Mike Vanhook

Welcome to the Geospatial Platform

2011-11-09T16:47:00.000-06:00

"The Geospatial Platform provides shared and trusted geospatial data, services, and applications for use by government agencies, their partners and the public"

http://www.geoplatform.gov/home/index.html

About the Geospatial Platform
"Federal agencies and their partners collect and manage large amounts of geospatial data - but these data are often not easily found when needed or accessible in useful forms. The Geospatial Platform provides ready access to federally maintained geospatial data, services and applications. The content of all datasets and services demarcated with the Data.gov globe (below) have been verified by the Agency to be consistent with Federal privacy, national security, and information quality policies. As an additional service to our users, we also provide access to data from our partners across State, Tribal, Regional and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations."

Comments:
This platform is launched on Esri ArcGIS server technology. However, Esri has recently added support for OGC capabilities so I believe WMS will be supported. This system has been in development for a long time and is in coordination with Data.gov which was loaded with data from the Geopsatial OneStop. This plat form should effectively retire the GOS portal.

http://www.data.gov
Data.gov continues to develop and supports open government and open data standards. This platform is more encompassing and supports multiple information systems and is eager to launch the Data.gov Next Generation platform. This platform "makes public data universally accessible in a new engaging online experience. Data.gov users can now interactively discover, explore, share and contribute to data. Whether it's finding relevant data, visualizing it with charts and maps, or sharing it on social networks, Data.gov Next Generation makes it easy."

Overall both platforms are intended to uplift federal and partner data to provide higher accessibility and discoverability to the public.

This is an cloud and enterprise solution for IT and further supports GIS as a component technology.

Press release: http://www.fgdc.gov/fgdc-news/fgdc-launches-new-geospatial-platform-website

Watch Samsung Unpacked Nexus Prime Live on YouTube

2011-09-30T03:01:00.002-05:00

According to the invitation that has been shared in many articles the Unpacked event will be held in a google flavor and may not occur on the traditional Unpacked channels indicating that the device is tuly a pure Google device.

The video is schduled to be live on YouTube.com/android on October 11 @ 11 to 11:30 AM Pacific from SanDiego CTIA Mobile Business Conference.

The event is called "Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 - Google Episode". The reason for the Google Episode is the release of Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) version of Andoid OS.

Here is the teaser trailer by SamsungMobile.The phone is displayed in the inverted horizon.

UPDATE 5: I give up trying to track this phone. Verizon has fouled up the release with what looks to be greed and proprietary turf wars. Here is a relative article: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/why-does-verizon-keep-delaying-the-galaxy-nexus/

At this time I have friends going from excited to disappointed. Some have done a 180 and bought an iPhone regardless of the lack of 4G and newer technology. They said they just wanted a reliable phone.

UPDATE 3-4: "An inside source tells us the two have moved their plans for the Unpacked event to October 19th in Hong Kong (interested US residents should clear out the evening of Tuesday the 18th, time zones), timed to coincide with the AsiaD: All Things Digital event there next week. Naturally, we'll be in the house, but with not long to go before the potential date, we'd expect to hear something concrete soon". - engadget

YouTube.com/android : 7PM Pacific / 8PM Mountain / 9PM Central / 10PM Eastern
Engadget Live Blog: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/18/samsung-and-googles-ice-cream-sandwich-event-liveblog/

UPDATE 2: Another Unpacked event is being planed for late October and rumors indicate the phone will be launched on November 3. FCC has also approved a non-Verizon (GSM) phone.

UPDATE: Google and Samsung have delayed the arrival of the next, much-anticipated Android smartphone, due to the passing of Steve Jobs.

In a statement today, the companies said they won't be showing off the upcoming device at the Samsung Unpacked event next week during CTIA as had been expected. They are looking for a "new date and venue" to unveil the smartphone, which has been dubbed both the Galaxy Nexus and the Nexus Prime.

"We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product," the companies said in a statement. In a follow-up statement to CNET, a Samsung spokesperson said that Steve Jobs' recent death has prompted the decision.

GIS on a thumb drive

2011-08-23T15:35:00.001-05:00

GIS on a thumb drive: OSGeo-Live 4.5 is a self-contained bootable DVD, USB thumb drive or Virtual Machine based on Xubuntu. http://goo.gl/6170q

For any one interested in entering the open source geospatial realm here is a pretty easy gateway. Simply save the image to a thumb drive and boot your PC into an open source GIS desktop. An overview of the contents lists a very impressive list of software and opensource systems. There is a nice summary of each item, links to the site and often a quick start guide.

