Planet GeoSpatial

Got an email today from someone with a data collection/coordination/assembly problem. They have multiple people out in the field with Garmin GPS units recording data, and bringing it back to a central location for collation/combination when they’re done. Since Garmin GPS units have limited capabilities for data storage – coordinates, name, comment, date and time, [...] Related posts:

1. Converting Point Shapefiles To Text/Spreadsheet Format
2. Version 2.0 Of Google's Online KML Spreadsheet Mapper Tool Released
3. Thematic Mapping Engine API For Displaying Your Own Data In Google Earth

Media and analysts had a chance to sit down with Ola Rollén, CEO of Hexagon, at lunch today at the Intergraph 2010 conference. Rollén was very forthcoming regarding the company strategy and vision for what a model that is integrated with sensors might look like. When asked about interests in the agriculture market, Rollén shared [...]

The Global Software Institute announces that their Open Dragon software, a variant of Goldin-Rudahl’s Dragon/ips software for aerial/satellite imagery analysis, is now freely available for non-commercial use, and the Java source code will be released as open source sometime in the near future. From their press release: OpenDragon offers a full suite of image analysis [...] Related posts:

1. AVHRR Analysis Add-On For ILWIS
2. The Big List Of Satellite/Aerial Imagery Analysis Software III – N Through R
3. More Free Mac GIS Programs

The International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) has just released the Nutrient Use Geographic Information System (NuGIS) with a county-by-county picture of nutrient removal by crops, fertilizer applied, and manure nutrients in the soil. NuGIS provides a picture of the nutrient balance as well as temporal trends over the past 20 years. “IPNI sees on-going assessment [...]

 GIS Stack Exchange is Open to All - New! A place where you can post a question and get fast answers. Wiki cross Digg approach. Using Tags and forum based content.Any 'geo' question What kind...

Map and GIS News finding blog. With so many Maps and GIS sites online now it is hard to find the good from the not so good. This blog tries to cut the cream and provide you with the newest, fastest, cleanest and most user friendly maps that are available online. News has location and it is mapped.

I’ve been using the website of my local National Doppler Radar Station for years now to monitor the animated radar precipitation loop, but I just noticed that there are a pair of links labeled KML and GIS Users. The KML link takes you to a page where you can select and generate a KML/KMZ link [...] Related posts:

1. Google Earth Gets Live Weather, Sort Of
2. Calculate New Coordinate Position From Current Position, Bearing And Distance
3. National Geodetic Survey Marker Positions And Info In Google Earth

Twelve years ago, when I first attended the ESRI/UC, I was surprised to see Jack Dangermond greeting each and every entrant to the kick-off party at the Marriott Hotel, welcoming them to the evening’s festivities with a warm smile and greeting, standing solo in the doorway. The event has grown far to large for this [...]

For those of you who read my blog, by now I’m sure you are all too aware of SQL Server 2008’s spatial capabilities. If you’re not up to speed with the spatial data support in SQL Server 2008, I suggest you read up on it via the SQL Server site. Now, with the adoption of spatial into SQL Server 2008 there are a lot of questions around Bing Maps rendering support. Since we are one Microsoft I’m sure you heard the announcement of SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services natively supporting Bing Maps. Okay, so let’s complete the cycle. Now, I want more than just Reporting Services – I want access to all those spatial methods natively built into SQL Server 2008. I want to access the geography and geometry spatial data types for rendering on to the Bing Maps Silverlight Control. Enter, the Data Connector. OnTerra has created an simple, open source way to complete the full cycle of importing data into SQL Server 2008 and rendering onto Bing Maps as point, lines and polygons. Data Connector is available now on CodePlex, so go get it.

 

Do you know what this means??? It means with only a few configurations (and basically no coding) you can pull all of your wonderful geo-data out of SQL Server 2008 and render it onto Bing Maps Platform! You get to tweak the functions for colors and all that jazz; but, holy smokes this will save you a bunch of time in development. Okay, so using SQL Server 2008 as your database for normal data, also gets you free spatial support and now you have a simple way to visualize and visually analyze all of the information coming out of the database. Did you know that SQL Server 2008 Express (you know, the free desktop version of SQL Server 2008) has spatial support. Did you know that we launched SQL Server 2008 into Windows Azure calling it SQL Azure? So, if you’re moving to the cloud out of the server farm you have access to all the spatial methods in SQL Server 2008 from the Windows Azure cloud. Any way you want to slice and dice the data we have you covered – desktop, server, cloud; and, Bing Maps with the Data Connector is now ready to easily bring all the SQL Server 2008 data to life without any other software, webware or middleware needed!

Oh, and we have a HUGE Bing Maps booth at the ESRI User Conference going on RIGHT NOW in San Diego. If you’re there, stop by and chat it up with some of the Bing Maps boys. Wish I was there. Also, a reminder that Bing Maps (and OnTerra) are at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, so if you’re there stop by and talk shop with them too.

Here are some helpful links:

• Data Connector
• Getting Started with the Data Connector
• SQL Server 2008 Spatial
• SQL Server 2008 Express (w/ spatial)
• SQL Azure
• Bing Maps Platform

Follow me @BingMaps, ^CP

Richard Saul Wurman gave the keynote address at today’s ESRI International User Conference in San Diego. Wurman is an author of 83 books, a trained architect and urban planner, and the founder of the TED Conference. His address focused on his 19.20.21 campaign, which highlights the increasing urbanization of our planet, with 19 cities of [...]

The W.M. Keck Earth Sciences & Mining Research Center just updated their Web presence with a new interactive map that serves as the Nevada Geospatial Gateway. The new site was unveiled at last week’s Nevada Geographic Information Society (NGIS) Conference in Las Vegas. The site uses the USGS 24K quadrangle index that users clicking on a [...]