Initial launch of 4,425 satellites to be followed by 7,518 closer to the ground.
SpaceX today received US approval to deploy 7,518 broadband satellites, in addition to the 4,425 satellites that were approved eight months ago.
The Federal Communications Commission voted to let SpaceX launch 4,425 low-Earth orbit satellites in March of this year. SpaceX separately sought approval for 7,518 satellites operating even closer to the ground, saying that these will boost capacity and reduce latency in heavily populated areas. That amounts to 11,943 satellites in total for SpaceX's Starlink broadband service.
SpaceX "proposes to add a very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) NGSO [non-geostationary satellite orbit] constellation, consisting of 7,518 satellites operating at altitudes from 335km to 346km," the FCC said in the draft of the order that it approved unanimously today. The newly approved satellites would use frequencies between 37.5 and 42GHz for space-to-Earth transmissions and frequencies between 47.2 and 51.4GHz for Earth-to-space transmissions, the FCC said.
"After review of the record, we conclude that granting of the SpaceX application will serve the public interest," subject to conditions related to power levels, avoidance of interference with other systems, and prevention of space debris, the FCC said.
Read full story at arsTechnica…
first published week of: 11/19/2018
With more than 40 percent of traffic to federal websites coming from mobile users, agencies must ensure their citizen-facing mobile websites are as friendly as the desktop versions. The Connected Government Act, signed by President Donald Trump in January, codifies existing governmentwide guidance, but it also has a schedule to push agencies to adopt mobile-friendly design practices.
The first deadlines are approaching. By about July 4, new federal websites must be mobile friendly, meaning they must load quickly, offer mobile-optimized navigation and supply the same basic services as a desktop site.
The General Services Administration is helping agencies meet the Connected Government Act's mobile-friendly requirements. Technology Transformation Service's Mobile Program Management Office Director Jacob Parcelll is leading a team charged the effort, which includes people at TTS and elsewhere inside GSA.
Read full story at GCN…
first published week of: 03/05/2018
Some government funding assigned to help plan for the future has been awarded to a number of local municipalities. The Ministry of Infrastructure and Communities has annonunced over $12.1 million in funding for 159 new initiatives in communities across Canada through three programs. They include the Green Municipal Fund, the Municipalities for Climate Innovation Program and the Municipal Asset Management Program.
Locally, Laurentian Valley and Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards townships have been awarded $50,000 each their asset management roadmaps.
Read full story at renfrewtoday.ca…
first published week of: 08/20/2018
The fatal 2007 I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. UAB civil engineer Nassim Udin calls the increasing chances this could happen again "absolutely unacceptable."
( Tony Webster)
The fatal 2007 I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. UAB civil engineer Nassim Udin calls the increasing chances this could happen again "absolutely unacceptable."
Many of Alabama’s bridges are in bad shape. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are about 16,000 structurally deficient bridges in Alabama. It’s a problem here and across the country. Many of the bridges are just old, and many were built when traffic and cars were lighter. But inspecting bridges takes time, skill and money. Now, a University of Alabama at Birmingham engineering professor is using a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a solution using drones.
Practicalities
It takes a long time to inspect any good-sized bridge, and there aren’t enough specialists or budget dollars to do them all. UAB engineering professor Nassim Uddin says that’s dangerous.
“We see a number of collapse of bridges recently, in Minneapolis, in Washington and so forth.”
Uddin says inspections become trickier and are required more frequently as bridges age. But he thinks drones could help.
“That was the challenge,” he says. “How can we use cheaper, very light sensors [to] give you a similar level of precision?”
Read full story at WBHM…
first published week of: 02/19/2018
On the first episode of StateScoop’s new “GIS Addressed” podcast, Oregon Geospatial Information Officer Cy Smith says the role is key to ensuring geographic information system success.
For geospatial information systems leaders in state government, efficiency and empowerment in decision-making is key.
For Cy Smith, Oregon’s geospatial information officer, that authority came from the state CIO and was codified in 2017, after more than a decade of Smith constantly going to the state CIO for approval on projects and decisions.
“Every time I turned around, I had to go back to the state CIO — to my boss — and say ‘OK, will you sign off on this?” Smith says on the first episode of GIS Addressed — a new podcast from StateScoop and the National States Geographic Information Council.
