GEO: connexion articles from November 2004

GEO: connexion archives from November 2004

Hitting the headlines.(upfront)
November 1, 2004... Always eager to inform its readers, Britain's Daily Express (which bills itself as 'The World's Greatest Newspaper') gave front page treatment last month to news that a 'secret' flood map of the UK would render hundreds of thousands of homes...

The house that KRZN built.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Kommunales Rechenzentrum Niederrhein (KRZN. Moers, Germany), the data processing centre working for local government authorities in the Niederrhein area, has implemented Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions' (Alabama, USA) geospatial...

RSI takes the WorldView.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Research Systems Inc. (RSI. Colorado, USA) has been awarded two contracts by BAE Systems for the development of software to support DigitalGlobe's next generation satellite imaging system, WorldView. The work will involve developing a workflow...

Free as a QuickBird.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... DigitalGlobe (Colorado, USA) has announced that US civil government customers at the state and local level can now use, distribute and modify QuickBird satellite imagery products without penalty. This new civil government licensing model,...

MEDA countries have part to play.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... An important step in the cooperation between the European Union and the MEDA countries has been taken as the European Commission inaugurated the GALILEO Euro-Med Cooperation Office and launched the MEDA GNSSI project. Vice president Loyola de...

Serving the regions.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... The Italian Agency for Environmental Protection and Technical Services (APAT), in conjunction with Planetek Italia (Bari, Italy), has developed Cart@net Mutiserver, an interoperable cartographic reference system to serve the land information...

Mapping the Lion.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Fugro Survey Ltd (Aberdeen, Scotland) and AOA Geophysics Inc. (Texas, USA) have mapped the Cap de Creus canyon head which lies north east of Barcelona in the Gulf of Lion. The dataset was acquired with a multibeam system in July this year; it...

Tele Atlas & IGN deal.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Tele Atlas (Paris, France) and the Institut Geographique National (IGN) have signed a new agreement that will see the Tele Atlas databases supplemented using products developed by the IGN. The cooperation agreement binds Tele Atlas and the IGN,...

Working together.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... ESRI (California, USA) is to support the Mesoamerican and Caribbean Geospatial Alliance (MACGA). The program was implemented by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and EROS Data Centre to facilitate the development of spatial data with...

Go east.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... NAVTEQ (Veldhoven, Netherlands) is nearing the completion of its mapping of seven eastern European countries, the company hopes to start shipping of some of the products by the end of the year. The mapping is part of an accelerated build plan...

Top in Netherlands.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... ESRI Nederland B.V. (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) has been awarded a contract by Topografische Dienst Kadaster to provide an ArcGIS-based production environment. The choice was made after an evaluation process looking at functional and technical...

Laser-Scan in the Antipodes.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Forestry Tasmania (Australia) has purchased Radius Topology from Laser-Scan (Cambridge, England) to support its work in sustainable forest management. By working with a broad range of stakeholders and continually improving operational practices...

Protecting the borders.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Visual Learning Systems (VLS. Montana, USA) recently ran a two day workshop on Automated Feature Extraction which has applications in areas such as defence, 3D feature collection from stereo imagery, building and tree extractions from stereo...

Clark labs get it covered.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Clark Labs (Massachusetts, USA) has been awarded additional funding by Conservation International for the development of modelling and simulation tools to aid in their analyses and simulation of land-cover change scenarios and their effect on...

Models of Milan.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Wallingford Software (Wallingford, UK) has made two sales from its Infoworks suite in Milan, Italy. The engineering consultancy, MMI, has purchased InfoWorks RS, the hydraulic modeling solution for river systems, while the engineering...

Multiligual Multimaps.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Multimap.com (London, UK) has deployed its "Storefinder", "Travel Directions" and "Portal" services on www.opodo.co.uk, www.opodo.fr. and www.opodo.de. The online mapping services will enable travellers researching hotels on Opodo's online...

Belinda blows her top.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Captured on the 1st October 2004, this lkonos image shows the ongoing eruption of the Mount Belinda volcano on Montagu Island. The island forms part of the South Sandwich Islands in the Scotia Sea, situated between the southern tip of South...

Russians get RADARSAT.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... RADARSAT International (RSI. Richmond, Canada) has signed a network station license agreement with the Research & Development Centre (RDC ScanEx, Moscow, Russia), Under the agreement, ScanEx will receive and process RADARSAT-I data at the...

Famous five.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... In September 2003 five companies, all members of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), introduced a real world interoperable spatial data management platform to leverage and advance the spatial capabilities of an open spatial enterprise to...

