Articles

July 03, 2008

Skyhook's XPS 2.0 - Location Solutions for Truly Converged Devices
by Joe Francica
For a cell phone user living in a deep urban canyon, a GPS signal is often difficult to obtain and if you are indoors, nearly impossible. Location determination often requires other means if a clear GPS signal can't be acquired. Assisted GPS provides a backup to a clear line of sight based on triangulating cell tower locations but sometimes the accuracy falls short for some applications. Since its inception, Skyhook Wireless offered the ability to triangulate position based on a database of Wi-Fi hotspots to help solve both problems. Now, the company is offering a way to incorporate all three location determination technologies to solve the problem of indoor positioning and improving accuracy.

July 01, 2008

Podcast: Location Determination Goes Hybrid
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Skyhook announced a hybrid location determination software solution that can tap into GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell towers to locate devices. What does that mean for knowing where you are anytime, anywhere? Is this step forward accompanied by an increased sense of location privacy comfort? Our editors explore the new technology and offer a suggestion for tackling the privacy bugaboo.

June 26, 2008

Naming Names
by Adena Schutzberg
On Monday, Nokia reported it would acquire Plazes for an undisclosed sum. Plazes is reasonably well-know in the geospatial arena for its location-tagged messaging offering. Outside our community, Plazes' geospatial focus and clever location-related name didn't necessarily come into play in reports about the acquisition. Adena Schutzberg explores how the media understands this small, but increasingly important company, and what it says about the terms the geospatial community holds dear.

June 16, 2008

Podcast: Who is #1 in GIS...and Does It Really Matter?
by Joe Francica
Who's #1 in GIS? How big is the GIS market? Is the impact of Google affecting the sales of GIS vendors? These questions are asked all the time and the answer is...nobody really knows. But more to the point, does it really matter? With the fragmentation of the geospatial technology market during the last few years, it is difficult to place a number on the total size of the market, despite the best efforts of market research firms. Editor-in-chief Joe Francica lays out a framework for the sectors of the geospatial market and what really needs to be considered when trying to size the market...but as importantly, why the numbers today are irrelevant.

June 12, 2008

Podcast: Exclusive Interview with Judson Green, President & CEO, NAVTEQ
by Joe Francica
In an exclusive interview, Judson Green, president and CEO of NAVTEQ spoke with Directions Media Editor-in-chief Joe Francica about a broad spectrum of topics related to the growth of the location-based services market and the ability of NAVTEQ to address an exploding market for digital map products. Green spoke of the opportunities for NAVTEQ not just in terms of its current ability to serve a variety of market segments but provided some insights in what may be possible in the future with NAVTEQ data. "Don't think of our map going into a nav system in the front seat of the car; think of our map going into the engine of the car to help drive the car ... and therein you find dozens and dozens and dozens of applications which would fundamentally improve the safety of the car, the productivity of the car, the efficiencies, and we think that's a very exciting area," he said. Green, once the president for Walt Disney Attractions, now has the challenge of sorting through the opportunities that range from real-time dynamic content to advanced driver assistance systems.

June 11, 2008

Serendipity in News and Travel
by Adena Schutzberg
Are you the type who grabs the latest cell phone with GPS? Or upgrades to the latest tools for tracking your hiking expedition or bike ride? Not all geospatial professionals are geo-gadget people. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg isn't one when it comes to satellite navigation devices - she doesn't have one. In this editorial she explains the choice in one word: serendipity. She puts it this way: "It's my contention that if you follow a track too closely you are not open the wonders you may find along the way."

June 09, 2008

Podcast: Speedy Browsers for Web Mapping ... Which Ones Are Faster?
by Joe Francica
It's always about speed. In the early days of geospatial technology, the argument was about getting things done faster with speedier computers: VAXes, mini-VAXes, and those "wiz-bang" 486 PCs! Now the discussion has changed. With geospatial solutions being delivered by Internet-based mapping programs some of the bottleneck with speed is tied up in browsers. Is Internet Explorer faster than Mozilla? What browser best renders maps and which is tops in security? Editor Joe Francica explores the options.

June 03, 2008

Seven Questions about Contigo's New Mobile Items Monitoring Patent
by Joe Francica
Contigo received a patent earlier this year for monitoring the locations of mobile items. The patent is not linked to a specific location technology, meaning it applies to existing and perhaps future technologies. Editor-in-Chief Joe Francica asked company representatives to share insights on the implications of this patent for the company's existing fleet tracking and future solutions.

Podcast: Wither Paper Maps in a World of Satellite Navigation?
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This week the California State Automobile Association announce it would end its production of road maps due to falling demand. The slack will be picked up by the national Association. At the same time police and response organizations are warning the public and their staffs to keep a paper map on hand. What is happening to paper maps as GPS devices become part of our daily lives? Editors Adena Schutzberg and Joe Francica share their thoughts.

May 29, 2008

Issues and Ideas from the New York State Geospatial Summit 2008
by Adena Schutzberg
Did you ever attend a regional GIS conference that really was not about the region's GIS or even about the work you do day to day? Adena Schutzberg did; she spoke at the New York State Geospatial Summit, an eclectic event held in the wilds of New York State. It's a small, all-plenary event designed to get geospatial professionals to think outside their daily work "boxes." The 2008 edition did just that as she explains in this event wrap-up.

