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.

Popularity: 16% [?]

College students can return to school with peace of mind because of a new form of mapping technology, UCrime. Students, faculty and teachers can view crimes that occurred at all U.S. universities through a drop down list on the site or on iPhone. UCrime can also assist in finding areas to live, demonstrating locations that have high concentrations of crime. This tool is powered by Google Maps.

InLET Earthquake Simulator Map might be the solution for people who live in areas that are “earthquake” prone. Based on Microsoft Virtual Earth, the simulator creates scenarios for the different magnitudes of earthquakes in a given area. This new tool assesses damage of property, possible number of casualties and the bridges affected.

The Millennials are getting their feet wet with GIS. Starbucks, Wal-Mart, NVision Solutions and the U.S. Military are a few of the companies that hired GIS specialists to solve their spatial issues. The specialists that these companies hired are none other than certified GIS high school students. SpaceStars, a certification program for entry level GIS/RS technicians offers programs like the Spatial Projects and Community Exchange, and Spatial Technology and Remote Sensing (S.T.A.R.S.), which these students are certified under. SpaceStars hope to continue this program in an effort to let interested students experience on-the-job training.

MAPme, a map authoring service, announced the release of their Google Maps widget. This new application will let users embed flash apps as a widget anywhere they can edit HTML. MAPme widget is a pure flash object that allows users to add YouTube videos and even their own images to the ‘map’s hotspots.’ Facebook and iPhone applications will be available soon.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The Carbon Project announced the release of their Secure Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) 1.0 extension for ArcGIS 9.2 desktop this week. The SDI 1.0 is a selected suite of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards endorsed by government agencies to promote interoperability. The extension will be the world’s most powerful geospatial security framework and is scheduled to be released this month as part of the CarbonArc PRO 1.6 update. According to the President and CEO of The Carbon Project, Jeff Harrison, “The combination of CarbonArc PRO and Secure SDI functionality answers one of the primary challenges in deploying real-world systems based on OGC standards – making sure critical geospatial information goes to the people who are supposed to have it.”

Google Maps has now added a new API from Map Channels, Feed Maps, which “lets users create Google Maps mash-ups from a number of different data sources.” Now, feeds from MyMaps or Google Spreadsheets ‘can be brought together on a single map.’

EarthGamz maps Olympic athletes using Google Earth. The new site, which connects sports fans to sports locations, has created an ode to the Olympics – a map of the athletes. Upon clicking on the home town of these athletes, users can see information about them, such as their bio and TV listings for their next competition. EarthGamz also has a Facebook application for the Olympics and their site describes plans to involve social networking with their sports viewing applications.

An interesting discussion about GIS possibly disappearing into the cloud was made by Vector1 last week. Insight about the idea came from Vector1’s editors Jeff Thurston and Matt Ball, while Kirk Kuykendall, founder of AmberGIS, also discussed his thoughts. According to Jeff, “GIS has been waiting for the cloud…the cloud has enormous potential to change shift spatial gears and accelerating the wider use of GIS functionality.” Matt states, “Predominantly geospatial capabilities are purchased by organizations, and by companies of such a size and complexity that they feel they must control these systems, particularly when they’re of a critical nature to operations and/or contain proprietary information that must be kept from competitors.” And although Kirk agrees with Jeff and Matt, he states that “disappear is too strong of a word” and “subsumption is more likely.”

Popularity: 14% [?]

It’s been three years since Hurricane Katrina hit and with hurricane season here, it is no wonder why the Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu, stated the importance of Google Street Maps to the New Orleans community. The tool offers the people the opportunity to view the progression in New Orleans. For a better perspective on the recovery, visit The New Orleans Index Anniversary Edition: Three Years After Katrina.

The use of GIS for natural disasters is now trickling over to emergency preparedness. The World Vision International, a faith-based disaster aid organization, is beginning to embrace GIS. The main mission of the organization is to ‘overcome poverty and injustice by reducing the impact of natural disasters with area development programs that concentrate efforts with long-term commitment to maximize their impact.’ Because there is a direct correlation between poverty and areas prone to natural disasters, World Vision International will use GIS to help save lives and prevent loss of life.

The Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) is now official. A meeting was held this week at the ESRI User’s Conference in San Diego, where organization members voted on their new officers. Currently the coalition has 11 organization members including, the Cartography and Geographic Information Society, the GIS Certification Institute and the American Congress of Surveying and Mapping.

Geospatial professionals are integrating with social networks. Apparently, social network creator Ning has about 22 members and is steadily growing in their Geospatial Professionals Network. Fellow professionals are encouraged to join and engage.

Finally, as the Olympics get underway, we want to say good luck to Director of Operations Matt Madigan, who is currently in Beijing coaching the women’s quad sculling team.

Popularity: 18% [?]

As the ESRI User Conference (UC) got under way I’ve been following the blog posts and twitter conversations, and have noticed a stark delineation being made at the UC between GIS “professionals” and “amatuers.” I’ve noticed the same trend in the ESRI literature including the latest ArcNews with an article by Jack Dangermond on “GIS and the GeoWeb.” The article sets Google and Microsoft’s GeoWeb applications as “consumer” and “simple mashups.” Further GeoWeb tools are, “not suited for the more complex work performed by GIS (data management, analysis, workflows, custom applications, etc.)”. The folks at Directions Magazine pointed out that at the UC, “Web mapping was not mentioned; Web GIS was, quite a bit. GeoWeb? Not that I recall.”

ESRI is not alone in drawing these distinctions with the GeoWeb. Mike Hickey, the President of MapInfo, stated , “the explosion of Neogeography is driving awareness [and] collaborative data consolidation [but it] isn’t GIS…there is no data creation and no spatial analysis”. In my mind the rhetoric of both companies comes down to defining their GIS users as professionals and GeoWeb users as amatuers. This has been a popular meme attacking Web 2.0 as a “cult of the amateur.”

I’d argue we’ve confused what a professional is. For a while in GIS there has been a push to define it as a profession. Are you a professional if have a university degree in or related to GIS, do you need certain number of “official” training classes, do you need a professional certification like GISP? While I do think these are potential ways to define a professional, I do not think those are the metrics being used by ESRI and MapInfo to define the market between professional and amateur and between GIS and GeoWeb.

The delineation I’d argue is simple. If I buy ESRI, MapInfo, Manifold, Intergraph etc., that makes me a professional. The distinction that is being drawn between competing software products is artificial in order to preserve market share. On one hand you have to define professional as broadly as possible to encourage people to buy your software, but on the other hand you have to differentiate it from the pesky GeoWeb by calling it simple and amateur. It is all arbitrary and the reality is the two are converging. The GIS companies are producing more consumer friendly products and the GeoWeb companies are producing more robust functionality for the exact things they are labeled as not doing (data management, analysis, workflow etc.).

I believe what makes some one a professional is expertise in a field, understanding both theory and practice, not knowing how to operate a piece of software. The future of software is removing operational skill so that there are as few barriers as possible between a users subject matter expertise and using the software tool. It is the “consumerization of software” trend that is becoming more pervasive across IT. It hearkens the end on an era where you are a professional because you know how to operate a piece of software.

Popularity: 27% [?]