VerticalGeo

The Google Earth Blog contained this post back in April. I totally missed it. I believe the difficulty in sharing Google Earth data is one of the major problems the system has. Looks like Google is trying to address that problem with Google Earth Builder, a cloud-based storage system for Google Earth data that stores data in a similar way to Google Docs. Here is the Post by Mickey Mellen:

April 21, 2011

More about Google Earth Builder

We mentioned Google’s new “Google Earth Builder” in our wrap-up post yesterday, but decided that it deserved a bit more attention.

In a nutshell, Google Earth Builder is a new way for companies to share their vast repositories of geo data. Rather than needing to configure servers and support a local infrastructure, they can simply upload their data to Google Earth Builder and share it that way. It uses a sharing model quite similar to Google Docs (private, individual access, or public), and the data streams extremely quickly.

The implications of this could be huge. Not only will it be a great solution for large corporations and government entities, but provides a way for any company to generate data for a specific client (such as custom 3D buildings) without necessarily having to post them for the world to see.

An interesting point that Google made is that this data will be easily accessible to anyone (with permission) from their desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc. That makes sense, but currently the tablet and smartphone clients for Google Earth likely can’t handle this kind of data. Either their comments have been misinterpreted by everyone (including cnet and others), or we’re hopefully looking at some nice updates to their mobile products in the coming months.

They keys that Google seems to be pushing with this is that it’s easy and fast. Both of this seemed clearly evident in the live demo that they provided on stage yesterday. You can watch that video demonstration below:

There were a few fun facts in that video: There have been more than 700 million downloads of Google Earth and that people use Maps and Earth for more than one million hours every day. Wow!

The fact that Google Earth Builder isn’t due out for a few months (some sites say July, Google says Q3), means that it will only be getting faster and smoother. This could be a brilliant tool to help large entities deal with their vast amounts of data, and we’ll find out once it launches later this year.

Rick Marshall will be speaking at the ESRI Federal User Conference (Also called the Fed UC) held at the Walter Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, February 22-24. Rick will be speaking on the subject of “AMC GeoBase ArcGIS Server Visualization Support for Air Mobility Rodeo 2012.” You can read the abstract and details for Rick’s presentation on the ESRI website here: Link.

If you are at the conference please fell welcome to drop in and say hi. We hope to see you there.

I discovered a great resource last night as I was looking for a catalog of Web Mapping Services (WMS) to consume while standing up an Open Source GeoServer Stack.  Back in 1994 the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) established a number of standards for geospatial data formats and services.  The Web Map Service has become essential for the exchange of geospatial data through the web.  Worldwide there exist thousands of WMS services offering data with hematic content.

Mapmatters.org is a service that catalogs and tests WMS feeds.

Mapmatters has cataloged more than 1000 WMS services.  Through text or geographical extent searches users can find layers of interest.  Each layer can be previewed on a map or with pre-compiled thumbnails.

In addition to the catalogue mapmatters  also assesses performance and reliability of  WMS services.  For many layers information is available, for instance, how long it takes to download maps from the service and how many times a request failed.

Mapmatters is both a tool for the end-user to find a WMS service that fits the needs of a specific application with respect to the thematic contents and the required technical quality and a tool that tracks how well the service performs and to quickly be notified in case of failure.

Mapmatters is currently in a beta stage and will be extended continously.  Mapmatters.org is a project by GeOps

Back on October 5 I posted a post titled, “GIS On The Web Is OK, Sometimes….”

I was contacted by a reader and asked to clarify my comments.  I will attempt to do that:

I am a retired Air Force C-130 Navigator and after I retired I founded VerticalGeo, a Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business providing GIS consulting services to the US Air Force.  We do quite a bit of consulting within Air Mobility Command’s GeoBase program.  We are used to working with some of the great enterprise mapping tools the GeoBase Program uses, but our company is too small (and we keep busy because our profit margin is low) to purchase tools such as ArcGIS Server for use in our own mapping projects.

I worked for ESRI for a year and have been a huge advocate for their software, but it is just too expensive for small companies like VerticalGeo to purchase much of their software, particularly the data sharing tier tools.  VerticalGeo has purchased ArcGIS Desktop software and we do a pretty good job of data authoring.  With the introduction of ArcGIS Online ESRI has delivered a free online Data Presentation tool that smaller companies like VerticalGeo can use to present their work without having to invest in the entire Arc Line of products.  But, ArcGIS Online is limited in what you can do with it and how much data you can display.  ESRI still doesn’t have an enterprise system that can be used to author, distribute, and present data that is affordable for companies like ours to own.  I am inspired that it looks like ArcGIS 10.1 will be offered as a SAAS product, because that makes the solution easier for companies like VerticalGeo to use on demand, but the cost is still too expensive.

We have recently been dabbling into the Open Source Geo Stack (http://opengeo.org/technology/) of software tools and it looks promising, but I believe for the most part Open Source GIS is a little bit light on the G (Geographic tools) and heavy into the IS (Information Systems).  You have to be more of an IT professional than a Geographer to use most of the tools offered through Open Source vendors.

What I would like to see happen is for the GIS community to come together and build our own Open Source Geo Stack that is simple to install and use (light on the IS) and provides ESRI-like analysis and authoring tools (heavy on the G).  Everyone likes to use Google Earth because it is a simple tool that works great and provides unparalleled visualization.  It just isn’t a data authoring tool.  I would like to create a suite of geo tools that is simple to use, powerful, covers data authoring, distribution, and presentation tiers, and can be used by map makers and analysts alike.