May 28, 2008

Podcast: (Geo)technology 2008 - Findability, Accessibility, Portability
by Adena Schutzberg
This week Adena Schutzberg offers a condensed version of the presentation she gave last week at the NYS Geospatial Summit, in Skaneateles, NY. It focuses on the challenges of finding, accessing and moving Web-based content both geospatial and otherwise, and highlights some technologies and tools addressing those challenges. She also looks into the future and predicts what she expects to see in these areas in the coming months and years.

May 21, 2008

Five Questions About Avencia's Sajara
by Adena Schutzberg
Avencia launched a new version of its Web-based digital asset management (DAM) software, Sajara, earlier this month. Why are consulting firm offering products? How is the revolution in online mapping changed demands on digital asset management? We posed these and other questions to company president and CEO Robert Cheetham and the Sajara team.

May 16, 2008

Addressing Fire
by Carl Hancock
England's fire services are tapping into many location technologies to get the right information to the right people at the right time. Many partners have come together to outfit vehicles across the region with Mobile Data Terminals complete with data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer. Carl Hancock explains how it all comes together.

May 12, 2008

Podcast: Four Technologies That May Soon Impact Geospatial - Are You Ready?
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
The editors look outward to find technologies that will impact how geospatial products and practices will change in the next 12 to 24 months. Some of the suggestions are already appearing in cutting edge products, others are not yet implemented in geospatial solutions, but we expect them to be soon.

May 09, 2008

The LI 15 Minute Update: Short Conversations with Geo Technology and Data Providers – Part 2
by Adena Schutzberg
Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg challenged exhibitors and attendees to provide updates on their organization's latest news and products in just 15 minutes. She shares a sampling of interesting tidbits from WeatherBug, WeoGeo, Seisan, MapQuest and Quova in part two of a two-part article.

May 07, 2008

The LI 15 Minute Update: Short Conversations with Geo Technology and Data Providers – Part 1
by Adena Schutzberg
Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg challenged exhibitors and attendees to provide updates on their organization's latest news and products in just 15 minutes. She shares a sampling of interesting tidbits from Tele Atlas, Europa Technologies, Ubisense and Microsoft in part one of a two-part article.

May 06, 2008

Location Intelligence 2008: Maturing Market Players Look for New Relationships
by Adena Schutzberg
Directions Media hosted the fifth annual Location Intelligence Conference last week in Santa Clara, California. Adena Schutzberg shares how a location-savvy audience reacted to the possibilities for indoor location tracking, discusses a lightning panel, and details BP's work implementing location intelligence across the entire 100,000 person company. She also offers up the key themes of the event.

European Mobile Mapping Trends
by Michael Fisher
Where is Europe compared to the rest of the world with location-based services? What cultural differences suggest a preference for "locate services" or "friend finders" versus turn-by-turn navigation that is a staple of the U.S. market for LBS? And why does the word "free" raise skepticism in some parts of Europe? Michael Fisher explores some of these difference and adds his own forecast for location-based advertising.

May 05, 2008

Podcast: Why is it so Hard to Sell Geospatial Technology to the Enterprise?
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Senior executives from leading technology companies, speaking at our Location Intelligence Conference last week shared that the entire value proposition for spatial enablement is a "push" to the market rather than a "pull" or demand for the technology. Our editors ask: Are we doing an adequate job of selling the technology to more of the people who will eventually implement geospatial tools with other IT solutions? Why is it still so hard? What are we not doing well? Will it take another "Google Earth" to push the technology deeper into corporate computing or a new crop of graduates to be more geospatially enlightened?

April 22, 2008

Pitfalls of SDI's Hierarchy
by Asmat Ali
A spatial data infrastructure model must serve many constituents. Asmat Ali, the Assistant Director of the Survey of Pakistan, explains how the data may be developed by corporate, local, state, national, regional or global interests, and each potential creator imbues them with different characteristics "due to different needs at these different levels." That, he suggests, presents a potential pitfall, which he aims to address via a new SDI hierarchy model for federated nations.

April 20, 2008

Cost-effective Information Interoperability for All-Hazards Events in Spite of Decreasing Preparedness Funding - Part Two, The Solution
by Ric Skinner
Ric Skinner follows up on last week's article describing the environment of diminishing all-hazards preparedness funding, with a vision for a solution. He offers the concept of the "Disaster Management Interoperable Information System" (DMIIS) that would provide participating towns, agencies and other resources with a cost-effective capability for enhanced situation awareness, disaster response, resource request and allocation, and a collaborative environment for training and exercises.

April 17, 2008

Cost-effective Information Interoperability for All-Hazards Events in Spite of Decreasing Preparedness Funding - Part One, The Environment
by Ric Skinner
Emergency management agencies are expected to do more with less. The scope of responsibility is increasing at the same time as budgets are decreasing - and are likely to decrease even more sharply as federal and state agencies cut funding. Ric Skinner describes the environment and need in part one of this two part article, presented here. In part two, he will review a potential solution for how agencies can become better prepared for "all-hazards" events by implementing a cost-effective information interoperability solution.

April 14, 2008

Podcast: Technology of Indoor Location Tracking
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Editors Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg explore the technology of indoor location tracking and real-time locating systems (RTLS) . From asset tracking to location-based marketing, radio frequency technology is fast evolving for use in confined spaces such as grocery stores, hospitals and manufacturing plants. This technology will be in place for attendees and exhibitors to experience at Directions Media's Location Intelligence Conference in Santa Clara, April 28-30.

