Batch Geonews: TIGER, ArcGIS for WordPress, RTK GPS for $2k, Yosemite Fires, and much more

Catching up the August geonews, we're now all up to date with this way too long entry.

On the open source front:

  • The new open source GraphHopper Maps – High Performance and Customizable Routing in Java based on OpenStreetMap data (via OSM)
  • Here's Quantarctica, a free GIS package for Antarctica, the basic package is 7 gigs of free geodata and works with QGIS
  • MapBox has an entry on the US Census Bureau released the version of TIGER
  • There's more of those, the first Open Source Geospatial Lab in Switzerland is established at SUPSI, Ohio's First Open Source Geospatial lab will be established at KSU, and another one, First Australian Open Source Geospatial Laboratory at the University of Melbourne
  • Frequent improvements, GeoTools 9.5 Released, GeoServer 2.3.5 Released, and Geopaparazzi 3.6.0 is out
  • MapGuide Open Source is still alive and a major release planned for next year, meanwhile, Announcing: MapGuide Open Source 2.4.1 and 2.5.1
  • Try open source software easily, OSGeo-Live 7.0 Released

On the Esri front:

  • WordPress and Esri are both very popular, this gives us a WorldPress Plugin for ArcGIS Online: Spatial-Blogging for all Bloggers
  • Esri released ArcGIS for State Government
  • Here's an open source boilerplate for ArcGIS API for Javascript apps
  • From Esri Press, the second edition of book 'The GIS 20: Essential Skills'
  • MS and Esri, Bing Maps Use in ArcGIS Has Changed
  • Updates, ArcGIS API for JavaScript Version 3.6 Released and ArcPad 10.2 Released

Discussed over Slashdot:

  • More free data, Using Zillow's Creative Commons Neighborhood Boundary Data For the U.S.
  • Microsoft acquires a part of Nokia, including access to Nokia mapping services
  • Patents block innovation, How Patent Trolls Stalled a New Transit App
  • Mapping unhappiness, Twitter-Based Study Figures Out Saddest Spots In New York City
  • With MapBox behind, Open Source Mapping Software Shows Every Traffic Death On Earth, on a similar topic, Visualizing New York’s Road Accidents With the Interactive ‘Crashmapper’
  • Old maps, Ostrich-Egg Globe Believed Oldest To Show New World
  • More competition for driverless cars, Nissan Plans To Sell Self-Driving Cars By
  • Sharks with lasers? Great White Shark RFID/Satellite Tracking Shows Long Journeys, Many Beach Visits

In the miscellaneous category:

  • Another insightful entry from Brian Timoney, with an example of how difficult it can be to simply get the latest US state boundaries
  • Kickstarter to get a 4-cm accuracy real-time kinematic GPS for only 2,000$, named Piksi
  • OGC standards and Advancing Toward Spatial Data Quality Assurance
  • MapBox has been testing their upcoming quick access to satellite imagery 'MapBox Satellite Live'
  • Another research indicating using GPS negatively impact our internal picture of the world
  • MapQuest wants to stay relevant with their new spatially aware Data Manager API web service
  • Here's the YouSayCity, a 3D tool to discuss and document the future of individual cities
  • Not directly geospatial, Discover the World's Greatest Internet Cities
  • While it's a rather poor game, gamification of crowdsourcing geospatial data is here, this example of the Landspotting iPad app to crowdsource satellite imagery classification in a game, I preferred the Kort game to improve OpenStreetMap
  • Wired shared an article on Google Map Maker, OpenStreetMap and the State of Crowdsourced World Mapping
  • Nothing surprising, Apple too will leverage its users, iOS 7 Will Ask Users To Help Improve iOS Maps, Apple also acquired Embark to Further Improve Mass Transit Navigation
  • In-the-house mobile devices, Are Mobile Users Really Mobile? Not So Much
  • With Agile everywhere, it's Agile somewhere, 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science
  • Don't know how many people there is an in area? Use the pickle consumption index
  • Something we heard before, the geospatial identity crisis and the term 'geomatics'
  • We mentioned it in and here's an updated about Gmap4: REST and WMS Map Viewer for Google Maps and GIS Data
  • Another OGC entry, this time on big data and Big Processing of Geospatial Data
  • A generic NYT article on Microsatellites: What Big Eyes They Have
  • Drones again, Light-weight UAV-mounted laser scanning system announced
  • Future unevenly distributed, Video Flashback 1987: Star Trek's Shatner Tells You Where You Can Stick Your Maps
  • Pretty interesting, geo doesn't have to be that complex, James Fee shares GIS Is Complicated by Design

In the maps category:

  • Yosemite fires entries: The Fire Last Time: Mapping Blazes Past, Present - and Future, 6 Months of Wildfires Burning North America, and Yosemite Fire’s Destruction Mapped in Beautiful, Frightening Color
  • Another source for marine traffic, Visualize and Monitor Maritime Vessels, Real-time on Google Earth
  • Map of Nobel prizes, A visual exploration of the Nobel Prize history
  • An printed atlas, Atlas of the World Wide Web
  • Maps of war, Targeting Sites of Attack in Syria
  • Correlation is not causation, maps of Milk, the Drink of Conquerors
  • Via Wired, don't miss (really) this London’s Underground With This Mesmerizing Interactive 3-D Map
  • On a similar topic, the Interactive Map of the Paris Metro
  • A new version, the nice Submarine Cable Map

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