Galveston Island Post Hurricane Ike Imagery

For those of you interested in accessing data on Galveston Isl, post Hurricane Ike, NOAA has made available a vast collection of data including loads of imagery. See http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/IKE0000.HTM or the homepage at http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/ike/. Data are 50 cm resolution imagery, SHP file downloads and World files with metadata are available. These are some of the best data I've come into where users can identify damaged properties for a pre-visit analysis. For some simply amazing imagery of Ike captured from the International Space Station see this page from NASA.

Aerial photography from NOAA

Hurricane Ike as seen from the Space Station... Amazing!

Taking in Rocky Mountain National Park & The Stanley Hotel

So, it was a beautiful fall day here in Northern Colorado... what to do??? No, not go to the CSU game, although that would have been cool! Instead, I loaded up the family and we headed on up to Rocky Mountain National Park (Estes Park) to catch some Elk Bugling and pay a visit to the Stanley Hotel (ya, the place where the Shining was filmed)... I was sick as crap but still, what a great day! FYI, if you're ever in the area be sure to take in Estes Park and if you're really into learning more about elk, visit the RMEF. For topos and GIS information on the area see Larimer County GIS.



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

SlideShow from Helsinki Finland - Nokia OpenLab 08

Just realized I hadn't created a slideshow of last week's images of Finland yet so here we go...



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System (Arctic ROOS)

The Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System (Arctic ROOS) web site presents daily updated maps and plots of the arctic sea ice from satellite observations and ice forecasts from ice-ocean modeling. The presentations are prepared by Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and other members of the Arctic ROOS. Arctic ROOS will promote, develop and maintain operational monitoring and forecasting of ocean circulation, water masses, ocean surface conditions, sea ice and biological/chemical constituents.

The annual minimum of arctic sea ice occurs in September, and present data shows that the sea ice minimum in 2008 will be very close to the 2007 minimum, which set a record for the lowest ice area since satellite observations began in 1979. The daily images are available at http://www.arctic-roos.org

Sea ice area map from AMSR data, source: NERSC

Stay Informed about Mobile Gaming via the Nokia N-Gage Insider

Nokia wants to keep the gaming community informed about N-Gage via a cool, new resource called the N-Gage Industry Insider. It's cool, fun, educational, informative, and even has a Sauna! (Please don't try accessing the n-gage service from the sauna though!)

Visit the insider to access information about global events, N-Gage developer issues, news, learning aids and much more. You can access the insider via http://insider.n-gage.com

I find this particularly interesting as Ovi rolls out even more functionality, bringing together Nokia services like maps, music, gaming and build on the community aspects of the service. N-Gage, connecting people through gaming... see more in Sauna Talk with Mikka!

Massey MedalNominations (Canada)

The CAG has released an invitation to submit nominations for the Massey Medal. Its purpose is to recognize outstanding personal achievement in the exploration development or description
of the geography of Canada. Some of the previous winners are:
2008 Bruce Mitchell,
2007 Eddy Carmack,
2006 Serge Courville,
2005 Tim Oke,
2004 Larry Bourne,
2003 Dr. Richard Colebrook Harris,
2002 John Oliver Wheeler,
2001 Lawrence McCann
For a complete list see:
http://www.rcgs.org/rcgs/awards/awards_masseyPrevWinners.asp

For instructions on how to make a nomination, please go to;
http://www.rcgs.org/rcgs/awards/awards_masseyNominations.asp

Geo-Social location services for musicians from Nokia OpenLab

An interesting follow-up out of last week's Nokia OpenLab08 comes from musician, Steve Lawson. Steve has a done a great job at sharing his thoughts post-OpenLab, sometimes expressing his frustration at not being able to take part in conversations where he should have been and he also shares some cool vision on his take on the role location-awareness can/should play in the real of mobile music in the future (great stuff Steve!) I love this suggestion from Steve and this is exactly the sort of output that I'm sure Nokia was hoping to get from the event... "the ability to map a tour, plot any media captured on it onto it, group crowd-sourced flickr-photos by location and date, and even to network a street team by geo-tagged data are the stuff that every band in the world should be jumping on"

Indeed Steve is hot for location-awareness as it pertains to his passions (like music) and I have no doubt there's many clever solutions that will come. Imagine your device listening to a tune, providing feedback on the song artist, a chance to purchase the song etc... and then the abililty for your mobile sensor to provide playlist suggestions based on your location, or perhaps based on who you're with at the time, then connecting you to people nearby that may share your love for an artist or particular genre of music. I like the possibility of tracks or even concert tickets etc... being offered to me (maybe at a discount) via mobile, based on where I'm located...

Follow Steve on Twitter @solobasssteve

TwitPic extends your photos to Twitter

Oh man these fantastic mobile, social networking apps just keep on coming... enter TwitPic. The service extends the functionality to the mobile Twitter user by providing a gateway where photos are posted via mobile, a web UI, or via their API. Post a picture and your Twitter feed is updated with details. See more at http://twitpic.com/ TitPic is natively supported by twhirl, twitter mobile, Twitterific and others. I've tested the app and the UI is a bit clunky so as of yet I'd say its likely not terribly useful for me - heck, I can do this via Shozu anyway but maybe it will evolve.

Flickr Bike Mapping and my Nokia Sports Tracker Bike Tour

Here's a story and a great idea that would be HUGE here in Fort Collins, CO given that huge number of biking enthusiasts that we have (case in point, Tour de Fat from New Belgium).