April 08, 2008

Podcast: BI and Web 2.0 and the Latest in Location Privacy Lawsuits
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This week our editors revisit two themes that continue to pop up as geospatial technology, ideas, visualization and data move into the mainstream IT world and popular culture. First we look at two announcements regarding the integration of Business Intelligence or BI, with online mapping. Then, we'll pick apart the latest data capture privacy lawsuit - where a couple is suing Google over StreetView images of their house.

April 03, 2008

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Rebrands as ERDAS and Takes Aim at the Enterprise Geospatial Market
by Joe Francica
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging announced yesterday that it is rebranding the company as ERDAS. The new tagline, "The Earth to Business Company," is a clear signal ERDAS wants to be a more aggressive player in the enterprise geospatial market. Unshackling itself from the Leica name allows the company to develop a stronger, more focused software brand. Read more in this report from Editor-in-chief Joe Francica.

April 02, 2008

Podcast: Deep Dive into Real-Time Traffic and Location-based Advertising on Mobile Handsets
by Joe Francica
What's new in receiving real-time traffic information on your mobile handset? What's the latest in location-based advertising? Discover the latest information in Editor-in-chief Joe Francica’s interview with Tim Lorello of TeleCommunications Systems. This is the second part of an interview conducted on March 20, 2008.

April 01, 2008

Podcast: EU Investigates Geodata Acquisitions; Pitney Bowes Plans Growth, Rebranding
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This week the European Union extended its investigations into the acquisition of Tele Atlas by TomTom and NAVTEQ by Nokia causing stocks to drop and some to wonder what's ahead. Here in the United States Pitney Bowes CEO talked up his plans for growth for its recently acquired MapInfo, along with a rebranding of the corporate parent. Our editors explore what's ahead on all three fronts.

March 26, 2008

Podcast: Location-based Emergency Alerts
by Joe Francica
In times of a natural disaster how will local authorities alert you to potential danger? Or, how will you be alerted in case something happens on the campus where your son or daughter is in school? Tim Lorello of TeleCommunications Systems talks with editor-in-chief Joe Francica to discuss short messaging services as well as other mobile alerting technology that his company and the wireless carriers are implementing to comply with WARN Act.

March 25, 2008

Podcast: Google Map Edits, ESRI Dev Summit, RFID in the News
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Google's opened up "Point of Interest" editing to all. ESRI gives its third party developers new application development environments. China and Wal-Mart push the envelope on RFID. Our editors look at these developments and what they may mean to the geospatial community and beyond.

March 19, 2008

Oracle Pushes Deeper into the Enterprise with Vertical Applications: Highlights of the Oracle Spatial Users Meeting 2008
by Joe Francica
Oracle conducted its annual users group meeting following the GITA conference in Seattle on March 13. From the outset, it was clear that Oracle is continuing its rapid move from simply supporting core spatial data types for spatial data management to offering "full blown" application suites. Last year's meeting revealed the beginning of this trend. This year's customer and partner presentations further illustrated the move. Joe Francica reports.

March 18, 2008

Podcast: GITA 2008 - A Post Conference Interview with Bob Samborski, Executive Director
by Joe Francica
Just after the final session at GITA's Annual Conference, Executive Director Bob Samborski sat down with Editor-in-chief Joe Francica to review the association's new emphasis on infrastructure and its special track dedicated to emergency response. Samborski shared his thoughts on how the change affected this year's event planning and the conscious effort to highlight the importance that GITA members bring to solving the challenges brought on by the world's aging gas, water, electric and telecommunication utilities.

March 17, 2008

Podcast: Broadcasting Your Location on Social Networks, Blogs and Mobile Devices
by Joe Francica
The MyLoki service from Skyhook is location-enabling social networking websites like Facebook. Ted Morgan, CEO and founder of Skyhook provides his insights into the new service and the hurdles that must be addressed regarding privacy concerns as well as cultural barriers that come with publishing your location. Listen to this brief podcast with editor-in-chief, Joe Francica.

March 11, 2008

Podcast: Apple iPhone SDK and Yahoo! Fire Eagle Open Doors to LBS Apps
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This past week two of the many tech players with a toe in the geospatial waters, Apple and Yahoo, announced new developer offerings that will add to the twists and turns location based services have taken on the road to maturity. One of the services of the iPhone SDK is Core Location, meaning developers can develop native applications that take advantage of the pseudo-location abilities. We'll have a look at the iPhone SDK and Fire Eagle from a geospatial perspective plus explore what the real reason is for wanting navigation on your mobile device.

March 10, 2008

State of Delaware to Deploy a Public Health Preparedness System
by Martin Jakobsson, Larry Mayer and Andrew Armstrong
The state of Delaware tapped a team of three organizations, Integrated Warehousing Solutions, ESi and Towson University's Center for Geographic Services, to assemble and provide a "public health preparedness" system. Integrated Warehousing Solutions' (IWS) President Carl Brewer shared details of the project in this brief article.

February 26, 2008

The FBI's GIS Initiative - iDomain
by Joe Francica
Until 2005 the Federal Bureau of Investigation depended on a "thick client" approach to GIS that included ArcGIS deployed at 12 field offices with limited means for sharing information. Despite recognition by the FBI's director of intelligence that GIS was a key technology for its work, no coordinated efforts to manage the GIS initiatives were forthcoming. That changed in 2005 with the Domain Management Initiative, iDomain. The initiative grew, and in January 2007 the FBI's goal was to provide specialized training and equipment for two or three users per field office. Joe Francica reports.

