From the UK - Map reading skills dying out - Paper vs Google Maps!

An interesting post on a cartography discussion list this AM references an article from the UK where claims from Mary Spence, the President of the British Cartographic Society, point out that children's Map reading skills are 'dying out due to internet and satnavs'. I like this reference... "Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference in London, Ms Spence said internet maps such as google or multimap are often inconsistent and inaccurate. Also in the article...Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google, said "the internet would not lead to the death of the paper map." This is definitely a fine topic to raise particularly as concepts of cartography, knowledge of spatial reference systems etc... are rarely discussed when one thinks of "internet mapping" - see more

wikiloc - share GPS tracks via Google Earth

A clever app enabling users to upload and share GPS tracks via Google earth. Wikiloc brings together those who store their GPS tracks and enables upload and sharing via Google earth - reminds me somewhat of Nokia's Sports Tracker application! see http://wikiloc.com/wikiloc/home.do Users can also add photos to go along with the GPS data. Here's a tip.. users can even bring their Nokia Sports Tracker trips into the service.. to read more on this see here

WOW GIS technologies at the ESRI user conference

On the floor at the ESRI user conference. It’s always a flurry of activity and it’s always one of my favorite things to do at the UC… browse the exhibition hall floor and see all the great new apps and gadgets, while getting the low-down straight from the ESRI partners and solution providers. Read on for details including some pics and videos clips

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Denver DNC city guides

Those wandering around Denver for this week's DNC might be able to make use of some local city guides... Wcities has just come out with a Denver guide containing over 150 Points of Interest including all of the hottest spots and most popular places around Denver’s Colorado Convention Center, this convenient destination guide is the easiest way around the city. This free guide, available via PDF, can be downloaded at http://www.wcities.com. And if I could suggest another local search tool, see the Denver Schmapplet - see http://www.schmap.com/

Shozu upgrade or ???

Looks like Shozu is undergoing some maintenance... recall Shozu is an amazing resource enabling mobile users to upload images, video, email, txt or what have you to virtually any popular social networking resource - for me its invaluable for loading flickr photos and youtube videos. I noticed yesterday that service simply stopped abruptly in the afternoon - I was at the Rockies game uploading images to flickr. Now today I noticed on shozu that my user profile is whacked... i.e. none of my stored sites seem to be saved in my setup any longer... Ouch! Lets hope this gets sorted out soon. If you aren't familiar with Shozu and you frequently upload media to your blogs or social networking sites then you need to check it out (when they get back up! - see shozu.com

EveryBlock adds Seattle, Boston, and DC

Looks like EveryBlock is still growing, now with the addition of three more cities to the portfolio (that's 8 in total) . New additions this week are Boston, Seattle, and DC. Recall EveryBlock is an extensive mashup that provide loads of public information to users, including fire inspection reports, news, restarant inspections, and much more, like photos (flickr, Panoramio), real estate listings (Trulia) and much more.. all focused on your specific neighborhood or block. See more at everyblock.com - thanks for the heads-up on this James!

Google Gears 0.4 API update

In case you missed it last week, google announced the release of Gears 0.4 API which allows you to build applications that can "do new and exciting things" based on your users' location. See more in this blog post about location-enabling your apps. Want more help on developing on Google Aps? Check out this video (reg required) on Google Apps quick tour. Speaking of Google, I see that some of the employee dinner perks have been axed... perhaps a result of the recession??

Trulia real estate mashup gets updates, but how good is this information?

How much trust can we have in mashups? That's always a good question, particularly as web20 services like Zillow, Trulia and others are becoming commonplace for the consumer. But where does the data come from and how accurate is it? that's always the fear of mine. Perhaps the error lies in public information, in that case, perhaps a mashup can help you identify some issues with data stored about you or your property. Case in point. Just today, popular real estate search resource, Trulia, just announced many new features today - likely in an effort to try to one-up Zillow. But how good is the information provided by these resources? For example, if you were shopping for a home in my area and were perhaps interested in my home the information conveyed by Trulia is a little odd! Details of my property list it as a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath (perhaps poor info served via public records), however, it's definitely 4 bedroom 3 bath property. Also, for some weird reason, when hitting my address, the zip code is reset to one that is incorrect, even if I enter the correct zip code? Finally, the street view imagery pulled from Google maps is also incorrect and shows a property that is not mine, likely a blunder resulting from the whacked reverse geocoding that is grabbing a wrong zip code. So where's the value in this? You tell me. For now, these services may need some help, perhaps provided by some true, GIS programming skills! See also www.trulia.com

Situational Awareness at the Democratic Convention (DNC) in Denver

Well, it's finally here... the DNC. For us in Colorado we've been hearing about it for well over a year and now. Now, after all the planning, it's time to put the plan into action. Indeed there was a pretty huge police presence on the 16th Street mall yesterdayand no doubt that was just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure that the Rockies have played a large part in getting the security measures into place, thanks to last years World Series appearance by the team. Recall, with very short notice, the city was forced to put into place a full-scale security plan as the Nation's eyes turned to Denver for 2 games of the 2007 World Series. Then in November 2007, city leaders and experts from around they got together at the 07 ESRI Homeland Security Summit... this was our first chance to hear from insiders what they were planning for security at the DNC.


For more on the Homeland security Summit and a video clip from Denver see here