V1 Newsletter-Vol. 3, Issue 41

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Newsletter

Written by Vector1Media Tuesday, 13 October 2009 00:00

Newsletter-Archive-V1 Newsletter-Vol. 3-Issue 41

Volume 3 / Issue 41/ October 20, 2009

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PERSPECTIVES

Does geospatial data want to be free?

"The latest round of Google Maps innovation, with map updates that mirror the crowdsourced data approach of OpenStreetMaps (OSM), as well as the addition of parcels (a typically high-priced data set) has many data providers worried about their livelihood. The larger question here, beyond just Google’s moves, is whether online geospatial data want to be free." -- Matt Ball is editor for V1 Magazine and V1 Energy Magazine for the Americas / Asia Pacific and is based in Denver, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

TOP FIVE LINKS OF THE WEEK

Jeff's Top Five Links of the Week

Virtual Environmental Planning - interactive, 3D web applications to help people understand proposed planning developments and share their views about them online.
Congress for the New Urbanism - making urbanism legal again.
EURAGRI - forum for informal exchange, on developments in science, society and industry, especially on the programming and execution and planning of food and agricultural research.
Cyburbia - the planning community.
MLTM - Ministry of Land, Transport and Marine Affairs for Korea

Matt's Top Five Links of the Week

Landscape Values Institute -- advancing the knowledge about values and special places for land use planning.
EcoFinder for iPhone - An application that help you find where to recycle in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Planet Change -- a site developed by The Nature Conservancy to promote a global solution to climate change.
Twitter Earthquake Detector -- An application of social media to detect recent earthquakes.
Try Open Source geospatial applications from a web browser.

Reader´s Links of the Week

Submit suggested links to anything you would like to recommend that fellow readers do, see or read via e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text17529 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //-->\n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Asia GIS - Asia GIS Association
Agència d'Ecologia Urbana de Barcelona (Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona)

REVIEW

Geo-Communication and Information Design

Lars Brodersen has written a book that describes what geocomunucation means and what it involves. In his view, geocommunication is much different than cartography alone. It includes a wealth of information pertaining to a location and seeks to intimately involve the sender and user into a dialogue of understanding that involves technology, conceptual models and basic common sense factors. This book has particular value to geodata and geospatial information users today due to the fact that it supports integrative knowledge and and the convergence of thought and technology toward better spatial understanding.

EVENT COVERAGE

Be Inspired Event Highlights Top Bentley Practitioners

Bentley held its annual infrastructure best practices and awards ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina from Oct. 12-14. This year’s invite-only Be Inspired seminar and awards event highlighted the best work of Bentley software customers from 6 continents and 21 countries in disciplines ranging from the design of bridges, buildings and plants to cadastre and land development, communications, transportation, mining and metals and water and wastewater.

Workshop UK - Putting Complexity to Work - Supporting the Practitioners

This topic was addressed in a workshop called “Putting complexity to work – supporting the Practitioners” organised by The abaci Partnership on 24 September 2009 as part of the European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS 2009) held at the University of Warwick, UK. The Workshop explored novel approaches for dealing with the complex spatial realities that practitioners face in their day-to-day work.


INTERVIEWS

Open Land Data Ensures Transparency

The non-profit California First Amendment Coalition (CFAC) sued the county of Santa Clara, California in 2006 over the fees they charge for their GIS parcel basemap data. The long battle ended a few months ago, with the court ruling that the county has to end their high fees for data, and pay attorney fees of $500K. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Bruce Joffe, of GIS Consultants in Oakland, Calif., a key advisor to the Coalition.

GlobalSoilMap: Mapping the World's Soil

Global Soil Map The world's soils are an important resource. Mapping them enables scientists and food producers as well as land managers with the opportunity to maximize production while ensuring sustainbility and meeting conservation goals. A practical first step to achieving this goal involves an inventory of the global soil resources. V1 Magazine editor Jeff Thurston interviewed Bob Macmillan, scientific advisor to GlobalSoilMap, an international initiative involving many organisations and individuals around the world who are attempting to complete this work.