This is definitely worth checking out considering the costs and complexities of the average GIS. A similar system from Esri would cost well over $10,000. Thanks OSGeo and all the contributors and volunteers!

Samsung Galaxy S2

2011-02-14T13:43:00.005-06:00

Back in December I bought a Samsung Galaxy S phone. All-in-all it was the best phone I have ever owned and the first smart phone that I thought was truly smart. However, I took it back for one reason. It didn't have Android 2.2 as intended. Instead it had a patchwork of Android 2.1, Samsung, and Verizon applications. Worst of all the Microsoft Bing overtook the search engine and could not be substituted.

Since then I have been hot and heavy in research on the Samsung Galaxy S2 phone. It was just announced at the WMC and new content is becoming available.

Here are the best links I have found so far:

http://www.samsungunpacked.com/html/stream.html

Samsung's video of the WMC announcement

http://galaxys2.samsungmobile.com/html/

Official webpage

http://mwc2011.techradar.com/2011/02/hands-on-samsung-galaxy-s2-review/

Good hands on review

http://telecomjunction.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/samsung-galaxy-s-ii-hands-on-pictures-and-video-plus-1080p-sample-video-recording/

Video review and sample video

https://picasaweb.google.com/samsungmobilepress

Samsung Mobile Press Images
Other form factors

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_II

Wikipedia (new info is surprising)

I'm now waiting to see when the phone will be released on the carriers, specifically Verizon.

UPDATE: Samsung has posted an information sign up page for the Galaxy SII - http://www.samsung.com/us/register/galaxysII/

I suspect advertising and promotions will start August 1st, 2011. Then estimated sales are on August 12, 2011.

It's likely that infromation will be posted to http://samsungmobile.com as it has in the past.

GISCI Invites Comment on Proposed Examination Requirement.

2011-02-01T09:14:00.001-06:00

"After much consideration and deliberation, the GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) invites you to review a proposal to update requirements for GIS Professional (GISP) certification. Key among the proposed updates is the addition of a required examination. As part of its deliberations, the GISCI Board of Directors will consider comments received between February 1 and February 28, 2011. A Board decision about proposed changes is expected in April 2011. We are excited to have your involvement in this decision-making process. Here are some key links for this initiative:" (gisci.org)

Press Release:
http://gisci.org/PDFs/GISP_update_press_release_1-28-11%20(2).pdf
Proposal:
http://gisci.org/PDFs/GISP_Update_Proposal_public_1-21-2011.pdf
GISCI mailing list:
http://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=001rlsB_VLrUOnE_Zpzl2KIkQ%3D%3D

In support of the recent Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM) and labor standards released by the Department of Labor. The competency exam is intended to increase the value and importance of the GISP in the GIS Profession

Links to GTCM information:

O*NET:
http://online.onetcenter.org/link/summary/15-1099.06
CarrerOneStop:
http://www.careeronestop.org/competencymodel/pyramid.aspx?geo=Y

With over 5,000 certified GISPs a competency exam has remained a hot topic and now has industry support to provide a consistent and accepted standard.

Whether a certified GISP or not you are likely still a GIS Professional and I encourage you to review the proposal at full length and comment on the opportunity to include and examination component in the certification process to add value to the GISP.

GIS related word usage / charted from 1800 - 2000

2010-12-17T10:38:00.003-06:00

I thought this was interesting, http://ngrams.googlelabs.com. It charts word usage as indexed by Google.

I have searched the following words and phrases:

geography
geographic
information systems
GIS
CAD
spatial data
GPS

And here are the results as according to Google Labs Ngrams.

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=geography,+geographic,+information+systems,+GIS,+CAD,+spatial+data,+GPS&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3

GIS.Alabama.gov

2010-11-04T10:49:00.000-05:00

In Alabama we have been in progress with a GIS Executive Council. So far we have established a strategic plan, website, and committee portal.

My office, the ISD - Geospatial Office, has been coordinating and designing the first page of the site which supports the Advisory Committee and member forums hosted by the Alabama Department on Higher Education. The page is intended to act as a landing page that provides top level information, links, and connectivity to other State applications and services.

The Advisory Committee is composed of representatives from many state agencies that have interests in GIS and we meet monthly do carry on the agenda of the Strategic Plan and Council. There is much work under way and it is difficult to carry consistency and maintain a strong volunteer effort, but thus far we have had success.

The Committee has added 4 Subcommittees (Imagery and Data Standards combined) to focus on key topics and issues and to proceed with the Strategic Plan deadlines. These subcommittees help to maintain a healthy diversity in the leadership and to promote ideas and initiatives from the committee members and stakeholders.

