LightPole allows Movable Type bloggers to geo-tag their entries

LightPole, Inc., a mobile application service provider focused on the "Long Tail" publishing market, co-developed a Movable Type plug-in with SixApart that allows Movable Type bloggers to geo-tag their entries, add and manage related points of interest (POIs) and publish feeds that can be used to create LightPole channels – seamlessly delivering content to their readers' mobile phones.

Details... The GeoType Plug-In for Movable Type allows you to associate locations with blog entries. It creates locations for each blog entry, which are pushpin points that appear on a single map. Also, a map can be shown which displays all of the locations for the entire blog. Locations can be found using addresses or by scrolling the map, so you do not need to find or lookup the coordinates for your location like many other plug-ins force you to do. The plug-in also allows for these blog entries to be published to mobile devices using the LightPole Publishing System.

To download the plug-in point to your browser see http://plugins.movabletype.org/geotype/

For additional instruction, check out the documentation at http://blog.lightpole.net/plugins/docs/index.html

Autodesk... communication to you via blogs

Have you noticed the number of "official" Autodesk blogs out there lately (35+)? These are blogs run by ADSK employees and partners and fully supported by Autodesk... there's a ton of em! Under the heading of "geobloggers" there's a number of geospatial blogs in the group, most noteworthy the Dirt by Pete Kelsey, Geoff Zeiss between the Poles, and Beyond the Paper... however, there's a number that you may not have heard of yet. These include 2D to 3D (civil focus), Geospatial made in France, Points of interest (LBS), TopoBase Insiders (for topobase users) and many others. Most of the blogs are run by Autodesk product managers, evangelists, and Marketing professionals. Seems that the internal blogging team is now a preferred way of communicating from the company given that the number of blogs continues to grow and the number of official PRs out of the company has dwindled over the past year or so. See blogs.autodesk.com

A new term - LIP - the Location Independent Professional!

So many new and cool terminology out there these days... how about this one that I just got turned onto from the WHERE blog - LIP - "We few, we proud, we LIPs can be anywhere the Internets will reach, and now, anywhere the cell phone signals will travel." For more on LIP see, what else... the LIP blog! http://locationindependent.com/blog/

The S60 WordPress Blogging Client for N95 users

Coming next week... Wavelog has been developed and tested on Nokia N95 mobile phones posting to the WordPress publishing system, both hosted on the wordpress.com and the current stable release available from wordpress.org and hosted with different hosting providers.

About the App... It allows posting of the content as text, image, audio or video, to a Web log (blog) directly from the mobile phone using any type of available network (mobile phone or Wi-Fi network). The application allows saving the work for later posting in the case there is no available network or to allow selection of a network with larger up-link bandwidth (faster posting) or lower cost (for example a free Wi-Fi HotSpot compared to a mobile phone network). Wavelog does not restrict users to a specific blog hosting provider, social network or an intermediate content aggregation. It permits a complete freedom for choosing blog hosting provider or even installing own blog publishing system on the Internet, extranet, intranet, or a local area network. It is designed for performance, scalability and reliability, so it is coded in C++ programming language as a native Symbian OS application. Wavelog does not use any form of usage tracking for targeted advertisement or direct marketing purposes. See http://www.telewaving.com/wp/

Geoblogger tip - spring widget

If you blog or simply have an RSS feed you'd like to share with others then you might be interested in this nifty app that's available for users of the cool feedburner service.. buried deep in the setting is an option to setup a SpringWidget. Use this app to create a nice widget feed that others can embed on their website or blog.. quite handy!

Get this widget!

Good luck to Peter Batty as SpatialNetworking Start-up chases the Spatial Social Networking space

I spoke to Peter Batty last week at GIS in the Rockies and he tipped me off that he'd be making an announcement this week that would essentially end his "vacation". So today it appears that Peter has lifted the lid off the announcement and launched Spatial Networking - start up that will focus on location related apps and social networks... think locr metts twitter meets grazr meets flickr meets platial etc... you get the idea (that's from me, not Peter!) Anyway, best of luck to Peter and his new crew... perhaps Peter and I can discuss the new venture at a Rockies game before the season ends! See Peter's Blog announcement here and see also http://www.spatialnetworking.com

A new blog about Agile practices for GIS Development

Chris Spagnuolo, GIS Project Manager and Certified ScrumMaster has informed us about a new blog about Agile practices for GIS Development http://www.ChrisSpagnuolo.com

Chris is a proponent of Agile project management methodologies and software development practices. He has implemented Scrum (an Agile project management process) in his local developer office. Since the implementation of Scrum, his office has consistently met performance, financial, and utilization goals as set by both his organization and his client base.

From Chris:

I have recently started a new blog called Chris Spagnuolo's GeoScrum! It will provide reflections on implementing and using Agile practices (and Scrum in particular) on Enterprise GIS and GIS development projects. Please take a look at http://www.chrisspagnuolo.com Hopefully you'll find it interesting and maybe even useful on your own projects, even if they're not GIS related.

