Nordic Geospatial Blog –


October 2, 2010

Event – RSVP for Geospatial LA & RICS Event at RAND – Oct. 22nd 1 – 4 PM

http://nordicgeospatial.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/20101022_GeospatialLA_RICSatRANDagendaREV.pdf

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Horizontal Across the Verticals – Enterprise Geospatial Technology Applied to the Emergency Management, Cultural Resources & Environmental Domains

http://www.ricsamericas.org/event-calendar/horizontal-across-the-verticals/

Please join the RICS Southern California Chapter, Geospatial LA, RAND, the Getty Conservation Institute, and HIFLD members for a collaborative event focusing on the synergies (and cost savings in these lean times) of geospatial technologies used in:

1. Homeland Security & Emergency Management
2. Cultural Resources and Facilities
3. Environmental Considerations

Date: Friday, October 22, 2010
Time: 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location: RAND Corporation 1700 Main Street Santa Monica, CA 90401

Please RSVP with our host, Mr. Adrian Overton – overton@rand.org / 310.393.0411 ext. 7138 – and note that there is no cost for this event.

Agenda:
Introductions by RICS, RAND, and Geospatial LA
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Dissemination of Research Products in the Application Marketplace: A proposal for turning knowledge into discoverable tools

Daniella Meeker – Associate Information Scientist. RAND Corporation

Bio – Daniella Meeker received her PhD in Computation and Neural Systems from California Institute of Technology in 2005. She completed a fellowship in Health Economics at RAND in 2009 and joined RAND’s staff as an Associate Information Scientist. Her current research includes health economics, machine learning, and social network analysis.

Project Overview – The results of research of the type conducted at RAND are typically disseminated through print media. However, many valuable research products can be developed as services and packaged as “apps” to enhance decision support, analytic methods, and data visualization. I will highlight some examples from GIS and other domains that are active areas of research at RAND. Finally, for discussion I will bring up some of the challenges of translational research and propose some protocols and practices to address some of these challenges.

Online resources – http://www.rand.org/health/centers/bing/fellows.html

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Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities (MEGA) – Jordan: An Open Source GIS-based Archeological Site Inventory and Management System

David Myers – Project Specialist, Field Projects Department. Getty Conservation Institute

Bio – David Myers is a project specialist in the Getty Conservation Institute’s Field Projects department where he has worked since 2001. He now works on projects developing the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities (MEGA) for Jordan and Iraq, preparing a site management and conservation plan for the Valley of the Queens on the West Bank of Luxor, Egypt, on research on applying consensus building and conflict resolution methods to cultural heritage place management, and on building capacity for conservation and management of rock art in the countries of the Southern African subcontinent. He received an M.S in historic preservation in 2000 and an advanced certificate in architectural conservation and site management in 2001, both from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1991 to 1995 he served as a legislative assistant to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Project Overview – The emergence of new digital technologies and rapidly spreading internet access together present possibilities for widely accessible, Web-based national information systems for the inventory and management of heritage sites. The increasing development of Open Source software tools further provides that such systems may be purpose-built, adaptable and extensible to the needs of specific situations, and that once developed they can be available to heritage authorities, which are often poorly funded, without associated licensing or upgrade fees. Working collaboratively with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities (DoA), the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and World Monuments Fund (WMF) have developed MEGA-Jordan as a tool to inventory, monitor, and help conserve and manage the thousands of archaeological sites in Jordan. MEGA-Jordan allows DoA officials to address needs such as infrastructure and development control and the development of national and regional research strategies. MEGA-Jordan is Web-based, bilingual (Arabic-English), and was developed using state-of-the art and Open Source information technologies. It was designed to be modular and easily extensible, allowing it to evolve with the DoA’s changing institutional requirements and to be adapted by other countries. Work on an Iraq version of MEGA is slated to begin after the Jordanian system is fully deployed, which will include the system’s expansion to contain data for the protection of historic buildings. The GCI and WMF plan to subsequently make the system available for adaptation by other countries.