February 22, 2008

Autodesk Positions Itself for 2008 and Beyond
by Adena Schutzberg
Autodesk invited journalists from all over the world to learn about its vision for 2008 and beyond at Autodesk World Press Day in San Francisco last week. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg highlights how the company positions itself as a provider of prototypes, its success in utilities and, perhaps most interestingly, what's going on in Autodesk Labs that will be valuable to geospatial practitioners.

February 14, 2008

Capturing Speed and Location Yields New Applications
by Joe Francica
TCS was just awarded a U.S. patent for geographic monitoring that provides information on when a mobile phone or device user enters or exits an area, as well as the speed of that user. Joe Francica explains what this capability offers consumers and why it's exciting.

February 08, 2008

Podcast: Super Tuesday, Geographic Alerts, and Maps in Election Coverage
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Super Tuesday was a day of severe weather in the South and some high tech mapping and analysis across the media airwaves and wires. Our editors examine the state of warning systems for severe weather and other hazards and praise the use of maps in election coverage.

February 06, 2008

Spime's PositionOne Benefits GPS Chip Manufacturer
by Joe Francica
PositionOne from Spime is a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL)-compliant middleware solution that resides on the phone device. The technology acts as a gatekeeper between the GPS chip and the LBS application as well as accelerating the time to fix with it’s A-GPS capability. Joe Francica gives an overview of the new offering.

February 04, 2008

Podcast: News roundup on Nuvifone, Microsoft Bid for Yahoo and OS' OpenSpace
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
It was a big week for news from a variety of sectors. Our editors take a look at Garmin's announcement of its nav-phone, the Nuvifone, Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo and the Ordnance Survey's opening of it's API for developers, OpenSpace.

February 02, 2008

GPS and GIS Technology Changing the Culture of Navigation
by Eva Dodsworth
Time, technology and user needs are constantly changing the way we do things, often making them easier and less expensive. When two great technologies are combined, a new innovation is created. Such is the case with GPS and GIS - into a fabulous little tool called the Personal Navigation Device. As is the case with many inventions, it changes the way we traditionally did things forever. But is that a good thing? Eva Dodsworth, Geospatial Data Services Librarian at the University of Waterloo Map Library, wonders.

January 30, 2008

Podcast: Going Down the Wrong Road?...Using MapShare by TomTom to Update PND Maps
by Joe Francica
Is your street in the wrong place on your personal navigation device (PND) or maybe not there at all? Did you see a McDonald's restaurant that's located on the wrong side of the road? Users of TomTom's PNDs can now make changes to the street network database from their in-vehicle PND and upload changes to TomTom via the Internet. Editor-in-chief Joe Francica interviews Tim Flight, editor of GPS Review, who has been performing an independent analysis on TomTom's MapShare program to see how soon updates are making it into the hands of consumers.

January 24, 2008

2007 Year-end Stock Performance Analysis of Public Location Technology Companies
by Joe Francica
Joe Francica takes a look at the wild ride that was the geospatial stock market of 2007. It would have been prescient to sell stocks on December 31, 2007 believing that the stock market gods had blessed the location technology sector with abundant gains during the year and so investors could be excused for taking some much-deserved profits. And perhaps some of you did just that. Despite the current tumultuous situation in the stock market, 2007 was a superb year for location technology stocks.

January 16, 2008

West of Ireland Town Goes 3D
by Joe Francica
It's no secret that Ireland is in the process of transforming itself from Europe's sleepy backwater into a vibrant economic powerhouse many have taken to calling the Celtic Tiger. Technology is playing a major role in this transformation, and here is an interesting geospatial example. The quiet hamlet of Westport in the West of Ireland recently received support from Google to create an interactive 3D digital town on Google Earth. With its advanced visualization capabilities, the model will drive both economic development and tourism.

January 14, 2008

Mobile Today becomes What Tomorrow?
by Christopher J. Andrews
Chris Andrews takes a few minutes to imagine futuristic uses of geospatial technology and wonders how far off these kinds of applications really are. Mobile computing devices are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in our daily work and personal lives. Andrews looks at how technology drivers are pushing the integration of geospatial and mobile technology into the future.

January 02, 2008

Top Ten of 2007
by Adena Schutzberg
Each year for the past seven Adena Schutzberg has picked out 10 events, ideas, themes, products, etc. that have stood out in over the preceding 12 months. There were many recaps of 2007 (including our Year in Review podcast and thoughts on the matter from insiders) so she's tried to pick out some items that were more subtle, more hidden, for this list.

Podcast: Holidays Kick LBS in Right Direction...More to Come in '08
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
GPS devices were one of the big tech sellers this holiday season. More than likely you or a family member or friend gave or received one that's now settled into a single car, or caught in play between two or more vehicles. What might the large number of sales of these devices mean for the growth of location-based services in 2008? Editors Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg look into the crystal ball.

December 20, 2007

Product Review: Pharos Drive GPS 250
by Hal Reid
Hal Reid got a chance to put the Pharos Drive GPS 250 through its paces in the big city and the outskirts of town. He found quite a lot to like in the mid-range ($299) offering including some cool features such as the appearance of large black arrows when it is time to turn and crossed victory flags when you have reached your destination. Could this be the satellite navigation device for you?

December 19, 2007

GPS Pioneer Addresses LBS Market Fundamentals
by Joe Francica
Kanwar Chadha, founder and chief marketing officer of SiRF Technologies speaks to editor-in-chief Joe Francica about the ongoing hyperbole in the location-based services marketplace, the potential disruption of the Open Handset Alliance and the new paradigm facing device manufacturer for LBS. Chadha says, "The fact that location is native into all of these emerging platforms is a very strong indicator that people are serious about enabling multiple applications with location…there are some things that are fundamental to the nature of your business or your life in a mobile world…and location is one of those core elements."

