GEO: connexion articles from March 2004

GEO: connexion archives from March 2004

What's wrong with our academics?(Upfront)
March 1, 2004... It is not often that I have reason to take issue with academia, but having been given the ammunition, it seems only fair to release it at point blank range in the hope it will provoke some--indeed any--response. And that's just the point:...

Free GIS Viewer from Poland.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... TatukGIS (Gdynia, Poland) has released v. 1.0 of its free GIS Viewer product, which is available for anyone to download from the TatukGIS web site. This GIS Viewer is compatible with most raster and vector data formats, very fast with large...

Inspire road map unveiled.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... The 8th INSPIRE Expert meeting was held in Brussels in December at which a new 'road map' for the legislative process for INSPIRE was set out. This should lead to a revised proposal for a Directive that addresses a number of key concerns about...

ESRI plays safe with arc extensions.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... ESRI (Redlands, California) has announced a new Data Interoperability extension for ArcGIS 9.0 Desktop and a Data Delivery extension for ArcIMS 9.0. Jointly developed by ESRI and Safe Software (Vancouver, British Columbia), these extensions...

Gold in them there images!(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... European Gold Resources (Toronto, Canada) has released one of a series of detailed Landsat images that cover the whole of its 189 sq km gold license in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. This image shows land for which planning permission has...

Navtech drive Mallorca.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Navigation Technologies (Chicago, Illinois) is now offering a detailed digital map of the Spanish island of Mallorca. In a coordinated 12-hour effort in November 2003, a team of over 70 Navigation Technologies' field analysts drove along every...

Bluesky over New York.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... BlueSky (Leicester, England) has announced the availability of new aerial imagery of New York. Flown during the summer of 2003 the aerial photography provides up to date coverage of this great city featuring some of the tallest and best known...

New Sokkia total station.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Sokkia B.V. (Almere, the Netherlands) has extended its total station range with the Series 130R reflectorless total stations. These feature Sokkia's RED-tech EDM which provides extra range, speed and precision in reflectorless distance...

Slovakian land goes online.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... The Geodetic and Cartographic Institute (GKU) in Bratislava, the official provider of geographic information in the Slovak Republic, has announced a web-based project to allow public access to land registry information via the Internet from...

First Galileo receivers on order.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a contract for the first phase of the GALILEO Test User Segment to a consortium led by Septentrio (Leuven, Belgium), a leading European designer and manufacturer of satellite navigation receivers....

Swiss travel maps hit the airwaves.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... swissinfo / Swiss Radio International is the web presence of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and has been using an online GIS for the past four years. This is available in ten languages (English, German, French, Italian, Romanic, Spanish,...

New MapXtreme Java Edition.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... MapInfo (Iroy, New York) has released MapInfo MapXtreme Java Edition v4.7, the company's 100 per cent Java mapping server solution that provides application developers with a highly visual, intuitive component for integrating mapping...

Trimble acquires MENSI.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... MENSI (Paris, France) has been acquired by Trimble (Sunnyvale, California) and will become part of the Geomatics and Engineering (G & E) Division responsible for 3D laser scanning solutions. The acquisition was announced at Intergeo 2003 and...

Oxford panorama with REALVIZ.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... REALVIZ (Sophie Antipolis, France) Stitcher panorama generating software played a central role in the creation of a multimedia tour of the new Chemistry Research Laboratory at Oxford University. This was shown at the opening of the new facility...

New viewer from Abaco.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Abaco srl (Mantua, Italy) has released DbMAP ASJ Viewer 2,0, an advanced multi-platform client application for building, displaying and editing geometries stored in Oracle Spatial and Locator, or any other relational database. Easy to use,...

Electrifying win for Informi GIS.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... The Danish electric utility T3 Netservice A/S has signed a major agreement with Informi GIS A/S (Charlottenlund, Denmark), ESRI's distributor in Denmark, for an advanced GIS system to replace its existing utility line registration platform. T3...

STAR shines bright in Europe and Africa.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... STAR INFORMATIC (Liege, Belgium) has opened subsidiaries in Prague in the Czech Republic and Rabat in Morocco. These will extend STAR INFORMATIC's direct coverage that already includes Belgium, Luxembourg, France, the United Kingdom and Saudi...

E.ON standardises on Intergraph.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... E.ON Bayern AG (Munich Germany) has chosen Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Huntsville, Alabama) G/Net software as the company standard for consolidating its electric facilities network data. Serving more than two million customers...

