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Orion Selects Intergraph's G/Electric for Next-Generation Geofacilities Management System

Intergraph Utilities announced that the company has signed a contract with Orion New Zealand Limited to provide G/Electric, Intergraph's Geofacilities Management System, which will replace the company's existing GIS and create workflow efficiencies that will enhance service to the company's 164,000 connection points. Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Orion is the leading South Island electric network company. Following an intensive evaluation of leading utility GIS solutions, Orion selected Intergraph's commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) G/Electric software, which is based on standard, non-proprietary programming tools and offers high performance and scalability as well as ease of use and development. It provides the advantages of COTS software, such as support for ongoing application extensions and ease of maintenance and upgrades. G/Electric's integrated environment provides enterprisewide access to data via a spatially enabled Oracle database.

Visit:- http://www.intergraph.com/

2000 Census Data SF 1 Files now available

Dakota Worldwide has announced it has 2000 Census Data SF 1 Files available now. The latest population and racial figures including Block Groups, Tracts, Zip Code, MCD, Cities, MSA and County Level files for the entire United States is available on CD in MapInfo* format. This data includes 1062 variables and contains 100 percent counts from the Census on age, sex, 63 categories of race, household relationships, Hispanic origins, vacancy characteristics, group quarters, and tenure.

Visit:- http://www.dakotaww.com

DMTI Spatial Presents Second Annual Award in Business Geographics

DMTI Spatial Inc., Canada's leading spatial solutions provider announced the recipient of their second annual award for the "Best Analytical Major Project in Business Geographics ". Andrew Nicholson is the winner of this year's award for his research on: "Mining the Household Facilities & Equipment Dataset for Nova Scotia". "Once again, I would like to thank DMTI Spatial for their continued support of our program. Its encouraging to know that the private sector can take the time to congratulate our students for their tremendous achievements throughout the school year," said Dr. Ela Dramowicz, Professor at the Centre of Geographic Sciences, Nova Scotia Community College. "DMTI Spatial is a strong supporter of excellence in education. The Centre of Geographic Sciences is a leader in the field of Geomatics Information Technologies and we are pleased to do our part in supporting their outstanding students. This initiative falls in line with a very exciting program that DMTI Spatial is developing for Canada's academic community," said David Roach, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at DMTI Spatial Inc.

Visit:- http://www.dmtispatial.com

Fighting Wildfires Before They Start

Burning virtual trees is helping forest managers choose the best methods for reducing the risk from forest fires before they start. This scenario might sound futuristic, but computer simulations of forest fires are already transforming how land managers protect their forests and the people who live near them. By combining satellite-derived vegetation data with topographic maps, weather data, and ecological knowledge, forest scientists can construct digital landscapes on which these virtual fires burn. The computer-assisted approach to fire risk assessment is still relatively new and only partially adopted by the fire management community, but the advantages of using computers have become widely recognized, and the technology is spreading like -- well, like wildfire. Read complete article: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast28aug_1.htm?list472937

Andrew Adds GPS Navigation Antenna System to Land Rover Discovery Series II

Andrew Corporation announced that Land Rover, part of Ford Premier Automotive Group, will use an Andrew roof-mounted GPS antenna system to enhance the navigation features of the new model Land Rover Discovery II. The GPS navigation system pinpoints the Land Rover's location to within one meter and also supplies route information for easy direction finding during off- or on-road journeys. The Land Rover Discovery II's GPS antenna has a very low profile, just 16 mm high, and is easily mounted on the vehicle's roof. The antenna includes a GPS module consisting of a ceramic patch that receives the GPS satellite signal and a Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) that boosts the signal. 0The GPS antenna has a proprietary Andrew mounting system designed for speed and ease of installation at the Land Rover assembly plant. The integrated mounting gasket forms a weatherproof seal that gives full protection even in the harshest environmental conditions. The GPS navigation system is available as a factory-installed option on the Land Rover Discovery II from July 2001 in the UK and October 2001 in North America.

Visit:- www.andrew.com

Asia News

Training on Internet GIS: A joint programme of GIS Institute and Autodesk

A three day training on Internet GIS has been started today at GIS Institute, Noida, India. This training programme is being jointly organised with Autodesk. Many senior government and private officials are attending the course. Main participation is from Survey of India, Engineers India Limited, Ministry of Defence, Government of India, RMSI and other private organisations.

Mr. Ravi Gupta, the founder director of Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS) and Prof. P. Misra, Director Training, GIS Institute have inaugurated the training. Also, senior officials from Autodesk, Mr. Ajit Jere, Mr. Sreedhar were also present at the inauguration. For details about GIS Institute, visit:- www.GISinstitute.net

Bengal seeks industry help to develop IT infrastructure

KOLKATA, Aug. 28 - THE West Bengal Government has sought the help of industry to help it develop about 80 acres of land into information technology (IT)-enabling infrastructure. The request was made by Ms Jaya Dasgupta, IT Secretary to the West Bengal Government, while addressing members of the four-year-old Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry at a seminar on Indo-Italian Partnership in Information Technology held here.

Ms Dasgupta said the State Government had 70 acres at Nonadanga near the city and another 10 acres in the satellite township of Rajarhat (under construction) in its land bank. ``We want to develop the 70 acres into a software park and the rest 10 acres into an IT building'', she said.

She committed that IT enabling industry will get the same benefits and incentives from the State Government as given to the IT sector. ``If we do not prepare the necessary infrastructure, the IT industry will not develop at the rapid pace, which we are hoping,'' she said.

Meanwhile, she discussed in detail the State Government's IT initiatives' such as setting up of the Wide Area Network and creation of the State's own portal. ``The network and portal will be used for governmental activities and also interacting with the public at large'', she said.

The first one is called G2G (Government to Government) and second one is G2C (Government to commoners). According to the secretary, the creation of the back-end data bank of the state government's 53 departments for G2C services is a problem. ``Here too we need the Chamber's help to create this data bank. We will start off with 23 departments,'' she added.

Mr Narinder Nayar, President of the Chamber, gave an overall picture of India and Italy economic affairs. In this context he said the two-way trade between India and Italy witnessed a significant growth in 2000-01 to Rs 92 billion from Rs 80 billion in the previous financial year.

Source: Business Line

Assam plans Right to Information Bill

GUWAHATI, AUG. 28. The Assam Chief Minister and APCC president, Mr. Tarun Gogoi, today appealed to the Congress workers to work hard to lift the State out of the morass of stagnation it had slipped into over the past two decades.

Addressing a general body meeting of the APCC here, Mr. Gogoi said Assam's progress had stopped in 1978 when the first non- Congress Government led by Janata Party came to power. The State continued to lag behind in every field since then.

But the people's expectations from the new Government were very high. The party and the Government would have to fulfil their hopes. ``We have to move forward despite militancy. That is why we are giving so much importance to development especially rural development and to generate self-employment,'' he said.

The Government would be bringing a Right to Information Bill in the next session of the Assembly because transparency in the implementation of all government projects and schemes at every level was an effective way of reducing the influence of middlemen and checking corruption, he said.

He stressed the need for taking full advantage of information technology and promote e-governance so that the administration could be taken down to the lowest level, made more effective and more responsive.

Later, talking to newsmen, he said the State would have to approach the World Bank for developmental assistance.

Source: The Hindu