Apparently, there's a crew of flickr enthusiasts that are equipped with Nokia N95s (what else) and driving around, snapping photos and loading their geo-tagged imaged up to flickr... kind of a green solution to street view... awesome! See more

So that got me thinking... given that some friends at Nokia in Helsinki just hooked me up with a cool bike mounted phone holder and a sweet Nokia Sports Tracker T-shirt, I think I may have to start logging a few miles on the bike and snapping and storing some geotagged bicycle street views from the N95 for myself! Using my bike, my cool Nokia device mounting bracket, and the cool Sports Tracker service and just may start compiling bike views of my local area. The data is easily shared online, I can then even export via KML and use in Google Earth and also share my geotagged photos captured along the way via my flickr... sounds like loads of geo fun to me!


Bicycle mounting bracket designed specifically for Nokia N95 & N95 8GB

My lovely assistant on this journey!


Once finished and uploaded to my Sports Tracker account I can view a detailed summary - online or via mobile

A handy map stores my GPS coordinates, geotags my images (and videos) and stores online - export to KML is then an option as well.

The final step is to view our bike ride within Google Earth.

GITA Cancels 2008 GIS for Oil & Gas Conference

Heads-up from GITA, In the Aftermath of Hurricane Ike, GITA Cancels 2008 GIS for Oil & Gas Conference.

GITA is sensitive to the damage in Houston, Galveston, and the gulf coast region. Key GITA representatives have been engaged in recovery and service restoration, and safety is the association’s top priority. Conference registrants and exhibitors have been e-mailed and called, and can contact GITA at info@gita.org.

Plans for repackaging conference content are being made, and information on those plans will be posted on http://www.gita.org/oilgas. The 2009 GIS for Oil & Gas Conference is slated for Sept. 13-17, 2009, at the Marriott Westchase Hotel in Houston, Texas, and the 2008 GIS for Oil & Gas Calgary Conference is set for Nov. 6-7, 2008, at the Marriott Calgary Hotel.

Coming Down from the Nokia OpenLab08 High

We'll I'm back from a whirl-wind journey to Finland where myself, along with about 3 dozen other bloggers, new media technologists, early adopters of mobile technology and social media technology gurus, where we had a chance to discuss the what, where, when and why of mobile, particularly with respect to our social networks. I have to admit, like many others in attendance, I'm still trying to process fully what transpired! Made up of several "workshops", one of which I facilitated, we shared our tales and thoughts on the likely direction that social networking will take, and in particular, the role that the mobile web will play as things evolve. There were no correct answers, there were no stupid comments, there were no misfits, etc... there was simply a group of cool people sharing their stories and offering up insights from their own special corner of the social web or geo-social web as I like to call it! This might sound a bit abstract and you may wonder, what the hell was Glenn doing there and what is he talking about? Well, that's how Nokia (sponsor of the event, via their WomWorld extension) likes to roll, that's how they like to get a glimpse of future technologies and the role that the company's solutions will play as the mobile web expands it's reach.

Obviously, with me being the "Geo" guy, I was providing insight into my thoughts on the geo-social web and other location-aware solutions that users take advantage of to expand their networks and share their experiences. If anything, the event not only enabled us to brainstorm, but we also had a chance to take part in a very interesting social networking test where a group of 35 people were introduced to each other, provided with a mobile device (Nokia E71 in this case) and told to have at er... setting us free in Helsinki to collaborate, socialize and communicate via whatever means we could. At the end of the day, the group Wiki, Twitter, Jaiku, Flickr, Qik, and Ovi proved invaluable in bringing us closer together and enabled us to have a much different experience had these mobille technologies not existed. If this is all too much for you to think about at the moment (I know it's been a load for me as I try to recoup), I can relate... I'm still absorbing a ton of material and media. I have to say thanks to Peter Batty for planting a seed in my head last week and reminding me how combining future location location focused applications more with current location focused applications is where we are headed... I couldn't stop thinking about this and now couldn't agree more! I also couldn't help to wonder while we were there, how crucial the latest social networking tools were to us all to help us enjoy the event and communicate with each other... indeed if we could build on the geo-social web experience we could have benefited even more - there's opportunity a plenty in that space in my mind!

Thanks to the team in Helsinki (along with WOMWORLD and 100Heads) for getting us together and for sharing some media with us via Ovi Share... Nice Job! And a big thanks to my 3 dozen+ new friends who have greatly expanded my social network and given me much to think about regarding the Geo-Social Network and the possibilities that it brings to our lives.

The OpenLab08 Group (Image Credit NokiaOpenLab08 on Ovi)

Enough of that for now... maybe take a load off and test your Geographical skills in this contest from Nokia called the Mapsters... have fun - you just might win a new Nokia 6110 Navigator! I just got a score of 69,900 on first try, can you beat that... I'm sure you can! Oh, and please, don't forget about thegreenthing! I'm doing my green thing by not watering my lawn every day like my entire neighborhood. Instead, once a week by hand and I have grass just as green as anyone else... go figure that one! More to come soon...

Some additional resources to consider include:

• Ovi Share Channel
• WomWorld on Jaiku or me on Jaiku
• Twitter
• NokiaOpenLab08 Flickr
• my Qik
• OpenLab on qik
• OpenLab Official website
• OpenLab Wiki
• James Whatley video on Join The Community

Blogs, comment, and Vlogs from attendees:

• Goodby Helsinki (Gypsibandito)
• Phil Campbell's closing comments
• Nokia Openlab 08 (Mickipedia)
• OpenLab Part 1 (Steve Lawson)
• NokiaOpenLAb08 in Review - Nick Bouton
  
• OpenLab 2 - Geo-Location workshop (Steve Lawson)
  
• NokiaOpenLab08 qiks
  

the green thing

Something we heard about last week at OpenLab was an initiative called the green thing, a community that encourages people to be a little bit greener. We even had group discussions on mobile technologies and suggestions that might be useful in the future to help us all do the green thing a little better. See more at http://www.dothegreenthing.com/
see also the green blog at http://www.dothegreenthing.com/entries