract for the AFIS*-ALKIS*-ATKIS* processing and presentation software based on ESRI's ArcGIS technology. The Landes will use the AED-SICAD...

Kadaster buys Trimble.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Trimble (Sunnyvale, California) has been awarded an exclusive five-year contract by Kadaster, the Dutch Land Registry Office, for GPS survey equipment and software. These will be used to collect accurate position data of registered properties...

Sailing around the world.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Ten Sails (Cambridge, England) has announced the formation of a new global business, Ten Sails Consulting, to include its existing TerraPrise subsidiary in New Orleans. The business was launched in the US in late April and is now extending its...

Russian SAR software.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Racurs Co. (Moscow, Russia) has released two new components in the PHOTOMOD range. PHOTOMOD-Radar is intended for processing and visualising remotely sensed data acquired by spaceborne synthetic aperture radars (SAR). This supports the...

Geometria helps Budapest water.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Geometria (Budapest, Hungary) is implementing a workforce management solution (WFMS) for the Waterworks of Budapest Co. Ltd. The system will improve coordination, central management and work scheduling. It is being implemented with SAP Hungary...

World's smartest building?(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) College of Engineering has unveiled what it claims is the world's most advanced "sentient building". The Thomas M. Siebel Centre for Computer Science will host a number of "firsts" including...

Geokosmos office in Franfurt.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Geokosmos (Moscow Russia) has opened an office near Frankfurt in Germany. It will be headed by Peter Gollner who will be responsible for all of Geokosmos' international activities. Sergey Melnikov, president of the company, said, "Peter is...

SPOT & NASA weave RedSpider Web.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... SPOT Image (Toulouse, France) and NASA (Washington DC, USA) have teamed up to deploy OpenGIS Web Coverage Services (WCS) using IONIC's (Grace-Hollogne, Belgium) RedSpider Web 3.1. NASA's contribution derives from its Synergy IV contract with...

GML metadata for JPEG2000.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Leaders in JPEG2000 technology have endorsed a common way to use GML schema for storing geo-location information for imagery, within the JPEG2000 format. This is an open manufacturer agreement, based on the proposal of Algo Vision Lura Tech on...

Java maps of UK.(LBS News in Brief)
June 1, 2004... Arc en Ciel Ltd (London, England), specialising in addressing and street-level mapping, has introduced a web-based mapping system using a combination of a Java library and data on the server, and JavaScript features on the client. Users request...

Microsoft locating near you.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Washington) has released MapPoint Location Server (MLS), which is claimed to enable businesses to improve the location, tracking and management of their mobile assets and work force. MLS makes it easier to combine...

Maps at your fingertips.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... MAP & GUIDE GmbH, (Karlsruhe, Germany) has launched its map & guide iNETServer in the UK with its first customer, Volvo Action Service, the international breakdown assistance operator. Hosted at its call centre in Ghent, Belgium and distributed...

Opportunities.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... GEO:connexion publishes this sample round-up of business opportunities and contract awards courtesy Geo-UK Ltd's twice-weekly newsletter of GIS, mapping and surveying-related tenders and contracts. More information on individual items from:...

Tele Atlas bids [euro]83 million for GDT.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Tele Atlas North America (TANA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tele Atlas N.V. (s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands) has offered US100 million ([euro]83 million) in cash for Geographic Data Technology Inc. (GDT) of Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA. The...

PriceWatch*.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... PriceWatch* stock price change Autodesk 28.28 +1.11 Intergraph 20.90 +0.82 MapInfo 8.21 -2.57 Trimble Navigation 21.55 +1.70 * Share price (converted to euros) as at close of trading on 3 May 04 with...

Name change for Cyra.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Leica Geosystems (Heerbrugge, Switzerland) has changed the name of its Cyra Technologies Inc. subsidiary to Leica Geosystems HDS Inc. "The new name recognizes the collaboration and leverage within Leica Geosystems and the success of the...

NAVTEQ share offer registered.(GEO:News)
June 1, 2004... Chicago-based NAVTEQ Corporation (formerly Navigation Technologies) has filed a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed US$500 million initial public offering of shares of its common stock. The...

