Top Stories
NASA astronaut photos contribute to new coral reef atlas
A newly released atlas detailing coral reefs around the world contains numerous photographs taken by NASA astronauts. These photographs provide a unique perspective on coral reef geography, coastal development and the relationship of reefs to various land habitats. The World Atlas of Coral Reefs, produced by the UNEP-WCMC, is a detailed and definitive account of the current state of our planet's coral reefs. The 428-page atlas, published by the University of California Press, Berkeley, Calif., was released Sept. 11. Images for the atlas were selected from a database of over 400,000 Earth photographs that have been taken by NASA astronauts since the U.S. began sending humans into space. The selection and development of images for the atlas was a collaboration between the Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, the ReefBase project at the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management in Malaysia, and authors of the atlas at the UNEP-WCMC in Cambridge, England. Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse habitats in the world. They are host to an extraordinary variety of marine plants and animals. They are also one of the world's most fragile and endangered ecosystems. Coral reefs are a significant source of food and offer countless benefits to humans, including supplying compounds for pharmaceuticals
Visit:
http://www.unep-wcmc.org/marine/coralatlas/
DiabSoft announces the release of TIGER/LINE® 2000 MapGen Toolkit
DiabSoft announces the release of TIGER/LINE 2000 MapGen toolkit an affordable Mapping Generation Toolkit for United States based on the latest release of TIGER/LINE 2000. TIGER/LINE 2000 MapGen Toolkit consists of a TIGER to Shape or TIGER to MIF translator and a complete dataset of seven (7) TIGER/Line® 2000 map data CDs, all for less than US $350. TIGER/LINE maps provide an incredible rich source of spatial and demographic information totals more than 3.75 GB of zipped files. A complete run of the provided translator can produce more than 125,000 MID/MIF Maps, or more than 35 MG of unzipped Data. The TIGER/Line® 2000 data set is in U.S. Bureau of the Census TIGER/Line 2000 format, and when it is converted with the supplied TIGER to MIF or TIGER to Shape Translator creates Maps in ESRI Shape File Format or MapInfo MID/MIF Format. TIGER/Line 2000 is the definitive, most recent GIS data set for the United States. It includes all U.S. Streets, including street names and address ranges based on the ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area). Zip and Zip + 4 codes, 105th Congressional boundaries, boundaries of incorporated places and more.
Visit:
www.DiabSoft.com
OGC announces kick off of OGC web services initiative
The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) (Wayland, MA) announced that Phase 1 of its OGC Web Services Initiative (OWS-1) has begun. Over 50 representatives from 26 organizations attended the successful kick-off meeting held in Tyson's Corner, Virginia in late September. Some of these organizations are sponsors of OWS-1. Sponsors establish the requirements, technical scope and
agenda, and form and content of demonstrations, and they contribute resources to support the Initiative. Other attendees represented technology vendors who will work together to define, test, and document open interface specifications that enable web services in the geospatial community.
The OWS-1 initiative mission is the definition and specification of interfaces that support interoperability among geospatially enabled web services. A Web service is an application that can be published, located, and dynamically invoked across the Web. Web services perform functions ranging from simple requests to complicated business processes. Once a Web service is deployed, other applications and other Web services can discover and invoke the deployed service.
Visit:
www.opengis.org
EarthScan builds The ImageNetwork* with GIS solutions offering
EarthScan Network, a leading geospatial information solutions provider, has created the ImageNetwork*, an expanding community of EarthScan-hosted e-commerce storefronts and Intranets. The network offers GIS content providers new markets for their data and offers businesses that use imagery the ability to cost effectively and efficiently offer online, value-added applications. The growing list of ImageNetwork partners includes: AirPhotoUSA, Autodesk Point A, I-Cubed, The GEMI Store, The WhiteStar Corporation, VARGIS, Soilteq, Space Imaging, SPOT Image, and Crop 1, along with several private Intranet partner organizations that utilize GIS data for internal business processes. The ImageNetwork partners choose from ImageCommerce* or ImageShare* Solutions. The ImageCommerce service includes the creation of a branded storefront complete with an e-commerce package and account management system. EarthScan works with the ImageCommerce partner to quickly expand the distribution of their content.