MAPublisher MAP Awards winners.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Avenza Systems Inc. (Toronto, Canada) has announced the winners of the 2004 MAPublisher Map Awards. "Once again the quality of the submissions was outstanding and presented strong competition in all categories," said Ted Florence, president of...

SiRF joins bid.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (California, USA) has joined the iNavSat Consortium in its bid to secure the estimated 2.2 billion concession to deploy and operate Galileo's satellite navigation system. SiRF was chosen by three iNavSat...

Mobile maps.(LBS News in Brief)
November 1, 2004... Wayfinder Systems AB (Lund, Sweden) and Tele Atlas N.V (Ghent, Belgium) have announced that their mobile navigation solution will be available as a pre-installed application with the new Nokia Wireless GPS Module. "The launch of the Nokia GPS...

Geo-advertising.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Multimap (London, England) and Google have teamed up to place AdSense, Google's website moneymaking program for web publishers, on Multimap's website. The program places location-targeted adverts on each map page taking advantage of Multimap's...

Innovation awarded.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Geodan Mobile Solutions (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) has been announced as the winner of the first Oracle Partner Network Innovation Award for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for its Geodan Movida solution. Movida integrates multiple...

NGA selects ORBIMAGE.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... ORBIMAGE Inc (Virginia, USA) has been awarded a major contract by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), valued at approximately [euro]396.3 million. ORBIMAGE will be an NGA NextView provider; the contract runs until 30 September,...

Dutch emergency response deal.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (Alabama, USA) has signed a [euro]2.4 million contract with ICT-Service Co-operation (ISC. Odijk, the Netherlands). Intergraph will spatially enable the geospatial emergency response system for the...

KOREM announced as reseller.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Laser-Scan (Cambridge, UK) has announced that KOREM (Quebec, Canada) will be its official reseller for Radius Topology in Canada. LaserScan is working with many leading geospatial companies to build a global reseller network its product. Radius...

Experian acquires QAS.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Experian (Nottingham, UK) has acquired QAS (London, UK), for [euro]155.3 million. The deal, which includes [euro]23 million of cash reserves, will strengthen Experian's marketing services division. QAS had 8800 customers worldwide and revenues...

Image-centric collaboration.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... PCI Geomatics (Ontario, Canada) has signed a Memo of Understanding with Hansa Luftbild (Muenster, Germany) that outlines terms of collaboration for identifying and pursuing "Image-Centric opportunities". Under the terms, the focus markets will...

Mapinfo bolsters public sector portfolio.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... In a move designed to strengthen its public sector portfolio, MapInfo has acquired Southbank Systems, a provider of infrastructure management software and services to the local and central government sector in the UK and Asia-Pacific region....

Space Imaging sells up.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Space Imaging (Denver, USA) is selling its Federal Civil/Commercial Solutions business unit to Geo360 Corporation (Denver, USA). The group provides mapping and GIS services to government customers and Space Imaging is selling it in order to...

PriceWatch.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... PriceWatch* stock price change Autodesk 40.01 +11.73 Intergraph 22.12 +1.22 MapInfo 7.71 -0.50 Trimble Navigation 23.50 +1.95 * Share price (converted to...

Fast track.(GEO:news)
November 1, 2004... Multimap (London, UK) has featured in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league of fastest-growing technology companies for the second year running. According to the report, the company has seen sales grow at 74 per cent per annum, from...

Tekla Corporation.(RESULTS)
November 1, 2004... Third quarter results from Tekla Corporation (Espoo, Finland) show net sales for 2004 to be 5 percent lower than the previous year. The operating result will be in the red due to non-recurring items totalling three million euros adversely...

BAE Systems.(RESULTS)
November 1, 2004... BAE Systems has released its interim report which shows that the company made sales of [euro]8,855 million during the six months to 30 June 2004. This equates to a total profit before interest of [euro]703 million--up 21 million on the same...

Worldbank awards contract to GAF.(GEO:middle east)
November 1, 2004... GAF AG (Munich, Germany) has been awarded a contract by the Worldbank to set up a satellite imagery and data analysis study. The project will also include ground truth work and meteorological monitoring and its aim is to support the Sana'a...

Orion projects a success.(GEO:middle east)
November 1, 2004... Orion Technology (Ontario, Canada) has announced that following the successful implemental on of OnPoint solutions at Dubai Municipality (United Arab Emirates), Muscat Municipality (Oman) and Saudi Aramco (Saudi Arabia) have selected OnPoint...

Free Landsat imagery in SA.(GEO:africa)
November 1, 2004... The chief directorate of surveys and mapping of the department of land affairs in South Africa has entered into an agreement with the Satellite Application Centre (SAC, Hartebeesthoek, South Africa). Under the agreement Landsat imagery will be...

New HQ for UK company.(GEO:africa)
November 1, 2004... UK-founded satellite imaging company. Image Africa Ltd, has set up its head office in Nairobi, Kenya. At the recent launch of Image Africa in Nairobi, the Kenyan minister for planning and national development, Peter Anyang' Nyong'o said, 'The...

Join the debate.(GEO:africa)
November 1, 2004... An SDI-Africa discussion list has been initiated on the GSDI website with standards development being the first topic under discussion. Anyone with an interest is encouraged to visit this site, make comments, suggest reference material, pose...

Applanix appoints Pallaske.(GEO:people)
November 1, 2004... Applanix (Ontario, Canada) has appointed Rainer Pallaske to the position of regional sales manager in Europe. Bringing extensive experience in photogrammetry, GIS and remote sensing, Pallaske will focus on the continued expansion of Applanix...

Dangermond appointed fellow of ITC.(GEO:people)
November 1, 2004... Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, has been appointed as a fellow of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) at the opening of the ITC's academic year in Enschede, The Netherlands. Fellows of the ITC...

Tofin moves in.(GEO:people)
November 1, 2004... Kim Tofin has been appointed as vice president of business development at DM Solutions (Ottawa, Canada). Tofin has 16 years of business development experience including six years at PCI Geomatics. "Kim's experience and successes developing...

Frey on board.(GEO:people)
November 1, 2004... James H. Frey, former president of Northrop Grumman TASC, has joined the IDELIX Software Inc. (Vancouver, Canada) board of directors. Frey will advise the company on its business development efforts in the homeland security, aerospace,...

Moving north.(GEO:people)
November 1, 2004... DAT/EM Systems International (Alaska, USA) has appointed John Pratt as a software programmer. Coming from south east Texas where he worked as a software development engineer, Pratt has experience writing programs online, dynamic modelling of an...

Digitalglobe names CFO.(GEO:people)
November 1, 2004... DigitalGlobe (Colorado, USA) has named its new chief financial officer (CFO) to its executive team. Yancey Spruill joins DigitalGlobe from investment banking group Thomas Weisel Partners and has over 14 years experience across several...

ESRI 2004 International User Conference, San Diego, USA: message in a bottle.(GEO:connect)
November 1, 2004... While those in the developed world take clean drinking water for granted, large swathes of the global population still suffer the water-borne parasite that leads to cholera. The contribution being made by GIS to the eradication of the...

INTERGEO 2004, Stuttgart, Germany: Zeitgeist Stuttgart!(GEO:connect)
November 1, 2004... If this year's INTERGEO event was anything to go by, the spirit of the time as far as the geoinformation sector is concerned is distinctly buoyant. And while sunshine and showers were the order of the day for this 10th anniversary of Europe's...

EU Day, Stuttgart, Germany: speaking up for Europe.(CEO:connect)
November 1, 2004... A new acronym in the GI lexicon--PEGGIE or Pan-European General GI Event--made its debut last month when the first EU Day meeting was convened alongside the INTERGEO conference in Stuttgart. Organised by EUROGI and the DDGI (the European...

HP Designjet 4000HP: Hewlett-Packard's latest large format printers made their European press debut in Italy last month, and GEO:connexion was there to get their measure.(New Product Launch)
November 1, 2004... With dozens of journalists converging from across Europe, the sudden closure of Milan Airport threatened to scupper plans for the unveiling of Hewlett-Packard's latest large format colour inkjet printer series, the Designjet 4000. Yet most...

Telmap Polaris 2.0: finding your way from A to B should never be a problem with this handy number.(New Product Launch)
November 1, 2004... In the pre-digital age, navigators looked to the Pole or North Star, Polans, to get their bearings. In the modern age, the GPS satellite system extends location-finding to every traveller, yet can still prove less than ideal for pedestrians....

And the winner is ...! Fresh from a very successful AGI2004, John Alderson looks forward to yet more reasons to celebrate with the upcoming AGI awards dinner in London at the end of the month and the AGI Annual General Meeting.(AGI view)
November 1, 2004... The evening of Thursday, 25th of November 2004 is promising to be an informative and interest packed occasion in the AGI community dairy. The evening will commence with the AGI's Annual General Meeting, which will be followed by the AGI Annual...

