I saw the newest James Bond movie this weekend, Casino Royale. It’s friggin’ awesome!
The one thing that irks me though and it has been bothering me since Saturday. . . the mapping apps he used were also friggin’ awesome. Now, I’ve amost illeagally downloaded the movie to clip the images that I want to show you, but I should just say the laptop Google Earth-like app Bond uses in the movie is pretty kick ass. With your traditional black background, Apple IIe vectors, with slippy map and almost OSM/MasterMap/NavTeq-degree attribution—it made me jealous that Hollywood could graphically create such a mapping app for the world’s greatest secret agent.
As cool that I thought the whole Bond and maps thing was, I started getting into the logistics that would have gone into such an MI6 toy. Data collection, preparations, storage, custom code development, database creation, encryption, on-the-fly overlays, and the list goes on and on. Then I realized, Bond would have made MI6 go broke with that app’s development and deployment.
The closest thing the Brits have to what Bond had in Casino Royale is Ed Parsons. They must have also had a few international OpenStreetMap parties too to carry the data requirements for Bond.
I may not have attended last week’s GEOINT conference, but the interesting tidbits I’ve heard from attendees have been pretty interesting. Most notably, discussion at the conference about limiting U.S. commercial satellite imagery providers in their resolution and distribution. Yeah, I know. Blew me away too.
The line of thought is no different than the Indian Government or any other sovereign state about concerns of ill-intended use, like use by terrorists. What my sources have said is that senior policy makers are worried about just that and have discussed limiting U.S. firms from improving their technology and who they sell to.
This is not good.
One, “the cat’s already out of the bag, dude.” Commercial satellite imagery is here to stay and so are the dissemination platforms. (Re: SPOT and Geoportail.) There are more non-U.S. platforms that are going to go up in the future along with various disemination systems, like Google Earth, NASA World Wind, and others. If the U.S. doesn’t stay in the game and keeps improving the technology, then it’s going to go elsewhere.
Two, it’s a matter of global economics. There is a legitimate demand for this information, if it doesn’t come from U.S. providers, then it’s going to come from elsewhere. This would force Google Earth to buy commercial satellite imagery from India, Russia, or China someday.
Three, this information has done more to help people than to hurt them. Just look at the example of a number of Indian farmers who used Google Earth to thwart the attemps of their government to reclassify and take away their land. NGO’s and conservation groups can monitor area’s that need monitoring. If this line of thought that is running through some U.S. policymaker’s head is about fear, then they need to get over it. I’d like to note, that putting more information out into the public is a good thing. Where citizens can participate in their communities and add value to them.
The one main idea that should have came out of GEOINT this year should have been make it better for the citizens to help ease this fear.
On a side note, if U.S. law and policy did revert back to more restrictive measures, the U.S. would be no better than any other country who limits the posession of other geographic imformation.
(Update: Jeff at Vector One wrote a similar post about de-classifying geospatial data.)
So, I go to the airport yesterday to pick up my parents for the Thanksgiving weekend. During the car ride home my dad asks, “What do you think of the new 3D Virtual Earth?”
WTF!?!
Me: “It’s cool. I haven’t had time to work with it much. I like that it is in the browser.”
Dad: “Well, let me tell you, I downloaded the 3D part the other day. The way you can tilt and pan around is great! You can really see the quanset rows of [my grandparent's] farm. (With a chuckle) It’s great!”
Who’d-a-thunk it? My dad and Virtual Earth.
I’ll have to ask at dinner tonight why VE versus GE or AGX? (I already know the answer to AGX—”What?”)
Brady Forrest is running Where 2.o solo this year and he just happeded to put out the Call for Papers. Also, notice that the date changed for the conference. It’s still at the Fairmont in San Jose, but it will now be held 29 & 30 May. So, no conflict with ESRI!
I wonder if they’re going to have another Pixie Hunt?
I happened to come in to a copy of A to Z GIS (ISBN 978-1-58948-140-4), by ESRI. It’s a nice pocket-sized book that tells you all the definitions and concepts of (ESRI) GIS. I like it because, even though I know a lot, I sure don’t apply or remember everything about GIS. This is a handy reference guide not only for GIS beginners, but also for those of us long in the GIS tooth.
On Friday I saw a demonstration by The Carbon Project about CarbonCloud and ((ECHO))MyPlace. Talk about some wickedly cool apps—especially ((ECHO))MyPlace.
“Echo” does exactly just that; it uses peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to share geotags and information across its user’s web. The demo The Carbon Project gave was focused on security at a Carolina Panther’s football game and utilized ultra mobile PC’s (UMPC’s) to connect to everyone in their network using WiFi connections. It was pretty schweet. Now, you don’t have to be on a UMPC or using WiFi to connect, you can also use your land-line Internet connection to be a part of the group too.
So, notes, chats, and tags were flying back ‘n forth. Tracking unruly Pittsburgh fans. Pointing out car accidents and such. A lot of people were impressed.
Anyway, questions came out of the crowd like: “Can you make this for Windows Mobile?” “How about voice and audio?” Finally, “Can I have you UMPC?”
So, a pretty cool app. It’s like having a collaborative atlas like Platial, CommunityWalk, or 43Places, but on a live feed.
Perhaps this could be a Where 2.0 2007 feature?
The evenings over the past week have been pretty interesting. I’ve received phone calls from Senator John McCain, Newt Gingrich, George Allen, Jim Webb, and a host of other political supporters. Now, I have to say, most are recordings, but am I being geographically spammed by telephone?
At Where 2.0 last June there was a presentation on where spam would be in 2008. Well, it seems we’re almost there.
Blogger was getting to be a pain in the tucus. It served me well, I thought I would move on since most of my readership is through Planet Geospatial.
James’ post tonight won’t be the last comment about how ESRI users and developers see their server-based products. It just seems that over the past few weeks more and more people, especially developers friendly to ESRI, have seriously complained about ArcIMS, ArcSDE, and ArcGIS Server and how they’re all “too little too late.”
In the case of ArcIMS, it’s a matter of the services and the lack of OGC compliance of it. It’s not advanced enough for the people who I talk to. Granted, they haven’t looked at ArcGIS Server, but still, there are some OGC specs that would be nice to have now until later. Even though WMS and KML are available, there’s something missing that goes with those outputs.
For ArcSDE, a number of people have told me. If you can afford Oracle Spatial, buy it, skip SDE. If you can’t afford Oracle Spatial, PostgreSQL with PostGIS. Just stay as far away from SDE if you transactional times that won’t cause you to loose 80% of your day.
Finally, there’s ArcGIS Server. This product gets no love because it’s the red-headed stepchild of the bunch. Not enough people are in need of it, thus a lack of understanding about it. If no one is implementing it, then there’s not enough visibility, and again it could be something worthwhile, but no community equals no success or use. ArcGIS Explorer could save it, then again, you have to be building tasks, globes, and services with it. If no one is, then it’s DOA. Sorry, Jeremey.
I mean, I feel bad writing this. I like ESRI. Desktop is great—except for my export map problem on my laptop. Yet, this state of affairs for ESRI server apps are really sad. I just hope they can either 1) improve, or, 2) get out without betting the farm on server apps.
