December 2004 GIS News
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Coverage in the general news media of GIS and GIS issues, with an emphasis on U.S. news and novel GIS uses elsewhere.

[ January 2005 headlines ]

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• "The Power of Maps: 2005 Marks 90 Years of National Geographic Cartography," Newhouse News Service 31 Dec.: "Geographic Information Systems makes possible the sorting, analyzing and layering of data 'to depict the complicated, interlocking forces at work on the ground.' "
• "Technology changes fish, wildlife management," Grand Forks, N.D. Herald 31 Dec. column: "Geographic Information System, or GIS, mapping is producing contour maps of lakes, allowing fisheries managers a more accurate look at waters than ever dreamed possible."
• "In Brief: Brighton Township: New map will soon be available," Ann Arbor, Mich. News 31 Dec. item: "The township has been working for the past several months with the Livingston County GIS department to create the map."
• "Hoy named by peers as assessor of the year," Douglas County, Colo. News-Press 30 Dec.: "Hoy and her staff recently completed integrating the county's GIS map and appraisal data systems, so when a change is made in one it is automatically made in the other."
• "Mapping and Markup, Part 2," O'Reilly Media 29 Dec. how-to article on the XML-based Geography Markup Language (GML). See also Part 1.

• "A new key to the city," Iowa Falls, Iowa Times-Citizen 29 Dec.: The city contracted "with Promap Corp. for Global Information Systems (GIS) maps that show in great detail how the city is laid out and the exact location of city infrastructure."
• "City technology company knows where to grow," Wisconsin State Journal 29 Dec.: "In the nine years since [GeoAnalytics] was founded, the data management consulting firm has grown from a staff of three serving six clients into a company with $4.4 million in annual revenue, more than 40 employees."

• "ITRI's new herbal medicine database completed," Biotech East, Taiwan, 28 Dec. news item: "The herbal medicines were classified using several newly developed criteria including chemical and DNA fingerprinting, a preserved sample herbarium and GIS (Geographic Information System) based plant distribution maps."

• "GIS Web site could go online by March," Muncie, Ind. Star Press 27 Dec.: "Valuable information contained in Delaware County's Geographic Information System could be available to the public as early as March."

• "Community safety center opens computer lab on Fourth Street," Winston-Salem, N.C. Journal 26 Dec.: "People using the [new Transforming Communities Research Lab at the Center for Community Safety] can do research using Geographic Information Systems technology, which can map such information as crime trends or the location of convicted criminals who have been released from prison... 'We'll formally start that process by helping people understand what GIS is all about.' "
• "Lincoln County beaches avoid snowy plover designation," Newport, Ore. News-Times 24 Dec.: "The federal agency proposed 35 critical habitat units along the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington. They total 17,299 acres, significantly less than an earlier critical habitat plan the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] sought to adopt in 1999... The new proposal calls for more, but generally smaller critical habit units, 'since we've become able to better map now," chiefly through computerized Geographical Information Systems (GIS).' "

• "Commencement Close-up: April Purcell," Univ. of Texas at San Antonio Today 23 Dec. news item: "The 28-year-old Northside School District science teacher has juggled teaching duties and graduate studies at UTSA while awaiting the arrival of her first child in February. In December, she was able to lighten her load considerably after completing her master's degree in earth and environmental science [with a] thesis on 'Using Internet GIS Sites with Students.' "
• "Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. to install some 110,000 automated meters," Bangor, Maine Daily News 23 Dec.: "During a power outage, 'by using the new [Automated Meter Reading] technology with our GIS (the Geographic Information System), we will be able to understand the scope of the outage.' "
• "High-tech firm announces plans to expand in WNC," Tryon, N.C. Daily Bulletin 22 Dec.: Navigational Sciences, "a cutting-edge marine data, GIS, satellite image and mapping company ... announced plans last week to expand the operations of its technology business into western North Carolina."

• "Police up to challenge: Develop profiles for special needs residents," Ashland, Mass. TAB 23 Dec.: "Franklin police Officer Jennifer Mitchell ... helps parents of special needs children create binders with written descriptions and pictures of their children and GIS maps of places they may wander as part of the Early Search Program... Franklin uses pre-made copies of the binder data or a disc with information an officer can pop into a laptop computer in a cruiser. This saves two to three hours of interviewing parents."
• "It's where to go now for county maps and info," Independence/Blue Springs, Mo. Examiner 22 Dec.: "Employees from Jackson County Public Works and Geographic Information Systems moved into a new building on the Independence Square this week."
• "Chaffee invoice to be checked," Sikeston, Mo. Standard-Democrat 22 Dec.: "The first order of business in picking up the GIS ball in Chaffee will be double checking on an invoice... [Also discussed was] authorizing Smith and Company of Poplar Bluff to release Chaffee's aerial photography to Midland GIS Solutions for the GIS base map."
• "Federal proposal would designate upper Malibu Creek as critical habitat," Malibu, Calif. Magazine 22 Dec. article which reports about the National Marine Fisheries Service that "nearly all salmonid freshwater and estuarine habitats in Washington, Oregon and Idaho are now mapped and available in GIS (geographic information systems) at a scale of 1:24,000. Previous distribution data were often compiled at a scale of 1:100,000 or greater."
• "People in the News," Detroit, Mich News 22 Dec. lead item: "Oakland County Clerk/Register of Deeds G. William "Doc" Caddell ... has been honored with a special tribute entered into the Congressional Record by U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia... Among Caddell's major accomplishments, McCotter cited: the establishment of e-Land Records and utilization of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to accurately draw property lines."

