Chances are that if you aren't receiving or reading the 2X A week GISuser Today newsletter then you may be missing out on the GISuser Spotlight features that we highlight in each edition. During the first quarter of 2008 we featured a number of very cool and useful Geo Tech. applications, web services, data resources and other items that are just down-right cool! And so, read on for a recap of the most interesting GISuser Spotlight features from the first quarter of 08... enjoy! 

Spotlight on 3D... Via CES, Tele Atlas Unveils 3D City Maps for North America -This week in Vegas Tele Atlas showcased its 3D digital maps and content at the Consumer Electronics Show 2008. The company will make available the first Tele Atlasr 3D City Maps for North America for use in navigation systems and location-based applications in the second quarter of 2008. The first North American cities available will be Los Angeles, New York City and Toronto. The Tele Atlas 3D City Maps available in 2008 will feature complete, textured 3D city centers and unique 3D landmarks of notable structures such as United Nations Headquarters in New York City, the CN Tower in Toronto and the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles.

GISuser Spotlight on Fundraising... Help out the service at Sea cause and maybe win a trip to Mexico - the group traveling the World by sea and bringing GIS and geospatial awareness to deserving cultures (they launched from San diego at last year's ESRI User Conference), well, you can help Drew's non-profit and be entered to win a trip to Mexico at the same time. About the contest... The Mexico Fundraiser is not tax deductible. You must be available to claim and complete use of the award between May and August, 2008.

GISuser Spotlight on Historical maps... David Rumsey Insight Browser - The Collections Ticker is a Flash-based thumbnail viewer that provides access to the entire David Rumsey Map Collection via the InsightT Browser. Thumbnails and short descriptions of maps, charts, globes and other items automatically "scroll" across your desktop (similar to a news or stock ticker). Clicking on an image opens a larger view within the InsightT Browser. The Collections Ticker requires the Flash player. This is a fast and simple way to view thumbnails and descriptions of the entire Rumsey map collection... nice! PS, looking for some cool antique maps to hang on your wall? Search no more... our Historic Map Store has more than 100 to select from.


GISuser Mobile Spotlight... Helio Mysto - Helio has released Mysto, an ultra-thin slider featuring two New GPS Search Services. With Helio you don't have a contract with the likes of AT&T, T-mobile etc... rather, you go through them. They also are promoting heavily teh fact that the device comes with 2 GPS services provided by WHERE and TellME... "With the introduction of WHERE and Tellme, Mysto expands on Helio's line-up of GPS-enabled services that already include geo-tagged images and videos uploaded to Flickr and YouTubeT, Buddy BeaconT, Google MapsT for mobile and Garmin Mobile". Users are treated to a 2 megapixel camera, GPS services, Bluetooth, MP3 player, 4GB card support and more.


GISuser Spotlight... ShakeMap - A Tool for Earthquake Response - A ShakeMap is a representation of ground shaking produced by an earthquake. The information it presents is different from the earthquake magnitude and epicenter that are released after an earthquake because ShakeMap focuses on the ground shaking produced by the earthquake, rather than the parameters describing the earthquake source. 

GISuser Spotlight on National Geographic Maps National Trails Database - National Geographic Maps is putting the final touches on a new Web site (topo.com) and related application that will help outdoor enthusiasts locate accurate trail and recreation information nationwide. TOPO!r Explorer, available to the public in May, will present users with National Geographic's detailed topographic maps, aerial photography, a hybrid map made from the two, and an extensive, freely browsable, online database of trail descriptions, recommendations and unique points of interest. At launch, the TOPO! Explorer Web site, www.topo.com, will contain between 7,500 and 10,000 unique files.

Autodesk Inspires Next Generation of Engineers at 17th Annual FIRST Robotics Competition -- For the 17th consecutive year, Autodesk, Inc. is sponsoring the 2008 FIRST Robotics Competition. In addition to donating $17 million in software, mentoring resources and funds, Autodesk's goal is to inspire enthusiasm for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) among high-school aged students across the globe and encourage the next generation of engineers to collaborate as a team in designing a robot for a specific purpose. More than 37,000 students and mentors are involved in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), and this year the FRC welcomes more than 1,500 student teams from seven countries and every state in the U.S. to compete in 41 regional events. 

GISuser Spotlight... New site enables GeoExpress users to preview the benefits of publishing imagery to Express Server -- The Lizardtech Express Server Portal Site. LizardTech, and a leading provider of software solutions for managing and distributing digital content, this week officially launched a portal site where existing GeoExpress users can upload imagery to Express Server 6. The portal site can be found at http://portal.lizardtech.com/ Customers who do not currently have the latest version of GeoExpress and would like to take advantage of the Express Server portal site can easily request an upgrade. Those who do not own GeoExpress can download a trial version here - note: Imagery uploaded to the LizardTech Portal is for evaluation purposes only.

