The Google GEO APIs team developed a KML Interactive Sampler page. Now people, who want to learn KML, can learn by examples. The Sampler page uses the Google Earth Plugin to demonstrate various features while displaying KML code.

Next week, George Mason University and the University of Virginia are celebrating GIS Day(s). They invite the general public to their GIS festivities. GMU’s featured speakers include Carmel Menzel, ESRI and Justin Procopio, National Geographic Society. David Rumsey, an expert on historical maps, will speak at UVA’s GIS Day.

The Google Maps API terms of service is causing the Ordnance Survey grief. The OS was unhappy with local authorities signing up to the Google Maps API terms of service as it required a “broad” re-licensing of the data to Google and the users of Google maps based sites. According to the OS, Show Us a Better Way broke copyright regulations by embedding info on Google Maps that was “derived” from OS data. Yesterday, Google released an updated Terms of Service for both Google Maps and Earth. For OS’ sake, the new published terms should help solve this issue.

Google announced the Google Geo Challenge Grants. The challenge encourages organizations, especially non-profits, to use maps as mediums to communicate issues and implement plans. The grants range from US$5,000 and US$100,000. For more the challenge guidelines, visit the Geo Challenge page.

Yesterday was “Make Slashgeo Known to the Community Day!” We encourage our readers to also show their support for our fellow GeoFriend!

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James Fee joins in and shares his insight on supporting ESRI’s Geodatabase format and how a File Geodatabase can be shared efficiently. He agrees that the more file formats supported by a GeoData application, the more likely people will use it.

The election rallied much excitement, perhaps due in part to several compelling mapping implementations. The media, for example CNN, turned to maps to present data regarding the election. Maps compiled included locations of candidate rallies and the country’s standings (color-coded in red vs. blue). We even provided our own analysis post-election. (And maybe the most well know, SNL’s Magic Map….)

Jeff Thurston discusses GIS implementation across large energy companies, specifically at Saudi Aramco and BP. Saudi Aramco has 15 GIS units where contractors and numerous amounts of sensors that feed SCADA systems are all dynamically linked through GIS. As for BP, the company embarked on an innovation strategy that seeks to embed GIS and spatial information across the company. Thurston states he knows ‘of a few operations using GIS at the scale and complexity of Saudi Aramco’ and has seen ‘few companies attempt to extend the application of GIS in strategic role beyond practical and operational considerations.’

Google Maps now offers a feature that enables you to download your search results as a waypoint into your GPS system. The feature supports Garmin, TomTom and Pioneer. Make sure you have the correct software installed on your computer.

The KML Handbook by Josie Wernecke is now available for pre-order. Wernecke is a Google tech writer and explains the various elements and features of KML in her brand new book, including topics like Regionation and View Based Refresh.

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While getting ready to launch Finder! we had an internal debate whether or not to put limits on dataset downloading. There were several options, ranging from requiring a user to be logged in before they downloaded to limiting the number of downloads a user could make in a day. A lot of the argument centered around the value of raw data - echoing the O’Reilly manifesto that “data is the Intel inside“. This belief holds that the value of the NAVTEQ’s and TeleAtlas’s of the world is derived from the proprietary data they collected.

One side of the company felt that by not limiting access to data we were giving away the family jewels. The other side felt that open access was the best way to create a network effect for data by making it as accessible as possible. At the end of the day the open access philosophy prevailed, and from the sound of comments to James Fee’s post after GeoWeb, access to data is still an important facet to both GIS and GeoWeb users.

Now that Finder! has been out for a little while we’ve begun to see a big surge in downloads. I noted last week we hit 18,000 downloads and just a week later we are now over 28,000. This has caused us to take a second look at our access policies. “Knock on wood”, the system has scaled like a champ handling the traffic, but as we get ready to launch Maker! some concerns have come up about potential abuse and its effect on user experience.

The biggest concern is around systematic downloading of data and the potential for that to impact other users experiences on the site. The question is how to make the content available without impinging on the collective user experience. Wikipedia approaches this by making content available as one big tarball and asks users “Please do not use a web crawler to download large numbers of articles. Aggressive crawling of the server can cause a dramatic slow-down of Wikipedia. Our robots.txt blocks many ill-behaved bots.”

I’m not sure a giant tar ball of data is the best way to go for us, especially since the data is available in a variety of formats. A second option is to provide third party access to the data via an API. This API could also work for both download and upload. Andrei had an interesting suggestion in our last post:

“The two-way API will definitely help with the number of uploads. The cool thing to do, would be to add (”Add to Finder!”) a URL request:

…finder.com/add?file=file.kml&type=kml&name…”

If people have other ideas on how they could better access the data in bullk without impinging performance we’d love to hear them. Also thoughts on what the line is between fair use of content and abuse of the commons. It is a bit of gray line in my mind. Is systematic downloading (manually hitting every dataset) abusive? Is scraping datasets with bots abusive? The main goal in my mind is to provide the best service possible without creating a “tragedy of the commons“.

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With Monday’s unveiling of Google’s Map Maker, Google account holders now have the ability to edit and add to certain Google Maps. The Map Maker currently only allows for map editing in a select group of countries including Cyprus, Iceland, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Caribbean nations. Functions of the tool include custom map creations, borders and regions, places of interest and road networks.

ESRI released their downloadable application, ArcGIS Explorer 480, this week. The upgraded version still offers the same basic function of geoprocessing services, but with major improvements such as KML improvements and increase in performance.

Nokia acquired Plazes, an LBS social mapping network. Plazes provides updates of friends’ activities in a find me/follow me type of service. The social mapping application will take Nokia one step closer to “bringing people and places together” and also acknowledges the rise and demand of LBS.

Microsoft and Virtual Earth launched a program that allows state and local governments to share their imagery, called GoVE. All of the imagery from these governments, municipalities and aerial photographers gets sent to Microsoft, which in turn is published by Virtual Earth.

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