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I think TechCrunch should do it instead of Google. To be clear, however, this is about the data. It is not about the database. There are several products, both open and closed, that can handle the storage part (just to name a few):
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/spatial/
http://grass.itc.it/
http://opensourcegis.org/

In the meantime, many businesses are poviding their addresses online and in phone books. Many already link this location to a map so customers may easily get directions. So this is a kind of "Who cares?" scenario.

I dont know if this has been mentioned but Grass GIS the open source GIS program , has a georectification module that you can use to add the proper coordinates. Here is a page of the manual for your perusal.

You can do 3D in GRASS with the nviz command.

http://grass.itc.it/screenshots/viz.php

Also, GRASS is good for lots more than just basic stuff. It does very very advanced stuff. Just a really steep learning curve.

And then combine those two with something like this**, and connect it to this and a GPS dealie, and we have a whole new medium.


**((It's really worth the time to print out the marker if you haven't seen this yet))

That's because the software developers mentioned don't start by looking at what's needed to support a planning process (which is a GIS system like GRASS GIS that can do calculations and ways of getting location-specific data into it quickly, do calculations on the resulting dataset, and then keep track of various scenarios and display the results), but what they'd like to develop and what they know how to develop. Which just so happens to be some kind of web-based song-and-dance display software. The good old "I've got a hammer" syndrome, with this particular hammer being the Web.

Web display software is useful for when you have something to display on the web, usable when you want to allow private citizens to scribble their views on a map, but utterly useless when you want to know what kind of impact a proposed measure has on say, the traffic situation, accessibility, safety, noise and light, drainage, soil load, micro climate aspects like wind-flow, etc. etc.

Now communications is often useful, but would-be city planners may find that communication serves best when actually you have something useful to say in the first place. And this sort of software doesn't help with that.

If only they had seen their way clear to link a Grass GIS database to a web display in a two-way fashion, that might have been worthwhile because it would have provided synergy. Unfortunately, what they did does not provide synergy. Instead it partly reinvents the wheel (geographic layers) in a halfhearted and incompatible-with-existing-software fashion and it hogs the limelight. As a consequence I don't really see what this web display is good for.

Use GRASS, it's free, and works great for me.

http://grass.itc.it/grass62/manuals/html62_user/i. ortho.photo.html

Perhaps we can look at some other games using Google Maps.

http://moloko.itc.it/trustmetricswiki/moin.cgi/Gam esOnGoogleMaps

The evaluated http://gate.ac.uk/ which is GPL software but ended up using http://search.cpan.org/~acoburn/Lingua-EN-Tagger/. There are several other tools in this space that can be glued together to create this type of software:

http://www-nlp.stanford.edu/
http://tcc.itc.it/research/textec/tools-resources/ jinfil.html
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/
http://www.alias-i.com/lingpipe/web/faq.html
http://www.isi.edu/licensed-sw/halogen/index.html

Not trivial, but if you wanted to DIY, you don't need to start from scratch. Though, having a bunch of hardware to chug through 1000s of documents would still be needed :).

from the TFA.....
Google Earth will not replace high tech programs like AutoCAD or ESRI's ArcGIS

The topic missing from this discussion is a simple question: Where does all this data come from?.

You can't plan bike routes, model road trips, view cityscapes, etc. unless you have good data to start with. Neither Google Earth nor KML function to build geographic data. The tools for doing that are as follows: v

ArcGIS, for vector-based data and some imagery.

ERDAS IMAGINE, for imagery, and

for all you open source kiddies:

GRASS and GRASS for Macs

Without these basic development tools, client-side web apps like Google Earth don't exist. These data have a long history and complex standards for verification and use.

In a community normally so concerned with standards, metadata, etc., I am surprised by the Gee whiz view comparing Google Earth and similar client side apps.

I have been playing around the Postgresql, trying to integrate it with GRASS http://grass.itc.it/ (and learn Grass 'on the fly' while I am at it) and warehousing water quality data. Sounds like a cult may be forming :)

The GIS unit in the Cameroon (in West Africa, for the geography-challenged) office of an international development organisation that I work for. We use the following to map out villages (water supplies etc):

• GPS receivers: Garmin eTrex summit (has in-built altimeter!); Garmin GPS 76; and Garmin eTrex personal.
• Software: MapSource (we get the CD with each batch of receivers that we buy from Garmin); ArcView (or, as of now, ArcGIS -- if you can afford it).
• Altimeter: pocket altimeters from Thommen.

