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<< March 2012 >> S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 - PUBLICATIONS
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Thursday, March 15, 2012
URISA’s GISCorps receives the Presidential Volunteer Service Award in 2012
You can see the scanned certificate and the letter from President Obama at the GISCorps site.
Not sure what the award is/is for?
The President's Volunteer Service Award is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service and is administered by the Points of Light Institute.
The award (about page) is generic and recognizes hours of service and inspiring others to serve. More than two million organizational and individual awards have been bestowed.
GISCorps does great things; awards like this are just icing on the cake of service.
- via @Gletham
Update: Add “NOT” - EADS/Astrium “Generally interested” in Acquiring GeoEye or DigitalGlobe
And, just like that a colleague overrides the statement, but not before both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe stock prices jumped!
- Reuters
--- original post 9 am EST ---
Europe’s leading space company, Astrium, is “generally interested” in acquiring one of two U.S. digital imagery providers, GeoEye or DigitalGlobe, and would look carefully at a deal if the price was affordable, a top Astrium executive told Reuters on March 13.
Evert Dudok, chief executive of Astrium Satellites, said the company’s parent, Europe’s EADS, was actively looking for takeover targets in the U.S., and either of the two companies would be a good fit with Astrium, which is ranked No. 3—behind them—in the geospatial information market.
There hasn't been any activity, but the company is looking to expand in the US. Both of the US companies do a lot of work for the US government, so that could be an issue for an overseas buyer. GeoEye has actively sought a buyer in the past, but DigitalGlobe has not made any such activity public, if it has done so.
- Reuters/Aviation Week
New Releases and other Open Source GIS News
OpenGeo Released verison 2.4.5 of the OpenGeo Suite.
- OpenGeo Blog
Ushahidi is now at release 2.2. The group is moving to a monthly release.
- Ushahidi Blog
Want to see the code analysis for GRASS for this month? Who committed most? What languages are used most? What licenses are used most?
- Ohloh
OSGeo announced the release of Proj 4.8.
- OSGeo
Bowling Green Park and Walk Map and other Education GIS News
There a parking crisis on campus at Bowling Green State University in Kentucky. There's limited parking at lots assigned for specific students. Parking services is trying to help by providing a map that shows how long it takes to walk to campus building from various lots.
- BGSU News
The UN Secretary-General has published a report on 'Open access, virtual science libraries, geospatial analysis and other complementary information and communications technology and science, technology, engineering and mathematics assets to address development issues, with particular attention to education.' Executive Summary:
This report provides an overview of how open access, virtual science libraries, and geographic information systems (GIS) could be harnessed to address development challenges, especially in the area of education. It contains recommendations for consideration by national governments and the international community, with a view to encouraging and expanding further development and adoption of these ICT assets.
- document (pdf) via +ScottMcQuaid
Justin Holman ranked (but did not map) what he considers the top graudate geography programs in the U.S. Go State.
- Geographical Perspectives Blog via @gletham
Virtual Australia and New Zealand and other International GIS News
Australia and New Zealand
VANZI, the Virtual Australia & New Zealand Initiative, has been summoned into existence by the Co-Operative Research Centre for Spatial Information, the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing, the Australian Logistics Council, the Municipal Association of Victoria and National ICT Australia (NICTA).
The new company's mission is to work with owners of spatial data to devise a way they can all share it more effectively and widely online.
It sounds a lot like Virtual USA based on Virtual Alabama. But it's not a fully governmental effort and its a bit crowdsourcy:
VANZI envisages individuals will create data about their own properties and Haines believes Apps will emerge to help individuals do so. He also hopes that over time a 3D model of every building in Australia and New Zealand will reach a database somewhere.
But VANZI won't host that database or provide an online service to access 3D models. Instead, the organisation is working on legal and technology frameworks to allow the sharing of 3D data and foresees a role for itself analogous to the bodies that facilitate transactions between banks so that creators of 3D data can share it among trusted and authorised partners.
The vision is to be tested late in 2012 in the Australian Captial Territory (ACT) before trying to roll it out futher.
- The Guardian
Africa
Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) organizes "community mapping" projects in central Africa's Congo Basin. The goal is to mark land ownership for semi-nomadic peoples so governments won't give the land away to natural resource companies.
RFUK's "Mapping for Rights" program trains forest people to map their land using GPS devices, marking the areas they use for activities such as hunting and fishing -- as well as their sacred sites -- and the routes they use to access these vital areas.
The GPS information is used to create a definitive map of the land used by these semi-nomadic communities, which can be used to challenge decisions that see them excluded from areas of forest.
- CNN Newswire
France
The Guaridan reports the French are going open data - at least a bit.
The open data movement has hit France with a bang and Data-Publica is a fantastic data-driven resource to all things French. Its data journalism section recently posted this: a guide to every French publicly-owned building.
- The Guardian
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