Podcast: GIS Interpreters: Helping GIS Software Developers and Domain Experts Speak the Same Language | March 16
By Adena Schutzberg
How much does a domain expert, such as a forester, need to know about GIS software and programming to communicate with a software develop who will build a useable app? How do those experts who use GIS in planning, medical care, and agriculture learn to communicate with programmers? And, how do programmers, especially those new to GIS, learn about its

Cities Vying for Google Fiber | March 15
By Joe Francica
The race is on for a few select cities vying for Google Fiber, the company's initiative to place high speed broadband access to a few cities in the U.S. According to Google:

"We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster

Coverage of MAPPS Visit to the Hill: Maps and Cartoons | March 15
By Adena Schutzberg
The Hill blog covers MAPPS' visit to the capitol last week. Besides making fun of its name, here's the money quote: Steve Phipps, director of federal programs for Woolpert, a geospatial company in Ohio, told me that there's a misconception that Google Maps is sufficient for engineering uses. "Google maps is really inaccurate," he said. "You can't do engineering with that. It's

Embed Bing Twitter Map on Your Website | March 15
By Adena Schutzberg
The Bing Maps team has announced that you can now embed its Twitter Maps app into your site to show selected tweets and/or selected geographies. Select: Choose either a fixed location (centered on a specific point) or open the experience more broadly (moves the map as the Tweets come in). Specify: Select the dimensions of your map (height and width). Add: Enable search

Canada's Cell-Loc Hits the Skids | March 15
By Adena Schutzberg
The company, officially, Cell-Loc Location Technologies Inc. of Calgary, was founded in 1995 to break into the E-911 business. It's now in the wireless fleet tracking business. But, with 2008 funds of just $900,000 from private placements that still need to be paid back, losses for a few year, a deal with Samsung going south, and the company announcing layoffs

Where is ESRI's Dangermond on Forbes Billionaire List this Year? | March 11
By Adena Schutzberg
488 - Forbes - Map

What We Search for When Using Local Searches | March 11
By Adena Schutzberg
Per TeleNav's study of searches in Dec 2009: An analysis of searches conducted by TeleNav users in December 2009 indicated that Wal-Mart topped the list as the number one U.S. business TeleNav customers sought out while using their GPS service. Starbucks took a close second, proving Americans' obsession with morning lattes and mochaccinos is still quite strong. Two more large retailers,

Update: Crossing the Border Safely, With LBS | March 11
By Adena Schutzberg
Update: A California Congressman, five months after the app popped up, is questioning if this is appropriate use of technology and of tax funds, as the developers hail from public universities in California and Michigan. “I don’t think it’s an appropriate use of technology,” U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told FoxNews.com. “If other governments did this and tried to tell people

Motorola to Put Bing Search and Maps on its Android Phones | March 11
By Adena Schutzberg
"Motorola said the partnership with Microsoft means that a Bing bookmark and search widget will be loaded on cell phones, starting in the coming weeks with phones in China." The move appears to be defensive: If Google and China don't hammer out their differences, Google could pull out of China, leaving Android phones without loaded search and map tools. Motorola had

LBS Tidbits | March 10
By Adena Schutzberg
WHERE, the LBS platform for ULocate now has an advertising component, WHERE Ads. - VentureBeat Junaio 2.0 is launching at SXSW this week. The big news for augmented reality platform? It works indoors using GPS and compass-based geo-information. And, junaio announced a partnership with BART, the Bay Area, SF transit system. It'll use augmented reality to integrate station locations and estimated

Google Tidbits | March 10
By Adena Schutzberg
Google has hinted about adding bike directions to Google Maps and now it's here. The beta app was announced at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. Google sent a note to journalists about the desktop only, USA only tool. A mobile version is in the works. In addition to providing thousands of miles of bike trails directly onto maps,

Microsoft, The Cloud and Local Government | March 10
By Adena Schutzberg
In November of 2009, Microsoft launched a contest for developers to build on a beta of Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure. Last month the winners were announced and they were heavy on Web maps. Miami’s 311 System, a citizen info and reporting tool, won with iLink GIS Framework , a data sharing solution, as a runner up. Steve Read,

Podcast: An Interview with Brady Forrest, O'Reilly Media on Where 2.0 | March 10
By Joe Francica
Foursquare vs. Gowalla? How about Bing Maps vs. Google Maps? Brady Forrest of O'Reilly Media and chairperson of the Where 2.0 Conference shares his views on some of the more popular web-based mapping platforms and social networks that are "location-aware." In this conversation with Editor in Chief Joe Francica, Forrest also discusses the popularity of the conference and its objective