Intergraph announces 2004 awards programme.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Huntsville, Alabama) and the Intergraph GeoSpatial Users Community (IGUC) have announced the 2004 Geospatial Achievement Awards programme, a worldwide competition that recognises Intergraph users who...

Leica Photogrammetry Suite shipping.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping (Atlanta, Georgia) is now shipping the new Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS) worldwide. LPS is an integrated suite of digital photogrammetric products that enables users to transform raw imagery into data layers...

Cambridge-Bonn axis.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Laser-Scan (Cambridge, England) and one of the leading German Survey Engineering and GIS companies. ibR Geoinformation (Bonn, Germany) are developing complementary technologies and collaborating on the implementation of the ATKIS GIS data model...

ESA predicts landslides.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... "In Italy, landslides have claimed an average of 54 victirns per year during the last half century," says Nicola Casagli of Italy's National Group for Hydro-geological Disaster Prevention (GNDCI), a research network working with Italy's Civil...

PCI offers eCognition training.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... PCI Geomatics[R] (Richmond Hill, Ontario) and Definiens Imaging (Munich, Germany) have announced that instruction for eCognition image classification software is now available from certified PCI Geomatics training professionals. This official...

WWII air photos now online.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA) at Keele University in the UK have now digitised some five million aerial photos taken over Europe during the second world war. TARA is part of the UK's National Archives and is now making this huge...

OGC publishes LBS interface standard.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... The Open GIS Consortium (OGC) has published the OpenLS Implementation Specification V1.0 defining a set of core interfaces for interoperable location service applications. The interfaces are for accessing directory services (such as yellow...

Locus Portal moves east.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Locus Portal Corporation (Helsinki, Finland) has been selected by Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), the largest mobile operator in Russia and Eastern Europe to provide its Locus A-MLC mobile positioning platform for commercial use. MTS and its partners...

Ubisense outsources to C-MAC.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... Ubisense (Cambridge, England) has chosen C-MAC MicroTechnology (Harlow, Essex) a Solectron company, to manufacture its Local-Positioning System (LPS) product. Manufacture of evaluation prototypes started in December 2003 with units being...

Mapamobile to put businesses on the map.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... MI International (Stockton on Tees, England) has introduced a new service enabling companies to improve their operational efficiency by remotely identifying the locations of their mobile workforce. Called mapAmobile Corporate Edition, the...

Geodan teams with CGEY.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... Geodan Mobile Solutions (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Nederland B.V. (CGE & Y) have announced a strategic cooperation to strengthen their location based mobile communication services in the business-to-business...

New Europe-wide software from map & guide.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... MAP & GUIDE GmbH (Karlsruhe, Germany) has released the latest version of map & guide transport software that enables companies in the fleet and logistics industries to reduce costs by helping them run more efficiently and effectively. This...

Opportunities.(GEO:News)
March 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:...

Awards.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... * Dresden airport in Germany has awarded a contract for map-making services to BPI Consult. * In France, the Department of the Haut Rhine has awarded a contract to Jung Marc for topographical services to the value of [euro]43,000. *...

National Programme for IT announces [euro]146m deal with oracle to deliver key patient and clinician benefits.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... In the first of a series that the National Programme for IT is currently negotiating with suppliers in the IT industry, Oracle Corp has secured a deal supplying the infrastructure that will underpin the NHS Care Records Service that could...

PriceWatch*.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... PriceWatch* stock price change Autodesk 20.98 +0.23 Intergraph 19.08 -1.29 MapInfo 9.96 +0.61 Trimble Navigation 28.26 -5.87 Share price converted to euros...

Thetus Corporation closes funding round.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... Thetus Corporation (Portland, USA), creators of internet-based data management and search system for non-text data originating from sensors, satellites, cameras and other devices, closed its Series A funding round earlier this month for an...

Results: all values converted to euros.(GEO:News)
March 1, 2004... * MapInfo Corporation (Nasdaq: MAPS) has reported earnings per share of [euro]0.03 on revenue of [euro]22.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2004 (ended December 31, 2003), which represented a 37% gain over the [euro]16.4 million...

SDI Bill in South African Parliament.(GEO:Africa)
March 1, 2004... The latest issue of the SDI Africa Newsletter carries an item on the passage of the Spatial Data Infrastructure Bill through the South African Parliament. The Agricultural and Land Affairs Portfolio Committee unanimously adopted the Bill after...

Cersgis supports Poverty Reduction in Ghana.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... CERSGIS, (Legon, Ghana), the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services has won a contract for a mapping and monitoring system for development activities to support the government of Ghana's Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS)....