MapInfo Corp.(Results)
June 1, 2004... * MapInfo Corp. (Troy, New York, USA) reported record revenues of [euro]26.08 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2004 ended 31 March compared with revenues of [euro]22.51 million for the same quarter last year. Net income was [euro]0.9...

Infoterra Ltd.(Results)
June 1, 2004... * Infoterra Ltd (Leicester, England), a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS Astrium, posted a record growth of 25 per cent in 2003 against strong sales of its UK Perspectives, lidar, satellite imagery and height model products. This was combined...

Intermap Technologies.(Results)
June 1, 2004... * Intermap Technologies (Calgary, Canada) achieved a 51 per cent increase in revenues (to [euro]33.73 million) for the year ended 31 Dec 2003. Net income was [euro]2.74 million compared to a net loss of [euro]1.33 million in 2002. *...

Hugin huge in Africa.(GEO:Africa)
June 1, 2004... Hugin GmBH (Jena, Germany) a satellite imaging company, has finalised plans to set up an office in Nairobi. Kenya according to the East African Standard web site. Scheduled for construction in July 2004 in Nairobi's industrial area, it will...

Nigerian surveyors demand more.(GEO:Africa)
June 1, 2004... The Association of Private Practising Surveyors of Nigeria (APPSN) Lagos State branch, has called on both federal, state and local governments to review their policies on land matters with a view to accord more Nigerian surveyors adequate and...

ESRI becomes diamond standard.(GEO:Africa)
June 1, 2004... GIMS (Pty) Limited (Midrand, S Africa), distributor of ESRI products in South Africa has signed a Multi National Enterprise (MNE) agreement with the De Beers Group, the largest diamond company in the world. This establishes ESRI's GIS...

Space in Sudan.(GEO:Africa)
June 1, 2004... The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), within the framework of the UN's Programme on Space Applications, organised a five-day Regional Workshop on the Use of Space Technology for Natural Resources Management, Environmental Monitoring and...

RSI to distribute ImageSat data.(GEO:Middle East)
June 1, 2004... RADARSAT International (Richmond, British Columbia) has signed an agreement with IMAGESAT International N.V. (Tel Aviv, Israel) to become the exclusive North American distributor of EROS A data. RSI will establish EROS ground reception,...

NOAA refutes Debka claim.(GEO:Middle East)
June 1, 2004... The US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has challenged assertions made in a story from the Jerusalem-based DEBKAfile web news service that was reproduced in our March issue under the heading 'US restricts satellite imagery...

Landscape painting ...(GEO:Middle East)
June 1, 2004... The artistic flair with which natural forces shape and colour the landscape is evident in this stunning satellite image of the Dasht-e Kevir, or Great Salt Desert, the largest desert in Iran. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Acquired by the...

XXII ICC, Coruna, Spain.(GEO:Connect)
June 1, 2004... The historic port of Coruna on Spain's Atlantic seaboard will provide the setting for the XXII International Cartographic Conference, to be held July 9-16 July 2005. Technical sessioons, a large commercial exhibition and an international...

EOGEO workshop 2004, London, England.(GEO:Connect)
June 1, 2004... EOGEO, an annual international event organised by the Committee for Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) and first staged in Paris in 1995, opens its doors to delegates this month at University College, London (23-25 June). Co-hosted by...

FIG Regional Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia.(GEO:Connect)
June 1, 2004... The 3rd FIG Regional Conference--the first to be convened for Asia and the Pacific--will convene at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, 3-7 October 2004. With its intention to tackle issues of sustainability under the banner,...

GIM'04: Zaragoza, Spain.(GEO:Connect)
June 1, 2004... The first International Workshop on Geographic Information Management (GIM'04), to be held in conjunction with the 15th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA 2004), will be held at the University of...

EU-day, Stuttgart, Germany.(GEO:Connect)
June 1, 2004... With EU member states making substantial efforts towards making geospatial content available under uniform and easy-to-use conditions, (moves supported by Europe-wide initiatives such as GALILEO, GMES and INSPIRE), the need is now to involve as...