Visit:
www.EarthScan.com
IDEAL Announces Emergency Preparedness Software
What if Facility Managers and Agencies had to immediately get their hands on large format drawings, blueprints, and maps? IDEAL.com introduces IntraNETIX-FM, emergency preparedness software that assists in the challenge of fast, accurate retrieval of large format scanned documents and electronic (CAD) files. IntraNETIX-FM insures secure, quick, browser-based search and view capabilities of scanned facility drawings, engineering drawings, architectural plans, and blueprints from anywhere and anytime with a standard web browser. Using Thin Client technology, IntraNETIX-FM allows authorized users to quickly access and to view scanned drawings and maps residing at local or remote document archives without slowing down network traffic. IntraNETIX-FM helps Facility Managers immediately share their drawings and large format documents with emergency response personnel, safety personnel, project managers, and building owners that need them. IntraNETIX-FM is an instant intranet (in-house LAN) or extranet (Intranet accessible) server software that allows facility managers to securely search and to view scanned blueprints, site plans, CAD files and other important large format documents.
Visit:
www.ideal.com. For a demo visit:
http://www.ideal.com/onlineDemo/endUser.asp
Optech Incorporated partners with Z/I Imaging and EnerQuest Systems to develop an open industry standard for LIDAR data
Optech Incorporated, the world leader in airborne laser mapping systems, announces a plan to create an open industry standard for the binary interchange of LIDAR data. Its partners in this important initiative include Z/I Imaging Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama, EnerQuest Systems LLC of Denver, Colorado and the US Army's Topographic Engineering Center (TEC). The initiative will benefit the entire LIDAR industry, bringing with it an expanded set of LIDAR capabilities and quantum gains in total system efficiency.
Visit:
www.ziimaging.com &
www.enerquest.com &
www.optech.on.ca
Eustis Named VP Sales & Marketing for ISTAR Americas
ISTAR Americas Inc. has hired Mark Eustis as Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Eustis will report directly to the ISTAR Americas CEO and oversee all sales and marketing activities for ISTAR high-resolution orthoimagery and elevation data in the ISTAR Americas business region. With 15 years of experience in the industry, Eustis has held executive positions at remote sensing, GIS and GPS companies. Most recently, he was director of business development for Radio Satellite Integrators, a GPS, automatic vehicle location and wireless solutions firm in Torrance, Calif. Prior to that, Eustis was a channel manager for Autodesk and the worldwide manager of GIS sales and development for Magellan Systems (now Thales Navigation). His geotechnology career began in 1986 with the Earth Observation Satellite Co. (EOSAT).
Visit:
www.istar.com
Asia News
India puts its first spy in sky
NEW DELHI: The Americans did it twice in the past month, the Russians once, and now the Indians have joined them. In October, all three countries have sent a spy satellite into space. Being a first for India, the Technology Experiment Satellite, TES, sent up on Monday aloft a Polar Space Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota was so much more creditable.
ISRO officials declined to comment on the satellite's military application, though ISRO chief K Kasturirangan is reported to have said, ``It will be for civilian use, consistent with our security concerns.''
Officially, ISRO says it is an experimental satellite to demonstrate and validate technologies that could be used in the future satellites. But satellites are rarely made in prototype form, and insiders say that TES's panchromatic cameras will provide imagery with one metre resolution which has clear military implications. Its substantial 1.1-tonne weight is a pointer to its serious intent since it implies a greater payload and fuel capacity. Like the American and Russian launches, the TES launch had little to do with the September 11 event since the launch was scheduled earlier.
The TES programme was accelerated in the aftermath of the criticism faced by the government over its surveillance capabilities. Indian remote imaging satellites of the IRS series have a resolution of 5.8m which is not useful from the military standpoint. While they can detect large aircraft on the ground, TES would be able to pick up a group of militants marching single-file or even prepared defences on a mountain redoubt. The satellite has a sun-synchronous orbit, which means it will visit the same area at the same local time repeatedly. This enables it to map changes, which is what spy satellites are all about.
Visit:
Times of India
Other related news on:
The Hindu
Time for Arab countries to be on cybermap
The time has come for Arab countries to prepare vigorously for the global information society to benefit from greater productivity and services such as tele-medicine, wired classrooms, community Internet access and e-government.
Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, UN Assistant Secretary-General and Regional Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Arab States, conveyed this message in a keynote address to GITEX 2001 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates last week. The largest information technology event in the Middle East, GITEX 2001 also heard from former US Vice President Al Gore.
The Arab region has 5 per cent of the world's people, but only half a per cent of Internet users, just a tenth of the level of use in Southeast Asia, according to the UNDP Human Development Report 2001. "That single statistic underscores the wide disconnect between Arab society as a whole and information and communications technology (ICT)," said Dr. Khalaf Hunaidi.
The Arab countries entered the new century burdened with 70 million illiterate people, most of them women who could otherwise be empowered by ICT, she said. The region needs "nothing less than a complete paradigm shift towards a culture of learning in the classroom, on campus and in society," she pointed out.
Other pro-ICT measures include investment incentives and more progressive regulatory frameworks, investment in research and development and support for technical education and vocational training.
Visit:
http://www.undp.org/dpa/index.html
