Top Stories
GIS Professionals Urged to Support Efforts to Save Central African Forest
During biologist Michael Fay's keynote address at ESRI's 21st Annual International User Conference, he made an impassioned appeal to save the Langoue Forest, a pristine area of more than 600,000 acres within the Congo jungle in Gabon. He indicated that $3.5 million (U.S.) is needed immediately to purchase the logging rights to the forest and return it to the public domain. This is the first step in creating the Langoue National Park, which will preserve the land. Dr. Fay, who works for the New York-Based Wildlife Conservation Society, documented his 15-month "Megatransect" trek through a remote forest corridor that included the Langoue Forest. The trek spanned the Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, and Gabon. During his speech, he detailed his exploration of the region. The goal of his trek was to systematically survey the area, focusing on the plant and wildlife in the region, as well as determine the human impact of the sparsely populated villages in the region. By carefully documenting the near-pristine wilderness of central Africa, Fay said that he hopes to convince the world of the importance of preserving this region. In a spontaneous gesture, a few thousand dollars was raised at the conclusion of the conference with the passing of a tote bag. However, conference attendees wanted to do more.
"Our user community has asked us [ESRI] to help organize a fund-raising effort to protect the Langoue Forest," commented ESRI President Jack Dangermond. "We believe that it is a worthy cause and wholeheartedly support his efforts."
Visit:-
www.esri.com
ENSCO's remote monitor collects onboard data in real-time to enhance passenger safety
ENSCO, Inc., a diversified research, development and information technology company, continues to lead the railroad supplier industry in advanced technology for safety and maintenance. ENSCO's Remote Monitor continuously monitors and analyzes track and vehicle performance in real time, tagging the location of any anomalous sensor measurements with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) coordinates, and communicates information and data via satellite, cellular and/or digital wireless services to an Internet accessible central computer or a pager. Data is available in near real time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Remote Monitor provides data on ride quality and vehicle track interaction, locomotive health and onboard electrical systems through continuous monitoring of sensors. Data is displayed on the Internet, overlaid on a GIS map. By clicking on icons showing map location of exceptions, the user can display information about the potential problem, as well as vehicle speed and location. Data and reports can be custom adjusted by the user to ensure the most efficient use of the information, in real-time. ENSCO's Remote Monitor accommodates most vehicle makes and models and can be configured to meet individual customer needs.
Visit:-
www.ensco.com
Kivera appoints location-based services expert Michael Fisher to executive vice president
Kivera, a leading provider of location-based services (LBS) for the travel, voice, Web and wireless industries, has announced Michael Fisher as executive vice president. As an 18-year veteran in the LBS industry, Fisher has been influential in leveraging Kivera's strategic partnerships with enterprise portal solutions, including Sun-Netscape's iPlanet and IBM's WebSphere, and will continue to leverage such relationships in his role as executive vice president. Fisher reports directly to Clay Collier, president and CEO of Kivera. Before joining Kivera, Fisher co-founded and served as COO of GlobeXplorer Inc., a start-up that introduced a subscription-based service resulting in the world's largest commercial archive of spatial data available over the Internet. Prior to GlobeXplorer, Fisher was a director at Oracle, where he launched the company's spatial business unit. Additionally, he directed the team that re-engineered Oracle Spatial and established it as the standard in spatial data warehousing worldwide.
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www.kivera.com
Wysdom and SignalSoft Form Technology Alliance
Wysdom Inc., a wireless software and infrastructure company, and SignalSoft Corporation, the developer of the Wireless Location Services(R) software suite, announced a technology alliance that will lead to the development of location-sensitive mobile applications that can be marketed by mobile operators worldwide. In addition, Wysdom is now a Platinum Partner of SignalSoft's local.info(TM) Alliance program. This partnership will provide deeper collaboration between Wysdom and SignalSoft in the development of new revenue-generating mobile services for mobile operators. Wysdom's Mobyle Application Platform(TM) (MAP), is a carrier-grade infrastructure integration platform that allows SignalSoft's local.info geographic coordinate technology to be combined with other content sources for a cohesive location-based services application. These combined technologies will allow mobile operators to offer enhanced information applications that tap into the real time, geographic location of a mobile user. Mobile operators can in turn brand these applications and provide them to their enterprise customers and subscribers.
Visit:-
www.wysdom.com &
www.signalsoftcorp.com/.
Asia News
'3G phones could lead market revival'
HONG KONG: NTT DoCoMo chairman Kouji Ohboshi on Tuesday said that his company's launch of third generation (3G) mobile phones in a world first at the start next month would help lead Japan out of its economic slump.
Critics said that because of technical problems it was far too early to bring out third-generation phones, which would be able to download video and music up to 40 times faster than DoCoMo's hugely popular internet-accessible i-mode service.
A trial by Japan's largest mobile phone company started at the end of May has thrown up a slew of problems. Phone batteries have been running out after as little as 20 minutes and users will not be able to download films and music until early next year when new handsets become available.
But Ohboshi said that DoCoMo, as Japan's second largest company, should lead the way out of recession, having invested one trillion yen ($8.3 billion) in the 3G program, he said. "I don't believe that DoCoMo should use this slow economy as an excuse to slow down its investment," he told a conference here.
"DoCoMo should be more positive, more aggressive to create new structures, to create new markets and to create new demand so we can continue capital investment to support the recovery of our economy," he said. Ohboshi further said that Europe only had itself to blame for its mobile telecoms slump, which was exacerbated by "human mistakes" such as over-investment in 3G spectrum. "In the European telecommunications market they spent too much money on the spectrum option and that put many mobile operators into a very difficult situation," he said.
Governments in European countries such as Britain and Germany raised massive amounts of money through auctions of 3G spectrum but successful bidders have been left with huge debts and doubts about how profitable 3G services will be.
Ohboshi said that DoCoMo was already hastening towards launching fourth generation phones, which would offer video conferencing and interactive TV, games and films.
Source: Times of India
Asian software piracy rate rising
BANGKOK: Most Asia-Pacific countries, including India, have recorded an increase in software piracy due to rising number of personal computer shipments, a top official of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said.
Global piracy continued to fall last year except in the Asia Pacific, where the number of personal computers is rising, said Jeffery Hardee, vice president and regional director of BSA, a non-profit organisation comprising global and local software makers, including Microsoft.
The average piracy rate in Asia-Pacific countries was 51 per cent last year, worth some $4.1 billion, up from 47 per cent a year earlier.
BSA, which encourages the use of legal software, said that the piracy rate in China was 94 per cent up from 91 per cent in 1999, India was up from 61 to 63 per cent, Korea up from 50 to 56 per cent, and Japan up from 31 to 37 per cent.
However, some countries like Thailand had reported a slight drop, where the piracy rate fell to 79 per cent last year from 81 per cent in 1999, it said.
Hardee said that another pressing issue was the illegal copying of business software within companies.
"The company buys only one or two copies of a software package but installs it on to several computers in the office," The Nation newspaper quoted him as saying.
Source: Times Of India