That approval process led Smith to ask the CIO for decision-making authority around geospatial information systems in the state.
Read full story at State Scoop…
first published week of: 07/09/2018
( Erik Solheim/erikso.com)
FTC warns companies to stop voiding warranties for unauthorized repairs.
It's common for manufacturers of cars, video game consoles, and other products to insist that consumers will void their warranty if they use unauthorized repair services or unauthorized third-party parts. Some even insist that you'll void the warranty if you break the "warranty seal."
These policies are illegal, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
On Tuesday, the agency announced it had sent warning letters to six companies for violating a 1975 law governing manufacturer warranties.
Who does the FTC have in mind? The agency doesn't name the six companies that were targeted in this enforcement action, so we don't know for sure. But the FTC does provide examples of warranty terms that violate the rules, and with a little Googling it's easy to figure out likely suspects:
These exact phrases, with names of companies redacted, are provided as examples in the FTC's release.
Read full story at arsTechnica…
first published week of: 04/16/2018
Government rarely gets credit for the tremendous range of innovation it drives. But as the winners of our 2018 Government Innovation Awards make clear, amazing things are happening at all levels of the public sector.
The 36 Public Sector Innovations below include everything from AI-powered mission enablers to cloud-based reinvention to cybersecurity workforce development. In some cases, the technology itself is transformative, while in others creative use of readily available tools is the game-changer. All, however, show how IT and innovation can dramatically improve government.
And while these examples are impressive enough on their own, they're just one part of our larger Government Innovation Awards program.
Read full story at GCN…
first published week of: 10/01/2018
Bill might "inadvertently hinder" cyber defenses, return in new form.
A bill passed by Georgia’s legislature that would have criminalized unauthorized access of computer systems and allowed companies to “hack back” in defense against breaches was vetoed on May 8 by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal.
The veto came after many weeks of opposition from information security firms and professionals, as well as major technology companies—including Google and Microsoft executives, who expressed concern that the bill would actually make it more difficult to secure computer systems.
Read full story at CyberParse…
first published week of: 05/14/2018
This map of the Sierra Vista Trail was created by the BLM Las Cruces District GIS staff for a brochure of the Dripping Springs Natural Area.
( BLM
With 5.4 million acres of public land and 7 million acres of federal mineral estate in southern New Mexico, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the steward of some important and critical natural resources in Doña Ana, Otero, Luna, Hidalgo, Sierra and Grant Counties. The work the BLM does to carry out its multiple-use mission involves some of the best specialists who are dedicated to managing and sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of public lands.
A critical tool in managing the BLM resources is the geographic information system (GIS), which the agency has developed over the years. This system integrates technology with geography to describe the physical space where these resources occur. The more spatial data that is collected and digitized, the more layers of resource information the BLM specialists can use to make informed decisions for the land and resources they manage.
The resource programs GIS supports include BLM’s rangeland, biological, watershed, land, realty, mineral, fire, cultural, recreation, operations and engineering. The BLM GIS specialists work with biologists, outdoor recreation planners, realty specialists – just to name a few – to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and maintain data sets, such as public land acreage, boundaries, special designations and other geographic data specific to their discipline.
Read full story at Las Cruces Sun News…
first published week of: 06/04/2018
As government agencies become more comfortable with cloud computing, industry analysts project the global market for government cloud services will reach $49.2 billion by 2023, growing at a compound annual rate of 15.4 percent between now and then.
Public cloud deployments will be the leading platform choice, and software-as-a-service offerings are expected to see the highest revenue growth because governments gave been attracted by the low cost of ownership and the pay-as-you-go model, according to a new report from P&S Market Research. Government IT executives see cloud as a way to help them adapt to changes with less trouble and expense, one of the major drivers of the government cloud market.
Agencies have been adopting cloud for storage, disaster recovery, identity access management, risk compliance management and other applications. For the forecast period, the largest growth is projected for disaster recovery and IAM applications with governments turning to cloud solutions to prevent transaction and data losses from disasters and vulnerabilities in authentication procedures. Government defense, education and insurance agencies have been the early adopters of cloud computing, blazing a trail for other departments to follow in near future, the report said.
Read full story at https://goo.gl/Rfeimy…
first published week of: 04/02/2018