NAVTEQ Launches Map Network Mapping and Content Solutions in Europe -- Offering rich local content and Points of Interest, these maps enable places to showcase their brand in a highly-customized, location-relevant way. Map Network products are built on a flexible content management system that allows online updating to provide visitors with up-to-date local content and fresh, accurate maps.


Nokia unveils Maps 2.0 -- Nokia Maps 2.0 adds Walk, a pedestrian focused navigation component to the application, while still offering Drive, a world class car navigation system. The pedestrian navigation efficiently walks you from A to B with visual turn-by-turn guidance. The new Nokia Maps 2.0 update also adds the option to purchase first-class multimedia guides that feature photos, videos and audio streams to enlighten your journey even more.

Magellan's new Rugged, Entry-level, Professional GIS and Mapping Solution - MobileMapper 6 - This exciting, new feature rich hand-held GPS/GIS receiver delivers 2-5 meter accuracy and low-cost for business users. It fills a market gap in the data collection field between high-cost devices and consumer-grade products. It is expected to particularly appeal to forestry and other natural resource organizations, oil and gas, agriculture, utilities, government agencies, and businesses large and small that need a highly-rugged, robust GIS unit that can collect geographic data with 2-5 meter accuracy in real-time with SBAS corrections. The MobileMapper 6 is a Windows Mobile 6 open platform, unlike competing consumer-type units, it offers full compatibility with popular GIS software to enable companies to select and use the GIS software of choice. 

GISuser Data Spotlight... Spotlight on TerraLook - Satellite imagery from the USGS to view a changing world - A TerraLook product is a user-specified collection of JPEG images created from Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) images from the NASA Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, and Tri-Decadal Global Landsat Orthorectified images from the USGS archive. TerraLook will serve GIS, natural resource management, education, and other communities, and provide easily accessible remotely-sensed data.

GISuser Spotlight... Trimble's GNSS Mapping and GIS Solution - Trimble recently introduced a flexible Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver for Geographic Information System (GIS) data collection and mapping-the GPS Pathfinderr ProXRT receiver. The receiver combines a high-performance GPS receiver with Trimbler H-StarT technology, OmniSTAR correction capability, and optional GLONASS capability to provide various levels of positioning accuracies-from submeter to decimeter (10 centimeter) accuracy. According to Trimble, the ProXRT receiver is ideal for high-accuracy mapping, data collection, and asset management applications in industries such as water/wastewater, utilities, telecommunications, transportation as well as many others.
 

A cool, new solution from TerraGo was announced at the GITA Conference - Map2PDF Professional for Acrobat... Geospatial professionals create a map with their GIS and then use Map2PDF to export to a GeoPDF. Once GIS professionals have created GeoPDF files from their favorite GIS app Map2PDF for Acrobat is used to add powerful GIS-like functionality to a PDF file. The new, Acrobat authoring solution extends functionality even further allowing users to spatially enable any map simply by entering coordinates for known locations. Features include: Batch georegistration to GeoPDF, Auto indexing with bookmarks, Auto assembly of maps into map books, GeoJavaScript to create custom apps, Conversion and compression tools, GeoMark maps, Import shp, KML and GPX files, Export shp and KML files, and more!

CleanTOPO2 - Edited SRTM30 Plus World Elevation Data - CleanTOPO2 is a touched up and generalized version of SRTM30 Plus, a public domain dataset that combines sea floor and land elevation data of the entire world. The intent of these changes is to create an elevation dataset more applicable to the graphical needs of cartographers, such as for making shaded relief and 3D panoramas. The article also compares data from SRTM30 Plus with ETOPO2.




GISuser Data Spotlight... first release of GRASS as an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation - In support of the movement towards consolidation in the open source geospatial software world, GRASS is tightly integrated with the latest GDAL/OGR libraries. This enables access to an extensive range of raster and vector formats, including OGC-conformal Simple Features. Commonly referred to as GRASS, this is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization. GRASS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies.

World Satellite imagery shows Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegration - Satellite imagery from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder reveals that a 13,680 square kilometer (5,282 square mile) ice shelf has begun to collapse because of rapid climate change in a fast-warming region of Antarctica. The Wilkins Ice Shelf is a broad plate of permanent floating ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula, about 1,000 miles south of South America. In the past 50 years, the western Antarctic Peninsula has experienced the biggest temperature increase on Earth, rising by 0.5 degree Celsius (0.9 degree Fahrenheit) per decade. Images from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and data from ICESat showed that the ice shelf was in a state of collapse in March.

Google joins together with Yahoo! and MySpace to create non-profit OpenSocial Foundation - Announced recently over at the Google Code Blog, Google has joined together with Yahoo! and MySpace to create OpenSocial Foundation... users are invited to join and get involved! 

More Best of GISuser 2008:

• Best of GISuser Spotlights 2008 - Part 2 of 4
• Best of GISuser Spotlights 2008 - Part 3 of 4

Remember, you can register to receive 2X A week GIS/Geo Technology news updates via our popular GISuser Today Newsletter HERE