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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
Maps are incredible tools that have evolved over the ages as society has made technological leaps and bounds to arrive at today’s modern cartographic standards. One of the oldest maps still in existence is the Babylonian World Map carved into a stone tablet. The tablet dates to around 600 B.C. Another attempt at mapping the Earth we have evidence of is the Roman scroll map. At just under a foot high and over 22 feet long, it is hardly an accurate map.
Ptolemy was a Roman who made great strides in developing some of the first geographic methods. Ptolemy is credited with creating latitude and longitude, using his method to plot over 8,000 known location in the Roman empire on different maps of his time. He was one of the first cartographers to worry about geographical accuracy not only in places relative location to each other but also to the stars, taking into account Earth’s spheroid shape and creating some of the earliest attempts at geographic projections. From Ptolemy’s initial geographic endeavours, we can see a non-linear evolution since then, with T-O maps, Micronesian Stick Charts , and many other unique chapters along the way to today’s modern satellite-based mapping.
Read full story at Geomatics Canada…
first published week of: 03/15/2021
Maps help visualize patterns and trends in your spreadsheet data. Your first step is to add the spreadsheet to ArcGIS Online and publish it as a hosted feature layer. Here’s how.
Why add spreadsheet data to ArcGIS Online?’ Maybe not a typical question from a 9-year-old. But my nephew, Gio, wanted to know. He recently learned about spreadsheets in school. For homework, he was creating a spreadsheet of trees in his neighborhood. I told him I used spreadsheets to make maps.
Tree data comes alive in 3D web apps. Learn how to make this app.
‘Maps are more interesting than spreadsheets. They have pictures instead of rows and columns of numbers and words.’ Exactly.
Maps help you discover patterns and trends in your data because they display the data visually. For example, with Gio’s tree data, we could create 3D visualizations of the trees based on their height, species, or condition. The map could help urban planners see the tree conditions and make informed decisions about how to manage the trees.
Read full story at Esri…
first published week of: 10/25/2021
Airborne International Response Team (AIRT), the leading 501(c)3 organization supporting Drones For Good™ for emergencies and disaster response announces their participation in Esri’s Partner Network Program. … AIRT is also home to DRONRESPONDERS – the world’s fastest-growing non-profit program supporting the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and related technologies by public safety and emergency services agencies.
The announcement was made during Drones: Taking Stock of a Growing National Capability presented at the InSPIRE Innovation Summit for Preparedness and Resilience, hosted by the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation. The NAPSG Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization formed in 2005 to overcome challenges faced by Federal, tribal, state, and local public safety agencies. Esri is a platinum-level sponsor of InSPIRE.
As an Esri Partner, AIRT will receive access to wide array of geographic information system (GIS) tools, software, and support to better enable AIRT drone teams to prepare for and respond to complex incidents such as hurricanes and wildfires. Esri will also provide ArcGIS resources to help DRONERESPONDERS enhance support for public safety drone programs around the globe.
Read full story at UASweekly.com,…
first published week of: 04/12/2021
“I am very excited about this move to one of the most innovative companies globally and can’t wait to start making an impact on a global scale,” Shital Dhakal told Techwire.
Shital Dhakal, an IT professional with deep experience in geographic information systems (GIS) management, business, strategy, governance and innovation, has been named senior program manager for geospatial data by Amazon.
Dhakal, a Sacramento resident, joins Amazon from the city of Vallejo, where he was a GIS specialist. Dhakal has worked in both the private and public sectors, with his previous government service including being a consultant GIS coordinator for the city of Pittsburg, Calif.…
…In addition, Dhakal serves as chair of the Solano Regional GIS Consortium (Solano ReGIS), a cooperative of 15 local government agencies and a federal agency within Solano County that are working together to share spatial data, pool resources, and provide GIS expertise to its members.
Read full story at techwire…
first published week of: 11/22/2021
New Apple Maps update to bring Waze-like user reporting to the platform for accidents, hazards and cameras
Apple Maps is introducing an incident reporting function with iOS 14.5 this week. This will allow users to report accidents, hazards or speed cameras as they encounter them. For everyone else, it means more accurate travel information – yet another reason to use it over Google Maps.
Waze, which has been Google-owned since 2013, promotes its community nature that delivers the latest traffic data to optimize your journey. Users can report incidents, map inaccuracies, even potholes and gas prices. Google Maps has also offered a reporting function to Android and iPhone users (though currently unavailable on iPhone).
Read full story at T3…
first published week of: 05/03/2021
Adoption of the standard is a foundational step for new business opportunity and voice-first interface design.
Apple Maps is essential to future innovation, from autonomous vehicles to AR experiences, so it's noteworthy that Apple’s own Indoor Mapping Data Format (IMDF) has been adopted as a community standard for indoor positioning services.What is IMDF?
IMDF has been accepted as a community standard by the Open Geospatial Consortium in response to proposals from a cross-industry group that includes Apple, Google, Autodesk, and Ordnance Survey.
It enables a venue, organization or industry to create fully customized indoor maps using industry-standard tools. The maps use existing Wi-Fi networks to enable GPS-level location accuracy so visitors can navigate interior spaces using their device.
Read full story at ComputerWorld…
first published week of: 03/29/2021