The Garmin GPS 76 is currently my favourite; large screen and easy to use-- unfortunately it has no altimeter (I hear it uses triangulation or some such to get altitude).There're lots of other things but they're not strictly necessary at the beginning.

/fotang

My favorite, not only because I created it ;-)
As reported by BoingBoing Google Maps, Reloaded: Animated Mozillas and Gnus attack Redmond
See the animated invasion and check the html/javascript code.

Anyone interested in Games on Google Maps wiki page?

My favorite, not only because I created it ;-)
As reported by BoingBoing Google Maps, Reloaded: Animated Mozillas and Gnus attack Redmond
See the animated invasion and check the html/javascript code.

Anyone interested in Games on Google Maps wiki page?

My favorite, not only because I created it ;-)
As reported by BoingBoing Google Maps, Reloaded: Animated Mozillas and Gnus attack Redmond
See the animated invasion and check the html/javascript code.

Anyone interested in Games on Google Maps wiki page?

Who is an expert is subjective and hence is it not feasible to have an Expert Network.

Is Einstein right about relativity? Well, he might be but if I think he is wrong, I want to jugde him as "untrustworthy (related to physics)" and don't get his theories.
If 98% of the people think "Bill Gates is an expert in Operating Systems", should I be forced to receive a recommendation about software by Bill Gates or I can state that Bill Gates is "untrustworthy" and keep using GNU/Linux? The second one, thanks!
If the Pope is considered (or at least he was in 1500 or so!) as the expert about "what is good and what is bad" (for example about what women could do), should I just swallow down his opinions or I can judge him as "untrustworthy" and don't get his recommendations?
Should I read the book recommended by the English professor at Oxford because of his position? No thanks. If I subjectively trust him, I will. If I distrust him and trust instead the man who washes Oxford floors, I will get the second one's favorite books!

Opinions are subjective! The globally recognized expert of a topic does not exist. There can always be someone that does disagree.
Who is the expert about religion? about abortion? about gay rights? about any (a little bit) controversial topic? A global expert cannot exist.

An approach based on your personal subjective trust network is the only reasonable solution and I love Stan's work.

I'm aware that this can lead to "Daily Me" problem but this comment is already too long. ;-)
On this, see http://moloko.itc.it/paoloblog/archives/2004/04/20 /boycott_the_daily_me.html

Who is an expert is subjective and hence is it not feasible to have an Expert Network. Is Einstein right about relativity? Well, he might be but if I think he is wrong, I want to jugde him as "untrustworthy (related to physics)" and don't get his theories. If 98% of the people think "Bill Gates is an expert in Operating Systems", should I be forced to receive a recommendation about software by Bill Gates or I can state that Bill Gates is "untrustworthy" and keep using GNU/Linux? The second one, thanks! If the Pope is considered (or at least he was in 1500 or so!) as the expert about "what is good and what is bad" (for example about what women could do), should I just swallow down his opinions or I can judge him as "untrustworthy" and don't get his recommendations? Should I read the book recommended by the English professor at Oxford because of his position? No thanks. If I subjectively trust him, I will. If I distrust him and trust instead the man who washes Oxford floors, I will get the second one's favorite books! Opinions are subjective! The globally recognized expert of a topic does not exist. There can always be someone that does disagree. Who is the expert about religion? about abortion? about gay rights? about any (a little bit) controversial topic? A global expert cannot exist. An approach based on your personal subjective trust network is the only reasonable solution and I love Stan's work. I'm aware that this can lead to "Daily Me" problem but this comment is already too long. ;-) On this, see http://moloko.itc.it/paoloblog/archives/2004/04/20 /boycott_the_daily_me.html

GRASS http://grass.itc.it/ is the primary open source GIS solution. The summary could have at least mentioned it in passing.

Odd that they mention AutoDesk too, considering their mapping software doesn't feature as nice spatial analysis stuff as ArcGIS does, although I haven't used it enough to make any other conclusions about it.

Now if GRASS would only improve their text interface and revamp their GUI.

Another critical open source GIS application for webmaps is MapServer http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/

I've found that doing the data analysis with ArcGIS and displaying it with mapserver is the only way to go. ArcIMS is a bit too complex, at least compared to mapserver.

