That's probably our biggest "geonews in batch mode" issue ever. That's the price I have to pay for three weeks of holidays! ;-) I tried to keep only the most pertinent geonews. After reading this unusually long entry, you and I are back to being up to date in terms of geonews.

• Here's a Google Earth mashup of Fukushima and Chernobyl meltdowns side-by-side
• Google added a Regional Expert Reviewer Program to Google Map Maker
• The tool Shaderlight to create awesome SketchUp models is now at version 2
• Google purchased Zagat Survey, a firm offering local ratings of restaurants and much more  
• And there's new imagery in Google Earth released on September 7

• ArcGIS 10.0 SP3 is coming next month
• Spatially Adjusted has an entry seemingly confirming You Can’t Edit Spatial RDBMS with ArcGIS for Desktop without SDS
• V1 reviews the Esri Map Book, volume 26

• Via no solo I read this informative QGIS and gvSIG comparison, useful to understand the differences between what are probably the two most mature open source desktop GIS packages available
• The FOSS4G conference will take place in Beijing, China
• We did mention them before, but only indirectly - here's osmdroid, OpenStreetMap tools for Android (maybe that's what missing for iOS?)
• In case you don't read our geospatial press releases, the OSGeo-Live 5.0 DVD has been released
• If you're interested in Brazilian topography, see this entry on TOPODATA's version of SRTM-DEM for Brazil

In GPS news:

• North Korea forced a US reconnaissance plane to land by jamming GPS signals
• Via Spatial Law, Bangladesh Mandates Use of GPS in Vehicles

In Apple news:

• Autodesk released the 'Lite' version of AutoCAD for MacOS X, in addition to the full version available since a year
• For their iOS devices, Apple is exploring enhancing maps with augmented reality
• APB mentioend Apple's patent application on crowdsourcing data for local searches
• The class-action lawsuit against Apple in South Korea over location data collection has started 

In Microsoft news:

• Streetside is now available for parts of London
• Microsoft shares an entry on the Bing Maps v7 Module CodePlex Project
• Even if Virtual Earth 3D is discontinued, Microsoft posted details to enable you to use it longer
• Microsoft released the Bing Maps 'Windows Presentation Foundation' (WPF) Control
• Here's an entry on the Wall Street Journal using Bing Maps in their hurricane tracking tool

In transportation news:

• SignalGuru system that change your route to avoid red lights
• Regarding tracking and privacy, the NYC mayor wants traffic cameras at every corner

In remote sensing news:

• A critical milestone has been reached for Landsat's LCDM mission in, aka "Landsat 8"
• Both NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X remote sensing satellites have been launched successfully
• The ERS-2 mission is completed, its last image has been taken
• Can you believe that over 700 government satellites will launch in the next 10 years? Obviously not all for remote sensing purposes
• The bankrupted RapidEye has been purchased

• It seems UniStrong has 40% of GIS marketshare in China
• V1 shares a perspective named Where Did All the Talk About Spatial Data Quality Go?
• The data provider Infochimps have a new GEO API
• Slashdot discusses a story named Judge Nixes Warrantless Cell Phone Location Data
• Of course I'm a bit too late, but here's a recap of mapping and mobile data for Hurricane Irene
• Here's an entry named Everything you wanted to know about UK Coordinate Systems
• It's confirmed, Kansas is flatter than a pancake
• Do we need another map building website? There's the new Build-A-Map site in Beta
• APB mentions 'Location Aware', a free location-aware task management app for Android

In the maps category:

• O'Reilly shared a map of U.S. job losses
• Here's the U.S. National Parks as seen from space
• Tthe USGS launched their Historical Topo Map Collection

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode covering the last two weeks. It's a bit longer than usual.