Online Resources – http://www.getty.edu/conservation/field_projects/jordan/index.html , http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications/pdf_publications/ & http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/arts/design/25getty.html

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Building a Sustainable Enterprise GIS at the Port of Los Angeles

Daniel Elroi – President. NorthSouth GIS LLC

Bio – A GIS consultant with 20 years of GIS implementation and software development, Daniel has been consulting in GIS in the US since 1990. Daniel studied Geography, Cartography, and GIS at UCLA in the early days of commercial GIS, and began his career with one of the first ESRI sites, the City of Los Angeles. He then spent eight years honing his skills as a consultant and software developer in mining, local government, nuclear waste disposal, real estate, pipelines, and engineering, before setting his own course in business in 1998. Since then he has worked with over 100 clients, developing custom software applications and integrating GIS into various clients’ business processes.

Project Overview – The Port of Los Angeles – the largest container port in the US – hired NorthSouth GIS to develop an enterprise-wide GIS. The resulting server infrastructure, geodatabase design and content, and software applications are very solid and based on best-practices. However, it is the way in which the “soft” side of the implementation – people, group dynamics, training, user buy-in, and management participation – that make this implementation stand out and will ultimately determine the project’s long-term success and its sustainability. The presentation will focus on the means taken to accomplish the “soft” side of this successful implementation.

Online Resources – http://www.northsouthgis.com/ & http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/cahinvrug10/papers/user-presentations/nsg_overview_cahinv_rug_01302010.pdf

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Participatory Sensing and Named Data Networking

Jeff Burke – Director, Technology Research Initiatives. UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television & Area Lead, Participatory Sensing. NSF Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS)

Bio – Jeff Burke is Director of Technology Research Initiatives for the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television (TFT), Adjunct Assistant Professor, and Executive Director of REMAP, a joint research program of TFT and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. REMAP’s core projects investigate the interrelationships among community, culture, and technology and how embedded and mobile computing can support community development and cultural expression. He also helped to form what is now the Participatory Sensing area at the National Science Foundation Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS).

Project Overview – This talk will briefly introduce Participatory Sensing and Named Data Networking, and discuss their intersection and relevance to the geospatial community. Participatory Sensing seeks to enable everyone to use their mobile phones, along with cloud-based computing resources, to safely collect, analyze and share data about things they care about most. Named Data Networking (NDN), also known as Content Centric Networking, replaces the so-called “thin waist” of the internet, the IP protocol, with a name-based protocol that enables communication to be routed based on content names rather than host addresses. It also provides intrinsic content caching and per-packet data signatures. NDN is the subject of a recent National Science Foundation “Future Internet Architecture” award to a group led by UCLA and PARC, in which Participatory Sensing is a driver application for the NDN architecture.

Online Resources – http://research.cens.ucla.edu/
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Closing Remarks and Acknowledgements

FINAL AGENDA

September 27, 2010

News – Video from USC Geolocation @Momentfeed @SimpleGeo @CitySourced & #Geosemble

The future is here (or there) but it is somewhere… aka the power of place plus #mobile plus #crowdsourcing plus #web20

Videos http://www.ustream.tv/channel/you-are-here-x

Event http://momentfeed.com/geo-tech/

Whitepaper http://momentfeed.com/whitepaper/

Virtual Campus http://imsc.usc.edu/about.html

August 31, 2010

News – CalEMA and Sprint Sign MOU

Category: CalEMA,California,Communications,Disaster Preparedness,Mobile,News – Administrator 3:33 pm

http://calemanews.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/sprint-and-the-state-of-california-join-forces-to-make-potentially-life-saving-mobile-technology-a-reality/

August 22, 2010

Tools & Data – Pacific Disaster Center mobile & LA County GeoData Portal

#PDC (Maui, HI) releases Disaster Aware mobile application for iPad and #iPhone users
http://www.pdc.org/PDCNewsWebArticles/2010/iTunes/disaster_alert.htm

Los Angeles County has a new geo data portal with RSS feeds to let you know when data sets are updated for this 4,700 sq. mile jurisdiction with 10 million inhabitants and 88 cities!
http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/