Finnish association for geographic information.(EUROGI Profile)
November 1, 2004... Date of foundation: 11th October 1993 Status: Non-profit, independent association President: Tiina Tuurnala (director, Finnish Maritime Administration) Secretary: Petri Takala (National Land Survey of Finland) Language:...

Mobile GIS breaks new ground: John Hughes reviews some enterprising developments in GIS/GPS integration.(trans-atlantic link)
November 1, 2004... It's no surprise that mobile GIS is extending enterprise GIS into the field. But many GIS users would be pleased to discover all of the benefits associated with expanding field data collection and maintenance to data use directly in the field,...

The curse of the fax: what have fax machines and geospatial data management got in common? Bob Barr's answer to that is "quite a bit", read on ...(dangling segment)
November 1, 2004... When fax machines were invented, or perhaps I should say re-invented because methods of sending pictures over a telephone line were devised soon after the telephone, they were seen as the heart of a modern 'electronic office'. In Britain, the...

Metadata: FAQs Pt.2; John Maslen continues answering some frequently asked questions.(data)
November 1, 2004... What are the cost-benefits of metadata? Metadata management is often considered to be an overhead that can be avoided. This is because project objectives are often tightly drawn and budgets, it is argued, do not extend to delivering less...

Bentley Systems.(NEWSROUND)
November 1, 2004... Following its recent acquisition of Haestad Methods, Bentley Systems is offering grants of Haestad Methods software valued at US$5 million to colleges and universities running degree courses in civil and environmental engineering. Haestad...

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions.(NEWSROUND)
November 1, 2004... Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (IMGS) has awarded software valued at more than US$2.7 million to two Canadian universities to support their teaching and research work. The Visualisation and Interactive Computing Laboratory at...

UNIGIS.(NEWSROUND)
November 1, 2004... In other news, UNIGIS, the international distance learning provider, is including academic credit for the Intergraph online education course, 'Introduction to Geographic Information Science (GIS)'. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] UNIGIS...

Training 4.(NEWSROUND)
November 1, 2004... A series of metadata training seminars, organised by Training 4, the training and consultancy arm of The Geolnformation Group, were hailed by Britain's Association for Geographic Information (AGI) as a "considerable success". The half-day...

Wildgoose.(NEWSROUND)
November 1, 2004... Wildgoose has launched a 24-page Early Years' catalogue of innovative and often unique products for pre-school education in geography, history and science. Its contents are claimed to offer everything needed for the UK's Foundation Stage...

Prospecting with GIS: Andy Wood says GIS plays an increasingly pivotal role in B2B marketing.(demographics & marketing)
November 1, 2004... From municipal land use planners to retailers seeking new store locations, a wide spectrum of organisations has embraced Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The reason? Their ability to process complex geographic and demographic data sets...

High points on the high street: James Nolan outlines the value of demographic data and pedestrian counts for business location planning.(demographics & marketing)
November 1, 2004... With the recent release of UK census and national statistics, as well as new commercial demographic products, retailers are applying new geographical methods of analysis to understand and measure their markets. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Are you being served? Jim Baumann reports on how GIS is setting the pace in Latin America.(telecoms & wireless)
November 1, 2004... Telefonica del Peru S.A.A., the Republic of Peru's telecommunications giant (www.telefonica.com.pe), offers wireless and landline telephone, cable television, broadband and Internet access within its comprehensive array of services. ...

Wireless technology: Mike Bedford gets connected to find out what's new in the world of wireless.(telecoms & wireless)
November 1, 2004... This month's focus on wireless technology deals largely, but not exclusively with Location Based Services (LBS) currently on offer in the UK. i.e., those that make use of a network's ability to locate a cellphone handset. A well-known example...

Seabed mapping with Scalable Vector Graphics: Matthew Frosdick reports on the development of intelligent SVG maps for an interactive publishing project.(svg mapping)
November 1, 2004... Work is underway by Fugro Survey Limited and its specialist GIS subsidiary. GeoSoft Solutions, to compile an interactive CD-ROM containing the latest information derived from ongoing studies of shallow section geology and geohazards of the...

Linz bomb blast reignites risk map controversy: Chris Going reflects on a piece of history that can have grim repercussions.(risk mapping)
November 1, 2004... In early October of this year, three construction workers were injured, one critically, when a WWII bomb exploded beneath a specialist construction vehicle at the Fernheizkraftwerk premises of LinzStrom AG in Linz. Austria. The blast wrecked...