Organisers of the Map Asia 2004 Conference.(News in Brief ...)
June 1, 2004... * Organisers of the Map Asia 2004 Conference, to be held in Beijing, China, have had to re-scheduled the event for 26-29 August due to 'certain unavoidale and unforeseen circumstances.' www.mapasia.org

CMP Information.(News in Brief ...)
June 1, 2004... * CMP Information, organisers of this year's GeoSolutions Exhibition and Conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England (16-18 September) have announced that the event will feature a trio of new interactive workshops....

MapInfo.(News in Brief ...)
June 1, 2004... * MapInfo has announced a preliminary itinerary for the European leg of its customer-oriented MapWorld 2004 tour, as follows: 17 June. Germany 8 and 22 July. UK 6-8 September. Sweden 8-9 September. Denmark 9-10 September....

PROGIS AG of Villach, Austria.(News in Brief ...)
June 1, 2004... * PROGIS AG of Villach, Austria, is staging this year's International User Conference from 22 to 24 September at the Woerthersee in Carinthia, Austria, under the banner of "IT in Rural Areas". More information at: ...

Wind Power Technology Summer School.(News in Brief ...)
June 1, 2004... * With growing interest in the application of GIS to alternative energy projects, a Wind Power Technology Summer School, to be held at Loughborough University in England, 12-16, July 2004 could be of interest to many. For details, please...

Special Interest Groups proliferate.(AGI View)
June 1, 2004... The new structure of the AGI has reduced the lead-time and overheads for members who wish to establish a Special Interest Group and two new SIGs have recently emerged. The first, the Technical SIG, is the brainchild of John Maslen of...

Netherlands Council for geographic information: Ravi netwerk voor Geo-informatie.(EUROGI Member Profile)
June 1, 2004... Date of foundation: 1993 Status: Governmental organisation President & Chairman of Board: Drs. Jan Laan Director & Secretary: Mr. Ing, Bas C Kok Language: Dutch Literature: Brochure plus newsletters and varied...

Coastway Ltd.(Newsround)
June 1, 2004... Coastway Ltd of Newbridge, Kildare, in the Republic of Ireland has launched a range of quality, flexible training courses in setting out and the use of survey instruments. These can be standard or tailor-made and conducted on customers'...

ESRI's.(Newsround)
June 1, 2004... EdUC2004, ESRI's upcoming Education User Conference (San Diego, USA, 7-10 August) will feature presentations on topics that range from teaching with GIS to designing curriculum and degree programs, and from administration and planning to GIS in...

Institution of Civil Engineer-ing Surveyors.(Newsround)
June 1, 2004... Britain's Institution of Civil Engineer-ing Surveyors, in association with Costain Ltd, has published a new careers brochure. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Your Guide to Careers in Civil Engineering Surveying for School and College Students...

Intergraph GeoSpatial Users Community.(Newsround)
June 1, 2004... The Intergraph GeoSpatial Users Community has implemented online message boards for its Networks Program. The Networks are forums for users to provide direct comment and feedback about Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions' product...

Learning and Teaching Support Network.(Newsround)
June 1, 2004... Organised by the Learning and Teaching Support Network (part of the Higher Education Academy), the event (5-6 July) will attempt to answer some key questions: How can we attract more students from disadvantaged backgrounds into GEES? What are...

Wildgoose.(Newsround)
June 1, 2004... Wildgoose, the education catalogue arm of BlueSky (formerly the production and sales division of Getmapping) has won a prestigious Silver Award from Britain's Geographical Association for its publication "Discover Coll--the real Struay". ...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2004... Training 4 GIS wishes to apologise for any misunderstanding relating to the news item '400th Student Signs up for GIS Distance Learning Programme' carried in the education news section of the February issue. The press release on which this...

GITA honours Dangermond, Newell.(GEO:People)
June 1, 2004... The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA--Seattle, Washington) has named Jack Dangermond and Dick Newell as recipients of its 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award. The award, presented for the first time this year, recognises an...

Erceau heads survey business for Thales.(GEO:People)
June 1, 2004... Thales Navigation (Santa Clara, California) has appointed Francois Erceau as business director of its new survey business unit. Erceau has 20 years of experience in the navigation and positioning industry and has been with Thales for seven...

