Jack Dangermond Articulates the Future of GIS at Gov 2.0

Following is a loose and passionate interview of Jack Dangermond at this week’s Gov 2.0 event. In it Dangermond speaks of the evolution, promise and future of GIS. Where he’s most passionate is the application of GIS for issues of sustainability, given the precarious position our planet is currently in.

ArcGIS 10 for iPhone

ArcGIS for iPhone extends the reach of your GIS from the office to the mobile web. It includes a free application that you can download from the iTunes App Store along with a native Objective C/Cocoa developer kit that you can leverage to build your own iPhone applications.
ArcGIS API for iPhone has now been made available for download as part of a public beta. The ArcGIS API for iPhone enables you to build iPhone applications that utilize the powerful mapping, geocoding, geoprocessing, and custom capabilities provided by ArcGIS Server.
What can you do with the iPhone API?
Using the iPhone API you can:

• Display and use maps that blend dynamic and cached (tiled) map services from ArcGIS Online and/or your ArcGIS Server.
• Execute sophisticated geoprocessing tasks and display their results.
• Search and identify features and create useful reports of feature found.
• Collect locations by sketching on the map or using the GPS embedded in your device.

What does the iPhone API include?

• The ArcGIS iPhone API provides the following resources for you to use in your iPhone applications:
• Maps – The API supports display of both dynamic and cached (tiled) map services from ArcGIS Server. With the ArcGIS iPhone API, you can display maps in any projection.
• Graphics – You can enhance your iPhone applications by allowing users to draw graphics or by providing informational popup windows when the user taps on a graphics feature.
• Tasks – Common GIS tasks such as query, search and identify of features, finding addresses and places, geoprocessing and collection.

iPad Map Review from CNET

One of the new features touted on the soon to be released iPad is the mapping application. Donald Bell from CNET has a write-up and video reviewing the mapping application on the iPad. Among the “thumbs-up” features that Bell reacted to on the iPad is the larger screen which, at three times the size of an iPhone screen, “transforms the app from a squinting approximation of a map into a full-fledged map replacement.” Bell also notes that both the Wifi and 3G versions come with an integrated digital compass for assisting with approximating location. The iPad also comes with terrain view which displays topographical data, something currently not available on the iPhone.

Watch a clip shows how to use GIS functions on iPad.

First International MapWindow GIS User & Developer Conference

Next April ( April 2010), Orlando in Florida - the homeland of Disney Land, the most popular entertainment park worldwide – will be the witness of launching the First International MapWindow GIS User & Developer Conference.
MapWindow GIS is an open source GIS specifically for the Windows operating system. Built tightly around the Microsoft .NET Framework, MapWindow is closely integrated with Windows to give users a seamless end-user experience. MapWindow is free to use and the source code and internal libraries are available for use by third party developers of GIS software.
With over 6000 downloads per month, translations in multiple languages, a world-wide development team, and an exciting roadmap for future development, MapWindow has a bright future.

This conference will serve a number of purposes for different participants including:

• An opportunity to attend workshops on the use of the MapWindow desktop application as well as developer workshops on Plug-in authoring, ActiveX application development, and working with the new MapWindow 6 .NET libraries.
• An opportunity to present your work based on the MapWindow project components and tools and to share ideas and experiences with the rest of the community.
• An opportunity to meet with all of the key players in the MapWindow project, share your ideas and insights, look for opportunities to collaborate with other users and developers, build your business contacts in the open source GIS community, and be an integral member of the team as a user and/or developer.

Launching QGIS 1.3 Mimas

The releasing of QGIS 1.3 Mimas after just one month of releasing his ancestor QGIS 1.2 is a surprise for the users of the most popular pen source GIS desktop package. QGIS Team said they removed the 'unstable' designation from their development release series because it creates the incorrect impression that these release are more likely to crash. The development releases are usually quite stable to run, but introduce new features and API additions which some people may wish to avoid.