Mashable Tips for WordPress Bloggers

I'm not a WordPress user (although i do have a test blog there) but those of you who are will appreciate this great article on 30 cool thinngs you can integrate with your WordPress blog from Mashable. You'll learn how to create sticky posts, create PDA friendly formats, add google spell and much more... nice stuff! See http://mashable.com/2007/08/15/wordpress-posts/

The social networking dilemma.. which way to go?

Are you having the same issues as I am with deciding on which social networking apps to use? Now granted, I test loads of them out once or twice so I can write about them, however, there's still a number of them that I've tried to use regularly... that is proving to be a real challenge lately though. What's apparent is that unless you use a service regularly and keep it fresh, it will get stale, boring, and eventually fall to the wayside. Just today I was introduced to MOSH via way of forum.nokia - they sent their members details of this cool new media sharing service. From first look its been developed to enable mobile device users (of symbian S60 devices) the ability to share their digital media with friends and colleagues. It's more than simply social networking though because they've provided the capabilities for power mobile users to share all digital content.. photos, video, wall paper, ring tones, video tones, etc... quite cool. The problem.. its one more thing to learn how to use, load on my PC and mobile, and start adding content to make it semi-useful. At the same time I just got 2 requests to connect on Facebook.. another app that I admit I haven't done a good job at maintaining. I must admit, I like the way it can search out "friends" from my yahoo, gmail, and msn email accounts (WOW!) and the share places you've visited on a map widget is very cool and simple to use. Then add my blog(s) and naturally my flickr photos which I admit I am totally hooked on using. But which site to a commit to?? Flickr, YouTube, platial, Google MyMap, twitter, lifeblog, twibble, mosh, linkedIn, facebook, mySpace... ohmygod. I guess for now I'll continue to attempt to maintain 12 of them until one of them provided everything I need! FYI, I just tried conencting my facebook to my mobile for uploads etc.. and low-and-behold... it doesn't support T-freaking-Mobile!!

Slashgeo bids farewell to the geobloggers

A final post came from "Satri" regarding the end of a 2 year run on slash-geo... unfortunately the site is going the way of many popular blogs... the author simply needs to focus on his day job. This from Slashgeo and the final post -- Slashgeo's Site Closing or in Indefinite Hiatus. Thank you. .. from the So-long,-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish dept. You got that right. The best interpretation of this post's title is that the Slashgeo.org project has come to an end. Or at least in serious hiatus until the context significantly evolves. Over the last two years, Slashgeo has been a source of enjoyment and stress. As much as it has been fun, it slowly became more of a responsibility then a rewarding project. Here's some explanations and personal thoughts on the adventure. See Here

Explore Your Communities with outside.in

Wrapping up the sessions today at Where is Steven Johnson who’s sharing details of Outside.in – tagline: neighborhoods are the human scale. This clever resource provides local blog results and much more (think who’s blogging near me and what are they saying). Most people are typically interested with news and developers that are in their local area or neighborhood, although that may be tough to find… until now. Outside.in provides a solution and delivers some fun and relevant results. As an example, for news from San Jose see http://outside.in/San_Jose. For something fun, check out America's Top 10 Bloggiest Neighborhoods - Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, Shaw, DC, Downtown LA are the top 3 bloggiest neighborhoods! http://outside.in – have fun! Of note, you can find out more about the app in their blog at outside.in blog... ok, I'm outta here as its now "Miller Time"

GeoPress location enabling plugin for bloggs (GeoRSS)

Updated today... GeoPress location enabling plugin for bloggs - a WordPress and MovableType plugin that allows users to quickly and easily embed location information in blog posts. You can then embed a dynamic map, Microformat adr and geo output, and adds GeoRSS to the RSS output, or use KML for viewing in GoogleEarth - see http://georss.org/geopress/

ArcExperts Blog/Aggregation resource now up for ArcGIS developers

Just in case you don't have enough blogs bookmarked yet you might wish to check out this new resource developed by Dave Bouwman at http://www.arcexperts.net/. Essentially its been developed using OPML I believe (Dave even offers up a short tutorial on this http://blog.davebouwman.net). The resource indexes weblogs and resources that are focused on ArcInfo, ArcGIS and developing for the ArcGIS platform. Think planetgeo but more focused. FYI, if you want to develop your own aggregation of your favorite blogs I suggest you create a Google account and setup your Google homepage to crawl only your favorite blogs, news sources, flickr streams or ??? You simply add XML or RSS feeds for anything that interest you... pretty simple yet very effective... I have my very own GIS-centric Google home page with all the latest news (from GISuser.com naturally!) and many other cool resources. I can now add ArcExperts to my list of feeds using this url: http://feeds.feedburner.com/arcexperts - FYI, to add GISuser headlines to your Google homepage (or your myYahoo!) simpl add this feed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/GisUsercom