Here is a link to a super post by ESRI‘s Keith Mann in the Fall 2011 edition of ArcUser magazine that provides a tutorial on how to customize your Map Gallery on ArcGIS Online.  This should help organizations bring their own look and feel to what is an otherwise bland map gallery provided by ESRI at ArcGIS Online.  The ability to customize should help us who use ArcGIS Online eavery day to bring our own flavor to our ESRI hosted maps.  Kudos to ESRI for providing the capability to customize our ArcGIS Online galleries.

GISCafe has a good post this morning that captures the thoughts of Rory Biggadike from webmapsolutions.com regarding Mobilew GIS applications and their development.  As mobile technology continues to explode through the use of mobile phones and tablet computers this booming part of the GIS industry will continue to grow quickly.  Rory’s thoughts are very good and detail the complicated pieces of mobile GIS application development.

Esri has started a Community Maps Program where individuals or organizations can contribute  geographic content to become part of a community map that Esri publishes and hosts online. Your data is integrated with data from other providers and then published through ArcGIS Online as a map service.

This program is available to any Esri user organization and other geographic data providers interested in making their data content broadly available.

Benefits

• Users inside and outside of your organization, including the local business community and the general public will be able to use the online maps with ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS for Server Web mapping applications, or a standard Internet Web browser.
• Eliminates the costs associated with making the data widely available, such as setting up and maintaining the infrastructure.
• Map data is hosted and maintained by Esri at one or more data centers in the U.S. to ensure high availability and performance.
• Your organization retains all ownership of its data.
• Access to your map data through an online map.
• Esri can provide the data in ArcGIS for Server map cache format that your organization can publish for internal use with ArcGIS for Server.

Watch a video to learn more about the benefits of participating in the Community Maps Program.

Strange turn of events in my last two blog posts.  In this post Google announces the introduction of usage limits on their Google Maps API.  This post comes just after the ESRI Insider post highlighting ESRI’s effort to offer free web-based GIS For Everyone by Anyone.  Google has made their pile of money through advertizing while offering free services to their many users, and ESRI has made their pile of money through very high priced, but incredibly good, mapping software.  These two posts are opposite of what I would expect.  Kudos to ESRI on making crowd sourcing and community mapping a new part of their corporate direction.  They have talked about it for years and now they have done something about it.  Congrats to Bern Szukalski and the ArcGIS Online Team.

Google has made some changes to their Google Maps API Terms of Service; adding usage limits to the free API and beginning to charge for usage that exceeds the limits.  I hope they will reverse this policy now that ESRI’s ArcGIS Online offers capabilities similar to those of Google Maps.  Competition is a good thing, something that Google excels at.  Who would have thought with the history of both companies that Google would be charging for a service similar to one that ESRI offers for free.

Here is the entire GeoDeveloper Blog post as written by Thor Mitchell:

When the Maps API Terms of Service were updated in April of this year we announced that usage limits would be introduced to the Maps API starting on October 1st. With October upon us, I’d like to provide an update on how these limits are being introduced, and the impact it will have on your Maps API sites.

The usage limits that now apply to Maps API sites are documented in the Maps API FAQ. However no site exceeding these limits will stop working immediately. We understand that developers need time to evaluate their usage, determine if they are affected, and respond if necessary. There are three options available for sites that are exceeding the limits:

• Reduce your usage to below the limits
• Opt-in to paying for your excess usage at the rates given in the FAQ
• Purchase a Maps API Premier license

To assist in evaluating whether your site is exceeding the usage limits we will shortly be adding the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. Once available you will be able to track your usage in the APIs Console by providing an APIs Console key when you load the Maps API. If you find that your site does exceed the usage limits each day you can opt to pay for your excess usage by enabling billing on your APIs Console project. We will then start billing excess usage to your credit card when we begin enforcing the usage limits in early 2012.

For very popular sites Maps API Premier is likely to be a more cost effective option. It also offers a number of additional benefits, including terms that permit for-fee and internal use, enterprise technical support, a Service Level Agreement, fixed and invoiced annual pricing, and increased quotas for the Maps API Web Services. For more information on how Maps API Premier could benefit your application please contact the Sales team using this form.

We will announce the availability of the Maps APIs in the APIs Console on this blog later this quarter, and provide more details on how to set up an APIs Console account and update your Maps API application with an APIs Console key. We will also provide at least 30 days notice on this blog before enforcement of the usage limits and billing for excess usage begins.

We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning. However with the continued growth in adoption of the Maps API we need to secure its long term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable. By introducing these limits we are ensuring that Google can continue to offer the Maps API for free to the vast majority of developers for many years to come.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Great post on the ESRI insider Blog by Bern Szukalski on the benefits and simplicity of using ArcGIS Online to create web-based map templates.  I really like the capability ArcGIS Online brings to those of us without a server to publish web-maps.  Keep up the great work ESRI.

Here is the post in its entirity:

Earlier this week I was meeting with one of the directors of a large state agency. Among other topics we discussed, he told me that his organization was adopting a policy to move away from custom application development. Whenever possible they would serve internal and public needs with off-the-shelf applications, or better yet, with those that can be easily custom-configured without the need for programming.