Kling on for Space Imaging.(GEO:People)
June 1, 2004... Space Imaging (Denver, Colorado) has appointed Mark Kling as vice president, general counsel and secretary. Kling joins the company with over 20 years of corporate legal experience in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. Kling's private...

Masternaut appoints Mills.(GEO:People)
June 1, 2004... John Mills has joined Masternaut (Leeds, England) as its Corporate Development Director. An expert in logistics management. Mills is a former university lecturer in [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Logistics and Marketing who also has extensive...

Muller joins Snowflake.(GEO:People)
June 1, 2004... Snowflake Software (Southampton, England) has appointed Hardo Muller as a software design engineer. Muller has worked as a research and development engineer with a number of leading GI sector organisations in Germany, including the Institute of...

Mentor to Autodesk.(GEO:People)
June 1, 2004... Autodesk (Farnborough, England) has appointed Mark Paraskeva as senior area sales director, Northern Europe. Based at Autodesk's UK headquarters in Farnborough, Paraskeva's role will be to bring operations in UK & Ireland, Benelux and the...

Why it's important ... Robert Barr revisits the subject of national addressing in the UK and says it's time for the bickering to stop.(Dangling Segment)
June 1, 2004... My column two issues ago, "Decision Time" raised a considerable response. The associates of some of the organisations mentioned responded strongly and angrily. This is simply a a continuation of behaviour that has gone on for some five years,...

European GI goes continental: Wolfgang Steinborn find the enlarged Europe getting its act together.(Letter from Central Europe)
June 1, 2004... Following its enlargement to 25 member nations, the EU now represents almost two thirds of the continent's population and 40 per cent of its territory. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Clearly, the GI world has to adjust to the new dimension as...

Policy shift favours commercial satellite imagery providers: John Hughes explores a shift in US domestic policy that gives a welcome boost to its commercial remote sensing sector.(Transatlantic Link)
June 1, 2004... During the last decade, US satellite imaging firms have struggled to become a successful part of the wider remote sensing industry. Much of the blame has been placed on heavy-handed government policies to protect national security and foreign...

Patents: so what's new? Jonathan Radcliffe and Annabel Dumbell consider "improvements" in the context of patent transactions.(GEO: Legal)
June 1, 2004... It can be difficult specifying exactly what is or isn't included in the scope of patent agreements. This is particularly so in areas, such as geoinformation, where the field of products can be narrow and where inventors often re-visit and...

Everywhere leads somewhere; GEO:connexion finds its way in Herzliya with the help of Oren Nissim.(Interview)
June 1, 2004... A short train ride from Tel-Aviv brings one to the smart coastal resort of Herzliya. Here, GEO: connexion tracked down the offices of Telmap (www.telmap.com), a company making a name for itself in mobile mapping applications, and met with its...

SembCorp Utilities UK; GEO:connexion finds out how a fusion of CAD and GIS is supporting utilities asset management at one of Europe's largest petrochemical hubs.
June 1, 2004... For kilometer after kilometer, serried ranks of pipes, ducts, conduits and trenches follow the line of strangely traffic-free roads; vents hiss and valves open at intervals to emit blasts of steam, andintricate yet massive fabrications of...

Innovation cycles in GIS: Florian Brandi-Dohrn examines how cycles of innovation have particular relevance for utilities providers.
June 1, 2004... While we are dazzled by the pace of technological progress, it is worth noting that technology evolves not linearly but cyclically; First the emerging technology phase, then an improvement phase and, finally, a maturity phase. During the...

Sustainable interoperablity within Oracle spatial databases: Peter Woodsford and Chris Wright stress the importance of data interoperability--and cite an example to prove the point.(Spatial Databases)
June 1, 2004... Two recent studies either side of the Atlantic have highlighted a recent upsurge in the importance of standards to the IT industry in particular and economic activity in general. Both are based on the results of substantial surveys. ...

GIS and spatial ETL: brothers-in-arms; Don Murray commences a two-part exploration of technologies that complement each other in the battle to contain the data onslaught.(Spatial Databases)
June 1, 2004... Don Murray commences a two-part exploration of technologies that complement each other in the battle to contain growing volumes of data. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There are two complementary technologies within the geographic spatial data...

