Get 50% off PostGIS in Action
Well happy Friday to all of us, I have a 50% off code for PostGIS in Action, Second Edition!
Between now and January 22nd, use pgislaunchau and get 50% off the price of the book. It also includes a free ebook of the first edition to tide you over. Let’s face it, PostGIS is the defacto choice for most GIS people and this is the bible to make you proficient. Don’t hesitate, the 22nd is right around the corner.
CartoDB and MapBox Fight On
The web mapping and visualization world is one of many choices. Google, Esri, and many other solutions give users the ability to visualize spatial data in so many ways. Two that I’m quite fond of are CartoDB and MapBox (none of which should surprise regular readers). This week good things are happening around both projects.
CartoDB is an O’Reilly Media Publishing Startup Showcase finalist.
…O’Reilly Media announced the finalists for its Publishing Startup Showcase, and we’re very excited to say that we’ve been selected as one of ten startups.
It’s an honor to be included in a group of such progressive companies who are disrupting and impacting the publishing industry, and as a non-traditional company in the space, we are humbled.
That’s pretty awesome news for the CartoDB team. Google Fusion tables is pretty powerful, but it has almost no visualization tools built in. That’s where CartoDB steps in. It gives you all that great “fusion table” power, plus some really awsome visualization stuff. Esri users can leverage Arc2Earth Sync which can synchronize your local Esri data with CartoDB.
Tom MacWright of MapBox wrote and article on the MediaShift Idea Lab Blog about the new OpenStreetMap editor that the Knight Foundation has sponsored.
At MapBox, we believe that the collaborative approach of OpenStreetMap is the future of mapping. By adopting local knowledge and local management of data, it’s possible to build a complete, accurate, and freer map of the world. How OpenStreetMap gets its data is essential - the most trusted source is always on the ground, with GPS units and local knowledge. But for much of the world, this isn’t an immediate option because of distance and time. Instead, home users edit the map, referencing GPS tracks made by others and satellite data. So far, this has been a tricky process. OpenStreetMap’s editing tools are complex and do little to help users understand details like road classifications. We want tools for contributing map data to be accessible to anyone, in any language, with any level of computing skill.
I’ve always felt OSM was held back by it’s editing tools. They are designed by nerds for geeks. When you understand how they work, they are very powerful. Put my Mom in front of them and she’s quickly typing www.marthastewart.com into the URL bar. If you haven’t seen the editor in action, the video below will give a good overview. The whole article is definitely worth a read for anyone who has developed or used a web mapping editor application.
https://www.vimeo.com/57155953
Oh and in case you didn’t know, Arc2Earth Sync can also open your ArcGIS Mxd documents directly in TileMill. Mind = Blown
Mind Blown
CartoDB and MapBox Fight On
The web mapping and visualization world is one of many choices. Google, Esri, and many other solutions give users the ability to visualize spatial data in so many ways. Two that I’m quite fond of are CartoDB and MapBox (none of which should surprise regular readers). This week good things are happening around both projects.
CartoDB is an O’Reilly Media Publishing Startup Showcase finalist.
…O’Reilly Media announced the finalists for its Publishing Startup Showcase, and we’re very excited to say that we’ve been selected as one of ten startups.
It’s an honor to be included in a group of such progressive companies who are disrupting and impacting the publishing industry, and as a non-traditional company in the space, we are humbled.
That’s pretty awesome news for the CartoDB team. Google Fusion tables is pretty powerful, but it has almost no visualization tools built in. That’s where CartoDB steps in. It gives you all that great “fusion table” power, plus some really awsome visualization stuff. Esri users can leverage Arc2Earth Sync which can synchronize your local Esri data with CartoDB.
Tom MacWright of MapBox wrote and article on the MediaShift Idea Lab Blog about the new OpenStreetMap editor that the Knight Foundation has sponsored.
At MapBox, we believe that the collaborative approach of OpenStreetMap is the future of mapping. By adopting local knowledge and local management of data, it’s possible to build a complete, accurate, and freer map of the world. How OpenStreetMap gets its data is essential - the most trusted source is always on the ground, with GPS units and local knowledge. But for much of the world, this isn’t an immediate option because of distance and time. Instead, home users edit the map, referencing GPS tracks made by others and satellite data. So far, this has been a tricky process. OpenStreetMap’s editing tools are complex and do little to help users understand details like road classifications. We want tools for contributing map data to be accessible to anyone, in any language, with any level of computing skill.
I’ve always felt OSM was held back by it’s editing tools. They are designed by nerds for geeks. When you understand how they work, they are very powerful. Put my Mom in front of them and she’s quickly typing www.marthastewart.com into the URL bar. If you haven’t seen the editor in action, the video below will give a good overview. The whole article is definitely worth a read for anyone who has developed or used a web mapping editor application.
https://www.vimeo.com/57155953
Oh and in case you didn’t know, Arc2Earth Sync can also open your ArcGIS Mxd documents directly in TileMill. Mind = Blown
Mind Blown
Minecraft as a Geodesign Tool
Geodesign
The Geodesign Summit (when did they drop the CamelCase?) is happening next week and I’ll be elsewhere or I’d totally go. You all know I’ve had a soft spot for Geodesign and it’s always a good time. Plus Bran Ferren is keynoting so that’s worth the price right there.
