Slashgeo

VectorOne runs two perspectives wondering if you think GIS as we know it will “disappear” into the cloud? From Jeff: "The Cloud is fertile ground for a GIS. A GIS is about much more than location alone. Its truest value and highest potential are exposed through the capability to perform spatial analysis, model and simulate. In a sense GIS is a 5-speed F1 racer that has been operating in second gear. The cloud has enormous potential to change that, shifting spatial gears and accelerating the wider use of GIS functionality. Buckle up - the ride is about to begin." From Matt: "Predominantly geospatial capabilities are purchased by organizations, and by companies of such a size and complexity that they feel they must control these systems, particularly when they’re of a critical nature to operations and/or contain proprietary information that must be kept from competitors. I also wonder how long performance, security and reliable accessibility issues will exist for Internet-based applications."

In my numerous emails to catch up, I had the OGC newsletter with an article on the GeoCloud: "Given that the cloud computing platform and SaaS together are very similar (identical?) in their requirements for access to services and geospatial content, my belief is that OGC standards have the same value and provide the same benefits for the cloud as they do for the Grid community. It is only a matter of time before OGC standards are an integral component of the cloud." The ENTCHEV blog also offers several links to software that now supports cloud for geospatial applications. Spatially Adjusted also adds information. See also pertinent related stories below.

From the GeoPDF blog : "Microsoft finally released Photosynth to the general public. This is a long awaited release for this very cool 3-D panorama creation solution. I have fooled around with OpenPhotoVR but did not have the time or patience to get it working properly. Photosynth will "synth" your world for you! Check out the Photosynth gallery to see all the cool scenes already in the archive. Be careful when you create your own...your photos will be publicly available."

Microsoft just released Virtual Earth 6.2 and Virtual Earth Web Services 1.0. The quantity of new features is huge and are worth taking a look at, here's the highlights but follow the link for the details: " # Maps for Mobile Devices. # Bird’s Eye Views and Bird’s Eye Hybrid. # Aerial Imagery. # 3D Imagery. # Geocoding and Reverse Geocoding. # International Geocoding. # Localized Directions. # Localized Maps. # Extended International Parsing Capabilities. # Expanded Number of Rooftop Views. # Near-Matching Capabilities. # Imagery Metadata. # New Virtual Earth Web Services. # One-Click Directions. # Shapes and Shape Layers. # Pushpin Clustering. # Landmark-Based Routing. # Driving Directions with Traffic-Based Routing. # Walking Directions. # Multipoint Routing. # Traffic Reports. # GeoRSS Feeds. " I expect geoblog reactions in the coming days and will share them with our users. See also related stories below, Microsoft has been very busy lately with their geoservices.

From the SharpGIS blog : "Blom just announced the release of their BlomURBEX (Urban Explorer) SDK. It includes access to high resolution ortho and SEAMLESS birds eye imagery of over 1000 european cities. These are the same images as Microsoft uses on the Virtual Earth platform, but the unique is that they have managed to seamlessly stich the birds eye imagery together seamlessly, making the navigation much more intuitive. "

From the BostonGIS blog, the titles says it all, but here is some of their summary : "Well we knew this day would come when we would have to start experimenting with Clouds. Now it seems a lot more cloud providers are coming on line. For our first experimentation we chose GoGrid because they offer a free 1 month/50$ trial plus we needed to test out Windows 2008 Server as well as Linux and they had an offering for both where as Amazon seems to only offer Windows 2003 and its very new. We were hesitant to go the Windows 2008 Server 64-bit route since we aren't sure how well PHP works in 64-bit IIS 7 and in general I've had nightmares with IIS in 64-bit mode e.g. the fact that they will not be releasing 64-bit jet drivers and in many cases there is no alternative in the ADO.Net world and so forth."