Surveying, Mapping and GIS

It's been a very busy few weeks, so I haven't had much chance to post... things going on with Virtual Earth, ArcIMS Route Server and GDT/TeleAtlas, survey-grade GPS data collection, emergency response, logistics, modeling and simulation, and plenty of other things flying around.

It's all fun stuff, but I always enjoy rolling the sleeves up and getting dirty... doing the AJAX thing, mashing various web services with Virtual Earth's V5 API via pure JavaScript clients as various proof-of-concept applications.

Here's one quick app: Virtual Earth and the NASA MODIS WMS server:

Here I'm showing the VE and MODIS side-by-side, both views refresh dynamically. The next step will be to explore the "Roll Your Own Tile Server" approach to seamlessly getting custom WMS content directly into VE.

The next one was even more fun: Virtual Earth and the MetaCarta JSON API:All pure Web 2.0, neogeo, slippy AJAXIAN goodness, "Look, Ma! No "SUBMIT" button!!" Type in your query, (searching for documents about toxic substances here...) and it fetches results from the MetaCarta appliance and sprays them back into the VE map view. Pan, zoom, and instantly you get new stuff popping up. All self-contained in a few k of DHTML, CSS and JavaScript, no Java, .NET, Ruby, Python or other infrastructure needed. Both written in a total of about 2.5 hours, just noodling around in the APIs without any real thought ahead of time.

A friend found this:



Simple, silly, prankish, but gave me a much needed chuckle...

From a memo circulated by USEPA CIO and AA for USEPA's Office of Environmental Information (OEI), Molly O'Neill:

I am very pleased to announce and welcome Jerry L. Johnston, Ph.D as the new Geospatial Information Officer (GIO) for EPA. Jerry has many years of geospatial experience in a variety of public and private sector positions. Most recently, he was a manager in the Environmental Fate and Effects Division in the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs where he successfully integrated geospatial analysis into the regulatory assessment processes of OPPTS. Prior to joining EPA, Jerry was in private industry where he held numerous roles including that of a Chief Technology Officer.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Jerry has demonstrated an exceptional ability to apply geospatial technology to help solve complex environmental problems. His understanding of information technology, policy development, geospatial data, and the business processes of EPA will be invaluable as we develop new approaches for managing and using environmental information.

I have mentioned to several people that I believe our geospatial work is just beginning and there are great opportunities ahead. Jerry's experience, energy, and fresh perspective will be important to leading this effort and I am confident that he will work collaboratively with the entire GIS community at EPA to make huge strides.

Jerry will be joining us full-time in mid-July. Please join me in welcoming Jerry to OEI!

Yesterday, I was offered an iPhone, out of the blue. Yea, it's really cool, has an incredible interface, is power-packed with features, and just amazing technological innovations. But... I remain skeptical, I just don't share the enthusiasm that Peter Batty and others are demonstrating. Just a few things I have found thus far: