WikiMapia = Wiki + Google maps

WikiMapia is an example of an approach to gathering spatial data from people at large. Very simple, lo-(hi)tech. Uses Google maps and a "box-select" approach to locational information. Could be more detailed in its approach to attributes.

What are Your Favorite GIS Data Sources for Brownfields Redevelopment?

Brownfields redevelopment involves the assessment, cleanup and transformation of contaminated and unwanted properties—be they urban, suburban, rural, waterfront, or tribal—from a liability and expense for one organization to an asset and reuse opportunity for another.

GIS can assist brownfields redevelopment professionals in many facets of their work, from conducting site inventories and data collection for environmental remediation to marketing properties for redevelopment purposes.

The International City/County Management Association (ICMA), in collaboration with ESRI, wants to develop a checklist of potential or suggested GIS data sets that are useful for brownfields redevelopment work (e.g., historical aerial photographs or property transaction records). We want to know what your favorite GIS data sources are and what applications you have found helpful for brownfields redevelopment.

Please contact David Borak at dborak@icma.org or fax 202-962-3506 with your suggestions or ideas of where to go for GIS data for brownfields redevelopment.

-- Forwarded to NSGIC Membership by Leslie Wollack, of the National Geospatial Programs Office (USGS)

ArcNews Spring 2006 Issue: Imagery for the Nation Proposal Gains Momentum

Wisconsin's State Cartographer, our own Ted Koch, has an article in the Spring 2006 Issue of ArcNews -- Imagery for the Nation Proposal Gains Momentum -- on the Imagery for the Nation proposal. The on-line version of the article includes a link to a nice PDF version of an ArcNews centerfold on the proposal.

Responses to the RFI for the Federal Geospatial Line of Business

The NSGIC response to the Federal RFI on the Geospatial Line of Business that we pointed to back in March is now posted on the NSGIC Hot Topics page. Adena Schutzberg, at All Points Blog, points to the URISA response (PDF) as well.

A Roadmap for Life?

A member of the on-line community MetaFilter posted a question about how to get into a new career working "in something to do with the surveying and production of maps."

An interesting discussion follows. Lots of people pointed the "asker" to work in GIS and spatial data.

Microsoft and NGA Announce Strategic Alliance

From the Microsoft web site: Microsoft and NGA Announce Strategic Alliance

Microsoft Corp. and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) today announced the signing of a Letter of Understanding to advance the design and delivery of geospatial information applications to customers. The NGA will use the Microsoft® Virtual Earth™ platform to provide geospatial support for humanitarian, peacekeeping and national-security efforts.

All Points Blog: State Coordinators Speak

Adena Schutzberg is, or was, at the New England GIS Conference. On her All Points Blog today she offers some quotes from New England State GIS Coordinators. Aren't there are a few names here that we'd like to see on a NSGIC "Attendee" roster?

Saying it With Spatial Data: Wal-Mart Growth

A researcher at the University of Minnesota has published a WMV animation of the openings of new Wal-Mart stores from 1962 through 2004. The images are simple maps of Wal-Mart locations from a working paper -- The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and Economies of Density (PDF) -- prepared under a grant from the NSF.

I note it as a good example of the effectiveness of simple spatial data in expressing simple concepts. The study itself is a much more in-depth economic treatment of the reasons why Wal-Mart's spread pattern is what it is.

From GeoWorld: What Exactly Is a Spatial Data Infrastructure?

Ron Lake, president of Galdos Systems Inc., writes an overview of the notion of the "Spatial Data Infrastructure."

Although the ambition and name of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) have been around for a long time, only recently have standards and technologies actually enabled a true SDI to be built. As a result, it’s important to revisit existing notions of SDI and understand where this technology may be headed in the near future.

Worth Remembering

There's an interesting item on the Google Earth Blog -- Aerial Photography Getting Boost from Google Earth -- that points to an article in the Scotsdale (AZ) Times on the growing prevalence of aerial imagery available on-line.

The article -- Eyes In The Sky -- is a bit sensationalist, as the Google Earth Blog points out, but it does highlight how public access to imagery has proven a marketing boon to the imagery industry.

It also reminds us that, as we go before state, county and local governments seeking funding for imagery updates, we now face an audience used to Googling, MSNinating, and Yahoovering their way to what appears to be a ready-made public data trove.

That leaves us with the challenge of explaining why we need to pay for updates. But it also gives us an audience that now has an appreciation of the value of aerial imagery.