Slashgeo

DM Articles: Top Ten of 2007, Extensible GIS via SOA, Afghanistan Mapping and Much More

posted by Satri on Friday January 25, @01:34PM        Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the sometimes-you-cut-corners-when-time-is-at-stake dept.

Here's several interesting recent articles and reprints from Directions Magazine. First is Adena's geospatial industry top ten of 2007, unsurprisingly generic but interesting nonetheless. There's a brief article from Microsoft's Bill Gail on public vs private remote sensing data: "The success of privately funded systems can be evaluated by spreadsheet, while that of publicly funded systems must somehow be related to diffuse concepts such as the value of a human life or animal habitat, scientific progress, and national prosperity/security." Then there's an article named creating an extensible GIS using SOA and web services, it's generic but pertinent: "An SOA [service-oriented architecture] approach can expand the benefits of proper communication by allowing more streamlined communications between systems, as well as people and processes." There's a note on the U.S. NGA support for Afghan Mapping Initiative: "As part of the initiative, NGA will install a nationwide geodetic network, procure and install a basic map production system, provide training and conduct joint AGCHO-NGA projects." There's an article on the future of mobile devices. There's an article named geography lessons for online retailers: "Knowing where and how Web visitors are accessing the Internet is fundamental to preventing online fraud and complying with regulations." Then there's an article on GIS integration in the transportation sector: "In some instances, a general shortage of knowledge regarding GIS capabilities makes the task of integration seem more complex and can unfairly outweigh the immense value, usefulness and functionality available." There's an interesting article from OGC's Sam Bacharach on geospatial standards and technology convergence: "Knowing what data to share and what data not to share is a balancing act, but in business and research, the game is clearly moving in the direction of openness. In both domains, of course, security, access, liability and intellectual property rights - implemented in automated service chains - are becoming very important policy and technical requirements." And the last one, a 2007 stock performance analysis of geospatial companies: "Stock market investing is never for the faint of heart, but clearly the location technology market sector is hot." Please allow this unusually long Slashgeo story, I'm still catching up geonews from the last four weeks.

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• Necessary?

  (Score:2, Interesting)

  by Anonymous Voxel on Friday January 25, @02:18PM (#2168)

  While I appreciate you wanting to "catch up," I'm not sure printing Directions TOC for the last few weeks is needed. What do others think? Should Satri spend his time on new stuff or catching up?

  [ Reply to This ]
  • Re:Necessary?

    (Score:3)

    by Satri (3) on Friday January 25, @02:45PM (#2169)
    ( http://alexandreleroux.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 17, @04:07PM )

    That's an excellent question! :-) Though I think I'll get to the "new stuff" pretty soon (remark that many of the DM articles were published this week, so it's not all that "old"), your question is pertinent. I do it because I *feel* useful to the community doing it and I somehow have fun too (thanks to Jeff of V1 for making me realize this important aspect). And, not irrelevant, I said [slashgeo.org] to our users that I would do so. You see, since there isn't a lot of comments on the site (yet?!), I tend to believe we have so many users/readers because they're happy to have one site to read and they won't miss anything major. Of course, I can be wrong.
    
    I don't feel I have linked to DM's "TOC", but rather selected the most informative/interesting recent DM articles in my opinion. There's plenty DM articles that you haven't heard on Slashgeo. Selecting the "worthiest" geospatial news is a subjective process. And because we're about 5-7 active Slashgeo editors, different editors may favor other geonews. Users can/should submit what geonews they think is relevant [slashgeo.org] and we'll gladly share it.
    
    How to spend our time and efforts is a great question. I could anytime drop Slashgeo.org (from one point of view, it's just draining me money and free time), but I want to offer this service to the geospatial community. Others contribute to the OSGeo, others code open source software, well, I chose to help aggregating geonews for some users that seem to appreciate it. Of course, I dream of the day Slashgeo will sustain itself (i.e. not require a significant amount of my time through the participation of other geo-enthusiasts), I have plenty of personal projects on hold and a new marvellous daughter to spend time with :-)

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]
    • Re:Necessary?

      (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Voxel on Monday January 28, @12:27AM (#2172)

      I would just like to say that I very much appreciate the effort you and the other editors put into Slashgeo! I think your conclusion about the relatively few comments is correct; people are happy with the site. I hope the negative feedback you receive does not deter you from continuing with this project.
      
      Thanks again,

      [ Reply to This | Parent ]
  • Re:Necessary?

    (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Voxel on Tuesday January 29, @02:38PM (#2176)

    I think this is a fair question. When SlashGeo is quiet - I go elsewhere, so I vote you don't look back after a break, but go forward.
    
    John

    [ Reply to This | Parent ]