About the Author:  Sean Gorman founded FortiusOne in 2005 to bring location based analytics to the mass market. Sean brings over 10 years of experience at the forefront of the geospatial revolution as a researcher, practitioner, and entrepreneur at FortiusOne. Through both academic and entreprenurial efforts he has been working to make geographic data more accessible to the public since 1997 culminating in the creation of GeoCommons – a crowd-sourced repository of statistical data and social feeds that can be easily mapped, remixed and reused by non-technical users. Sean has been featured in media such as, Wired, Der Spiegel, ABC, Washington Post, Business 2.0, MSNBC, CBS and CNN. He also holds a PhD. From George Mason University in Public Policy where he was the Provost’s High Potential Scholar and was the recipient of the Fischer Prize. He has published dozens of articles on geographic data sharing and analysis, and authored the book Networks, Complexity and Security: The Role of Public Policy in Critical Infrastructure Protection. Read more from this author

What factors are holding up online mapping performance? There are three reasons why online mapping is still not at its best: Local listings, mapping errors and crowded mapping. Local submissions take time and can contain errors leading to information that is mapped improperly. Overlapping information (such as too many markers) can cause crowded maps.

Blue Marble Geographics plans to answer the need for highly accurate mapping through their products. After combining their Geographic Calculator and Geographic Transformer into one desktop product, users now have control over the use of geodetic datums to ensure accuracy and coordinate control when transforming geospatial data. The company is expanding their products so surveyors, GIS and engineering firms will be able produce highly accurate maps.

GeoEye-1, the world’s highest resolution commercial satellite , launched this past weekend. The satellite will orbit the Earth’s surface taking pictures exclusively for online mapping. The U.S. Government and Google Maps are some of those planning to use the high-resolution satellite camera.

A new interactive map was developed to show the National Hurricane Center’s latest storm advisories. The StormTracker Map shows current center location and forecasted positions. The map has an easy user-friendly layout and all users need to do is click on their desired location to reveal its information.

ArcGIS 9.3 is receiving applause for its error report system. If a crash occurs, users can send an error report to ESRI. The Geodatabase Development Team even posted a video that talks about how ESRI investigates and acts on all error reports.

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