MapIT data for in car navigation.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... The Independent Online from Pretoria. S. Africa reports that Tier One Distribution, a provider of in-car video and DVD technology, and MapIT (Johannesburg, S Africa) are collaborating to introduce substantially cheaper and more advanced incar...

New version of Andromeda from Telmap.(GEO:Middle East)
March 1, 2004... Telmap (Herzlia, Israel) has released the Andromeda V4.0 map and location platform that powers the company's advanced navigation and location management applications for map-based solutions. These include Polaris[TM] off-board navigation...

GPS aids hunt for black boxes.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... ACSA (Meyreuil, France) was mobilised by the French Navy in search and rescue operations search and rescue operations for the airliner recently lost off Sharm EI Shaikh in the Red Sea. ACSA's mission was to locate the aircraft's two black box...

US restricts satellite imagery of Israel.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... Commercial satellite imagery is usually obtainable over the Internet with payment by credit card. One may have assumed that such imagery was available for anywhere in the world and that it would be delivered 'uncensored'. Now it turns out that...

New features for AXTracker.(LBS News in Brief)
March 1, 2004... AXONN's (New Orleans, Louisiana) battery-operated AXTracker GPS telemetry device now features on-board motion detection, remote temperature sensing, low battery detection and external antenna capability. Operating with the Globalstar satellite...

2nd FIG Regional Conference, Marrakech: Arabic countries sets high standards for the future.(GEO:Connect)
March 1, 2004... 420 participants from more than 40 countries attended the 2nd International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Regional Conference in Marrakech, Morocco in early December 2003. It was organised by the FIG and the Ordre National des Ingenieurs...

GINIE project conference, Brussels.(GEO:Connect)
March 1, 2004... Around 100 high level participants attended the final Geographic Information Network in Europe (GINIE) project conference "Geographic Information to support an informed society in the wider Europe", which was held in Brussels (Belgium) on last...

Information Society World Summit. Geneva.(GEO:Connect)
March 1, 2004... The World Summit on the Information Society, which took place in Geneva in December, closed on an optimistic note of consensus and commitment, but Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union and Summit,...

AGI view: AGI unveils 2004 gameplan.(GEO:Community)
March 1, 2004... 2004 promises to be an exciting year for the AGI, one that I am pleased to say we approach on a good footing. We have a strong team which performed admirably in 2003, running an increased number of events in a highly professional manner. We...

EUROGI profile: GTIM SIG, Luxembourg.(GEO:Community)
March 1, 2004... Date of foundation: 1992 (Joined EUROGI 1997) Status: Inter-ministerial working group and technical subgroups on GIS made up of delegates from ministerial departments President and Chairman of the Board: Andre Majerus, delegate of...

GIS certification: what's the point? Pt. 2; Scott Grams takes issue with the criticism voiced by Peter Batty in the December/January issue.(GEO:Skills)
March 1, 2004... I recently read Peter Batty's certification article entitled "What's the point?" and he got one major fact incorrect. In order to meet the minimum for GIS professional certification one does not need to have their degree in GIS. A successful...

GIS certification: what's the point? Pt. 2;... while an only slightly repentant Peter Batty holds his ground.(GEO:Skills)
March 1, 2004... Scott Grams points out a factual error in my article on GIS certification. While it does not affect any of the arguments I advanced, I agree with him that it is important to present the facts correctly and I apologize for this mistake on my...

Vespucci 2004.(Focus on ...)
March 1, 2004... Following last year's high successful event, the 2004 Vespucci Summer School on Geographic Information Science remains in the hills of Tuscany for three one-week sessions between the 5th and 23rd of July. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The...

WebBased Ltd.(NewsRound)
March 1, 2004... InfoMapper, a new breed of Internet application that harnesses the British government's Broadband initiative for schools, has been launched by WebBased Ltd., of Plymouth, England. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Shortlisted for a prestigious...

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions.(NewsRound)
March 1, 2004... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions has announced that the Advanced Geospatial Laboratory of Northern Illinois University (an Intergraph Registered Research Laboratory) had finalised development of a Web-based Virtual GIS Notebook for...

Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors.(NewsRound)
March 1, 2004... Also extending the closing date is Britain's Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors which has now set 5pm on Friday 16th July as the deadline for nominations for the Geospatial Engineering Surveyor Award 2004. Entry forms can be downloaded...

