Date archive for April, 2008
| April 18, 2008Google Earth 4.3Internet MappingThe release of Google Earth 4.3 brought about some new changes in the user experience of this global data viewer. Users now have an easier way to navigate with scale dependent navigation controls. When navigating at a small scale, the standard pan and zoom controls are available to the user. At the ... read more April 15, 2008Time Zone DataData, Link LibraryFree and commerical sources of Time Zone Datasets. April 14, 2008KML Now an OGC StandardGIS NewsGoogle announced today that KML has become an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Standard. This means that Google will no longer be responsible for maintaining the KML file format which, instead, will be handled by OGC. KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is a file format that uses XML-based language to manage geographic information. Originally, ... read more April 8, 2008 Foreclosures MappingGeographyHotpads.com has mapped out foreclosures based on property data from RealtyTrac. House icons mark the locations of foreclosures with an underlying “heat map” layer showing the intensity of foreclosures over a given area. The Heat Map layer can be shown for a range of density types including population density, median income and median rent. read more... CO2 Emission Maps and DataData, FeaturesPurdue University has announced the availability of high resolution CO2 emission maps and data for the United States. The Vulcan Project details carbon dioxide emissions at a level of detail more than 100 times previously available datasets. Additionally, CO2 emissions were calculated in 10 kilometer grids based on a method developed to “extract the CO2 ... read more Top Causes of Errors in Online Mapping SystemsFeatures, Internet MappingSpatial data errors in online mapping and GPS navigation systems can send travelers off on the wrong route sometimes with comical but sadly, sometimes deadly results. Having been burned by trusting online driving directions before, Chris Silver Smith from Search Engine Land reviews the top reasons online mapping sites have bad data. Reasons he lists ... read more Take Control of Your MapsFeatures, Internet MappingPaul Smith (developer of EveryBlock), has a broad article entitled “Take Control of Your Maps” on the “A List Apart” site that takes a look at open source online mapping options other than Google Maps. The article is a good introduction to some of the basics of getting started with open source map servers such ... read more Geospatial Developer SurveyIssues in GISDave Bouwman has a thirty question survey out entitled “What do you do? Geospatial Developer Survey“. Per the post: ”The main reason is that I’m interested in knowing more about how other people doing GIS/Geospatial development work. How many people view themselves as software engineers vs. occasional coders who hack some stuff together as needed. I want ... read more April 7, 2008 Ancient Tree HuntFeatures, Internet MappingWith the plea, “Help us to find and map all the old, fat trees across the UK,” the Ancient Tree Hunt seeks to merge antique and modern mapping to identify and protect ancient trees across the United Kingdom. Historic maps ranging from 1843 to 1893 have been overlayed onto modern geospatial data in an effort ... read more  Absolut “Oops!”GeographySwedish Vodka distiller Absolut has managed to upset both sides of the geographic divide with their map depicting Mexico and the United States in the 1830s when what is now California, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona were still part of the Mexican territory. The map is just one of the advertisements that make ... read more |
