Here's the usual Friday geonews in batch mode.

From the open source / open data front:

• A Wall Street Journal article on OpenStreetMap getting noticed by Microsoft and MapQuest
• Autodesk's CEO shared interesting comments on open source and MapGuide: "He commented that the effort has been a success based on the large number of users, but that Open Source was a bit of a ‘last gasp of the commoditization of desktop software.” He mentioned that the push toward mobile and cloud computing have eclipsed the interest in open source as a means to extend software capability, and that the phenomenon in the geospatial space that made this the right move doesn’t translate well to other markets that Autodesk serves."
• If you're into MapGuide and FDO, see this MapGuide Wishlist and this FDO wishlist
• An entry named 3D visualisation and DEM creation in QGIS with the GRASS plugin
• Also about QGIS, an overview of QGIS for MapInfo users, an entry on Quick graticule in QGIS and a new QGIS 1.6 brochure is available
• An entry about a workflow for creating beautiful relief shaded dems using GDAL
• libspatialindex 1.6.1 has been released
• OpenGeo Suite Community Edition 2.3.1 Released

From the ESRI front:

• The new ESRI Technical Certification Program has been announced
• ArcGIS 10 Data Interoperability Extension Service Pack 1 Released
• ArcGIS API For Microsoft Silverlight/WPF And ArcGIS API For Windows Phone 2.1 Now Available

From the Microsoft front:

• Microsoft reminds us of their nice Destinations Maps map app
• Bing Maps introduced mall directory maps

In the miscellaneous category:

• Three Russian GLONASS satellites were lost in the Pacific at launch
• Nigeria is launching two new OE satellites next February, the first one was in
• SS shared an entry on Autodesk’s Project Galileo, promising to meld CAD, GIS and BIM
• Here's a followup entry on Free Shapefiles of Countries of the World
• A friend sent me a link to this article named Five good reasons why publishers should care about geolocation
• The U.S. Census Bureau started providing Population Estimates

In the maps category:

• An informative entry named the Uses and Misuses of the Mercator Projection
• Maps of Internet users and Internet penetration
• A map of Forest Restoration Potential

Here's the traditional Friday geonews in batch mode.

Christmas geo-gift ideas:

• Four entries from Very Spatial: The four days of holiday gifts, Day 2: Sneaky Geography Gifts, More holiday treats for the geographer in your life, To round out our holiday gift ideas
• TMR shares an entry on Map Blankets

From the Google front (yes some more since yesterday):

• An official entry named How Local Search Ranking Works
• The GEB shares an entry named Google Earth continues to reveal strange sights from above
• APB discusses the Google Earth Engine as an Image Analysis for the Masses

From the ESRI front:

• I was amongst many to notice that ArcGIS for iOS now has data capture capabilities

From the open source / open data front:

• The OpenStreetMap editor Potlatch 2 has launched
• MapQuest is now using Swizerland and Netherlands data from OpenStreetMap
• Here's details on the Microsoft imagery access given to OpenStreetMap
• Thanks to open data, you can generate added-value for mostly anything, including an OpenFireMap
• V1 shares a long review of the OpenStreetMap - Be Your Own Cartographer book by Jonathan Bennett
• Via the OSGeo Discuss, I learned about the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review journal

In the miscellaneous category:

• Don't we all at some point look for a Free Shapefile of Countries of the World, here's a comparison
• Via the EOPortal, here's an article named Russia To Spend 2 Billion Dollars For Space Clean-Up
• SS shares an entry named Psychological Scientists Look at Spatial Skills for Indoor Navigation
• Slashdot ran a few somewhat geo-related stories: Combining Two Kinects To Make Better 3D Video, Aussie Government Competition To Predict Commute Times, and Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans' Real Time Credit Card Activity
• The GEB shares an entry named Take your own aerial photos with the Swinglet CAM
• The EO-1 satellite has been acquiring imagery for 10 years already

In the maps category:

• TMR shares a map of Natural Disaster Hot Zones

And the new somewhat off-topic link of the week: and entry from 'Information is beautiful' named Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom?, a quick look at the pic is enough, and it includes mapping ;-)

I've been overly busy lately, the consequence is you're getting your geonews in batch mode a little later than usual. Here they are!

On the Google front:

• Google provided an early look at HotPot, a local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends
• Google Boost, a local business advertising program, is now available to about 10 U.S. cities
• There's new panoramic photos in Google Earth

On the ESRI front:

• ArcGIS 10 Service Pack 1 Released
• V1 mentions GIS Tutorial books for ArcGIS 10
• SS informs us that Esri Adds an iOS App to Help Link Your Health to Your Environment

On the Microsoft front:

• There's a white paper on the new spatial features in the upcoming MS SQL Server

On the open data/open source front:

• O'Reilly is enthusiastic about Boston real-time transit data now available
• Here's an entry named Government institutions and OpenStreetMap in practice
• Also interesting is USGS Trialling OSM Software Stack for Editing
• A new feature for the Java Topology Suite: Single-Sided Buffers in JTS
• News of the integration of a 3D globe directly in QGIS, and while we're at it, a summary of the QGIS hackfest
• New releases: Geopublisher and AtlasStyler 1.6
• Shapely 1.2.7 has also been released
• Here's a discussion on ExifTool to modify location (GPS) metadata of your pictures

