mandag den 27. april 2009

Save and share directions with My Maps


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You've probably been there: a friend asks you for directions to your house for a party, or to that nice picnic spot you recommended, so you try to scribble some lines on the back of a napkin or you try to explain out loud that they should take the second (or is it the third?) left. It's particularly a pain when you want to tell a bunch of people - like your entire housewarming guest list - directions. 

To make this easier -- for you, and for the people you're trying to direct! -- we've added features that let you save, annotate, and share directions using My Maps, the personal map editor built into Google Maps.

Saving driving directions to a My Map is easy: just click the "Save to My Maps" link below the directions in the left pane. 

This opens a dialogue box where you can choose to save to an existing map, or create a new one.
Once your directions are saved, you'll be taken into the My Maps editor, where you can edit the saved placemarks and route, as well as add new places and details to your map, like landmarks along the way.


We've also added a new tool that lets you draw lines along a road to get from point to point. This is accessed via a drop-down menu in the line tool by clicking and holding briefly anywhere on the button.

The tool calculates the best driving route between your line's vertices and automatically snaps your line to the appropriate road. 

With your directions saved in My Maps, it's easy to add notes, share with friends, embed in web sites, and invite collaborators to contribute to your map. 

So when it comes time to plan your next road trip, consider using My Maps as your planning tool -- at the very least, if you hit a bump and spill coffee on your map halfway through the trip, you'll still have a backup.


Read more: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2009/04/save-and-share-directions-with-my-maps.html

søndag den 26. april 2009

The Ultimate 3D Mouse


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Spacy ...
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3dconnexion_mouse

Just got a look at the latest 3D mouse from Logitech’s 3DConnexion division via theGadgetwise Blog. I have a SpacePilot mouse from this company that I always use when navigating 3D worlds, and it really comes in handy. This latest $500 SpacePilot Pro looks to be the ultimate tool for professionals. It has tons of bells and whistles, including an integrated LCD menu screen.

Aside from functionality and ergonomics, this is a beautiful device that’s both stylish and impressive. I’m guessing that a fair number of executives will have to have one just for its looks. How could you not be doing serious work with a mouse like this at your side? [...]


Read more: http://vector1media.com/spatialsustain/the-ultimate-3d-mouse.html

Mash YouTube Videos On a 3D Cube


Lad os se Google Map på samme måde ... Kreativt UI måske mest beregnet for mobilen i virkeligheden ...
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I too want to see Google Maps cubed ... Nice interactive UI perhaps best suited for the mobile phones ...
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YouCube is a tech demo that lets you plaster YouTube videos onto the sides of a cube, and share the results with friends. The sound level will be adjusted depending on how much of the cube side is in sight. (Creator Aaron Meyers says he put this app together “rather hastily” over the course of 2 days.) [...]


Read more: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2009-04-22-n73.html

Third International Conference on Geospatial Semantics (GeoS 2009)


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Geospatial semantics is an emerging research theme in the domain of geographic information systems and spatial databases. The previous editions of the conference – GeoS 2005 and GeoS 2007 in late November (Mexico City, Mexico)www.geosco.org were highly successful. We have received about 100 submissions, from which 30 regular and 8 short articles have been published in Volume 3799 and Volume 4853 of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science respectively. People from 28 countries and 5 continents have attended the GeoS conferences.

The third edition GeoS 2009 www.geosco.org aims at providing a forum for the exchange of state-of-the-art research results in the areas of modeling and processing of geospatial semantics. Geospatial semantics play an important role for next-generation spatial databases and geographic information systems, as well as specialized geospatial web services. This conference traditionally brings together researchers whose expertise will address issues such as:

  • Theories for geospatial semantic information
  • Formal representations of geospatial data
  • Models and languages for geoontologies
  • Alignment and integration of geoontologies
  • Integration of semantics into spatial query processing
  • Spatial information retrieval
  • Ontology-driven GIS
  • Geospatial Semantic Web
  • Multicultural aspects of spatial knowledge
  • Cognitive aspects of geospatial semantics
  • Measuring semantic similarity between spatial datasets
  • Representing context for geospatial semantic information
  • Semantic Sensor Web
  • Ontology-based visualization of geospatial data
  • Conceptual models of dynamic geospatial environments
  • Personalization of geospatial semantic services

Publication of the proceedings in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. [...]


Read more: http://gisandscience.com/2009/04/22/third-international-conference-on-geospatial-semantics-geos-2009/

Why GIS is incomplete without imagery


Google og Microsoft har leveret den ene halvdel ... Et billede siger mere end 1000 ord ... Vha. GIS lærer man hvilke 1000 ord ...
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Google and Microsoft have already delivered one halve ... An image says more than a 1000 words ... Using GIS you learn how to see the 1000 words ...
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Interview: Lawrie Jordan

Why GIS is incomplete without imagery

by JON FAIRALL

‘We should no longer see imagery as something separate from GIS,’ says Lawrie Jordan. ‘Rather, we should see GIS and imagery as complementing and completing each other.’