And where do you find a geoethics expert when you need one? As the societal impact of geographic information becomes ever more pronounced, Bob Barr argues that it's time for an ethical dimension to outdated GI laws.(Dangling Segment)
March 1, 2004... One of the best known professors at my university is an international authority on bio-ethics. Hardly a week passes without a TV or radio programme in which he debates life and death issues in medicine, not least those surrounding fertility and...

Galileo dispute nearing end? John Hughes reviews moves that promise to resolve a trans-Atlantic conflict.(Transatlantic Link)
March 1, 2004... The United States and the European Union (EU) are moving closer to a deal on Galileo, a European version of the US Global Positioning System (GPS). Unlike GPS, which uses signals from orbiting satellites to pinpoint geographical positions to...

Pandemics and GIS: Wolfgang Steinborn outlines the role of the technology in combating contagion.(Letter From Central Europe)
March 1, 2004... Avian Flu, SARS, AIDS, Ebola, BSE. Our fear of pandemics is rising, and barely a century since Spanish Flu cost 50 million lives, the signs are ominous. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Diseases such as Smallpox, once believed extinct, reappear,...

The 'patch mentality' still rules. OK? Norman Bird says its time to and rid ourselves of this mindset once and for all.(Viewpoint)
March 1, 2004... Many organisations across Europe are gradually coming to terms with migrating and integrating Geographic Information into national or global enterprise systems. And of course, some are not. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

New Survey Supplies team.(GEO:People)
March 1, 2004... Survey Supplies (Liverpool, England) has welcomed Will Newall to its technical support team where he will support customers of the Technical Surveying, GIS and Mapping Divisions at three branches of Survey Supplies' office network--Liverpool,...

New appointments at Landmark Information Group.(GEO:People)
March 1, 2004... Following its [pounds sterling] 12.5 million ([euro] 17.5M) acquisition of Sitescope Limited in September 2003, Landmark Information Group (Exeter, England, has restructured and made several new appointments. James Sherwood Rogers,...

New faces at ESRI (UK).(GEO:People)
March 1, 2004... ESRI (UK) (Aylesbury, England) has appointed David Litton as managing consultant for projects in the utilities, transportation, military and crime and disorder markets. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Litton previously worked as consultancy...

Jennings & Scott join DigitalGlobe.(GEO:People)
March 1, 2004... DigitalGlobe (Longmont, Colorado) has named Stephen Jennings to the role of vice president of marketing. He will develop and manage marketing strategy, product marketing, communications, vertical market management and business development...

Day for GeoBusiness Solutions.(GEO:People)
March 1, 2004... GeoBusiness Solutions (Wendover, England) has appointed Jason Day as its new business development manager. Day will be responsible for the production, management and implementation of the organisation's sales strategy to businesses across the...

Tasting success at Lyonnaise des Eaux: Philippe Pouyet describes the roll-out of a corporate GIS.(France)
March 1, 2004... Lyonnaise des Eaux France (LEF), part of the Suez energy group, acquired the APIC GIS 15 years ago to manage water supply and sewerage networks that rank among the nation's most extensive. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] After the 'pioneering'...

Springtime in Paris.(France)
March 1, 2004... With more than 2000 [m.sup.2] of exhibition space, this year's iteration of France's leading geoinformation event, Le Geo Evenement, promises to be the biggest and best ever. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Once again to be held at the Palais...

Ways and means: the French national mapping agency is set some tough targets--and the means to achieve them.(France)
March 1, 2004... While acknowledging its role as a public utility, the French government has set some distinctly ambitious targets for the national mapping agency, IGN (Institut Geographique National) for the period 2003-2006. In a jointly-agreed strategy...

Policing the oceans: in the second of a three-part series, Mary Jo Wagner takes stock as radar satellite imagery joins the global battle for clean seas.(Satellite Remote Sensing)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2004... Erika, Tricolor, Prestige. Names of horrendous accidents--mangled ships, their slimy oil invading the water like a cancer, changing its color to a deep black and dampening its natural swell to a limpid calm. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Prophet or doom? Jonathan Shears embarks on a two-part exploration of how the military has warmed to the potential of commercial satellite imagery.(Satellite Remote Sensing)
March 1, 2004... Since the heady days of the 1972 launch of ERTS-1 (later re-named Landsat) when image resolutions of 80m were regarded with awe, resolutions of one metre or less are now taken almost for granted. This is not to diminish the significant progress...

