TOP
STORIES
 |
US adopts new space policy
The 10-page strategic document states that the US national security "is critically dependent upon space capabilities...
|
|
Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial entity, takes up direct overseas marketing of IRS data
Tie-ups are happening with resellers in Turkey, Brazil, Canada, Greece and Australia. It would also rely on international...
|
|
Privacy fears intensified by tech that knows where you are
Privacy advocates say questions like these don't yet have clear answers. "I think we're still wrestling with the issue of how we respect an...
|
|
Annual total production value of China's geographic information industry expected to exceed 10 billion USD by 2010
According to a recent report published in the China Economic Net website China has proposed in the Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan...
|
|
Map of ‘rural tranquility in England’ unveiled, shows North East as the most tranquil region
The CPRE said that although the Government has said it recognises the importance of rural tranquility to the nation, it has done almost...
|
|
|
WORLD THIS WEEK
|
USGS releases implementation plan for the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Programme
The USGS National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Programme implementation plan was delivered to Congress and released...
|
|
Romanian government implementing Land Parcel Information System/Integrated Administration and Control System based on ArcGIS Server software
Historically, Romania has had a very complex agricultural environment in which to develop modern farming methods. Farmers often...
|
|
Lockheed Martin team shortlisted for 2011 UK Census
Both companies will conduct a Field Test project in 2007 before the prime contract award, which will be decided by the...
|
|
D.C. police website plots crime, street by street
The D.C. police have launched a new crime-mapping tool on the department's Web site, allowing anyone to...
|
|
Second modernized GPS satellite begins service for users worldwide
The third GPS Block IIR-M satellite is scheduled for liftoff on November 14 from Cape Canaveral...
|
| | |
|
| |
| |
EDITORIAL
The lead had further increased…the second GPS block IIR satellite was declared fully functional. The Galileo programme on the other hand is being plagued with difficulties, with some nations hesitating to sign on the dotted line. This should bring to sharp focus the strikingly different business models followed by the NAVSTAR programme vs. the Galileo. The strong support, both muscle and financial by the US government for its GPS programme has to be lauded.
With better GPS and hence evolved LBS technology, come privacy fears. "I think we're still wrestling with the issue of how we respect an expectation of privacy when technology has made so much of the world available to us," said Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington, D.C., but Ted Morgan from Sky Hook Wireless, who offer the ‘Loki service’ says "Most of these services and applications are being rolled out with privacy in mind, because you won't get a lot of usage if people are spooked or concerned that it could be used against them,". One can be almost assured that such services and service providers will maintain user privacy out of sheer survival instinct, but can we say the same if the government itself is such a service provider? In a lighter vein, the most concerned, should be the teenagers who will miss the pleasure of playing hooky from school, what with parents subscribing to geo-fencing.
The talk of the town this week is the ‘New US National Space Policy’. It should be highlighted that second point listed under the ‘Principles’ of this policy emphatically says that ‘The United States rejects any claims to sovereignty by any nation over outer space or celestial bodies, or any portion thereof, and rejects any limitations on the fundamental right of the United States to operate in and acquire data from space’. Is it a mere coincidence that this policy is being released soon after a US spy satellite over China, was reportedly damaged by a ground-based laser. In light of all this, a serious discussion about ‘national privacy and sovereign space ’ is necessary.
Dr. Hrishikesh Samant
hrishikesh@gisdevelopment.net
|
ARTICLES OF THE WEEK
|
Future Trends In Geospatial Data Management Process
Squadron Leader Mudit Mathur
Indian Air Force
mr.mudit@gmail.com
In majority of nations across the globe multiple Terabytes of space borne remote sensing valuable data in form of Imageries and metadata are collected from diverse and complex platforms. The question is how to process, productively manage, effectively archive, make dependable use of the RS information and share such a vast amount of RS images and information entropy...
Geodatabase for Urban Design and Planning
Simon Yanuar PUTRA
Department of Architecture,
School of Design and Environment,
National University of Singapore
Geodatabase modelling can transform urban objects into database elements (objects, attributes, classes, rows, fields, and tables), and design guidelines into spatial database rules (topological rules, validity rules, relationship rules, connectivity rules). Three types of urban objects can be modelled or sketched into geodatabase, the existing objects, the guidelines’ objects and the proposed or designed objects...
|
|
|
INTERVIEW
DINS to Ease Dubai's Traffic Woes
Mr. SalahAlDeen Mohammed Al Marzouqi
Dubai Road and Transport Authority
"Dalili map covers the whole UAE, while the traffic information covers Dubai only. The map is always being constantly updated. Within a couple of months one can see a new bridge, a new tunnel, malls."
|
CORPORATE
Shinya Banno appointed as Managing Director of Tele Atlas Japan
Banno holds a bachelor of business degree from Doshisha University in Japan. He is based at Tele Atlas’...
Trimble reports Third Quarter 2006 revenue growth of 25 percent
Net income for the third quarter of 2006 was $25.3 million, up 25 percent when compared to net income...
ESRI, PODS and APDM agree to form working relationship
This agreement came as a result of the PODS Association’s desire to create a PODS spatial database...
Intergraph to provide emergency incident management solutions to Washington, DC’s Unified Communications Center
Designed to maximize the allocation of people, technology and business processes, the Unified Communications Center consolidates...
|
NEW PRODUCTS
Oracle offers bundled NAVTEQ map data for business applications
In today’s global business environment, organizations are seeking to gain a competitive advantage by coupling geospatial data...
Geocoding API tool kit available from GeoLytics
The Geocode API Tool Kit from GeoLytics will allow geocoding capabilities to be added to any Microsoft...
Intermap Technologies achieves significant breakthrough in STAR-4 airborne mapping system
The company's STAR-4 mapping system is currently collecting 3D data in the United States as part of Intermap's NEXTMap USA program...
GeoMoS Monitoring Software Release 2.1 announced by Leica
The structural monitoring and data analysis software Leica GeoMoS, together with Leica GPS Spider...
|
|
|
|
