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Adena blogged about a county mapping site from Morris County, New Jersey (OK, I’ll admit right now I was born in Morristown, NJ; the county seat of Morris County). I had not seen the website before, but this comment from Adena got me curious:

It’s a quite complex app, the kind I’ve not seen implemented in Flash. It must be pretty slick; it was named site of the day by Adobe earlier this year. Do be warned: you may need to read the help to use the site!

Go to the website yourself and take a look. I don’t want to take away anything from the people who implemented it because it is very impressive, but is this the kind of GIS web map site that should be the public face of a county?? My current county has a horrible MapGuide mapping site (you know the classic ActiveX plugin MapGuide thing?) that is difficult for even me to use. Most county websites (no matter if they use ESRI, Autodesk, open source, other¹) are very difficult to use, take forever to load, run very slow, require plugins, require reading a manual and frustrate the heck out of me.

Shouldn’t a country web mapping site be simple and easy to use? I would assume the average user of a county website doesn’t have an engineering degree so why not aim these sites at the user level? And we need to be held acountable for accepting them (I’ve been using the Maricopa mapping site for as long as I can remember and I’m pretty sure I’ve never complained to the county, just on this blog). So right now I’m going to contact my county and let them know their website isn’t useful and you should do the same.

Won’t someone please think of the GeoMonkey?

I watched the BarCamp.mil from afar and from what I’ve heard it sounded like it was a great event. Andrew Turner says that open source got quite a bit of play.

In the open-source world, a government supported promotion of its use would have dramatic effects. Looking at the current state of commercial company support for projects such as Apache, Linux, Gnome, OSGeo and more demonstrate that there is clear benefit to be gained. If the government then pushes open-source there would a huge upsurge in the support of projects and communities.

I don’t think there has to be 100% open source, but utilitzing it where it makes sense benefits the taxpayer.

ESRI today was the guest blogger on the Google Geo Developers blog. Sterling did a pretty good job of outlining the ArcGIS JavaScript Extension for Google Maps and how it can be utilized. I’m still waiting for my 9.3 to show up (long story) to actually start implementing ArcGIS Server 9.3 so I have to live through these posts for now.

Yahoo!’s Fire Eagle has left beta and is available to everyone. I don’t think there has been a killer app yet built using Fire Eagle, but the service has the potential to link LBS applications together. I think Yahoo! some really good spatial services (can’t forget about GeoPlanet) and I’d love to see them become more serious about them than their past would reflect.

I’ve always thought of GeoServer as a great way to get introduced to open source web mapping servers because its Admin page was much easer to use than MapServer. It looks like at 2.0, the Admin page will get even better as the GeoServer team announced that the new UI is in the 2.0 alpha release. I can’t wait to see how this develops until the “final” 2.0 release.

Reminds me of the old USPS motto, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat fire nor gloom of night stays these couriers Googlers from their appointed rounds”.

View Larger Map

Update (2008-08-21): It looks like Google has just pulled down the Street View images of the fire.

Matt Priour noticed that there was no search function on the ArcGIS Engine Resource Page.

server & desktop are the only centers cool enough to get a search box

Looks like he is right. But all is not lost as the ESRI Resource Center pages have been indexed by Google so you can just use the Google Search to find what you need.

Yesterday the Lt. Governor of Louisiana, Mitch Landrieu, wrote up why Google Street View is so important to New Orleans and its recovery on the Google Blog.

In this time of recovery and rebuilding, it is important that we share real images of life in Louisiana and on the Gulf Coast. As you explore the streets of New Orleans, you will discover a city marked by extremes. You will see some areas spared the worst of Katrina’s fury which have quickly recovered, and you will find other neighborhoods that remain flattened by the floodwaters that broke the levees. You will see that our residents call both FEMA trailers and antebellum mansions home.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved on a couple projects with the New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC). Their idea is to bring “paper” and PDF maps to the internet so the community (both local and national). Together with Matt Priour (who has done some amazing work with the Google Maps API) we’ve been moving their data from their “classic” pre-Katrina mapping to a more interactive experience. The push is on this month to get more mapping online and the release of the Street View for NOLA should bring more opportunities to both tell the story of the recovery and help those who are living there gain access to city services.

I encourage everyone to download the The New Orleans Index Anniversary Edition: Three Years After Katrina available on the front page of the GNOCDC website. It will help put into perspective the recovery which is still going on 3 years after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. As the Google Street View shows (look at the Lower Ninth Ward for perspective), New Orleans is still fighting hard.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d221089.43509461076!2d-90.02255373329659!3d30.021866642732338!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x8620a454b2118265%3A0xdb065be85e22d3b4!2sNew+Orleans%2C+LA!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1484074892378&w=600&h=450]

Warning PR: Microsoft Releases SQL Server 2008

I was getting worried I’d have to use SQL Server 2005 on a project starting up, but this means 2008 will be the focus.

Sean Gorman has a very thought provocative piece on his blog this morning. The Professional vs. the Amateur: Thoughts on the ESRI UC should be read by everyone. I’ve notice that our tribe mentality has really caused great divisions in those of us trying to bring spatial information to the Internet. I’ve learned something in the years I’ve been blogging here, I am just an amateur at just about everything I do. Sure I have a GISP, but that doesn’t mean that I’m any better at moving to the GeoWeb than anyone else (heck I’m probably less able to do that than others). Because of this I’ve been more open to Neogeographers (those on the ground, not locked up in a University writing about it) and I’ve learned so much in the last couple years.

Any time there is something disruptive as the GeoWeb/Web 2.0/Where 2.0/GeoCloud you end up with people circling the wagons in a failed attempt to control what is happening. Closed source, open source, free as in beer, GISP, geotagger, whatever are just labels we put on ourselves, products or philosophy to limit our growth and the growth of others. Don’t make me break out the hippy girl picture again and ask why can’t we all get along?

Now you’ve done it, let us all sit in the field and hold hands

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

WeoGeo and Safe Software team up a couple weeks ago and now we get word that Mapufacture has joined FortiusOne. Details will be coming in the next week or two, but it doesn’t take a GeoScientist (I’ve learned you can put the prefix “Geo” in front of anything and sound smart) to see that this space is getting very interesting. The vision is getting tighter which can only mean good things for everyone. Andrew Turner has written up a good explanation about what this means for both companies and for the GeoWeb at large.

The GeoWeb is coming right toward us!

Mikel Maron has some more about it on his blog as well.