August 18, 2010

Tools – HealthMap global & South African FIFA World Cup resources

Bravo team HealthMap.org and note the useful South Africa FIFA World Cup map that vividly displays how modern transportation networks and mass gatherings can pose unique public health challenges (for more info on WHO efforts in this regard, go to http://www.who.int/csr/mass_gatherings/en/ & http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/swineflu/h1n1_mass_gatherings/en/) …

http://www.healthmap.org/fifa/

http://www.healthmap.org/en/

http://healthmapblog.blogspot.com/

And some perspective from WHO on Athens 2004
http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/environmental-health/urban-health/publications/2007/mass-gatherings-and-public-health-the-experience-of-the-athens-2004-olympic-games

August 11, 2010

Event – Gov 2.0 Summit, Washington DC Sept. 7-8, 2010

http://www.gov2summit.com/gov2010/

Twitter – http://twitter.com/gov2events

August 10, 2010

Nordic News – Nordic Geospatial Ushahidi-Crowdmap function added

To allow for a collaborative, web 2.0, mobile-SMS emergency response and situational awareness capability, Nordic Geospatial has incorporated a cloud-based Ushahidi-Crowdmap page – let us know what you think…

http://nordicgeospatial.crowdmap.com

July 11, 2010

Government – Calif. State Real Politik and Fed Web 2.0

California State government real politik… sobering…

http://www.mercurynews.com/politics-government/ci_15452125

Federal Gov’t 2.0

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45605

http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/07/gov-20-week-in-review-summer-h.html

US DHS FEMA Disaster Assistance Widget

US State Dept Social Media Policy

US OMB Reforming the Federal Govt Efforts to Manage IT Projects

July 8, 2010

Event – Webex July 15 – OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP EDXL) and IDCloud effort

OASIS IDCloud standard -
http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-2010-05-19.php

http://www.oasis-open.org/news/idcloud-press-release.pdf

& July 15 Webex on OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

To EIC members and friends:

Your attention is directed to the announcement below regarding an upcoming webinar on EDXL and the Common Alerting protocol.

Donald R. Ponikvar, PhD
Chair
Emergency Interoperability Consortium
Voice: 202-254-7530
Fax: 202-254-7455
Blackberry: 202-368-4922
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OASIS invites you to attend a free, 1 hour webinar on the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) suite of standards including Common Alerting Protocol (CAP).

Thursday, 15 July, 15:00 UTC/GMT:
8:00 am San Francisco
11:00 am Boston
4:00 pm London
5:00 pm Berlin

The webinar will provide an overview of EDXL and how implementation can enhance interoperability and information sharing capabilities in the emergency management and response domains. The presentations will highlight the CAP and EDXL Distribution Element (DE) standards with specific implementation examples. This webinar will also provide an overview of the NIMS Supporting Technology Evaluation Program which evaluates products for the EDXL suite of standards and publishes reports on the Responder Knowledge Base website. During the presentation there will be an opportunity for Q&A with a panel of experts.

Who should attend?

Anyone with an interest in interoperability and information-sharing within the emergency management and response domain including:

* Implementers seeking to identify relevant technical standards

* Developers with questions on how to best implement the standards

* Experts in the design and implementation of XML-based standards

Reference links:
* OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=emergency

* OASIS Emergency Management Adoption Technical Committee http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=emergency-adopt

* OASIS Membership

http://www.oasis-open.org/join/categories.php

Title: “Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) 101″

Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010

Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT

Register now by clicking the link below:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/858481577

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

*Please feel free to distribute to your colleagues*

System Requirements

PC-based attendees

Required: Windows(R) 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh(R)-based attendees

Required: Mac OS(R) X 10.4.11 (Tiger(R)) or newer

Dee Schur, Member Support
OASIS: Advancing open standards for the information society http://www.oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x211

June 30, 2010

News – UrbanDive by PagesJaunes (France) and Earthmine (Berkeley CA)

Category: Data,Europe,GPS,Mobile,News,Remote Sensing,S&T,Urban – Tags: , , – Administrator 1:36 pm

Vive la difference! So much better and environ-friendly than that pesky yellow book that lands on your doorstep every year …