They provide many improvements and notable features in their 1.3 release. This includes: Marker size is now configurable when editing a layer, incorporation of the analysis library into the mainstream release, identify features across multiple layers, added a new plugin for carrying out raster terrain analysis (computing slope aspect, steepness etc), a reshape tool to apply to line/polygon geometries, added snapping to current layer in measure dialog, added ability to select the primary key for views, and zoom to a coordinate by entering it in the status bar coordinate display.
The most notable addition for this release is the OpenStreetMap OSM plugin which helps user to download and edit OSM data on his\her desktop.

OpenJump: How to Setup on Linux in Seven Steps

What is OpenJump?
OpenJUMP is an open source Geographic Information System (GIS) written in the Java programming language. It is developed and maintained by a group of volunteers from around the globe.
The current version can read and write shapefiles and simple GML files. It has limited support for the display of images and good support for showing data retrieved from WFS and WMS web-services. So you can use it as GIS Data Viewer. However, it's particular strength is the editing of geometry and attribute data.
How to Setup on Linux
I am using Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition as my operating system. And, I am going to describe in details how to setup OpenJup on this Linux distro.

Step 1: Point to System menu in Ubuntu GNU task bar, then point to Administration and select Synaptic Package Manger from this list.

Synaptic Package Manger window will appear as showing in the following:


Step 2: Click Search, the following window will appears:

Step 3: Type OpenJump in the Search field, then click Search button. OpenJump package will appear in the package list.
Step 4: Click on OpenJump in the package list, and select Mark for Installation from the context menu as showing in the following:

Step 5: The following window will appear. Click Mark.


Step 6: Now, click Apply in the Synaptic Package Manger Window.

Step 7: The Summary window - which illustrate the packages selected to install - will appear. Click Apply.

The Downloading Package Files window will appear as showing in the following:


Based on your download seed, the down load will take the time. After downloading complete, the Applying Changes window will appear to show you the progress of installation.

After installation complete, the following message will appear to show you that your package - OpenJump - is installed.

Now, you can launch OpenJump easly by typing openjump in a terminal window.
Have a nice time with OpenJump.

Create a Virtual Machine in Three Steps using Sun xVM VirtualBox

You can create a virtual machine in three steps. The first step is to create a virtual hard disk, the second step is to set the file system for your machine, and the last step is to setup your operating system for your new virtual machine.
In the following, I am going to describe in detail every step/
Create Your Virtual Hard Disk
1 - Open Sun xVM VirtualBox.
2 - From File menu select, Virtual Media Manger.
3 - Virtual Media Manger window appears. Point to Hard Disks tab then click on New.
4 - Create New Virtual Disk wizard will start, click Next button.
5 - Now, you have select between (Dynamically expanding storage) and (Fixed-size storage). If you select Dynamically expanding storage, this means your storage may be extend or shrink according to media stored in. This option is my favorite because you will not care with the size of your virtual hard disk later. If you select Fixed-size storage, this means you will get real-like hard disk. Your hard disk size will be fixed although you store a media less than its volume. Also, you cannot add media larger than its volume.
6 - Now, you have to assign a name and a path for your new hard disk in the location box. Also, you have to assign a size of this new hard disk.
7 - The final window in the wizard is a simple summary about your hard disk. Click Finish to finish and create your new hard disk.
8 - Now, you have in your Virtual Media Manger a new ready to use hard disk. You can close this window now.

Set Your File System
1 - Click on New in button bar or select New from Machine menu.
2 - Create New Virtual Machine appears. Click Next button.
3 - Select a name for your machine in Name box. From Operating System list select the operating system and from Version list select the version of the operating system you plan to install in this machine. Click to Next button.
4 - Define the base memory for your machine.
5 - Select the hard disk you plan to install the system to (The hard disk you create previously).
6 - The final window in the wizard is a simple summary about your machine. Click Finish to finish and create your new hard disk.

You can modify your machine setting anytime by click Setting in the button bar or select Setting from Machine menu.

Install You Operating System
Actually, this depends on which operating system you plan to install in your machine. It's your job.