Now those with kids know there is something that is bigger than any other game out there right now. Minecraft is played by my son and his friends more than any other game out there. On the Mac, Xbox, iPad, iPhone; it’s crazy to think about how such a simple game has taken over for today’s connected youth (did Qualcomm really try and call them “Generation M”?). I won’t spend my time explaining it here, but it breaks down the whole world into blocks. You can build, destroy, create and battle your environment by yourself or with friends. Sort of like SimCity, but not constrained by products. You get raw materials and build as you go.
So I was playing along with him last night and I got to thinking. The blocks in Minecraft are a great way to symbolize man’s impact on the world. Start mining for diamonds and pretty soon you’ve got either a huge hold in the ground or a mountain that looks like swiss cheese. It all came to me when Connor said he wished he hadn’t dug such a big hole because the sheep and pigs kept falling into it (that’s pretty funny out of context, but you’ll get over it). So while I was building my Fort out by the sea, he went back to restoring the hillside so it not only looked good, but could support trees, flowers and bushes. We talked about creating a rail line between our two forts and he wanted to make sure it was routed around area’s he wanted to protect.
Now I’m very proud of my son for those good choices and it seems like the speed at which you can work with the blocks in Minecraft would be a great tool for showcaseing what GeoDesign really is. My great friend Dale Lutz wrote a super post on this a couple months ago.
So imagine my surprise upon learning that Mojang and the United Nations were teaming together in the cleverly named initiative “Block By Block” to encourage the use of Minecraft in crowdsourcing urban planning, giving youth “the opportunity to show planners and decision makers how they would like to see their cities in the future”.
I know there will be awesome CityEngine, SketchUp and open source analytical tools presented. Those are needed of course, but I’ll tell you I sure wish I was there to give a lightning talk on Minecraft and Geodesign. Jack always says the key to good Geodesign is iterative evaluation. I can’t think of a quicker or easier tool than Minecraft. Let’s get that FME 2014 reader/writer out there Safe!
Minecraft as a Geodesign Tool
Geodesign
The Geodesign Summit (when did they drop the CamelCase?) is happening next week and I’ll be elsewhere or I’d totally go. You all know I’ve had a soft spot for Geodesign and it’s always a good time. Plus Bran Ferren is keynoting so that’s worth the price right there.
Now those with kids know there is something that is bigger than any other game out there right now. Minecraft is played by my son and his friends more than any other game out there. On the Mac, Xbox, iPad, iPhone; it’s crazy to think about how such a simple game has taken over for today’s connected youth (did Qualcomm really try and call them “Generation M”?). I won’t spend my time explaining it here, but it breaks down the whole world into blocks. You can build, destroy, create and battle your environment by yourself or with friends. Sort of like SimCity, but not constrained by products. You get raw materials and build as you go.
So I was playing along with him last night and I got to thinking. The blocks in Minecraft are a great way to symbolize man’s impact on the world. Start mining for diamonds and pretty soon you’ve got either a huge hold in the ground or a mountain that looks like swiss cheese. It all came to me when Connor said he wished he hadn’t dug such a big hole because the sheep and pigs kept falling into it (that’s pretty funny out of context, but you’ll get over it). So while I was building my Fort out by the sea, he went back to restoring the hillside so it not only looked good, but could support trees, flowers and bushes. We talked about creating a rail line between our two forts and he wanted to make sure it was routed around area’s he wanted to protect.
Now I’m very proud of my son for those good choices and it seems like the speed at which you can work with the blocks in Minecraft would be a great tool for showcaseing what GeoDesign really is. My great friend Dale Lutz wrote a super post on this a couple months ago.
So imagine my surprise upon learning that Mojang and the United Nations were teaming together in the cleverly named initiative “Block By Block” to encourage the use of Minecraft in crowdsourcing urban planning, giving youth “the opportunity to show planners and decision makers how they would like to see their cities in the future”.
I know there will be awesome CityEngine, SketchUp and open source analytical tools presented. Those are needed of course, but I’ll tell you I sure wish I was there to give a lightning talk on Minecraft and Geodesign. Jack always says the key to good Geodesign is iterative evaluation. I can’t think of a quicker or easier tool than Minecraft. Let’s get that FME 2014 reader/writer out there Safe!
Day 1 at JS.Geo13
Day 1 has come and gone at JS.Geo13, but now you can see the slide decks as they get populated on the JS.Geo homepage. As of this morning, there are four slide decks posted for Leaflet, Ubisense, Vizzuality (CartoDB) and MapBox. Click over to view and enjoy each one. I bet you didn’t realize you could do so much with a text editor and a browser.
Oh really