• "Let it be 'reasonable'," Sterling, Colo. Journal-Advocate 21 Dec.: "The question is, why should the public be charged for access to records that are open to all, and which have been collected and collated with taxpayers' money?"
• "Conference Board revolts against supervisors' decision," Muscatine, Iowa Journal 21 Dec.: "There's no argument that the Conference Board agreed in 2003 to purchase a $24,900 digital mapping system for the county. The quarrel lies in which Board has the authority to hire the person who will coordinate the system."

• "Bird's eye view shows dump sites," Benton County, Ark. Daily Record 19 Dec.: "While assessing Benton County's updated aerial photography, the county's Geographical Information Systems coordinator and her staff discovered several unsightly dump sites." Use of LIDAR is also reported.
• "Contract signed for GIS system," Sikeston, Mo. Standard-Democrat 19 Dec.: "County commissioners signed contracts for the implementation of the county’s geographic information system during their regular meeting Tuesday."
• "OSU researchers help China reduce soil erosion," Bend, Ore. Bugle 17 Dec.: "Oregon State University researchers working with the People's Republic of China have developed a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping tool they hope will help solve the massive loss of topsoil on high elevation plateaus in western and northern China."

• "Prepping to Pull the Plug on GPS," AP wire story at Wired News 15 Dec.

• undated, Dec. 2004 – "West Bank and Gaza Mission Wins Award for GIS System" – USAID Frontlines Dec. 2004 article
• 30 Dec. 2004 – "Environmental Issues Emerging from Wreckage of Asian Tsunami" – U.N. Environment Programme news release: "UNEP is therefore also mobilizing its remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) capacities, in collaboration with other UN agencies, to help identify impacts and make relevant information available to relief efforts."
• 29 Dec. 2004 41Kb PDF – "NGA Assisting U.S. Agencies in Tsunami Disaster Assessment" – U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency news release
• 28 Dec. 2004 – "PlanGraphics to design soils data Internet application for New Jersey Department of Transportation"
• 23 Dec. 2004 – "A new standard in geological data" – Geoscience Australia news item: "The National Geological Data Model (NGDM v1.0) is a proposed national model ... designed using a simple data format that can be used as a basis for data transfer between government, industry and academic organisations ... independent of any particular software."
• 21 Dec. 2004 – "Geosphere, new GSA Electronic Journal, to debut first quarter 2005" – Geological Society of America news release at EurekAlert: "For its first year of operation, GEOSPHERE will be an open access journal, available online."
• 21 Dec. 2004 – "PlanGraphics to develop business case for Oregon GIS Utility"
• 18 Dec. 2004 – "U.S. Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Policy" – U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy 15 Dec. fact sheet, at SpaceRef.com
• 18 Dec. 2004 – "United States GPS Industry Council Welcomes New White House GPS Policy," USGIC 18 Dec. news release, at SpaceRef.com
• 14 Dec. 2004 – "Monroe County, NY Sheriff's Office and Gwinnett County, GA Fire Department Are Nation's First Public Safety Agencies to Deploy Pictometry's New Touch Screen Imaging Software in Vehicle Laptop PCs"
• 14 Dec. 2004 – "ESRI Offers GIS Software and Resources Grants to the U.S. 4-H Program"
• 14 Dec. 2004 – "U.S./Russia Joint Statement on GPS and Glonass" – U.S. State Dept. news release
• 8 Dec. 2004 – DigitalGlobe news release: "Nature Conservancy Uses QuickBird Imagery for Ecosystem Mapping"
• 6 Dec. 2004 – "New Software Enables Field Collected GPS Points and Other Event Mapping Data Posted Directly to ESRI ArcIMS Based Web Mapping Platforms" – TDC Group news release about its Freeance Direct product
• 3 Dec. 2004 45Kb PDF – "Origin GeoSystems Releases Origin GIS 2.2"
• 17 Nov. 2004 – "ESRI Press Releases Second Edition of Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop for ArcGIS 9"
• 2 Nov. 2004 – "Lizardtech patent litigation threatens ISO JPEG2000 standard" – ER Mapper news release
• undated – American Geophysical Union 2004 Fall Meeting abstracts on "Data Acquisition, Management, Analysis, Display"
• undated – SmartGirl Technologies in Portland, Ore. has changed its name to New Urban Research, Inc., and is offering workshops on "Mapping Your City: An Introduction to GIS & Social Analysis," in addition to "Analyzing Your City: Local Demographic Analysis"
• 18 Aug. 2004 – "INEEL develops computer tool to help save archaeological treasures," Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Lab news release, also available in a similar but illustrated version