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28th
January 2008 VOL 4 Issue 4 |
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Top Stories |
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If you were up to no good in the London open air last winter, start working up excuses: you might be on the web. This week, a company launches an online map of central London which includes aerial photography at four times the resolution of existing online maps: the equivalent of looking down from the 10th floor. Plans to add high-res images and data including ages to a commerical online database are causing concern. The map, from 192.com, publishes aerial photography at a resolution of 4cm for London and 12.5cm for the rest of the UK. In the right conditions, images at this resolution are enough to identify individuals - a step that existing online mapping ventures such as Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth have so far been careful to avoid.
Alastair Crawford, 192's chief executive, makes no apologies for the possibilities: "We're considering holding a competition. We want to challenge people to find out how much naughty stuff is happening. If you're having an affair in London, you'd better be careful!"
The mapping venture is likely to heat up the debate about the extent to which information about individuals is available on the web - especially as 192.com, which specialises in providing data about individuals gleaned from official sources has announced plans to attach estimated ages to every person in its database of 27 million Britons.
The prospect is likely to alarm privacy campaigners. Dr David Wood, of the Surveillance Studies Network at Newcastle University, says he is worried by the power of such systems. "When you combine detailed mapping with demographic data, consumer data and particularly things like credit ratings, you end up with very powerful tools." Crawford says he is simply presenting data that is already available, often in a less secure setting than through his website.
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A Windsor Map Company is on a quest to create some of the most detailed views ever of the landscape that produces some of the finest wines in the nation. Teaming with vineyard owners around Sonoma County, California, The Map Store has unveiled a powerful new Internet mapping tool it hopes will revolutionize the way people share information about the local wine industry. "No other wine region in the world has anything like this," said Jordan Thomas, project manager for The Map Store. Hundreds of grape growers got their first peek at the project at the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission's Dollars and $ense trade show at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts.
The commission is helping fund the development of the Web site, winemap.org. The online maps will help growers market their grapes while making it easier for wine drinkers to learn more about the origins of the grapes that went into their favorite vintages. What makes the Web-based tool unique is that grape growers are being asked to upload information about their farming operations to help make the maps the most detailed ever produced.
For growers, the key benefit of the maps will be to help them market their grapes, Frey said. Growers will be able to submit detailed information about their vineyard operations, including acreage, slope, varietals and type of vine clones planted. When growers find themselves looking for buyers for their grapes, the hope is the maps will create an exciting virtual grape marketplace. On a lighter vein - let us pray that none discover virtual wine...
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Image of the Week |
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The harbinger of an Ice Age???
For additional information Click here
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Audiocast |
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News Cast
By Hrishikesh
Samant
This News Cast is 20.30 minutes long and contains news
and discussions on the happenings in the geospatial domain.
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LAUNCH PAD |
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Vacancies in Qatar Petroleum - GIS Technician and GIS Analyst.
Check it out :
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| Editorial |
Do we need a 'geospatial nanny' ?
This week's top story - '...privacy fears..' - aerial photographs
covering parts of London with a resolution of 4 cm have been published
on the web and the service provider will also add age data...It is as
sensational as any piece of news can get - but I wonder how this will
really be achieved. A human face may be recognisable at such high
resolutions but how does anyone go about tagging the individual with
his/her name, age etc on an aerial photograph? This is at best a
futuristic scenario - where every citizen of London city would
necessarily have a RFID implant and everyone's exactly location would be
monitored at every instant - Only then, if an aerial photograph or scan
was obtained and the exact time of this data acquisition married with
the 'personal location' would it be possible to positively identify the
human in the photograph. The question is - why go to such lengths? The
fifty thousand or so surveillance cameras watching London today are
anyways doing an 'excellent' job. So the www.192.com challenge of
'finding how much naughty stuff is happening' is a possibly a publicity
stunt to highlight their 'Search for people- businesses -maps' tag line.
Google Earth is facing flak from South Korea for magnanimously gifting
territories under its domain to North Korea... and the earlier faux pas
of labeling Seoul - 'Korea under Japanese rule' cannot be forgiven.
The above 'happenings' could justify some countries like China's State
Bureau of Surveying and Mapping working on - 'Suggestions on Increasing
the Supervision and Management of Mapping and Geographical Information
Websites'. If lack of self regulation and censorship are causing privacy
or ownership issues, then a 'geospatial net nanny' may be required.
 Dr.
Hrishikesh Samant
hrishikesh@gisdevelopment.net
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PIT STOP
UAE GPS map
Aimen Ahmed from KEO International Consultants need information about the availability of a UAE GPS map for his Blackberry 8800. You can write to him at aimena@keoic.com or contact him at:
Mobile: 050-7829300-050-8153196, Office: 02-8773122, Fax: 02-8773140, Web: www.keoic.com
River channel survey and Cable laying
Aum Global Impex, based in Bangalore, India are interested in getting the
channel of the Bramhaputra river mapped for Cable laying operations and are
on the look out for suitable agencies. The site is close to the source of
the river is the source of the and hence the current is very swift. The
shortest distance to cross
the river is about 22 Kms, between Sisiborgaon (a town in Dhemaji
district, about 16 Kms from Dhemaji town) and Dibrugarh.
For details of the project please contact: Mr. Anup Dubey at anupdubey@vsnl.net
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Blog Buster
Conference on the State of Remote Sensing Law
Last week (starting 22nd January 2008), the National Center for Remote Sensing, Air, and Space Law hosted the Second International Conference on the State of Remote Sensing Law. The entire event was live blogged on Res Communis. For your convenience here is a list of all the posts by P.J. Blount . It is worth noting the status of remote sensing law in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, UK , EU and the USA.
Map regulations in China may impact Google, Microsoft and Sogou
Microsoft extends map site to China, sort of includes Taiwan - Google, Microsoft and Sogou better watchout for regulations from China's State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping -the recently published list of key work items includes: 'Suggestions on Increasing the Supervision and Management of Mapping and Geographical Information Websites.
Blogged by Graham Webster : http://www.cnet.com/8301-13908_1-9856023-59.html
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INTERGEO EAST
18 February - 20 February 2008, Belgrade Fair, Belgrade, Serbia
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To see the previous issues
of ‘GIS Development Weekly’: Click here |
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