Is it time for a global licensing framework for geospatial data? The GSDI Legal and Economic Working group thinks so and offered a presentation and a way forward at the GSDI 13 conference held in Quebec City in May. The effort aims to harmonize existing licensing without changing fundamental access policies and funding models and be compatible with the diferences in national legal systems. That's a tall order, but an important one as the world moves toward geodata sharing. Geoff Zeiss reports.

More about: geodata, gis, gsdi, licensing, openstreetmap

You are journalist. There’s breaking news across town. How do you tap in to citizen journalists already on the ground in the area? Geofeedia. The feed offers location-based content from Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr and Picasa based on an address or a polygon drawn on a Bing map. The for-fee service was launched last week after quite a bit of testing. 

More about: citizen journalism, journalism, social media

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Non-government organization (NGO) activity in developing countries is difficult to track due to limited infrastructure. URISA’s GISCorps, which coordinates short-term, volunteer-based GIS services to underprivileged communities, was asked to assist the Craig Bellamy Foundation in creating an interactive map showing the locations of international and national NGO offices and their programs in Sierra Leon, a developing country in Western Africa. Michael Knapp, a GIS specialist from Anchorage, Alaska, describes how a combination of Esri and Google technology accomplished the task.

More about: geocoding, gis, google

Bike Score is the biking equivalent to Walk Score; it’s a measure of the bikeability of cities. 

More about: bike score, bikes, heat map, transportation

Mapping of potential retail outlets is one of the first steps in putting a distribution channel in place while launching a telecommunications brand. This is the second article in a two-part series on utilizing location intelligence to organize and understand information through a geographical perspective, enabling informed decisions about retail marketing. Author Abhishek Bhardwaj, associate consultant for Infosys, uses Bangalore, India as the setting for his analysis.

More about: business intelligence, gis, google, gps, location intelligence, retail, telecommunications

Users of maps and other visualizations of data want it all. They want both detail and context as they explore small scale (large area) graphics. Technologies to address this challenge have come and gone. The latest one is from researchers at Purdue. Their tool, dubbed PolyZoom, organizes simultaneous, magnified views from a single document, while maintaining their relationship to the whole.

More about: context, google, gps, polyzoom, purdue, visualization, zoom

More about: acquisitions, digitalglobe, geoeye, google, hexagon, microsoft, navteq, nokia, tele atlas, valuation

Unlike the board game, the Map of Life lives online and as its name suggests, maps out life on earth. To be more specific, it provides location information for a selection of living things on earth.

More about: atlas, biology, education, map of life, yale

What should the satellite companies DigitalGlobe and GeoEye do now that ongoing talks of mergers and acquisitions are a well-publicized fact? It’s a pretty fair bet that something has to happen soon since it looks increasingly like the government will cut spending for commercial remote sensing satellites. Editor in Chief Joe Francica writes an open letter to the CEOs of both companies with some "free" advice.

More about: digitalglobe, enhancedview, geoeye, geographic data, google earth, homeland security, location technology, location-based services, militarydefense, remote sensing, satellite image data

In a well-shared article from May 7, the Atlantic Cities explores the work of Bruce Appleyard, who studied children’s mental maps (cognitive mapping a la Kevin Lynch) of their neighborhoods. The unfortunate headline is “Kids Who Get Driven Everywhere Don't Know Where They're Going.” Sadly, that's not what the uncited research, from 2005, concludes.

More about: children, education, mental maps, safe routes to school, traffic

Location intelligence can enhance sales, marketing and distribution functions in launching a telecommunications brand and establishing retail sites. Mapping of retail outlets provides information about prospective dealer outlets that will establish a network through which products and services can be offered. This is the first article of a two-part series on utilizing location intelligence to organize and understand information through a geographical perspective to make informed decisions about retail marketing. Author Abhishek Bhardwaj, associate consultant for Infosys, uses Bangalore, India as the setting for his analysis.

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An article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday suggests that texting, in conjuction with geofencing is catching on with retailers. Geofencing by retailers is not a new, of course but they are willing to try again with new mobile app technology.

More about: business gis, geofencing, lbs, location based marketing, location intelligence, location technology, location-based services, retail