SimpleGeo is Acquired/Merged with Urban Airship

November 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

Update:  SimpleGeo has posted a FAQ that will “answer many of your questions”.

The topic of SimpleGeo is usually a fun conversation starter in geospatial circles.  Figuring out their business model was always sort of crap shoot, but boy did they sure put together an all-star team.  Arrington broke the news earlier this week that SimpleGeo, who had raised $10 million in VC money, was acquired by Urban Airship for $3.5 million of “stock”.  I’m no math genius, but that sounds brutal for the investors of SimpleGeo.  Clearly what the money guys valued at SimpleGeo was the staff so we’ll have to see what plans Urban Airship has for the SimpleGeo team.

Hey!  What happened?

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I’ve Come to Praise ArcObjects, Not Kill It

June 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

OK, I’m the first one to dance on ArcObjects grave[ref]In fact I suspect I’ll take my anti-love of ArcObjects to my grave[/ref], but others seem to like it.

… This all comes from the following fact: being a complete ignorant about ArcObjects and the ArcGIS API, I have been able to create the corresponding SEXTANTE bindings from scratch in less time than I needed to create any other bindings before. That means less time than the gvSIG bindings (an application that I knew pretty well), and way less than the OpenJUMP or Geotools ones (both of them softwares that I had worked with before, at least once).

This is basically due to the clean, well designed and perfectly documented API of ArcGIS, which, along with the additional Eclipse plugins, makes it very easy to develop new plugins and extensions for the software.

Now, let me just tell you first off.  Sextante coming to ArcGIS — awesome!  But the real meat of the matter here is if there is a well documented API, developers just love it[ref]No matter how crazy the ArcObjects API may be[/ref].  That is the real less for any project, proprietary or open source.  Documentation matters!

In API hell, as long as there is documentation we’ll all be fine!

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5 predictions Geo for 2010 and 5 things that won’t happen

December 31, 2009 59 Comments

Here are 5 predictions for Twenty Ten.

  1. The shapefile dies: SpatiaLite + ESRI’s File Geodatabase API finally put a dagger in the shapefile.
  2. GIS on iPhone/iSlate (Apple Tablet) and Android/Chrome OS: With Apple and Google owning the mobile space, we’ll see more proprietary and open source projects being ported to these platforms.  Microsoft Tablet PCs and Windows Mobile/CE begin to die off.
  3. 64-bit: There will be some holdouts (*cough* ESRI), but most of us will be running native 64-bit code on our desktops and servers.  Now to just get more RAM in this laptop.
  4. Mobile: If you aren’t running on the iPhone/Android/Blackberry you aren’t relevant.  Web mapping apps become mobile browser aware.   Those that aren’t were probably irrelevant anyway.
  5. Google: Google’s APIs continue to push the envelope and they continue to be the standard for everyone mapping on the interweb.  Google is able to throw so much money and manpower at “problems” and their solutions are coming faster than anyone else can match.

Here are 5 things that won’t happen:

  1. Augmented Reality: Much like the Nintendo Virtual Boy, it sounds great until you try and use it.
  2. OpenStreetMap Dominates: Between Google’s quick improving of their database and continued licensing issues OSM plateaus.  Companies will continue to try and figure out how to monetize OSM, but fail.
  3. ESRI + Microsoft: This was on the top 10 lists for many people in 2009, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing deeper integration.  ESRI will continue to support multiple platforms (Google, OSM, Microsoft, “other”) and not become a Microsoft shop.  As Google continues to erode away at SharePoint and Bing Maps, ESRI will make sure that they don’t get caught in Microsoft’s blind spot.
  4. Geolocation other than Twitter, Apple and Google (TAG): Foursquare, Brightkite, and others will fade as TAG rolls out new APIs and ensure their mobile devices are tagging everything you do.
  5. MySQL falls apart:  Despite the dire predictions of Oracle or Monty destroying the project, too many people have too much invested in the project to let it fail.  MySQL will be fine and LAMP will continue to power Badgers.

Hey, don’t worry…  It’s gonna be a bright, sun-shiny day!

 

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Wait! What? MapQuest?

October 29, 2009 6 Comments

Programmable web has a timely post on what MapQuest has been doing.

MapQuest continues to add services to its developer network. Have they caught up with the geo-tools available from Google and Yahoo?

Most recently the mapping pioneer released a geocoding web service and static maps. In fact, many recent posts on its developer blog have included multiple announcements, testament to how much the company has been releasing.

Some cool new stuff for sure.  My only issue is that I can’t find Legend City using its geocoder.

No Legend City in these parts....

No Legend City in these parts....

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