Tracking tractors with VeriLocation: one enterprising haulier saves time and money using an application service provided via London Docklands. Peter Thompson reports.(application service provision)
November 1, 2004... The Milton Keynes-based agricultural and industrial haulage company, the Fullers Group (www.fullersgroup.co.uk) recently purchased a GPS tracking system from Overview Mapping subsidiary, VeriLocation, to keep tabs on its fleet of expensive JCB...

AND Products BV.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... AND Products BV (Rotterdam, The Netherlands) will this year be offering updated versions of its CD ROM route planners including Route 2005 Europe, Route 2005 Benelux, and Route 2005 Holland. The street-to-street route planners for the Benelux...

Association for Geospatial Information in South-East Europe.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... The Association for Geospatial Information in South East Europe (AGISEE) has been established as a result of the project GIS Technology and Market in South East Europe which studied the status of spatial data infrastructures in south east...

Centre for Advanced Spatial Technologies.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... The Centre for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST. Arkansas, USA) has chosen Avenza's (Toronto, Canada) MAPublisher as its cartographic software. CAST is based at the University of Arkansas, its director W. Fredrick Limp said. "Unfortunately,...

Bentley Systems Inc.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... Bentley Systems Inc. (Pennsylvania, USA) has launched a digital version of its BE Magazine. The quarterly publication which is dedicated to Bentley users and their work can be subscribed to via the Bentley website. The debut issue was sent out...

Blue Marble Geographics (Maine, USA) and screen & paper (Freising, Germany).(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... A partnership between Blue Marble Geographics (Maine, USA) and screen & paper (Freising, Germany) means that the German company's "mapshop-online" will join Blue Marble's worldwide network of GeoPartners. President of Blue Marble, Patrick...

CARIS.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... CARIS (New Brunswick, Canada) has successfully launched a web mapping application to foster economic development in the city of Summerside in the Province of Prince Edward Island, Canada, GI consulting and support was provided by GeoNet...

Fugro.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... Fugro (Aberdeen, UK) has placed an order with Kongsberg Maritime for the purchase of a HUGIN 3000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), The vehicle will be delivered and tested before the end of 2004 and will be ready for service early in the...

GDC.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... GDC (London, UK) are on the move again. The new address for the company is: GDC, 3rd Floor, 69 Wilson Street, London, EC2A 2BB. The 0845 telephone numbers (which changed in June) will remain as will the website and email addresses. Direct dial...

GLOBE Program.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... The GLOBE Program has signed an agreement with IONIC (GraceHollogne, Belgium) for the purchase of geospatial products which will be sent out as part of the program's International Spatial Data Infrastructure. GLOBE, a worldwide hands-on,...

Intermap Technologies.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... Intermap Technologies (Denver, USA) has received a [euro]1,700,000 order for NEXTMap Britain terrain elevation and image data from the Scottish Executive. On behalf of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, the Scottish Executive has...

IONIC.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... IONIC (Grace-Hollogne, Belgium) has set up an Interoperability Centre of Excellence (ICE) Program for institutions of higher education interested in research and training related to OpenGeospatial web services. Members of the IONIC ICE program...

Natural Resources Conservation Service.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... The United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has chosen Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping's (Atlanta, Georgia) Leica Photogrammetry Suite (LPS) as a key resource to support and streamline the National...

Merrick Advanced Photogrammetry of the Americas S. de R.L. de C.V.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... Merrick Advanced Photogrammetry of the Americas S. de R.L. de C.V. (MAPA) is now the authorised reseller of QuickBird imagery from DigitalGlobe (Colorado, USA) in Mexico. MAPA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrick & Company (Colorado, USA),...

Miner & Miner's.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... Homestead Energy Services has completed its migration to Miner & Miner's (Colorado, USA) ArcFM 9.0.1 solution. The municipal utility serves almost 17,000 customers in Miami-Dade county. Florida and has migrated from ArcFM 7.2.1 to 9.0.1; it is...

RMSI.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... RMSI (California, USA) has joined the Oracle PartnerNetwork as an Independent Spatial Systems Consultant making it an Oracle partner at the global level. The Oracle Partner Network is a worldwide business platform of companies delivering...

Swift LG.(Business Briefs)
November 1, 2004... Swift LG (Bristol, UK) has announced a partnership with AIT to promote AIT's next generation citizen interaction software, Portrait, to the local government sector, Nigel Dore, Swift LG's sales director, said that the company's smaller...