Geospatial Technology, Web Mapping and Spatial Services
August 31, 2010 19 Comments
So Pasadena’s buildings are now in the middle of the road. My suggestion to Pasadena is that they move the city to to get it aligned again with Google Maps.
Won’t somebody think of the Little Old Lady from Pasadena?
July 27, 2010 17 Comments
So with great interest I read Marten’s blog post on the new Data.gov “Geo Viewer”. Marten’s got a ton of reasons why its great and why it fails, but for me it didn’t work at all. I just get this FAIL message below:
I mean maybe I could figure out what went wrong, but since Data.gov gives me no details about datasets I just move on.
Of course it could be one of the many problems Marten showcases, but I will say the “share this” works great. In all seriousness putting a “preview” map on Data.gov isn’t going to change a thing about how worthless Data.gov is for actually finding data. You can of course put your comment in the little box at Data.gov and I’m sure they’ll forward it on to “top men”.
Of course this brings up a huge point with how big a failure Data.gov has been. Just going to the “Ideas” page for Data.gov, you are presented with a big middle finger.
What would I like Data.gov to look like in July 2010? No really, I totally trust the government to do right by data. Nothing says that nobody from the Data.gov crew looks at that Ideas page more than that simple statement. Rather, it is more of an exercise to make citizens feel part of the process, distracting them from actually doing something about it. Maybe it would be better to just go through ESRI to get things fixed.
December 31, 2009 59 Comments
Here are 5 predictions for Twenty Ten.
Here are 5 things that won’t happen:
Hey, don’t worry… It’s gonna be a bright, sun-shiny day!
November 13, 2009 35 Comments
Why oh why are we seeing this Map/Menu bar on all these new “Web 2.0″ mapping applications? Take this beta example from the USGS National Map Viewer:
So you’ve been sitting back, watching all this great new Web 2.0 stuff and this is what you bring to the table? I know, lets see how much junk we can throw into a JavaScript API. The whiteboard on this one must have been intense… Just take every idea that someone comes up with and toss it into a ribbon interface. Sweet! But this isn’t a complex, specialized, niche application we are talking about. This is our (well if you like me are a tax paying citizen) national map. Yes the American Map! It should be something we are proud of, something we would run of a flag pole and salute!
They do expose some other ways to access the data, but don’t be fooled by the names. The Google Maps, Bing Maps and the rest are all just links to the ArcGIS REST API. That is how The National Map should be exposed. ”Here are the services, use them and create your own maps”. Might be a better way to handle it because the future looks bloated.
Of course we can’t completely blame the USGS for this, ESRI’s JavaScript and Flex API sample viewers have a similar abomination. Clearly GIS Analysts shouldn’t be designing user interfaces. Are we really going to use this thing for every web map API?
I mean we all love to throw complex concepts under a widget icon of a box with gears on it. Me? I can never remember if I’m supposed to use the compass or the globe to zoom in or out.
The one saving grace is that one day Google will just enable all this in their web map viewer making everything else irrelevant.
March 19, 2009 6 Comments
Sean is all over OGC’s Web Map Tiling Standard.
I have sent in a “public comment” advising the authors on how to better follow the REST style. To be honest, I’d rather the OGC stayed away from REST, but if it won’t, I’ll insist it’s done properly and doesn’t misinform mainstream GIS developers. I’ll even try to help as much as the OGC’s closed process will allow.
We talk about open standards quite a bit and when it comes to GIS software implementing them, OGC is usually what we see. It would be a shame to see WMTS fail as much as WFS has in the marketplace because it is ill conceived. Hopefully the OGC will take advantage of Sean’s comments to improve the spec. The OGC comment process has to be better than this:
No, now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
August 5, 2008 31 Comments
The moment they start letting people put messages in Street View is the moment it becomes worthless. How are we supposed to use this stuff if Google allows their employees to put messages in the pictures? I mean where does this stop? Does Google allow Ford Motor Company or Apple Computer to send their employees out to get their pictures taken with Mustang Convertibles and iPhones because they paid Google? I can only guess that Street View is a joke and those who really want to build a business should use Pictometry instead.
Work for Google, put messages in Street View