December 18, 2007

Sea Changes and Ripple Effects of 2007 - Full Comments
by Directions Staff
These are the full comments of the contributors to the Sea Changes and Ripple Effects of 2007 article.

Qualcomm Enables Laptops with LBS
by Joe Francica
Gobi is a new chipset and reference design for notebook computers from Qualcomm that allows manufacturers to build a module that incorporates many types of cellular technologies like Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband CDMA (WCDMA), or General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), which allows the consumer to not only choose what carrier he will subscribe to but provide a location-aware computer. Those buying laptops can pick the wireless carrier and the plan they want. Then, as they travel, consumers will be able to access cellular communications and location-enabled searching wherever and whenever, similar to today's wireless cards from the carriers.

Sea Changes and Ripple Effects of 2007
by Directions Staff
A few weeks ago we asked a number of industry insiders and executives to Directions Magazine to discuss the big sea changes and the ripple effects they saw in 2007, and where they expect those to take us next year. The responses roughly divided into three general categories: GIS, LBS and 3D/BIM.

December 17, 2007

Podcast: 2007 Year in Review
by Directions Staff
It's time to look back on the year with Directions Media's editors Joe Francica, Adena Schutzberg and Nora Parker. The industry watchers pick out a few themes and explore what they mean today and look a bit into the crystal ball. Among the topics: the value ($$$) of geo, the new geodata, "neogeography," convergence, the quick-deciding user and the GPS-enabled ski jacket.

December 15, 2007

Facet Builds New Street Centerline Database - How Does It Match Up to Current Digital Street Data?
by Joe Francica
Facet Technology Corporation could be the next NAVTEQ or Tele Atlas, at least for U.S. The company's new offering "includes the public roadways in the U.S. at high accuracy and includes full routing and connectivity." How do the data compare? Joe Francica questioned Andy Munyon, vice president of Business Development to find out.

November 27, 2007

The New Surveyor - Geospatial Wise and Technology Savvy
by Joe Francica
The surveyor of today is not just the guy in a hard-hat you see along the road taking control points for road or building construction. In fact, you might say that surveyors must be as equally skilled at determining site measurements as they are at managing the resulting geospatial data they collect. Both the technology and business climate are pushing them to be just that. This article provides insights and ideas about an evolving type of survey professional that will leverage an expanding array of skills.

Getting the Right Field Service Person to the Right Job at the Right Time Servigistics Style
by Nora Parker
Field service management involves sending technicians or other staff into the field to install or repair systems or equipment - for example, appliance repair. Servigistics offers field service solutions and serves the needs of automobile manufacturers, computer hardware providers, appliance companies and medical equipment companies. Nora Parker reports on a demo of the product.

November 25, 2007

What I learned at deCarta's devCON 2007
by Adena Schutzberg
Adena Schutzberg attended deCarta's third devCON event for its partners and customers a few weeks ago in San Jose. deCarta, formerly Telcontar, provides a geospatial platform that serves the Web and mobile devices. Here are some of the key themes and takeaways.

Podcast: Black Friday and Cyber Monday from a Location Intelligent Perspective
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Retailers are reveling in the news that Black Friday saw a better than expected boost in consumer spending with Cyber Monday taking on a life of its own. Directions Magazine editors Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg try to make sense of the current retailing environment with an eye on the location technologies that are contributing to the way consumers think about getting to the mall or shopping online.

November 15, 2007

Microsoft Readies SQL Server CTP-5 with Spatial Datatype Support
by Joe Francica
Directions Media has learned that Microsoft has just released, internally, the first public beta of SQL Server 2008 (code named "Katmai") with support for spatial. This Community Technology Preview (CTP) is the long-awaited CTP-5 and should show up on the Microsoft web site as the "November CTP." Read more...

November 14, 2007

devCON07
by Adena Schutzberg
Adena Schutzberg is attending deCarta's developers conference (devCON07). deCarta (once Telcontar) provides a geospatial development platform. It’s used by the likes of Google, Ask.com, NIM (developer of phone-based navigation system VZ Navigator for Verizon) among others. More than 200 of the company’s partners and customers gathered in San Jose to learn about new developer tools and what their peers are doing at devCON 2007. While the majority of the attendees are technical, their colleagues in business development and marketing are represented. Schutzberg offers these report.

November 06, 2007

Company Overview: GeoAge Helps Capture Location-based Business Intelligence with GPS Application
by Joe Francica
GeoAge of Jacksonville, FL serves a growing audience of mobile professionals who are generally not GIS professionals. GeoAge offers a toolkit for non-GIS professionals to rapidly capture information by building mobile forms and integrating GPS information as well as digital images, video etc.

November 01, 2007

Consumer Awareness Driving GPS-enabled Device Adoption
by Owen Shapiro and Bob Yovovich
Today's online mapping tools have achieved striking penetration into the everyday lives of Americans, and new GPS-enabled personal navigation devices (PNDs) are leapfrogging past early-adopter growth and surging almost directly into widespread, mainstream usage, according to data from a just-completed study by the Leo J. Shapiro and Associates (LJS) research firm.

