I’ll be presenting at the Navigation and Location USA 2008 Conference in San Jose, CA on December 3, 2008 presented by Telematics Update . The discussion, “Unlocking New Revenues Through the Web” is one I’m very passionate about. I see quite a few applications come across my computer screen, some dogs, some clever with no business models and some that are just MONEY both functionally and monetarily! There is just SO MUCH opportunity out there and people don’t reap the benefits. People may be looking to save money due to the current state of the economy; however, that doesn’t mean there still isn’t money to be made! It’s just time to spend that money wisely and how much wiser can you be when you...
The Australian National Diabetes Services Scheme has published an interesting Virtual Earth map application illustrating the spread and penetration of diabetes across the country. The Australian Diabetes Map allows users to select a specific area type – National, State, Postcode, Federal Electoral Zone and Local Government Area in order to drill down into the respective geographical regions for analysis of the gender of those with Diabetes, as well as, the type of Diabetes they carry and a plethora of additional information. The application renders a thematic map overlay highlighting the respective area, and uses thematic shading to illustrate the different percentages across the region. The...
We in the GIS and LBS world have long wondered how it would be possible to create such a mapping engine that would render the most accurate, up to date maps available with roads and points of interest, geographic boundaries, etc., etc. Let’s put geopolitical issues aside (or not) and in our heads we’ve all considered this open map system which allows users to contribute to a wiki of sorts to create maps of their respective areas where there are experts and have the data readily available. The concept is coming closer to reality with IDV’s Spatial Wiki which allows you to contribute to the creation of what may become a serious repository of location information inclusive of all the data we the...
MSNBC just published an interesting little Virtual Earth mashup highlighting mayoral cries from around the nation. The topics include economy (by far number 1), energy, health care, immigration, infrastructure, national security, public safety, taxes and budgets and “other.” The application uses a simple dashboard interface to turn on and off the different data layers. It’s pretty interesting / humorous to read some of these requests and the format they’re written in. Some of them sound like letters to Santa Claus - “ Two issues I would like on President-elect Obama’s to do list: Universal health care and fix our economy ,” Willie W Herenton, Mayor, Memphis, TN. Yeah, Mr. Obama, if you could...
Some may be thinking Public Enemy prophets with their song “Burn Hollywood Burn” after seeing some of the destruction in Southern California. Chuck didn’t mention Montecito or Sylmar in the lyrics, though. Sadness to my peeps who still live down there. Come on guys! It happens somewhere in SoCal every year! It’s like the Bizarro California Lottery for crying out loud. Move. I digress. In an effort to prevent and manage these situations, Pitney Bowes Advanced Concepts and Technologies Group in collaboration with PB’s MapInfo Group has built out an extremely useful and timely application to provide data for those who want more information about the fires, are concerned about the fires or...
You’ve been waiting for this post. If you’ve tried doing any iPhone development with Virtual Earth you’ve probably been swearing up a storm, beating down your computer, and lost hours of sleep wondering how Loopt , Weather Central and now NMobile got their iPhone apps working. Well, Colin Cornaby from Consonance Software may just be your new best friend. He’s the one who build the NMobile application I posted to the blog yesterday - “ Mobile Speed Trap Mapping with iPhone ” – which uses 100% supported code from Microsoft Virtual Earth to get the road and aerial map tiles via the Virtual Earth Web Services and use them for your iPhone applications. Before we begin I want to address the challenges...
The newest app in the Apple iStore just may save you some cash. Njection Mobile (NMobile) allows users to find and report current and historical locations along the roads where our friendly law enforcement officers tend to hang out before stopping us for our autographs. NMobile uses Microsoft Virtual Earth to map out where these speed traps are, specifically with regards to your position. The application ties into the every-so-useful GPS on the iPhone to locate position, then queries other user-reported speed trap locations around the map. The locations can be submitted via the iPhone or their web-based application creating the ultimate speed trap repository available to you when you need it...
We’re putting out another survey to get your feedback on Microsoft Virtual Earth. Tell us how you REALLY feel. The first 500 respondents get a $10 Visa gift card. If you don’t have time now and don’t care about the $10, but still want to send us your feedback the survey will be up through Dec. 1. Access the survey – this is your chance to influence the future of Virtual Earth. CP
Weather Central has just launched a new beta community site called ReportStorms.com that let’s you report storms in your area. This is an interesting approach to social networking with weather on a micro-local scale. The site, built with Microsoft Virtual Earth and a Silverlight interface, allows you to view in climate weather around the world but even better it allows you to report weather happenings wherever you are. You can register for free and login to report conditions anywhere you can click on a Virtual Earth map….which is anywhere in the world. The site is very straightforward. If you see an icon on the map, you can click it to see what the event is in that respective location. There...
Finding cool Photosynth’s just got a heck of a lot easier. We’ve just introduced a new way to explore Photosynth’s as a part of our Collection Explorer feature on Live Search Maps . 2 things - (1) how do you find Photosynths and (2) how did they get there?? Alright, so in order to find Photosynths in Live Search Maps you’ll search for a location – Woodinville, WA, for example. In the welcome pane, you’ll see a link for “Explore Collections” which you click and begin seeing all kinds of collections. You can then improve your search using a helpful toolbar based on tags, collections with photos, collections with 3D models, collections with MapCruncher layers, and collections with Photosynths! Additionally...
Another massive release of aerial photography for Virtual Earth – 41.07 TB worth. Orthos Spain Barcelona Malaga Manresa Mijas Oviedo Sagunto Vigo Vilanova Vitoria Zaragoza Japan Sapporo Nagano Mt Fuji Nagoya Osaka-Kyoto Matsuyama Kobe Hiroshima Fukuoka-KitaKyushu Obliques (Bird’s Eye) United States Montgomery, AL Elmore, AL Baldwin, AL Pima County, AZ Mohave, AZ Coconino, AZ Orange County, CA Los Angeles County, CA Napa County, CA City of Merced, CA Arapahoe, CO Mesa, CO Polk County, FL Hillsborough, FL Volusia, FL Orange County, FL Broward, FL Miami-Dade County, FL Manatee, FL Jacksonville, FL Clark, GA Honolulu, HI Grundy, IL Sangamon, IL Marion County, IN Wyandotte, KS Warren, KY Caddo...
With the Virtual Earth Web Service not only can you get static maps via the Imagery Service , but you can add some of the default pushpins you see in Live Search Maps to the static map that is returned to you if you set the Pushpins as a part of the request. In the Imagery Service there are several options you can set, but the Pushpin is not one of them. Pushpins actually reside in the MapUriRequest Class, so you’ll need to set them there. First, you create your Pushpin array, then pass the array into the MapUriRequest. Some notes before you begin: There is a 10 Pushpin limit to any Virtual Earth Web Service map. The Label for the pushpin has a limit of up to 2 characters. There are 26 icons...
