The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) was present at Geospatial World in a big way (exhibiting and presenting papers)… obviously they are an important client for IMGS.  Recall the NGA (formerly NIMA) is a DOD combat support agency and member of the national intelligence community. They provide intelligence in support of national security issues. On a related note, if you haven’t already done so you may wish to take a look at "Mapping the Risks: Assessing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information" see http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG142/. Reminder, the National Geospatial Intelligence Symposium is scheduled to take place this year from Oct 12-14 in New Orleans, LA. See www.usgif.org/symposium/ for information.

ACD Systems, (Victoria BC/Miami, FL) used GSW as a forum to introduce its latest product – Canvas 9. For those of you not familiar with it, Canvas 9 is a powerful yet simple to use tool enabling users to blend Geographic Information System (GIS) data with a full range of vector illustration, image editing, page layout, Web graphics, and desktop presentation features. Canvas 9 Advanced GIS Mapping Edition offers new GIS-specific import filters including support for MapInfo - ARC/INFO - USGS Digital Line Graphs - TIGER (Census) - MrSID (Win. only) - GML (Geography Markup Language) - SDTS (USGS Spatial Data Transfer Standard) - GIS Text - Garmin (GPS) - ECW (Enhanced Compressed Wavelet Images - S57 (IHO International Hydrographic Organization).  The product is available in Windows or Mac versions and will greatly enhance the users ability to create high-quality and expandable/scalable output. My take… very slick and a steal at the special conference price of $399 which was being offered to attendees. See www.acdsystems.com

Safe Software was showing off their new version of FME, aka. FME 2004 ICE. It contains close to 600 user-requested enhancements, as well as several new and updated formats that bring the total number of FME-supported formats to over 130. FME Data Server for GeoMedia provides GeoMedia users the ability to directly read over 110 formats and systems supported by FME including DB2, Geodatabase, SDE, PostGIS, many GML dialects, and MapInfo TAB. See www.safe.com (also http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/1638/)

Always present at GSW is London, Ontario-based Keigan Systems. These guys are responsible for GeoMedia Grid and a product know as MFworks. This year the crew sponsored the raster analysis poster competition and was boasting the pending release of GeoMedia Grid 5.2 – look for it later this summer. At 5.2, Grid offers a number of enhancements and features including the support for surface profiling, volume analysis, grid layer histograms, and enhanced file import/support. See www.keigansystems.com

UK based Laser-Scan skipped over the “pond” to promote Radius Topology and its support for Oracle 10g – program director Steve Ramage could be easily identified as the one in the kilt! According to the company, you can think of the product as a “gatekeeper” so to speak, which allows only clean and accurate data to be maintained within your database. So what’s the pitch… Radius Topology provides a migration tool enabling users to migrate from Oracle9i to 10g – haven’t heard about 10g yet?? You will! Radius Topology for Oracle 10g calculates, stores and maintains topology and promises users enhanced productivity, improved performance, and an interoperable solution.  Educational institutions may be interested in knowing about the Radius Academic Program (www.laser-scan.com/partners/academic/). This program provides academics the chance to work with Laser-Scan’s Radius family of products for free. See also www.laser-scan.com

Map2PDF on display by Layton Graphics could be seen on the floor. The product enables the geo-registration of PDF maps, and converts them into highly intelligent GIS documents.   Users can now embed and display latitude and longitude in PDF maps, dynamically re-project coordinates using various datums and projections, as well as embed and display non-graphic attributes into PDF maps obtained from any spatially enabled source. Some of the benefits to users include:
- Distributes geospatial mapping data simply with geo-registered PDF
- mobile mapping viewing and querying capabilities
- Display and track GPS coordinates
- Dynamically re-projects coordinates using various datums and projections with Adobe Reader
See http://www.layton-graphics.com

Some notable comments ,quotes and observations from Geospatial World:

- Only an SQL statement should come between you and your data and only a url should come between you and your data sources (David Holmes, Intergraph director worldwide product strategy)

- By adopting open, interoperable solutions, substantial ROI can be realized by the enterprise user. Expect a 1:1 benefit from the implementation of automated mapping, a 2:1 benefit from the use of digital design and analysis, a 4:1 return from enterprise access, exponential returns will be realized with enterprise applications.

- When 3 major Australian electric companies were faced with consolidation one was an Intergraph user the other 2 used a solution from another vendor. Their decision to select an Intergraph IT platform across the enterprise was determined based largely on the passion exhibited by the customers who were loyal to their Intergraph solutions and technologies.

- IMGS is definitely committed to their educational programs and strategies, boasting more than 200 member institutions. The IMGS Registered Research Laboratory (RRL) program encourages the collaboration between commercial and educational users. Partnerships are in place with leading educational resources including UCGIS, AGILE, and UNIGIS. Other highly successful edu initiatives include intern programs, research grants, poster competitions, and an annual EDU symposium held in conjunction with Geospatial World. See http://imgs.intergraph.com/education/

- from the rumor milll... word has it that next year's Geospatial World in L.A. will not include an exhibition floor... we'll have to wait and see.

What to look for in the IMGS product lines:

GeoMedia 5.2
- a focus on improved plotting and output
- new tools to simplify the UI
- legend generation tools
- automated index grid creation
- enhanced batch plotting capabilities
– output to PDF support

WebMap 5.2
- simplified and automated webmap publishing
- support for translucency
- enhanced support for WMS and WFS following OGC standards

Some product announcements and products on the horizon include:
- GeoMedia Stereo Feature Collection
- GeoMedia Fusion
- FME for GeoMedia supporting ArcSDE read and write connectors. G/Technology 9.2 with an open API, improved metadata management tool and plotting improvements.
- IntelliWhere Trackforce 5.2 – mobile resource tracking and management in real-time
- Photogrammetry 4.3 – true orthorectified images
- Terrashare 2.1 (late summer) real-time connection to image and elevation data and metadata and seamless viewing
- InService 7.9

For more product details see http://imgs.intergraph.com/gdmc/