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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
Esri will host up to 25 terabytes of orthophotography and LiDAR data for the State
The Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget (DTMB), located in Lansing, Michigan has chosen Esri to host and manage all imagery data for the state. After reviewing a variety of different options, Esri was found to provide the integration platform and framework for managing imagery services that the state required for greater efficiency and collaboration.
The Esri solution will serve up to 25 terabytes of data for the Center for Shared Solutions (CSS), an office within DTMB, that manages services and products that are common to all areas of the government. One of the key functional areas of CSS includes providing leadership, technical expertise and sharing of geographic information in the State. The department provides more than 60 statewide mapping datasets built on the ArcGIS platform for every state-run entity in Michigan.
“We are proud to partner with the State of Michigan to help them empower their staff across multiple departments and partner with other agencies through sharing common authoritative geospatial data,” said Christopher Thomas, Director of Government Markets, Esri. “By hosting and managing imagery services in the Esri cloud, they are able to provide a data resource and shared understanding.”
first published week of: 08/01/2016
Over 60% of the Earth’s surface has not yet been mapped. The ocean covers 70% of our planet’s landmass, and of that, less than 15% of the sea floor has been mapped at a resolution greater than 5 km. In fact, we have higher resolution maps of the entire surface of the Moon, Venus, and Mars than we do of our own Earth. But this situation can be changed. We are in the midst of a Technological Revolution and with the advent of exponential technologies such as 3D printing, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality, we now have smaller and cheaper tools and greater access to information.
Mapping the sea floor has, historically, been a challenge. Seawater is obviously opaque, which prevents us from using visible, remote surveying techniques to get maps of the sea floor. Seawater is a harsh and corrosive medium and, with a viscosity greater than air, it has additional engineering challenges such as high friction resulting in rapid power drain for any device that is used to map the bathymetry underwater. It is also expensive to access because the technology of today requires ships to sail to the area being mapped before the mapping technology is deployed. At an average cost of $60,000 a day, it can easily cost a few hundred thousand dollars before mapping can even begin. continued…
first published week of: 09/19/2016
If you study or work sooner or later you will have to make a PowerPoint presentation. No matter if you work in a mapping industry, you want to present annual results per region in your organization, or you have class project review, the best way to show something that has a spatial component is always a map.
If you need to show some complex phenomena you might need to make your cartographic visualization in a GIS, mapping or graphic software and add it as an image to your slides. If needed you can than draw shapes on the top of the image in PowerPoint. This way you can also add animations on the top of your map background.
But if you need a cool looking map for your slides to show things on a cartogram or same graphics like pie charts, bubble chart or markers on the top of a map the best method is to use one of the templates available online.
These map templates offer various possibilities but also have some limitations. You can change the color of each element (e.g. country, state), do actions like enlarging a country, you can group, ungroup visual elements, add effects like shadows etc. The biggest limitation is that you cannot connect it to any data, which means that you need to edit colors manually.
What is found really interesting is that some of these maps are using SVG or vectors so you can edit them with any vector editing tool and copy back to you slides. continued…
first published week of: 12/05/2016
At TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, Everyware™ introduces the power of 2-Way Marketing Communication.
Everyware’s innovation will take TechCrunch Disrupt 2016 by storm debuting their newest engagement platform September 12-14, at Pier 48 in San Francisco. Their game-changing technology promotes real interactive relationships between businesses and customers. What begins as a simple appointment or reminder, quickly becomes meaningful communication that drives customer service to a new level.
One platform with many solutions, businesses now have access to Everyware’s digital marketing suite of products. A simple dashboard delivers the latest powerful marketing tools to manage marketing, point-of-sale transactions, scheduling appointments, email and SMS campaigns.
For consumers, Everyware will be launching its next-gen mobile app that connects people to places with a unique twist. Powered by Google, the social app delivers personalized location-based content from all the best businesses including local bars, restaurants and everything in between.
Users can find, collect and share all their favorite places with friends, family and co-workers by creating and sharing personalized channels. Instead of consumers relying on Yelp or OpenTable for reviews, Everyware creates a peer-to-peer network of reviews from user’s own social network. The app allows businesses to streamline messaging via push notification with geo-fencing and iBeacon proximity targeting.
Everyware will join some of the country’s most notable disruptive technology companies at TechCrunch Disrupt. continued…
first published week of: 09/12/2016
Google maps have always been the primary source of information regarding locations and mapping online. Since a long time, Google maps have been helping people finding the right track online.
But now the tech monster Google is revived its mapping feature with 3D technology through which one can explore the snowy roads of Himalaya. This is a fun Maps App developed by Google help children exploring the great mountains of Himalayas in 3D. On Wednesday, 3rd August, Google introduced its new 3D mapping app called ‘Verne: The Himalayas.’
‘Verne: The Himalayas’ is a trial game developed by Google which can help the players to changes over the mountain ranges into a play area. In this game, the players will get the chance to explore the Himalayas as a size changing abominable snowman. Throughout the game, the users will get a chance to run over the mountains and do skate on frozen lakes of Himalaya, which is 500 feet tall.
As the game is specifically designed for kids, the prescribed rules and features of are pretty simple. Google used geospatial data collected from its Map to create the game using. continued…
first published week of: 08/15/2016
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to empower the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) with hi-tech spatial technology.
According to sources, Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping is set to be introduced to the city's fire brigade soon. A proposal regarding this state-of-the-art technological intervention in MFB will be tabled before the civic Standing Committee on Friday.
The move is expected to bring in much-needed real-time coordination between firemen and the control room, wherein firemen will have access to live images of the spot and traffic on the way, and calls will be relayed directly to the fire station.
"The objective of this technological intervention is to minimize the aspect of human error in tracking and reporting of such disasters. Before this technology, we (MFB) were completely dependent on telephonic communication to relay any message during emergencies. Thus, a need was felt to allow calls to be connected directly to the fire station concerned," said a senior MFB officer. continued…
first published week of: 08/22/2016