See Tigerline and GRASS for examples of data and software, respectively.

You might find some GIS (Geographical Information System) tools, such as GRASS http://grass.itc.it/ [grass.itc.it] useful for plotting out/ organising things such as:

*likely voting patterns

*areas of responsibility for canvassing

*local issues (flooding, crime?)

*Junk mail shots... (if you want to go there!)

*And maybe a spot of gerrymandering!!

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefo x-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=define:+gerry mandering&spell=1

plus how many people will actually download It or have teh software to open up the data anyways... that software aint cheap just check out http://www.esri.com/.

It aint just cheap, it's free (as in beer). Check out http://grass.itc.it/index.php

Browsing metadata is the next frontier in the evolution of the web. Some of the other RDF browsers popping up include Gnowsis, MIT Haystack, and Fenfire.

With the growth of the Internet, the value of data itself is dropping, while the value of metadata (i.e. "data about data") increases, introducing a need for tools that can manipulate metadata. That is what RDF is all about - standardizing a way to represent metadata. It is not a standard for the metadata itself...those standards will be determined the same way everything else is on the Internet: with the best solutions rising to the top.

The most common objections to this scenario?
a) "Nobody will bother entering metadata". Wrong...it's already happening. Users are voluntarily generating metadata all the time. Just check out sites like flickr (photo blogging) and del.icio.us (collaborative bookmarks), not to mention Amazon reviews and Ebay ratings.
b) "RDF tags will just be abused with spam, trolls, and other useless info". A variety of techniques are emerging that are designed to protect the integrity of user-contributed data, including trust metrics like Slashdot's own distributed moderation (PDF) or Advogato.

Thanks for pointing out GRASS. Although I was aware at efforts regarding free GIS data, I didn't know there was a free/open_source GIS program out there. I'll definitely give it a try.

And what happens when people start misusing the metadata like the current meta tags?

The Semantic Web just provides a method for expressing metadata. Maintaining the integrity of those expressions involves a different set of problems. Some of the solutions include trust metrics like Slashdot's own distributed moderation (PDF) or Advogato.

• While we were testing it, two girls who had never seen Linux before trotted up, sat down, and edited up their CVs, one on OpenOffice Writer and one on KWord, and they never noticed that it wasn't MS-Word they were using. They were especially happy to be able to turn their CVs into PDF on the spot.
  
• While some sites require MSIE (and we don't provide it), one customer was delighted to report that while his bank rarely worked for him using MSIE at another establishment related to the one using lincaf, it worked every time using FireFox and telling it to lie about who it was.
  
• Another random customer who deals with GIS was absolutely floored that we were able to provide GRASS for him in a matter of seconds. No, hah, hah, not that kind of grass, got it off your chest now?
  

  He added GRASS-on-Linux to his resume and got a job the next day (with a firm that, oddly enough, doesn't use Linux).

Back in the summer of 2001 I used GRASS pretty extensively. At the time, it could do a lot of the same stuff as ArcView and ArcGIS but was vastly clunkier in doing it. Think Gimp vs. Photoshop a few years ago. I'm glad to see that open source GIS lives on, since a workable alternative to ArcGIS is absolutely essential for those of us in academia. In fact, I've given up on ArcGIS and still use ArcView because I can't stand the damn thing. It also doesn't help that you can't run ArcGIS under anything OS but Windows, since its all written in VB. I've even tried to run ArcGIS under Windows via VMWare, but it doesn't recognize the necessary hardware key. Enough with rant there, but in any case I guess I'm just hoping that one of these open source alternatives will be viable in the near future.

There are quite an assortment of GIS tools available for Linux, too, for those of us mapping wi-fi. Check out Mapserver, GRASS, and PostGIS.

Which should be in just a few years, apparently. Google gives: Summarization at Univ. Southern California/ISI Summarization at Columbia University Narrative in Italy Narrative at Carnegie Mellon

Linux will get is name far faster by being accepted on the corporate desktop. There you don't need gaming performance, you don't need 3d performance.

So you're saying that Linux should never be used for (say) CAD/CAM work (for instance Pro\Engineer), 3d-modelling, 3d GIS visualisation, and many other sceintific uses of OpenGL?