October 31, 2007

Perspectives on the LBS Ecosystem - Notes and Observations from SiRF's Location 2.0 Summit
by Joe Francica
SiRF Technology convened a conference to address the "ecosystem" for location-based services (LBS). SiRF's Location 2.0 Summit, held on October 23rd at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, drew approximately 300 stakeholders representing carriers, application developers, content providers and device manufacturers. Kanwar Chadha, founder of SiRF, envisioned and created the event and Andrew Seybold, a wireless technology analyst and consultant, hosted it. Joe Francica reports.

Heard and Seen On the Floor at CTIA
by Joe Francica
Joe Francica reports on what he saw on his tour of the CTIA exhibition floor.

October 27, 2007

Mobile LBS Applications are Growing and Networks in Motion is Benefiting
by Joe Francica
Market awareness of location-based services is driving a high adoption rate for applications on mobile devices. Of the $118 million in revenue that downloadable mobile applications such as LBS, weather applications, chat/community, and personal organization tools generated during Q2 2007, LBS represented 51 percent. Networks In Motion (NIM), an LBS navigation publisher for products including Verizon Wireless' VZ Navigator, secured a 27 percent share of carrier revenue from mobile applications and leads all mobile application publishers. Unlike buying an "off-board" navigation system like a Garmin or TomTom, "leasing" your navigation system from a carrier that uses a solution from NIM or others compares quite favorably in cost. In addition, the smaller form factor for a phone versus a wider screen navigation device provides some additional convenience. Editor-in-chief Joe Francica spoke with Steven Andler, Director of Marketing for NIM to get his take on why LBS applications are attracting such a large percentage of the growth in downloadable mobile applications. The podcast is 14:05 and was recorded on October 18, 2007.

October 24, 2007

CTIA Wireless 2007
by Joe Francica
Editor-in-Chief Joe Francica is attending the CTIA Wireless 2007 conference in San Francisco and offers these reports.

October 05, 2007

NAVTEQ Purchased by Nokia: Implications for LBS and Related Markets
by Mike Ippoliti
In a deal announced October 1st 2007, Nokia declared its intention to acquire NAVTEQ for $8.1 billion. Most of the industry had been waiting for the other shoe to drop after PND-maker TomTom purchased TeleAtlas, but the majority had expected another of the PND makers (Garmin, Magellan), or the big internet mapping portals (Google, Microsoft) to be the purchaser. ABI Research Director of Telematics & Automotive, Mike Ippoliti explains more about the deal and prospective market implications.

October 01, 2007

Podcast: Exploring Nokia's Acquisition of NAVTEQ
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
On Monday, Finnish company Nokia announced its plan to acquire Chicago-based map provider NAVTEQ. Speculations were rampant after TomTom announced its plan to acquire "the other" global map data provider, Tele Atlas, earlier this year. Editors Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg listened to leaders from both companies offer their reasoning for their excitement for the newly expanded Nokia in an investor call and offer their insights into the announcement and its impact.

September 25, 2007

Product Review: TomTom GO 720
by Hal Reid
Whenever Hal Reid gets a new toy, he's inclined to devote all the hours necessary to a thorough exploration of all its features. The problem with many toys is that there is too little to explore, leaving him disappointed and wanting more. Not so with the TomTom GO 720. For the month he had it, he was continually discovering new features and capabilities that he wanted to try out, experiment with and explore. Returning it to TomTom was difficult.

September 23, 2007

Real-Time Traffic Moving Into More Applications - An Interview with Bryan Mistele, CEO of INRIX
by Joe Francica
If the president is in town, how do you avoid his entourage? Although this is an extreme example, real-time traffic information to avoid traffic tie-ups due to sporting events, major accidents, or simply the slow downs that may be predicted on a daily basis are now available from a number of services. But the penetration of this service is very low...only about 8% of vehicles have in-vehicle systems and most don't have a way to inject real-time traffic. This is rapidly changing. By this Christmas about 30 PND's will offer real-time traffic as a service. The following interview with Bryan Mistele, CEO of INRIX, a company that was formed by former Microsoft employees that offer both real-time and predictive traffic analysis.

August 22, 2007

Podcast: Cellular Carriers Face Possible Rule Changes by FCC for Emergency and LBS Applications
by Joe Francica
TruePosition's Mike Amarosa, vice president for public affairs, and Brian Varano, marketing director, spoke with Editor-in-chief Joe Francica about the Notice of Proposed Rule Changes submitted to the Federal Communications Commission regarding its existing mandate to cellular carriers to more accurately locate wireless phone calls to E911 public safety answering points, or PSAPs. There are obvious differences of opinion about whether the changes should be adopted and what technologies can be used if such changes were authorized. With some phone manufacturers including GPS chips to support emergency and other location-based services while others rely on network-based technologies such as multilateration, there is much debate about the best location-determination methods. TruePosition is one company offering a hybrid solution which is discussed in this interview.

August 21, 2007

AAA Mobile Launched
by Nora Parker
Last week the American Automobile Association (AAA) announced that "AAA Mobile," a new service that makes many of AAA's services available via cell phone, is available on nine models of GPS-enabled Sprint cell phones. The service is brand new and expected to be available via other carriers in the near future.

The Evolution of Mobile Positioning
by Gerry Christensen
As true as it was in 1999 when author Gerry Christensen went to work for LBS (Location-based Services) middleware industry leader, SignalSoft (now a division of Openwave), location remains a strategic asset to mobile network operators. One of the main differences between 1999 and 2007 is that today all network operators have deployed mobile positioning infrastructure including Control Plane middleware such as Mobile Positioning Center (MPC) and Gateway Mobile Location Center (GMLC) equipment for CDMA and GSM networks respectively.