On the open source front:

• Almost two weeks ago, the OSGeo released their 2 minutes video promoting the FOSS4G conference, Slashgeo is proud to be a media partner
• The FGT blog offers a long entry on the portable version of gvSIG, an open source GIS - portable meaning running from a USB key with a host computer with no intallation required
• Several sources mentioned that Canada's British Columbia opened their province-wide open data portal, with plenty of geospatial data in it
• While we mentioned the its preview in May, here's more documentation on the upcoming GeoRepository, an advanced authorization manager for GeoServer
• ImageI/O-Ext 1.1.1 has been released
• uDig 1.2.2 has been released too
• There's a PostGIS Drupal module in the works

On the Google front (well, new since yesterday):

• Public transport directions of London is now available in Google Maps
• Google details the new Google Maps version 5.8 for Android, adding photo uploads and My Places
• Mapperz tells us how to load OpenStreetMap data in Google Earth via FME with BBOX.ME

On the Microsoft front:

• Most visible changes for users are updates to the Bing Maps road map style, they even offer a 9-pages guide to detail what 's new
• APB reports that Microsoft will use Gigwalk to enhance Bing Maps search results
• Microsoft announced Bing Maps updates to Account Center, REST Services, and Documentation
• Another entry enumerate what's new in the Bing AJAX Map Control

In the miscellaneous category:

• O'Reilly links to a free shapefile of the TZ timezones of the world
• SS mentions the GeoTime software that "displays movement over time in an intuitive manner"
• Here's an article on the technical, scientific, historic and political background to the GPS system
• On the topic of the future of GPS, V1 shares an entry named the Significance of LightSquared Debate to Europeans and APB shares ESA's reaction to LightSquared potential interference with Galileo
• MacRumors have an entry named Apple Pays $946 in Korean Lawsuit Over Location Data Collection, New Class Action Suit Coming
• In the funny category, APB mentions (video included) ToyToyota's Backseat Driver GPS iOS game for kids that uses the real-time itinerary of the car

Discussed over Slashdot:

• 3D Hurts Your Eyes
• Chief NSA Lawyer Hints That NSA May Be Tracking US Citizens
• Google Grabbed Locations of Phones, PCs
• Undersea Cable Map Shows Where The Data Pipes Are

In the maps category:

• SS shares an entry named eLEAF Maps the World’s Water for Food Security
• Ready for the hurricane season, the UK Met Office launched their Storm Tracker (beta), with free and paid versions, and on the same topic, the GEB offers an entry on tracking hurricanes in Google Earth
• V1 mentions Africover WebMap from the UN, offering geodata for Africa
• O'Reilly have an entry on cellphone connections in the U.S.

We are pleased to announce the release 0.2.0 of Jaspa (JAva SPAtial). Jaspa potentially brings around 200 spatial functions to any relational database system that supports Java stored procedures. In this 0.2.0 version Jaspa supports PostgreSQL and H2. The biggest change from the previous release is a new topology rules system with around 70 topology rules.

New features:

• A new web page dedicated to Jaspa. It has a blog and links to the documentation and download section.
• A new driver for gvSIG 1.11 (Jaspa for PostgreSQL).
• A new driver for Kosmo 2.0.1 (Jaspa for PostgreSQL).
• A new topology rules system with around 70 topology rules.
• A new workshop material of more than 100 pages (in English and Spanish) which can be very useful to a new user who wants to get started into spatial databases and Jaspa. It covers the installation, spatial analysis exercises, topology rule exercises and even a guide about developing new stored procedures in Jaspa using Java.

Best regards,

The Jaspa team
Jose Martinez-Llario
Marta Gonzalez-Alcaide
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia

[Editor's note: Jaspa is open source software]

The videos of the report sessions and workshops at the 4th Italian gvSIG Conference, that were held in April in Udine, are now available. All the videos are available in the original language, and they are available to be visualized online. With this publishing, we pretend to bring the Conference closer to the interested people that couldn't attend the event, having the possibility to access to the recording of the different sessions.  

A new final version of gvSIG Desktop has been released: gvSIG Desktop 1.11. It's available at the Downloads section of the gvSIG website. The main new features of gvSIG 1.11 are:

• New features sponsored by Landeshauptstadt München, Referat für Gesundheit und Umwelt.
  • Copy/paste geometries between layers.
  • Lateral buffer.
  • Split line in equidistant sections.
  • Add consecutive numbers to attribute tables.
  • Find duplicates records in attribute tables.
• Add-ons installer (beta).
• NavTable new version.
• gvSIG user manual included (available in the help menu).
• Bugfixes contributed by the developers community.

