The World… She be a changing…

February 25, 2011 16 Comments

The speed at which technology flows these days still impresses me. It seems like just yesterday I was watching TV on a TV, reading books on paper and listening to music on something called a walkman. My son asked me what a modem was and how it worked with my iPhone. Clearly we are all in trouble.

  • Brian Flood is correctly impressed with the World Resources Institute Reefs Map rendering 63,000 polygons with Google Fusion Tables faster than you can scream AXL.
  • Take a look at the Atlas of New South Wales.  I love how it is organized for actual people and not technologists.  I suspect it will be used quite a bit by the good folks upside-down on the other side of the world.  Take note, organize information by how people understand it to be, not by how you think it should be.  I’m not as smart as I think I am and neither are you.
  • The OpenLayers community has been sprinting in some neutral country in Europe.  The main goal, only something where they get OpenLayers to support mobile devices better.  Sounds like they have made some great progress.
  • When you see an article with “Gov 2.0″ in the title you can but not help but cringe.  That said the awesome that is TileMill is only to apparent to everyone.  CSS is the future, stop using SLD everyone.
  • Speaking of freaking amazing, how about this?  Noncontiguous cartograms in OpenLayers and Polymaps[ref]just saying “noncontiguous cartograms” makes you sound smart[/ref].  OpenLayers + Polymaps[ref]oh and GeoJSON is in for the ride as well, what a great example all around[/ref] is a winning combination.  God bless Ian Turton for pushing a SLD/GeoServer example[ref]Come to think of it, maybe the fact you can do such a thing with SLD is more amazing[/ref] in the comments.
  • Do you use ArcGIS Server with OpenLayers?  Thank the Azavea guys for making that happen.
  • Lastly, lets all start putting the fork in the IT department and just name them “the help desk”.  Why we hold on to such nonsense is beyond me.  We are all IT staff tonight! [ref]Ich bin ein Berliner[/ref]

Have a great weekend folks, baseball is back in session!

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Game Over Man: Google Maps for Mobile is Here

December 16, 2010 8 Comments

So mapping and routing on mobile devices was cute and sort of fun. Heck some people even made a game out of it. Then this happened…

These new features are just the first steps in maximizing dynamic map drawing technology to create a faster, more interactive experience where efficiency really matters: mobile devices. For example, we estimate that viewing maps now requires almost 70% less mobile network data overall than before. We can’t wait to take the next steps in making Google Maps faster, more reliable and even more useful no matter where you take it.

3D Maps?  Check.  Offline caching?  Check.  Offline rerouting?  Check.  Wait, did they just say offline rerouting?  Jebus how much is that app going to cost me?  Oh right, free.  Damn that is disruptive, iPhone version please!

I, for one, welcome our new Google overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted Geo-personality I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground data sweatshops!

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ExtMap Touch — Mobile Browser Geo Framework

October 26, 2010 7 Comments

Alper Dincer is one busy guy. Seems like just a couple weeks ago he release iExtMap for iOS. Well if you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I’m always complaining about apps and app stores holding back real mobile development. I mean shouldn’t it be simple to just have one web app that covers iOS, Android and Blackberry? Ah, but no. It just isn’t that easy, until now…

Alper though has a new framework that looks very promising. Says Alper:

Writing a multi-platform viewer is also quite hard due to different code bases on different platforms. Mobile Web is developing very fast due to usage of WebKit on different platforms. Today; iOS, Android, WebOS, Bada, BlackBerry, Symbian and other platforms are using WebKit implementations on their browsers and this lead to a dream of web developer : “One browser to rule them all”

Anyway, I have the idea to write a mobile version of ExtMap, but there is a need for a motivation to start the project. The motivation was “Sencha Touch Developer Contest” and “Sencha Touch Framework” and I started working “ExtMap Touch” on Sencha Touch Framework and Google Maps JavaScript API v3.

Yahtzee!  I’ve been playing with the demo this morning at the GITA Oil and Gas conference (where WeoGeo is exhibiting) and I love what I see.  I can’t wait to get back home and start playing around with this thing.  Check out the live demo and the ExtMap project home for more information.

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OpenLayers 3.0 Takes Shape

June 28, 2010 Leave a Comment

Mid-Long Term isn’t around the corner, but there is much to like about OpenLayers 3.0.

