CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS NEWSLETTER
April 2007
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HIGHLIGHTS
- ABCD Talk on Open Source GIS
- Harvard and Local Team to Build Sensor Network
- Combining Science and Economic Models to Inform Climate Policy
- ESRI Users Conference
- Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial Conference
- NASA Starting CosmoCode, an Open Source Project for Space Mission Software
- Super Vision at the Institute for Contemporary Arts
- United Nations Builds GIS Portal
- Google Tool for Creating Maps
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CGA NEWS
ABCD Talk on Open Source GIS software
Ben Lewis of the Center for Geographic Analysis will give a talk entitled “Free and Open Source GIS Technology: We’ve Got the Whole World in Our Hands”. Open Source GIS has played a significant but often behind the scenes roll in the evolution of GIS. In the past couple years, developments in the broader IT world have changed the field of GIS and made Open Source more important and more visible. This talk will give an overview of important projects and also take a look at related phenomena such as the maturation of Open GIS Standards, the mass deployment of free web-based tools and APIs, and the sponsorship of Open Source GIS by large software companies.
Tracking Analyst to be Terminated
CGA is planning to terminate the ArcGIS Tracking Analyst Extension by July 31st, 2007 due to low usage in the past years. This extension is a joint product between ESRI and a third party, therefore requires an additional $500/yr maintenance fee in addition to the standard site license maintenance fee. If you need this extension for the next billing cycle (August 1st 2007 - July 31st 2008), please email contact@cga.harvard.edu before the end of June.
ArcTutor Tutorials Available for Download on the CGA Website
This data is now on the T drive when students log in to one of the HMDC lab machines, under the “ArcTutor” folder.
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HARVARD GIS COMMUNITY NEWS
Harvard and Local Team to Build Sensor Network
Harvard University, BBN Technologies, and the City of Cambridge have begun a four-year project to install 100 wireless sensors atop streetlights in Cambridge, Mass., creating the world’s first city-wide network of wireless sensors. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the project is open-source, meaning it could eventually be accessible to researchers worldwide for everything from gathering meteorological data to monitoring traffic conditions and noise pollution. http://www.seas.harvard.edu/newsandevents/pressreleases/040507_City_Sense.html
MIT’s Museum Without Walls Project
Alan Doyle of MIT is heading up a project to build a platform for “Location-based Story Telling”. The project has completed an early prototype. http://museum.mit.edu/mwow
Combining Science and Economic Models to Inform Climate Policy
The Harvard Center for the Environment is sponsoring a talk as part of the Atmospheric Sciences Seminar entitled: “Integrated Assessment of Global Climate Change: What can we learn from coupled models of Science and Economics to help inform climate policy and future technological investments?” The speaker is Ronald Prinn of MIT, and the talk will be held April 27th 12:00 to 1:00 at Pierce Hall 100F, 29 Oxford St. http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/index.htm?event_id=67187030
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CONFERENCES
American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
From the program: “Following the theme of Identifying Geospatial Solutions, this Conference will have an outstanding set of technical presentations on all aspects of imaging and geospatial information.” May 6-11, Tampa Floridahttp://www.asprs.org/tampa2007/index.shtml
O’Reilly Where 2.0
From the program: “Now in its third year, the Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading edge developers building location aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge.” May 29-30, San Jose California.http://conferences.oreillynet.com/where2007/
ESRI Users Conference
From the program: “The ESRI UC is unlike any other event. It’s the largest conference in the world devoted to GIS.” June 18-22, San Diego, California http://www.esri.com/events/uc/index.html
Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial 2007
From the program: “The annual Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) conference brings together the people who create, use, and support open spatial software. No other event brings together members of the open source development, open data creation, and open standards promotion communities like FOSS4G.” September 24-27, Victoria Canada. http://www.foss4g2007.org/
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NEWS ON GIS RESEARCH AND SERVICES
NASA Starting CosmoCode, an Open Source Project for Space Mission Software
From a recent Wired article, “The software project is part of CoLab, an effort to invite the public to help NASA scientists with various engineering problems. The space agency is also digging into its files from previous missions and releasing code that until now remained behind closed doors. Together, these projects are creating a sort of SourceForge for space.”
http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2007/04/cosmoscode_0409
http://colab.arc.nasa.gov/cosmoscode
Super Vision at the Institute for Contemporary Arts
A new exhibit at the ICA in Boston may be of interest to spatial people. From the program: “New technologies have pushed the limits of the visible world, allowing us to see almost anything–from the elemental particles of matter to the far reaches of outer space. Both what can be seen and how we are able to see are being radically transformed in ways that have profound implications for advanced science, global politics, and everyday life.”http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/supervision/
United Nations Builds GIS Portal Tool Kit
GeoNetwork Open Source, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) looks like it has become an powerful platform for building web-based GIS systems. http://www.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/main.home
Google Tool for Creating Maps
Google released MyMaps, tools which make it possible to build map mashups without programming.http://maps.google.com/help/maps/userguide/index.html
Flash Earth
This is a great Flash-based tool by Paul Neave for exploring the globe using the major map providers Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, and Google, as well as current NASA imagery. http://www.flashearth.com.
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Editor of this issue: Ben Lewis
The CGA Newsletter is published monthly.
For the latest information, please visit our website http://gis.harvard.edu
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