In the miscellaneous category:

• I do have to have to mention that we're in the Geography Awareness Week
• While we already discussed worldfile basics, here's to refresh our minds: the WorldFile explained
• Vietnam ojecting to China's depiction of disputed islands in Map World
• The FGT blog mentions the release of Dinamica EGO 1.6, software for spatial environmental modeling
• V1 discusses ‘What is driving the need for real-time geodata, and how does that impact the spatial information sector?’
• In another entry, V1 discusses the Strategic Citywide Spatial Planning of Port-au-Prince, Haiti
• In a last V1 entry, BIM – CAD – GIS Integration is discussed

In the maps category:

• A quick look to the map of landlocked and double-landlocked countries
• Here's Cartograms of the U.S. Midterm elections
• Might be useful, an Easy Magnetic Declination Value Website

Here's recent geonews in batch mode.

On the ESRI front:

• ArcGIS Mapping For Microsoft SharePoint 2.0 Now Available
• ArcGIS API For iOS 1.0 Now Available
• Latest Software And Firmware Versions To Use With ArcPad 10
• And an entry on creating a web application using ArcGIS
• James Fee encountered a limitation of the ESRI's EDN developer licenses when trying to test on multiple OS

In the miscellaneous category:

• OpenStreetMap editor named Potlatch version 2 is almost ready to be the default OSM editor
• MapQuest launched the MapQuest Atlas
• An entry on New Features for Bing Maps REST Services
• Here's an interesting entry on comparing image compression formats such as MrSID, jpeg, jpeg, GeoTIFFs and ECW
• The FGT blog offers a nice entry on online GPS satellite geometry error predictions tools
• APB mentions that SAP now have their own augmented reality app
• They also have an entry on tying a credit card to a cell phone location for location-based fraud protection
• The U.S. EPA GeoData Gateway website is now available to all

In the maps category:

• GeoCurrents shares an entry on the dangers of mapping religions, in an entry focusing on Islam mapping
• Here's a map of the gangs of New York

Here's the now traditional weekly dose of geonews in batch mode. On the ESRI front:

• ArcGIS Viewer For Flex 2.1 Now Available
• There's an new white paper on GIS In The Cloud, The Esri Example

On the Google front:

• Here's an entry on AlterEarth, a new gaming platform for Google Earth, and yes, you can play Grand Theft Auto on Earth
• The Google elevation service now available in the Maps API for Flash

On the open data / open source front:

• MapQuest adds OpenStreetMap data of four more countries: Spain, Italy, Germany and France
• Here's GeoSpatial for Java Workbooks available

In the LBS category:

• O'Reilly links to locationlabs' Universal Location Service: "Remotely locate 250+ million phones. The Universal Location Service [ULS] aggregates location access across major tier 1 carriers including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon."
• A friend sent me a link to a small entry stating that your Facebook friends can check you in to places
• O'Reily also have an entry on a crowdsourced and location-aware bird watching app called BirdsEye
• Here's an entry on a Offline Map Viewer And GPS Tracker For Android

In the miscellaneous category:

• Emma wrote to let us know Slashgeo is amongst their top 50 Scholarly Blogs for Climate Science Students
• Bing Maps is now integrated directly in some HP printers
• I forgot that share that one before, you can now embed MapQuest maps on websites
• Arctic Web is a site to look for geospatial data of the artic
• You can now map your LinkedIn connections via a third-party

In the maps category:

• TMR has an entry on the National Geographic's Maps of the Gulf of Mexico's Oil Infrastructure
• Slashdot discussed a story named "Microwave Map of Entire Moon Revealed"

Here's a few recent ESRI-related geonews. From the Mandown blog:

• ArcGIS API For Flex 2.1 Now Available
• ArcGIS API For JavaScript 2.1 Now Available
• ArcGIS 10 Service Pack 1 Coming In November
• What’s New In ArcPad 10

And from the FGT blog:

• A new list of free tools for ArcGIS, if this interests you, make sure you take a look at his previous 'related posts' links.

Great News for Nonprofit Organizations requiring GIS Software:

ESRI have created a Nonprofit Organization Program which is designed to provide conservation and humanitarian nonprofit organizations around the world an affordable means of acquiring ArcGIS software and services. Other types of nonprofit organizations may also be eligible for membership in the program.

Eligible nonprofit groups can choose from these offers:

• ArcGIS Desktop — get as many copies as you need of the most complete desktop GIS.
• ArcGIS Server — get as many copies as you need of the most complete server GIS.
• Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) — Four options starting at 150 seats of ArcGIS Desktop and 3 seats of ArcGIS Server to unlimited seats for both.

Eligibility:

To be eligible, your organization must be granted government authority per the eligibility guidelines.

In our last poll on the old Slashgeo website (results inaccessible at the moment), we asked you how ArcGIS Online will fare. Out of 212 answers, 13% thought it will be a success and chimes a new era in GIS. 35% stated that it might work if they do it right. 23% anticipate it will never become main stream or is doomed to failure. 7% are simply not interested anyway and 20% admit they don't know what ArcGIS Online is. On the new Slashgeo, the poll section is still on the right-hand side column. This time, we ask you what are your initial feelings on Slashgeo's new website.