Nokia to acquire NAVTEQ

Nokia and NAVTEQ announced a definitive agreement for Nokia to acquire NAVTEQ. Under the terms of the agreement, Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each share of NAVTEQ including outstanding options for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 billion (€5.7 billion), or approximately $7.7 billion (€5.4 billion) net of NAVTEQ existing cash balance. The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals and NAVTEQ shareholders' approval.

Open source software to track epidemics

New Open source software to track epidemics has been developed by Zyxware Technologies Trivandrum, India, and has revolutionized the way information is collected and processed in tracking diseases like Chikungunya and Dengue. The software is web based and allows Hospitals to report cases of diseases as soon as they are registered at the hospital. The software seamlessly integrates with the existing manual process by allowing hospitals that does not have any web access to send paper based reports to data entry operators who can enter them into the system or send soft copies of the reports that can be imported automatically. The system allows secure login with role based privileges for different roles like Government Medical Official, Hospital Staff, Data Access Operators and System Administrator.

The GIS interface uses Google maps to present the data on a real time basis on a map of the state. Cases of diseases are represented by markers on the map and easy visual analysis of the pattern and extent of spread of diseases is possible. The GIS and reporting interface processes the cases registered and present reports that can be used by the Health Department to monitor the situation on a real time basis. The software was dedicated to the nation as Free Software under the GNU General Public License (GPL) on 5th October 2007. Although the software was developed for the State of Kerala, India, the GNU GPL will allow it to be downloaded and used for free by any other government in the world.

Google launches global cleanup weekend with Google Maps

Google has teamed up with dozens of community action organizations around the world to coordinate an International Cleanup Weekend on October 13-14th. Originally started as an internal Google project to encourage Googlers to cleanup their local beaches, parks, and trails close to home and to share their progress using My Maps, the initiative is now being launched publicly in coordination with community action organizations in fifteen countries.
To coordinate and document this global initiative, participants are encouraged to create and submit maps of their intended cleanup areas in Google Maps. So far more than 100 cleanup maps have been created by Googlers chronicling the areas they intend to pick-up with friends and family.
For the first time in my geospatial profession, I am seeing the community "associating with" and "using" maps to come together for socially productive work. From "crowdsourcing" to "crowdcleaning"! said Maneesh Prasad, COO GIS Development.