Visualising inner Earth: Pratul Shrivastava, Siva Subramanian, Hideki Katsuma, Sanjay Sehdev and Edida Rajesh outline a time and cost-saving utility with which to map sub-surface geology.(Visualisation)
March 1, 2004... The interior of the Earth has always intrigued. Concealed from view are untapped resources and a wealth of information concerning the planet's origin. Exploring this hidden world, however, requires specialised techniques that can visualise...

Terra Cognita: a picture is worth a thousand words. But do you comprehend what you see? If not, help could soon be on its way, say Herve Marcotte and Pierre Dubus.(Visualisation)
March 1, 2004... In 2001, ESRI president Jack Dangermond voiced the thought that. "GIS will be able to take the pulse of the Earth." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If so, it will owe much to the impact of imagery acquired by Earth Observation satellites and to...

UK GEMINI: towards standards-based metadata access; Judith Jerome delves into the mysteries of data about data and explains why interoperability standards are fundamental to understanding this complex subject.(Metadata)
March 1, 2004... Metadata! You either love it or hate it. Or more likely, the most emotion that you can summon when conversation turns to metadata involves a yawn and perhaps the thought, "I really need to get a life!". [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Banishing the blues at: Brad Shannon navigates Europe's biggest music fest with some cool technology.(Location-Based Services)
March 1, 2004... Popkomm, held last year in Cologne, Germany, is Europe's premier music festival and trade show, a four-day extravaganza for the industry and music fans alike. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2003 and for the first time at a big cultural...

Blue Marble Geographics.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Blue Marble Geographics (Gardiner, Maine) has licensed the GeoCalc software development kit for ballistic targeting applications developed by LogicaCMG. These are very accurate specialised military software applications that require the...

BlueSky.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Cheltenham Borough Council has purchased the Getmapping imagery from BlueSky (Coalville, England) the newly formed aerial photography company. The ultra-high resolution imagery of Cheltenham was taken from 5.000ft (1500m) and shows details such...

British Geological Survey.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... The British Geological Survey (BGS. Keyworth, England) is launching GeoSure, a new ground stability advice service. A team of BGS geologists has developed new digital data set for Great Britain that will help construction professionals to know...

Cadcorp.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Cadcorp (Stevenage, England) now has ten OpenGIS compliance certificates issued by the Open GIS Consortium Inc., (OGC). As a further commitment to OGC, Cadcorp is also introducing the free SIS Map Browser for viewing and querying data served...

DigitalGlobe[R] (Longmont, Colorado) and Keyhole[c] (Mountain View, California).(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... DigitalGlobe[R] (Longmont, Colorado) and Keyhole[c] (Mountain View, California) have agreed to co-operate to provide QuickBird satellite imagery and Internet-based 3D earth visualisation solutions. DigitalGlobe's natural colour, two-foot (60cm)...

Forth Valley GIS (Stirling, Scotland) has bought GO Loader from Snowflake Software (Southampton, England).(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Forth Valley GIS (Stirling, Scotland) has bought GO Loader from Snowflake Software (Southampton, England) to design and build an Oracle Spatial database of Ordnance Survey MasterMap data. This will be used for data migration projects for their...

GifT.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... The Heritage Motor Centre in Warwick hosted the GifT (Geographic Intelligence for Transport) forum that included latest demonstrations of various routeing, tracking and scheduling solutions underpinned by detailed and accurate geographic...

Home Office.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Political asylum seekers in the UK may be electronically tagged as an alternative to detention for those unable to offer suitable sureties in immigration control cases. The Home Office (London, England) has said that "electronic monitoring will...

Business Performance Solutions Ltd (London, England) has been contracted by LizardTech (Seattle, Washington).(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Business Performance Solutions Ltd (London, England) has been contracted by LizardTech (Seattle, Washington) to create and execute a sales promotion campaign across Europe. Africa and the Middle East. BPS Ltd. will analyse LizardTech's market...

Maptech 3D Solutions.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Maptech 3D Solutions (Kilcullen, Ireland) was called in by Nishimatsu to provide a 3D laser scan survey of the Fairview adit to the Dublin Port Access Tunnel after conventional surveying failed to detect clashes that had led to the tunnel...

Metoc plc.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Metoc plc (Liphook, England) has opened a new office in Scotland--in the Technology Park in Dundee on Tayside. This will support Metoc's existing client-base in Scotland, as well as providing a focus for the company's business development...

Mobile Commerce.(Business Briefs)
March 1, 2004... Mobile Commerce (Cirencester, England) is providing T-Mobile customers with an SMS location-based mobile guide to a comprehensive range of 'what's on' and 'what's nearby' services. These can be accessed directly from menus on the handset...