Amanda Congdon and AmandaAcrossAmerica chats with Guy Kawasaki

Amanda Congdon, video blogger, actress, and much more has recently added a video interview with one of my favorite evangelists, Guy Kawasaki. I know, where's the geo in this? No worries, its not strictly a geo thing, however, its down-right interesting and cool! AnyGeo reader Andy tipped me off about his post (thanks again Andy) and I had to rethink a bit what I could recall about Amanda. Sure, there's the eye-candy factor, however, she's also one of the most well known video casters on the web - she's also appeared on CSI so she must be pretty damned cool! Amandy hosts the video cast on her blog AmandaAcrossAmerica, which notably uses a Google mashup UI... nice touch (that's provided by Mapbuilder.net). If you have 10 minutes to kill today sit back and listen to Guy... he's a great motivator and holds a wealth of knowledge about many things including venture capital funding, the art of the start up, PR, marketing, business 2.0, the web, blogging, and hockey! I've met Guy and even got a signed copy of his latest book a while back (thanks again Guy)... enjoy the video cast and bookmark Amanda and Guy's blog! Gee, maybe one day I can get an interview with Amanda!!! I won't hold my breath though ;0) See http://amandacongdon.com/america/ & http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

The importance of tags - a note to event planners

Something i was just thinking about as I searched the web for information from a past event... why aren't event planners taking advantage of tags? A note to anyone planning conference and events, when you issue your PR and publish your event website I suggest you considefr using an "official" tags that you suggest people use when referencing and publishing material about your event. It sounds like a no-brainer but not many folks are doing it -- except maybe O'reilly. I recall Where 2.0 last June (or was it May) and the conference organizer maded it very clear that if you were blogging or publishing material about the event they suggest you use the tag "where2006". With all the people blogging, using flickr, indexing material on digg, technorati, and del.icio.us it would make life much easier if everyone was on the same page and using the same tags rather than making up their own. As an example, last year I moblogged loads of photos from AU in Orlando. they were tagged with many tags, including "au2005". Searching flickr using this tag yielded many hits, however, what about photos from the event that didn't have that tag? See http://flickr.com/search/?q=au2005 as a sample search. Curiously, nothing on digg is found using au2005. Imagine... "AU2006" the official tag of Autodesk University... sounds like a great idea to me!

GIS blog and news updates for Pocket PC users via Hubdog

Here's a useful app for any content publishers and even you geobloggers out there... enter HubDog. Hubdog enables bloggers (and other content providers) to easily publish mobile RSS feeds. I've created a mobile feed for GISuser.com news updates - you can grab this and take your GIS industry news updates to go. Simply visit http://www.hubdog.com/c/36218/preview to get a preview. If you realy want to take this blog on the road with you HubDog are updates are also now available for this weblog (link). This free RSS reader from Hubdog lets you listen to Podcasts, watch vidcast and other web content directly on your smart phone or mobile device. For more about HubDog see http://www.hubdog.com/

finally, add posts to Digg and Del.icio.us is enabled - a tip for adding this to your Blogger beta blogs

A little Sunday evening searching around and I now have the DiggIt and add to Del.icio.us functionality on the blogs.. woohoo. I have to say it was a snap although the fact that I'm now using blogger beta was a slight challenge. Thanks to this great tip from Hackosphere I simply grabbed the code that I needed and voila.. 2 minutes later we have lift off! The hacker has generously provided tips and the code needed to add this functionality to blogger beta blogs. Thos of you that have vanilla blogger blogs and want to add this functionality to your blog you can get the code here. Finally... if you don't know what Digg or Del.icio.us is then you better do some research! Try clicking the diggIt or add to Del.icio.us hyperlink below this post and check it out...

the podlounge - find/add podcasts and now the mobile lounge

Looking for podcasts? Loads of our readers are interested in podcasts, podcasting, vodcast etc... If you author podcasts or simply have so much time on your hand that you like to listen to them when you have a spare minute then http://www.thepodlounge.com/ is a fine resource for you to bookmark. The portal has recently expanded their offerings with a mobile service designed with users of the way cool Nokia N93 device in mind - PodLounge Mobile for mobile or cell phone users. Usinng the service users can now access music as well as over 31,000 podcasts from their phones, anytime, anywhere. Simply point your phone's web browser to http://mobile.thepodlounge.com/ - oh, and a shameless plug... for Geospatial podcasts see our resource here

Tom's reports from FOSS4G 2006

Looking for news and reports from FOSS4G? look no more as good ol Tom Kralidis has plenty to say from the event. Tom's been in Europe all week and has been blogging from the event. Tom reports that Markus Neteler of the GRASS user community has received the Sol Katz Award... congrats to Markus. Be sure to check out Tom's reports... nice stuff Tom! See http://www.kralidis.ca/blog/ and see also the FOSS4G website at http://www.foss4g2006.org/site/gallery/index.php

Commercial weblogs and social networking - not a bad idea

This morning I was checking out the latest release of the GT/Field mobile application from GTI. It was interesting to see that the company's products are supported via a blogger weblog. I think this is a great idea that small businesses in particular should look at. The blogger UI is amazingly simply to use and get up an running with and what better way could a company relay all their product info and put their staff in touch with their customers? Example, see http://gtviewer.blogspot.com/ - clients can see the latest news and photos and best of all, they can communicate with the company by adding comments. We're seeing more and more of this every day including people taking advantage of other social networking tools like flickr, google video, youtube, etc... think about adding a product blog, maybe a developer team weblog or even a product sample video on google Video!