August 20, 2007

Podcast: The Infotainment Industry Seeks LBS Partners
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
SiRF is collaborating with Intel and the Travel Channel is partnering with Tele Atlas. What do these two seemingly unrelated announcements have to do with each other? "Infotainment." The marriage of location-based services, travel and entertainment is heating up and both the chip and entertainment industries are in overdrive vying for new and different in-vehicle experiences.

August 16, 2007

Street-level Routing: Where the Rubber Meets the Road
by Simon Morris
Customer service representatives at service organizations have a difficult job. They spend much of their day listening to customers complain while scheduling service calls - trying to balance schedules, expertise, availability and travel time. At least estimating travel times and re-scheduling has become easier and more accurate by incorporating street-level routing and location-based services information into the decision making process. ClickSoftware's Simon Morris explains.

August 13, 2007

Podcast: Beyond Local Search
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Three announcements this week point to the next steps beyond local search. We look at a new mobile shopping service, a patent for pay-per-location-based ads, and a "who's buying what" mapping soloution. Are these warrented? Will they make money? What do they say about the future?

August 10, 2007

Podcast: WaveMarket Looks to Connect Parents and Kids by Expanding LBS Technology to Social Networking Market
by Joe Francica
"Security created the mobile industry," says Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO of WaveMarket. "This is the reason you get your kid a phone." In this interview by Editor-in-chief Joe Francica, Roumeliotis describes how his company is looking to connect parents with kids and help create the next big wave in mobile location services by offering products that support social networking. Roumeliotis draws clear distinctions between the applications for "friend finder" and "family finder" which pose certain barriers with respect to personal security.

July 25, 2007

TomTom Community Event
by Hal Reid
Recently Hal Reid attended a day-long press event at TomTom's Watertown, New York offices to talk about the company's vision and customer support. He also previewed TomTom's new product, the TomTom GO 720. In addition to the TomTom staff, personnel from Tele Atlas and Spring International were also in attendance. Tele Atlas is TomTom's primary data vendor and as of Monday, July 23, their potential new acquisition. Spring International is the company that provides TomTom's primary customer support.

Podcast: Tipping Point for Personal Navigation Devices?
by Joe Francica
Darren Koenig, Wireless Market Director for Tele Atlas, provided insights on how the market for personal navigation devices is set to exponentially explode and why we are perhaps at a tipping point. He explained how both the in-vehicle and personal navigation devices markets will benefit from wireless network infrastructure development and why certain market segments, of varying demographic composition, are likely to buy both types of devices, and why generational differences are not a hindrance to widespread market indulgence.

Product Review: Magellan Maestro 4040 Portable Navigation Device
by Joe Francica
Editor-in-chief Joe Francica takes the Magellan Maestro 4040 in-vehicle navigation device for a spin. He found the Maestro's big touchscreen has a great user interface and the AAA points of interest database a huge advantage, the maps are still not displayed at a resolution that would please the mapping enthusiast.

July 23, 2007

Podcast: TomTom to Snap up Tele Atlas: Monopoly or Better Data?
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This week Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg explore Monday's announcement of the planned acquisition. Will regulators let it through? Will the combination of TomTom's Mapshare and Tele Atlas' prowess at maintaining spatial databases mean better data delivered in more timely fashion? What will investors receive? And, how are geospatial professionals impacted?

July 06, 2007

MAPPS vs. US: Finding Common Ground
by Adena Schutzberg
Directions Magazine continues coverage of the suit brought by the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS). A ruling was handed down by the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia on June 15th. MAPPS, as the plaintiff, and others issuing amicus briefs, such as the American Association of Geographers, have issued subsequent statements. This article reviews the judge’s ruling and what might be expected in the next round of litigation

June 26, 2007

Quova Digs Deeper To Identify Location of Web Traffic
by Joe Francica
Location-based Internet subscriptions, alerts to detect Web fraud, and geotargeted advertising are all applications needed by today's Web-savvy marketers. Quova's latest release of their GeoDirectory Server provides these capabilities and Directions Magazine Editor-in-chief Joe Francica spoke with Quova CEO Marie Alexander to get more details. Read more...

Podcast: Leica Takes Bold Steps with Multiple Acquisitions
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This week Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg explore Leica Geosystems three recent acquisitions. Why did the company, itself acquired in 2005 by Hexagon of Sweden, purchase Acquis Technology, ER Mapper and IONIC Software? What do the three have in common and what are Leica's future plans?

May 31, 2007

Where Wireless Meets the Road - Short Range Communications for Vehicles
by Joe Francica
More than just a supreme annoyance, traffic congestion actually costs an estimated $230 billion in lost productivity and in the cost of insurance claims for traffic-related deaths. A key initiative by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to mitigate traffic congestion is looking to develop better communication with vehicles. This article discusses some of the technology involved.

Four Rights to Customer Satisfaction!!!!!!!!!
by Sumair Dutta
A familiar scenario for most of us: an interruption in our cable/Internet/phone service, a frenzied call to the cable operator, a dismayed reaction when we hear that a technician will be out to check on it between 9am and 5pm, two to three days out. This article, by AberdeenGroup's Sumair Dutta, highlights research the company has done regarding how companies use tools to address service delivery.