The gvSIG Association tries to increase its learning offer through online courses, publishing a new learning platform: gvSIG Training. In parallel, the gvSIG Association launches its official certification program. It's a step forward in the training processes in free geomatic, creating an online training centre, that contributes to the spreading as well as to the sustainability of the gvSIG project. Training without geographic barriers, and with the best professionals. In this platform, you will find courses in several languages to learn to use the different applications of the gvSIG project, in a user level as well as in a developer one. The courses list will be extended gradually with different gvSIG and free geomatic specialization courses  (databases, map servers...), with the objective of covering the different needs of the Community. The courses offered by gvSIG Training are part of the training routes that are required to obtain the gvSIG official certification. gvSIG Training opens with a course for gvSIG Desktop users (in Spanish at the moment). The deadline for registration is 29th April. The course will start on 2nd May.

Within the gvSIG Project a new website has been created : gvSIG Outreach [1]. This website aims to house all initiatives that boost the promotion of gvSIG with the help of the gvSIG Community. The gvSIG Case Studies website, that was launched a few months ago, has been included within this new website as the Case Studies section [2]. So, when users visit casestudies.gvsig, they will be redirected automatically to the new website shortly. Moreover, we want to announce the launch of a new section within this website: gvSIG Spread! gvSIG Spread [3] is a repository that all community members can use to contribute to the spreading of the gvSIG project. According to the collaborative spirit of our community, anyone can download all kinds of resources related to gvSIG. Not only that, but you can also contribute your own materials or translate any material into another language and make it available to everyone [4]. The main goal is that more and more people know and use gvSIG. At the moment Spread has the following sections: Buttons, Logos, Packaging, Presentations, Posters and Wallpapers, but new categories will be included as we receive new types of materials. Get inspired and participate! Spread gvSIG!

Today the gvSIG Association and the Ministry of Transport and Public Works of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay have signed a collaboration agreement in Montevideo city. The main aim is to develop a tool for teaching subjects related to geographic information in public schools and high schools throughout the country. This agreement is directly related to the progress that Uruguay has made in recent years in the area of computer literacy as applied to primary and secondary education through the "One Laptop Per Child" programme (OLPC) implemented by the Uruguayan government. The agreement aims to develop an educational gvSIG based on gvSIG Desktop which allows students of primary and secondary schools to understand the territory, interpret maps easily and learn through play and open technologies. This initiative is a commitment to innovation and the development of applications that do not exist in the international framework and that can become an international benchmark for the use of information technology in education. This development will be carried out in a coordinated manner by the gvSIG Association, a local company, the Ministry of Transport and Public Works and the Ceibal Center for supporting children and adolescents' education.

After the sign of the Collaboration Agreement with Centre for Geospatial Science, the University of Nottingham,  the  gvSIG Association collaborates with the ELOGeo project (An e-Learning Framework for Using Geospatial Open Data, Open Source and Open Standards ) by providing English training documentation about gvSIG. The ELOGeo project is a JISC-funded project based at the Centre for Geospatial Science, the University of Nottingham in partnership with the Mimas Centre of Excellence at the University of Manchester. This project addresses the provision of infrastructure for education, transfer of knowledge and training users and researchers on the effective use of open geospatial services, by providing a set of methodologies, tools and materials. The courses target the researchers, non-geospatial experts and general public who want to use open data, standards and tools. For more information about the project, please visit the webpage of the project: On the other hand, the ELOGeo Team is carrying out an User Requirements study. They welcome staff and students from all disciplines to participate in this and they greatly appreciate your time spent in answering these questions and we welcome any suggestions that you have regarding this project. The survey closes on 27th March. From the gvSIG Association we want to congratulate the  ELOGeo Team for the work carried out and thank them for taking us into account for  this initiative.

  Two new announces mailing lists, in English and Spanish, have been created. They are oriented to the news related to the gvSIG Project. At this way, it's not necessary to be registered in other mailing lists of the project with more traffic to be aware of the news related to the gvSIG project. We hope this new service is useful for the gvSIG Community.