Amongst the things we did discuss (and agree on) in the meeting are:

  1. Have the map be a central place for triggering events
  2. Streamlining the drag flow
  3. Maps are the leaders of all. They have the projection properties, and you can reproject maps
  4. Layers advertise their ability to render in a projection. If they can’t render in one, they turn off or something
  5. LonLat is a bad name. Location() is the future, and it is smart. Geometry comes from Location, and is also smart. They know about projections.
  6. Baselayers are a bad concept. Mutually exclusive visibility is the way of the future. Layer groups is a potential name for this type of thing
  7. Things which are called many times (which we now know/can examine) should be improved performance wise
  8. Create adapters for things like DOM manipulation but still have OpenLayers keep its own implementation. Just make it easier for people to roll in their favourite, be it jQuery, ext-core etc.
  9. Potentially pull out the geometry operations stuff into a separate library
  10. Keep a set of “widgets” but better separate them, so that people can more easily write their own “widgety things”
  11. Facilitating mobile support

We welcome your feedback.

OpenLayers 3.0 is like my own little Private Idaho!

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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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deCarta now supports OpenStreetMap

September 17, 2009 8 Comments

Last night deCarta announced that they are now supporting OpenStreetMap with their APIs.

In keeping with the spirit of the OpenStreetMap community, OSM data in deCarta format will be free of charge. deCarta plans to make the product available for both server and client-side solutions to its customers. This includes self hosted solutions using deCarta’s Drill Down Server, deCarta’s Hosted Web Services, Personal Navigation Devices, and Mobile Phones. Developers will also be able to quickly prototype and demonstrate location-enabled applications using OSM content through deCarta’s Developer Zone available to developers a www.decarta.com.

When it comes to LBS services, deCarta is clearly well positioned with their APIs and they’ve been successful at selling them.  That deCarta is now supporting OSM is a clear sign that the project is getting mature and that there is demand for it.  Given that deCarta is used by the large wireless phone companies, one can expect to see OSM maps in your mobile devices soon.

The deCarta devZone is here and a demo is here.

Update: deCarta will be making quarterly updates to their service.

The deCarta dev team celebrates the real genius move to support OSM.

The deCarta dev team celebrates the "real genius" move to support OSM.

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More users looking at SpatiaLite

December 30, 2008 2 Comments

Bill Dollins likes SpatiaLite and he’s been blogging about it and he isn’t the only one either.   How long to someone gets this running on Android or the iPhone (which both already run SQLite)?

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ESRI’s Mobile Platform of Choice

December 16, 2008 25 Comments

Jack Dangermond was interviewed on CRBonline this week and there was one comment that caught my eye.  When Jack commented on ArcLogistics on mobile, the interviewer asked him this:

Q. Does it run on the iPhone/BlackBerry Storm/Windows Mobile/Google Android? If not, when will it?
A. We’ve standardised on Windows Mobile as a platform that gives us a level of device independence. We are looking at other platforms, but see Windows Mobile as a primary IT platform for professionals.

Yikes, I guess we and our clients won’t be running ArcGIS on their mobile devices in the coming year.

Maxwell Smart uses ArcGIS Server Mobile on the Windows Mobile Platform.

Maxwell Smart uses ArcGIS Server Mobile on the Windows Mobile Platform.

Of course I could be over analyzing Jack’s comments like others are.

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Adding touch control to OpenLayers

October 22, 2008 5 Comments

whit has written a blog post on what he’s been working on getting OpenLayers to work with Mobile Safari on the iPhone (and iTouch).

A major part of my recent investigations for mobile and opengeo have focused on getting OpenLayers to do a basic version of it’s thing on the iphone.   I’ve had limited success, but maybe these demos will help someone else get a little further or perhaps help crystallize a more effective approach than mine, since I’m pretty green with OL.

He’s also created a couple demos for the iPhone/iTouch using some of the touch controls.  The bottom line is that moving from mouse control to finger touch is as hard as you’d expect.  I think it is great to see OpenLayers take on this effort because being able to move mapping to mobile devices will be key with the iPhone and Android taking off here in the next year.

 

OpenLayers iPhone Support

OpenLayers iPhone Support

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