This month we will complete 5 stakeholder workshops that are a part of the FGDC Fifty States Initiatives intended to aid the state in further development of it's strategic plan and to generate community support and feedback into the planning process.

We will come together as a group at the Rocket City Geospatial Conference where we will introduce the Committees and their work to the larger GIS professional community in Alabama.

A group of Alabama GIS Professionals will also have their annual meeting for the Alabama Chapter of URISA.

The conference is November 16 and 17 in Huntsville Alabama and it should be an excellent event.

Honeymoon

2010-04-13T21:42:00.001-05:00

So, a sure way to keep a GIS volunteer down is to set him up on planning, executing and wedding, maps included. Then send him on a honeymoon! Here's the happy couple at the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg TN.

More pictures will be posted on http://www.jen-mike.com.

Best- Mike

USA Spending: IT Dashboard

2009-12-14T15:14:00.000-06:00

IT DASHBOARD: http://it.usaspending.gov/

Has anybody taken a good glance at this and noticed the difference a word can make? “Investment”

I pulled up the “IT Dashboard” to try to figure out what it was telling me about US government and the new administration has decided to show us how much they are spending and where the money is going. But rather than call it spending as the site domain says, they have listed it as investments.

Dashboard: http://it.usaspending.gov/?q=content/dashboard

If GIS were more often considered an investment it would certainly help!

Each “investment” is rated by the agencies CIO and is reported as a stoplight Red, Yellow, Green which provides a quick scorecard to the public.

Investment List: http://it.usaspending.gov/?q=content/investment-list

As a citizen – I don’t want to see any of my investments in red. (note the change in my language to “my investments”)

DOA (Agriculture) has an investment Geographic Information Services (GIS) #84 (Yellow, 4.7). An immediate red flag on the investment is because it is late and not rated by the CIO. Further investigation and several indicators (all 28) were not rated. This has the potential to make the Prime Contractor look bad (our sponsors).

If I don’t like this rating I can contact the Agency CIO by email, phone or snail mail.

http://it.usaspending.gov/?q=content/cio-information&agency_id=005&buscid=4042

Looking at this further and I think this is in part NAIP contracts, and I’m sure we have a bunch of angry citizens if the NAIP imagery program is getting poor ratings. According to the site this investment “needs attention”.

What does NSGIC have to say about this GIS “investment”?

Big kudos to the Obama administration to get me thinking about my government and its spending as an investment.

Michael A. Vanhook

"Free Economy"

2009-11-25T07:59:00.000-06:00

I have been doing some "research" on the "free economy" or "free" economy as I have seen it often online. I'm not sure why only free is quoted because it seems that the Free Economy is here to stay and is a proper phrase. Google, Amazon, Ebay, and other services using their free services are building a new economy at an escalating rate. The model seems pretty simple. Join a free site like Google or Amazon and consume services, then build services on top of their services, and apply cloud resources as needed. With little effort and added extensibility from the "free" sites on can build a simple (and it has to be simple) tool that reaches a niche market and takes advantage of the richness of information to provide a tool that opens up information in a completely useful and dynamic way or that allows users to customize their use of information for micro transactions. Micro transactions can be one of many things, and may actually represent a free market, where rather than trading rabbits and chickens, we are trading consumption and accessibility. Each user consumes services and exchanges information which serves as some kind of credit system, and the more traffic a site or service has the more exchange occurs. Google's term for this in part is to monetize a site or video and pay the author for the traffic it generates and accessibility to advertising niches. So even if it is a funny movie or a satire comic there is a micro economy there that can be exploited if accessible and the free economy is making that happen. Your blogs about life, pictures of a beloved place, or videos of adventure are demonstrating value that can now be "monetized" to drive the Free Economy.

http://adage.com/images/bin/image/large/fourkindsoffree100608.jpg

BTW: I started this research by googling the phrase "free economy" with restrictions and other key words to find its definition and relationships, but I only found a few articles to start from. Here they are:

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/07/Chris_Anderson_on_Microsoft_vs_Google_in_the_Free_economy_50883782.html

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5939331.ece

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=21741

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free

Another economic term that has become proper because of Google and Amazon is "The Long Tale", here it is as stated on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail

Y: $ per Sale and X: Number of Occurrences ---- http://blogs.idc.com/ie/wp-content/LongTail_01.jpg

And I found these graphics and a blog that points back to Chris Anderson, featured in the above articles. I found the blog by accidentally placing "the long tail" in the address bar rather than the search bar, then searched images for the graphics. The blog "The Long Tail":
http://www.thelongtail.com/

Best regards-
Mike