Podcast: Loki 2.0--An Update on Wi-Fi Location Technology and an interview with Skyhook CEO Ted Morgan
by Joe Francica
On our LBS360.NET podcast today, Ted Morgan, CEO and founder of Skyhook Wireless reviews some of the capabilities of the new Loki 2.0 as well as its applications. Morgan also discusses the use of the technology for social networking and the licensing of Skyhook technology to SiRF Technologies that combine Skyhook's Wi-Fi Positioning System with SiRF's GPS technology.

May 21, 2007

deCarta and Yahoo! Part Ways: Two Perspectives
by Adena Schutzberg
Adena Schutzberg reported on Wednesday in All Points Blog that Yahoo! had ended its relationship with deCarta, its underlying mapping technology provider, to switch to an in-house developed solution. Directions Magazine received a call from deCarta on Thursday to elaborate on the change and we spoke to Yahoo! to better understand why the decided to bring their mapping technology "in-house."

May 17, 2007

GIS Applications during Response to Hurricane Katrina: Small, Local Government and State Government Experiences
by Kelly A. Boyd and Jacqueline W. Mills, Ph.D
Though much of the media focus on Hurricane Katrina tends to center on New Orleans, the city was part of a larger region devastated by the storm. Numerous smaller communities throughout Louisiana and Mississippi required emergency response in the aftermath of Katrina; some still struggle to recover today. This article describes the experiences of two different groups (Hancock County, Mississippi and the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) involved in responding to the hurricane.

May 09, 2007

Product Overview: First American Corporation's ParcelPoint
by Directions Staff
First American Corporation's ParcelPoint product is a database, offered by that company's First American Flood Data Services division. It offers a geocoded point at a parcel's "point of entry" (e.g. driveway), and it covers the majority of the United States. Hal Reid offers an overview of the product.

May 07, 2007

Podcast: A Look at Q1 Geospatial Company Earnings
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
We take a look at some of the latest earning reports from geospatial companies and try to tease out what's going on. Among the companies discussed: Trimble, Garmin, NAVTEQ, Pitney Bowes and Bentley, which as a private company, issued an annual report.

April 26, 2007

Oracle XE and Geospatial Information Systems: An Interview with Dennis Wuthrich of Farallon Geographics
by Directions Staff
A recent press release highlighted the use of Oracle XE in a variety of fields, including geospatial. Directions Magazine contacted Dennis Wuthrich, CEO of Farallon Geographics, to learn more about the platform that the company is using to serve geospatial clients.

Location Intelligence 2007 Takeaways
by Adena Schutzberg
Adena Schutzberg shares some of the themes she identified at this year's Location Intelligence Conference held in San Francisco last week.

April 24, 2007

Podcast: What We learned at Location Intelligence 2007
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
We focus in on two of the presentations at last week's Location Intelligence Conference. One, by Yahoo's Frazier Miller, director of product management for Yahoo! Local, gave a surprising set of numbers about the potential size of the local search marketplace. The second, from SiRF's Kanwar Chadha, founder and vice president of marketing, highlighted how we've barely begun to realize the scope of location in mobile devices.

April 03, 2007

Podcast: The Human Element in Geospatial Technology Hits the Mainstream
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
As we've been involved with or heard of GIS implementations around the world there's a recurring rejoinder: "It's not the technology preventing its implementation, but the people" which is short for politics, power and related issues. Now that geospatial technology is maturing and moving to the mainstream that same theme is popping up. And this week, we had some great examples, including the world's (and the U.S. government's) reaction to Google's changes to its Katrina area imagery.

March 23, 2007

Podcast: Why are businesses not yet embracing geospatial mashups?
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
An InformationWeek survey reveals that just 7% of businesses surveyed are using mashups. Is that true for geospatial mashups? Is it true, as Matt Brown, an analyst at Forrester Research suggests, that "Businesses have bigger priorities at the moment than worrying how to mash up logistical data or workforce information into a mapping app?" This week we look at why businesses are slow on the uptake with regard to mashups, and perhaps geospatial and what it might take to get them involved.

March 16, 2007

Podcast: Interview with Bob Skinner, Trimble Mobile Solutions
by Joe Francica
In this interview Directions Magazine Editor-in-chief, Joe Francica, speaks with Bob Skinner, Group Vice President of Trimble Mobile Solutions about the @Road acquisition and cost saving related to mobile resource management with clients including Coca Cola.

March 07, 2007

Podcast: CRM! BI! Oh My! Will New Tools and Acquistions Push Geo Integration Forward?
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
Do the appearance of CRM for Google and Oracle's acquisition of Hyperion have implications for geospatial? In this week's podcast our editors introduce CRM and BI basics and explore how these announcements could catapult geo integration forward. Also, what does it take for real time traffic and weather to become part of everyone's daily lives? Does Google's addition of traffic to Google Maps and The Weather Channel's new mashup with Virtual Earth help?

February 15, 2007

Geospatial Intelligence in Financial Risk Assessment in Fleet Management
by Richard Mahany
Business intelligence analytics is a proven technology in industries such as insurance and financial services, but it is new to the field of fleet management. The availability of geospatial data is playing a huge role in how transportation fleet managers forecast potential risk and protect their companies from financial loss. This article will examine how fleet managers can apply readily available and valuable geospatial data, alongside information from other available data sources, to create actionable business intelligence analytic systems that help managers better identify and manage risk, and improve the overall financial security and performance of their fleets.

February 13, 2007

Directions on the News - February 13, 2007
by Joe Francica and Adena Schutzberg
This week's Directions on the News will look at NAVTEQ's yearly financials, Safe Software's support of GeoRSS, free maps from Nokia and the F