WHO: opening eyes in health mapping; Healthcare mapping is fundamental to disease prevention and eradication, and the World Health Organisation has just the tool for the job.(Health)
June 1, 2004... Public health professionals in developing countries are often in the best position to exploit advances in information and mapping technologies but, in many cases, are hindered by lack of funding or access to/awareness of the opportunities that...

Revealing patterns in health statistics: cost-conscious health authorities are turning to Scaleable Vector Graphics to get their message across to wider audiences, as Mike Forster reports.(Health)
June 1, 2004... One of the objectives of the Eastern Region Public Health Observatory (ERPHO)--part of Britain's network of Public Health Observatories--is to "make it easier to access data and information about public health in the region". Presenting...

Achieving interoperability and information-sharing: in this two-part article, Michael Rose, Miles Gabriel and Nigel Jones take a holistic view of a subject where technical considerations tend to obscure the bigger picture.(Data Interoperability)
June 1, 2004... This article summarises key messages arising from the Environment Agency's Data Partnership Forum, an event held earlier this year that brought together public sector and not-for-profit organisations from the environmental sector to discuss...

Crime-busters go mobile with GIS: Lee Kilroy examines the use of GIS and mobile technology to combat envirocrime.(Data Capture)
June 1, 2004... Environmental crimes, or 'envirocrimes', such as graffiti, fly tipping, car abandonment and anti-social behaviour have a significant impact on citizens' quality of life. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Not only do they affect the appearance of...

Fair claims detective Pt.2: Dimitris Panagiotidis reviews the results obtained from interpreting satellite imagery to verify EU Common Agricultural Policy subsidy claims.(Image Processing and Analysis)
June 1, 2004... The results obtained from photo interpretation placed question marks over a relatively high percentage of dossiers (farmers' claims for subsidy payments)--56.7 per cent in the case of those lodged for Site 1 and 21.2 per cent of those submitted...

3D laser scanners: Mike Bedford reviews tools that tackle complex surveying tasks at the speed of light.(Hardware)
June 1, 2004... Surveying complex structures, buildings and geological features in three dimensions can be a time consuming and labour intensive task using conventional instruments such as total stations. So much so, in fact, that generating the high-density...

Autodesk.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... Autodesk (San Rafael, California) is using Endeavor Technology's AppExpress on-demand application to enable potential customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to download AutoCAD 2005 trialware direct from the Internet. This means that...

BAE Systems.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... BAE Systems (San Diego, California) have announced the integration of the Cardinal Systems VrOne precision 3D graphic system with the SOCET SET digital photogrammetric application. This saves production time for aerial survey companies,...

Cadcorp.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... Cadcorp (Stevenage, England) has achieved ISO 9001:2000 certification for its main operating locations in the UK. The scope of this certification is the "Design, development, installation and distribution of Geographic Information Systems....

Maporama.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... Credit Mutuel Arkea has selected Maporama (Paris, France) Web Services 2004 to develop new location-based I-Mode services. The aim is to facilitate the access to more than 3000 locations in its distribution network (bank agencies, ATMs and...

Nottingham City Council.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... Nottingham City Council (England) has launched its Local Land and Property Gazetteer, built using CAPS Solutions' (Newbury, England) Gazetteer Management System. The LLPG, which is linked to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG), will...

ESRI (UK).(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... ESRI (UK) Group was ranked 63rd in the Deloitte Indy 100 awards for the UK's fastest growing companies. Marketing director Roy Laming, and business solutions manager Mike Cooper collected the award at a ceremony held at the Park Lane Hotel. The...

EUROGI.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... EUROGI (Apeldoorn, the Netherlands), the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information has published its first newsletter, available from its web site. The newsletter has contributions from many countries and an introduction from...

KAMPSAX India.(Business Briefs)
June 1, 2004... KAMPSAX India, a subsidiary of COWI A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark) has selected INPHO's (Stuttgart, Germany) OrthoBox as the software platform for its new orthoprocessing department. OrthoBox software provides rigorous orthorectification of digital...