Maybe you haven't noticed that Pro\Engineer + NVidia cards actually make one high-end business case for Linux on the desktop (especially with the deals HP is pushing for their Linux Workstations, which AFAIK come with NVidia Quadro cards).

I just set up a wiki on trust metrics evaluation.

The goal of this project is to review, understand, code and compare on same data all the trust metrics proposed so far.

I'm a PhD student and this is my phd research proposal (Trust-aware Decentralized Recommender Systems) and it is very related to all this concerns (trust, reputation, decentralization, blogs, recommender system, ...)

Personally I think the more promising path to follow is FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) format (see the project blog). There are also 2 extensions (1) (2) to incorporate trust into FOAF files.
By the way, here is my foaf file. You can add me to your "knows" list if you like.

Ok, so now you can check the wiki on trust metrics evaluation and add anything you think should be there and there isn't.
Please, note that I have just opened the wiki and I still have some problem with the installation (there are 2 conflicting python installations and I'm not root of the machine) but the basic functionalities are working. Hope to continue the discussion on the wiki! Paolo

I just set up a wiki on trust metrics evaluation.

The goal of this project is to review, understand, code and compare on same data all the trust metrics proposed so far.

I'm a PhD student and this is my phd research proposal (Trust-aware Decentralized Recommender Systems) and it is very related to all this concerns (trust, reputation, decentralization, blogs, recommender system, ...)

Personally I think the more promising path to follow is FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) format (see the project blog). There are also 2 extensions (1) (2) to incorporate trust into FOAF files.
By the way, here is my foaf file. You can add me to your "knows" list if you like.

Ok, so now you can check the wiki on trust metrics evaluation and add anything you think should be there and there isn't.
Please, note that I have just opened the wiki and I still have some problem with the installation (there are 2 conflicting python installations and I'm not root of the machine) but the basic functionalities are working. Hope to continue the discussion on the wiki! Paolo

I just set up a wiki on trust metrics evaluation.

The goal of this project is to review, understand, code and compare on same data all the trust metrics proposed so far.

I'm a PhD student and this is my phd research proposal (Trust-aware Decentralized Recommender Systems) and it is very related to all this concerns (trust, reputation, decentralization, blogs, recommender system, ...)

Personally I think the more promising path to follow is FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) format (see the project blog). There are also 2 extensions (1) (2) to incorporate trust into FOAF files.
By the way, here is my foaf file. You can add me to your "knows" list if you like.

Ok, so now you can check the wiki on trust metrics evaluation and add anything you think should be there and there isn't.
Please, note that I have just opened the wiki and I still have some problem with the installation (there are 2 conflicting python installations and I'm not root of the machine) but the basic functionalities are working. Hope to continue the discussion on the wiki! Paolo

I just set up a wiki on trust metrics evaluation.

The goal of this project is to review, understand, code and compare on same data all the trust metrics proposed so far.

I'm a PhD student and this is my phd research proposal (Trust-aware Decentralized Recommender Systems) and it is very related to all this concerns (trust, reputation, decentralization, blogs, recommender system, ...)

Personally I think the more promising path to follow is FOAF (Friend Of A Friend) format (see the project blog). There are also 2 extensions (1) (2) to incorporate trust into FOAF files.
By the way, here is my foaf file. You can add me to your "knows" list if you like.

Ok, so now you can check the wiki on trust metrics evaluation and add anything you think should be there and there isn't.
Please, note that I have just opened the wiki and I still have some problem with the installation (there are 2 conflicting python installations and I'm not root of the machine) but the basic functionalities are working. Hope to continue the discussion on the wiki! Paolo

This system seems to work by using high resolution topographic maps of an area and overlaying high satilate images or arial photos on over topo like rendering over a wireframe model. GPS is used to determine the observers position with relation to the landscape and the images rendered from that view point.
This something like making a fly by movie of an area in a GIS, which the GRASS GIS package will allow you to do (not in real time if the resolution is any way high) with the NVIZ 3-D GRASS Interface .

This system seems to work by using high resolution topographic maps of an area and overlaying high satilate images or arial photos on over topo like rendering over a wireframe model. GPS is used to determine the observers position with relation to the landscape and the images rendered from that view point.
This something like making a fly by movie of an area in a GIS, which the GRASS GIS package will allow you to do (not in real time if the resolution is any way high) with the NVIZ 3-D GRASS Interface .