Amazing Bird's Eye imagery (Microsoft) from Zillow

Have you noticed the amazing (and recent) imagery now available on popular real estate website Zillow.com? Simply search a property and obtain a zestimate. then click the "see home info" link provided for the property. You will be returned with a Bird's eye view served up via Microsoft Virtual Earth. The image will be a high-res, accurately geolocated image that rivals that of low-altitude aerial photography... quite cool. Most of the imagery that I saw appears to have been captured within the last year.

Sample Bird's eye image from Zillow.com

Spotlight on Surveying and Mapping... Georgia's Water Shortage and a Surveyor's Miscalculations

From our sister site (Amerisurv.com). The American Surveyor's articles have been getting more attention than usual in recent weeks. Just a couple weeks ago, NBC Nightly News came a knockin' after finding Bart Crattie's Georgia Water Shortage article. Recently, a quick segment aired on their national evening news program about the boundary dispute between Georgia and Tennessee. NBC's production team was fascinated with Bart Crattie's explanation that a surveyor's miscalculations were to blame. We were tickled to see Bart on national television, as a result of his article in our January issue . If you didn't get a chance to read the article initially, you can do so here.

National Engineers Week Future City Competition

From Bentley we have details of the very cool Future City Competition... The National Engineers' Week Future City National Finals were held yesterday in Washington, DC. It's always inspirational watching the future engineering kids compete. Over 30,000 middle school students participated in regional competition throughout the USA and then 107 student winners spent four days in Washington DC competing for the top prize (54 boys and 53 girls – an excellent ratio). To kickoff the day, Bentley CEO Greg Bentley was the main speaker and presented a compelling story to the students, parents, teachers, regional volunteers, and other Bentley colleagues.
More info and a video is available here.

World Time Engine 2 (beta) - local time for any place in the world

The World Time Engine is a service for home users and business professionals to search and compare local world times for any country, city, town, village, zip code, point of interest or geographic coordinates on earth. Test it out... simply enter a place and you'll receive a map along with geographic coordinates, exact time along with GMT reference time. From the developers... "If a user performs an action, for example, uploads something to a service (e.g. a twitter update) you can now obtain the local time that this action occurred based purely on the coordinates data for that user or place." See http://worldtimeengine.com

Tele Atlas and USGS partner on Web-based 1:24,000-scale maps

Interesting news out of Tele Atlas today... according to the PR, Tele Atlas and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) today announced that the USGS will leverage Tele Atlas digital map data in its efforts in serving emergency and first responder communities. Through the agreement, the USGS will deliver Web-based 1:24,000-scale maps containing the U.S. National Grid in conjunction with Tele Atlas map data, for use in its Web Locator application and internal mapping operations solutions. Through the agreement, the USGS will deliver Web-based 1:24,000-scale maps containing the U.S. National Grid in conjunction with Tele Atlas map data, to support the efforts of the USGS serving the emergency and first responder communities.

Enterprise GIS Implementaion (ESRI) RFP issued

Recall a few weeks back I mentioned an RFP for an enterprise GIS (ESRI) Implementation. Well, the RFP has been let and details are now available. Good luck, you have until about March 14 to get in on this one. See details here

Event of Interest - AUGI CAD Camp Seattle

This one is coming up fast... AUGI CAD Camp is designed for Autodesk users who want to advance their careers and help their organizations grow. Don't miss this event in Seattle on February 21, 2008. About AUGI CAD Camp - Seattle is packed with interesting courses and offers plenty of opportunities to network with fellow “campers” and browse the exhibit area. Wrapping up a day of learning and sharing, attendees can enjoy the fun evening and the giveaways. See more at http://www.cadcamp.com/seattle/