GISCorps Volunteers Needed for an Urgent Project

Just received this request from the GIScorps... Project Title: Compiling Infrastructure damage data (buildings, ports, bridges) in Cyclone Nargis affected areas in Myanmar in Google Earth (GE) environment

Number of Volunteers: 20
Volunteers for this project must:
1. Have experience working in Google Earth environment; able to create various features in GE environment

2. Basic knowledge in geo-coding and database manipulation

3. Able to spend +/-8 hours per day on the project during the next 5-7 days.

4. This position does NOT require traveling and is conducted remotely. You will be using your own computer for this project and communicating with UNOSAT Project Manager via email and FTP.

If you are interested and available, please send an email to: Ingrid.Bruce@cityofrc.us as soon as possible and no later than Monday May 12th. If any changes have been made to your resume since you signed up with GISCorps, attach an updated version to your email. Most importantly, please only respond if you can work +/- 8 hours per day on this project during the next 5-7 days starting May 12th.

Schmap preparing to roll out for iPhone

Remember Schmap? Recal Shmap is a way cool travel resource guide that last lyear I refered to as "likely one of the coolest, Free apps you'll stumble onto this summer". Well, now the company is prepping to roll out an app for iPhone. the company tells me the public Beta should roll out May 12. See www.schmap.com

NOCO GIS User Meet, Loveland, CO - Mobile GIS

It was good to get out of the office and meet some of the local GISers yesterday as I spent the afternoon at the city of Loveland' s HQ for a GIS user group meetup. This group meets quarterly (roughly) and discusses who's doing what and has special speakers to entertain and inform. Yesterday's meet was focused on mobile GIS. Apparently after polling attendees at the previous meet-up, the topic of mobile GIS was on most people's minds, thus the focus of this meeting.

The meet had a strong ESRI flavor as it was sponsored by ESRI - several staff from Broomfield organized the meeting and shared with us details of the ESRI Mobile GIS solutions, from ArcPad to ArcGIS mobile. We heard from the city of Fort Collins about their mobile code enforcement plans for citing/managing infractions on the local by-laws. the team uses ArcPad and Dell Axim PDAs (wow, haven't seen them in years!!) on the upside they plan on updating things this fall with some spanky Panasonic Toughbooks - a tip, those Axims make great paper-weights! We also heard about ArcGIS 9.3, ArcPAd 7.1 and we got a good primer from Ryan Smith of ESC on what to look for when setting up and purchasing mobile GIS equipment (hardware, software). Finally, we heard that ArcGIS 9.3 "might" be coming on in June and the next NOCO GIS Meet up is planned for August 14 at the city of Loveland.

TerrasServer.com VS Microsoft TerrasServer USA

I have to admit, I've wondered about this one for years. I recall stumbling onto the Microsoft resource and wondered "how do they get away with this"? What I mean is that commercial data provider terraserver.com is now finally taking Microsoft to court over their imagery project trademark. Should be interesting to see how this one pans out - most likely the big guy will prevail in court (don't they always??)

TerraServer.com is a commerical imagery provider. Users can subscribe to their services and receive updates. Data can also be downloaded and posters and prints are also for sale. The site has a strong consumer focus (ie. want to buy a print of a celebrity's home?) but there's also loads of imagery available for a GIS base (ie. data from Pictometry and others). FYI, TerraServer was founded in 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina with the simple purpose of finding a commercial market for satellite imagery and aerial photography.

TerraServer.com - Commercial Imagery provider

Microsoft's resource (TerraServer USA) has been developed with a partnership in place with the USGS. Users can easily access topos and aerial photos. An online viewer enables you to easily browse USGS quads and then download for use. Personally, I don't know of many users or orgs who depend on this site for their data.

Microsoft's TerraServer USA

Both sites serve a purpose, however, I'd go to some of the many other free data providers before these one (see http://gisdata.blogspot.com). There's also USGS seamless data distn (http://seamless.usgs.gov/) or my favorite, the USDA Geospatial data gateway

Google Launches Geo Education Home for Teachers

Google, always the fan of teachers has launched a resource to help and encourage Geo education in the classroom. The Geo Ed home provides K12 resources and support to support the use of Google MAps, Google Earth, and Sketchup in the classroom. From the Google Lat/Long blog... "We hope that this site will serve as an easy-to-navigate, one-stop-shop for teachers looking to incorporate Google Earth, Maps, Sky, and Sketchup in their classrooms." See http://www.google.com/educators/geo.html
Visitors will find useful tips, quizes, posters for use in the classsroom and more

The Autodesk Experience tour - check out AutoCAD 2009 and more

Once again, Autodesk is going on the road and bringing the Autodesk Experience tour to a city near you. This is a good opportunity to see what's new in the 2009 application suite and ask questions from the developers and resellers. The following stops are scheduled.

May 13 Detroit, MI
May 14 Toronto, ON
May 28 Denver, CO
May 30 Houston, TX
June 5 Montreal, QC
June 10 Anaheim, CA
June 12 San Francisco, CA
June 17 Chicago, IL
June 19 Vancouver, BC
June 24 Calgary, AB
June 26 Edmonton, AB

See http://experience.autodesk.com

Housing Research Interns - Canada

Here's a summer opp. for recent grads in Canada - Canadian Policy Research Networks will soon be issuing its second call for Housing Interns for 2008. This is the ONLY housing training
programme in the country. These are four month positions in which [recently completed] graduate students produce a study on some aspect of
housing. Examples of recent research are here. See also www.cprn.org

TN visa bumping up to 3 years - maybe

This may be of interest to any individuals or companies that hire employees on Nafta TN visas (or H1Bs for that matter). This came out of the UCIS just today...
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that it is publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to increase the maximum amount of time a Trade-NAFTA (TN) professional worker from Canada or Mexico can remain in the United States before seeking readmission or obtaining an extension of stay. The proposal will extend the maximum period of admission for TN workers from one year to three years, the same term that USCIS currently may grant to H-1B specialty occupation workers.

Get your Geo Shwag!

Some big conferences are coming up and perhaps you or your company is thinking about offering up some cool Geo-Shwag... maybe a coffee mug, cap, computer bag, or a koozie. Here's a pretty decent resource I found that has some very decent prices - check it out, and don't forget about yours truly when you dole out that shwag! See http://www.logotoyou.com
Ideas:
- A koozie is decent shwag and its light for shipping!
- you can never have enough pens and those cool light-up pens are sweet
- computer bags are cool but costly. If you do that one make sure you get a cool design or the bag will simply wind up at the goodwill. To date the Adobe Max bag 07' and the Autodesk Backpack notebook bag are likely the best I've seen
- coffee travel mugs are nice but many people have about 20 already. If you do this, go ceramic!
- mouse pads... Yawn... say no more!
- a keychain is old fashioned but not done enough IMHO
- T-shirts are way cool but a bit costly. Lately I really dig the long sleeves (I've seen cool ones from Navteq, GTG, and SMS txt). If you collect T's and have a closet full, start grabbing size S and get the kids to wear em!

Summer Jr. Surveying & Engineering Camp

Here's an interesting idea for kids over the summer - A non-profit Jr. Surveying & Engineering Camp, endorsed by the Ohio PLSO is seeking sponsorship, volunteers and supporters for the 2008 camp. Middle & High School students attend at no cost; however the entire camp is $875 per student based on 32 students. Students will improve their math & science skills by learning this trade that is not included in most schools as a career option. See http://www.travelamericausainc.com and click on Jr. Surveying & Engineering Camp.