Jordan speaks with some authority. He recently joined software vendor ESRI as a director of imagery enterprise solutions, also serving as special assistant to ESRI founder Jack Dangermond. But Jordan says he sees his role with the company as more of an imagery evangelist. [...]


Read more: http://www.positionmag.com.au/POS/content/2009/POS40/pos40_features/pos40_feature_interview.html

B2B Social Media Dashboard: A Powerful Tool To Uncover Key Customer Insights


Sociale netværk er meget populære, men ligesom med internettet som en helhed har markedskræfterne svært ved at tilpasse sig de nye kommunikationsformer. Meeeeen når der er penge i skidtet plejer de jo enten at bekæmpe det (fildeling, pirat downloads) eller tilpasse sig (online e-handel, Google) ... De sociale netværk indeholder et kæmpe potentiale - det er der ingen tvivl om men vil de formå at komme videre end blot til hr og fru Jensen. Vil de formå at rumme Novo og Coca Cola? Måske og måske ikke ... Men måden at lade informationer strømme vil på vil være uklogt ikke at forsøge at modellere også til professionelt brug ... Et sted imellem LinkedIN og Facebook ...
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Social networks are tremendously popular but as we have seen prior on the internet it has been hard for the established market models to adjust. However, when money is involved we have seen that either will they fight back (against fil sharing and piracy downloads) or adjust (e-shopping and Google) ... The social networks are a huge potential platform for new markets - no doubts about that but when will we see other user types other than Mr and Mrs Jones? When will we see Lego and Coca Cola? Seing and modelling the constant stream of information transferred within these net works it would be very unvise not to try and adapt those into professonel net works as well ... Some where between LinkedIN and Facebook ...
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For many B2B marketers, social media is still a bridge too far.  Because it’s a broad concept—there are so many different ways to use social media—its amorphous nature can impede implementation.  But a good way to get beyond this obstacle and jumpstart your social media efforts is to start small and aim to get some direct value out of it.  This is exactly what you can do when you tap into social media for its hidden value: key customer insights.  My last article discussed why B2B marketers should leverage social media in this way.  Today, let’s take a look at how to get the job done.  [...]

Read more: http://searchengineland.com/b2b-social-media-dashboard-a-powerful-tool-to-uncover-key-customer-insights-17839

Visual Representation of Tabular Information - How to Fix the Uncommunicative Table


Ligesom GIS er ment som og som til tider faktisk også er en visuel og kreativ måde at vise store mængder af data er denne omsætning af tabulære data en genial måde at gøre kedelige tal til noget som kunne ligne kunst ... og så kan det faktisk bruges til noget ... Hvilken farve skal dine budgettal have? 
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Like GIS is meant as a tool for creating vizualizing vast amounts of data this simple tool is great for transforming tabular data into stunning (and useable) art like figures. Brilliant and useful ... What colors should you use in your next budget? 
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Suppose that you are reading an article and the text refers you to a table on the next page. Before you turn the page, what are your expectations of the table? Chances are, you would like it to communicate trends and patterns. Chances are, too, that it will fail and simply deliver numerical minutiae. You are left hunting around the numbers for a while, only to return to the text in hopes that the table's data trends will be communicated elsewhere.

Imagine if, instead, the table were replaced by a visual representation that was agnostic to the data domain, sufficiently quantitative to identify patterns and descriptive statistics, and made no assumptions about the kind of patterns that might exist. In this article, I outline one such representation. [...]



This is a guest post by Martin Krzywinski who develops Circos, a GPL-licensed (free) visualization tool that can help you show relationships in data. This article is based on a longer writeup which you can find here.


Read more: http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/21/visual-representation-of-tabular-information-how-to-fix-the-uncommunicative-table/

torsdag den 23. april 2009

The David Rumsey Map Collection on Google Map


Er du til historiske kort er dette sagen ... og der er et enkelt fra Schleswig ...
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If your into historical maps this is it ... Great collection and now accesible with Google Map ...
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The over 120 historical maps in the Google Maps and Google Earth Rumsey Historical Maps sites have been selected by David Rumsey from his collection of more than 150,000 historical maps; in addition, there are a few maps from collections with which he collaborates. These maps can also be seen in the Gallery layer of Google Earth, Rumsey Historical Maps layer. 

All the maps contain rich information about the past and represent a sampling of time periods (1680 to 1930), scales, and cartographic art, resulting in visual history stories that only old maps can tell. Each map has been georeferenced, thus creating unique digital map images that allow the old maps to appear in their correct places on the modern globe. 