Layar Back - with Foursquare Integration and "Data Layer" Store | March 9
By Adena Schutzberg
Apprently Layar removed its augmented reality app from the Apple App Store due to crashes. Well now it's back in the store, with a few twists. Now there's a layer of data showing Foursquare locations and yes, if you link the app to your Foursquare account you can check in right from Layar. More interesting to me is that Layar will soon

Podcast: Platial Shuts Down while Microsoft Opts in to User Generated Location Data from Navizon | March 9
By Adena Schutzberg
This week we look at two news items connected at least superficially by reliance on crowdsourced geospatial data. Platial, one of the early players to offer a simple way to customize Google Maps, announced it was ceasing operations. Microsoft announced a contract with Navizon, a company that crowdsources the data collection of Wi-Fi access points. Why did small but clever

Update: Wanted: Geo/GIS Pro Who Uses Social Location Apps | March 6
By Adena Schutzberg
I had a great chat with a geospatial professional this week on his use of location-based social media. What I'd like to do is collect a few more such chats (or e-mail interviews) to put together a podcast on this topic. I think the insights of our geosavvy community about this consumer/social technology is valuable to those developing it and

Microsoft Breathless About Latest, Largest Imagery Update to Bing | March 5
By Adena Schutzberg
Our MS PR contact e-mailed to tell us about Chris Pendleton's blog post. Interestingly, MS didn't e-mail us about the Navizon deal noted earlier this week. Last month we pushed out our largest amount of new imagery EVER in terms of square kilometers. This month, we’re blowing THAT record out of the water. You thought 1 million+ sq. km.

Quote of the Week | March 4
By Adena Schutzberg
"Briggs will discuss how 40 years ago, a person needed a Ph.D. to do what anybody can now do with Google Map and Google Earth." - Description of a 40@40 lecture to be held at UT Dallas by Rob Briggs on March 8.

Microsoft Selects Crowdsourced Wi-Fi Database From Navizon | March 3
By Adena Schutzberg
Navizon Inc., (formerly Mexens Technology) signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft, which will use Navizon's global location database for geolocation. Navizon offers a software-only hybrid wireless positioning system that "triangulat[es] signals broadcasted from Wi-Fi access points and cellular towers." Yes, like Skyhook's. The big difference is that Navizon has its users continuously update the database (and collect points for

LBS Tibits | March 2
By Adena Schutzberg
BrightKite is working on a location solution that will publish your location to several social networks at once (Foursquare, Gowalla...) Yes, this sounds like what Fire Eagle was supposed to do; it's not been heard from much of late. - ReadWriteWeb Many are concerned that Yelp is "monkeying around" with reviews and that may do harm to location-based advertising in general.

Google Tidbits | March 2
By Adena Schutzberg
This week is Cebit, the huge tech show in Hanover, Germany. While smaller than last year in terms of companies attending, a few new players have stepped in including Google and Amazon. Google is introducing its StreetView, which has yet to rollout in Germany. Google will peddle its Street View service, which hasn't been launched in Germany because of privacy concerns.

Podcast: Congress' Location Privacy Hearing | March 2
By Adena Schutzberg
Last week the Congressional Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection and the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a joint hearing titled, "The Collection and Use of Location Information for Commercial Purposes." Our editors examine the issues raised in testimony and in comments by interested stakeholders. Among them: Is location privacy akin to medical record privacy? What

Map Analysis: Android Filling AT&T Holes on the Map | March 1
By Adena Schutzberg
Myxer sells ringtones and puts out maps of which types of phones are purchasing its goods: iPhones or Android phones. The January report (pdf) notes states where Adroid outsells iPhone. VentureBeat offers up an analysis as to why midwest states tend to be more Android heavy: weak AT&T 3G coverage. - VentureBeat

CBC's Spark on LBS, Social Media | March 1
By Adena Schutzberg
Spark is the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) radio show/podcast about technology and culture. This week it looks at among other things, location sharing apps (Foursquare) and privacy. There's an interview with one of the fellows behind PleaseRobMe.com and a happy user of Foursquare. The discussion about personal brands and the new definition of "friends" is also very informative. via @jgombita

Webinno 25 Tonight, Free, in Cambridge | March 1
By Adena Schutzberg
I am so bummed I can't attend this event tonight at the Royal Sonesta Cambridge, 40 Edwin H Land Blvd., Cambridge, MA 02142 from 6:30-9pm. The folks from Geolenz will be showing their app. There's also an interesting list of other participating players related to geo: "In recognition of March as Mass Mobile Month (#massmobmonth), one of our Main Dish