Some of the maps fit perfectly in their modern spaces, while others (generally earlier period maps) reveal interesting geographical misconceptions of their time and therefore have to be more distorted to fit properly in Google Maps and Earth. Cultural features on the maps can be compared to the modern satellite views using the slider bars to adjust transparency. 

The original historical maps are first made into digital images by scanning them with high resolution digital cameras. Then these digital images are transformed in a process called georeferencing, which makes them display in their correct geographical spaces in Google Maps and Earth. Georeferencing is done using a GIS program, which takes points on the old maps (cities, coast lines, rivers, streets) and connects them to the same points on a modern satellite map image or a modern street map or a modern map showing boundaries of countries and states. The GIS program then takes all these points (as many as 200 are made for very large maps) and uses them to recreate the digital image so it will fit into its modern geographical space. Often the image has to be curved a bit for this to be accomplished. 

The result is an exploration of time as well as space, a marriage of historic cartographic masterpieces with innovative contemporary software tools. 

The 
David Rumsey Map Collection was formed by David Rumsey over the last 30 years. Rumsey has scanned more than 17,000 of the maps since 1999 and put them online in a free public map library at www.davidrumsey.com. Rumsey believes in free public access to his maps, so visitors can not only look at the maps in full high resolution (some of the digital map images are 2 GB) but they can also download them for personal use. [...]

Read more: 

Klodens fjerneste sted fundet


Tilbage i januar fortalte jeg om dette kort http://gisdk.blogspot.com/2009/01/travel-time-to-major-cities-global-map.html og nu synes Jyllandsposten også at det skal nævnes ...
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Only Danish. See http://gisdk.blogspot.com/2009/01/travel-time-to-major-cities-global-map.html
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Glem Sahara og Amazonas. Nye computerberegninger fra Europa-Kommissionen og Verdensbanken afslører, hvor verdens mest fjerne sted findes. Det tager 21 dage at komme dertil.

Nej, det er ikke verdens navle, men derimod verdens fjerneste sted i Tibet. Foto: Europa-Kommissionens forskningscenter

Du tror måske, at du er kommet langt ud på landet, når gyllen begynder at genere næsen.

Men skal du rigtig langt væk, skal du nok have fat i det nye verdenskort, der er udarbejdet af Verdensbanken og Europa-Kommissionens forskningscenter i Ispra i Italien. Beregningerne viser, at det fra "verdens fjerneste sted" varer 21 dage at nå tilbage til civilisationen - det vil sige den nærmeste by med 50.000 indbyggere.

Ved hjælp af computerberegninger har forskerne udarbejdet et kort, der viser placeringen af verdens fjerneste egne. Det skriver New Scientist.

Computerberegningerne tager bl.a. højde for transportveje og terræn, hvis eksempelvis bjerge skal forceres til fods. Der er også taget højde for, at det kan tage ekstra tid at krydse landegrænser. [...]





GeoCommons Springtime Update


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Just in time for Spring, FortiusOne's GeoCommons is getting a great update. You'll find several new features that make finding, using and sharing geographic data and maps much more seamless.

  • Shiny, new homepage - Includes helpful info about Finder, Maker and the GeoCommons Community
  • Simple Data Uploader - Upload your KML, CSV spreadsheet and shapefiles through a single, simple interface
  • Embed feature - Easily embed dynamic, interactive maps into your blog or website
  • Projection Support – GeoCommons now supports all projected (.prj) files
  • Geo-parsed text files – Upload text docs or Web pages and GeoCommons will detect  location names and map them out using the MetaCarta API
  • Additional color ramps – Stylize your maps with even more compelling colors

You'll also see information regarding our GeoIQ Enterprise products.  The technology platform that powers GeoCommons is now available as an enterprise solution called GeoIQ. GeoIQ delivers core data management and visualization functionality as well as additional analytic features through the GeoIQ Analytics Engine.  Contact sales@fortiusone.com for more information. 

 
GC-goes-green.jpg    GeoCommons Goes Green Contest

In observance of Earth Day, Wednesday April 22, FortiusOne is kicking off the 'GeoCommons Goes Green' contest to raise awareness of environmental issues and encourage greater participation in global conservation efforts.

Just upload a compelling dataset and make a map pertaining to sustainability, climate change, civic initiatives or any other theme that promotes awareness and education of environmental issues. Tag your dataset and map with the contest tag "GCgreen" and FortiusOne's panel of judges will choose the best dataset/map on May 11th.   Winners will receive the following fabulous prizes:

First Prize:  Planet Earth 5 DVD Set

Second Prize:  National Geographic's Human Footprint DVD

Third Prize: Stickers printed with your Maps!

Join in and help mobilize the GeoCommons Community and beyond in our efforts to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. 


Read more: GeoCommons