Auburn University Libraries -- Geographic Information System (GIS)

Geographic Information System (GIS)

The ArcGIS site license allows for ArcGIS to be loaded on any University-owned machine. For installation of the full version, including ArcInfo, for a campus computer utilized by a professor, AU employee, Graduate student doing research, contact your departmental IT coordinator to do the installation.

For undergraduates, ArcGIS should be loaded on all OIT lab machines. Professors may request 1-year student editions for their classes from ESRI. Please contact either Barbara Bishop or Christopher Mixon for the correct contact information. For undergraduates not in a GIS class there are a limited number of student edition copies available through the AU Libraries' Digital Resource Lab.

There are "free" online courses available through the ESRI Virtual Campus. For a listing and description of these courses to to the catalog. Once you have selected your course e-mail Barbara Bishop for the course code(s).

GIS NewsFeed

First Geo Tagged Twitter Tweets seen sent from ESRI ArcGIS Explorer: Now that Twitter has opened up the Geotagging API we can expect loads of cool new functionality from developers.

OGC Seeks Participants for International Hydrology Interoperability Experiment: The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGCr) will launch a Hydrology Interoperability Experiment (HDWG_IE1) on December 8, 2009. The initiators of...

Merrick & Company Wins Grand Award in MAPPS Geospatial Excellence Awards Program: San Antonio, TX, November 20, 2009 - MAPPS (www.mapps.org) has recognized Merrick Company as the winner of the...

Océ North America Recognized as 2009 Strategic Vendor of the Year: Océ North America Recognized as 2009 Strategic Vendor of the Year by the ReproMAX Reprographics Network

Registration Now Open for the ESRI Southeast Regional User Group Conference: REDLANDS, Calif.-- The ESRI Southeast Regional User Group (SERUG) Conference will bring together more than 500 geographic information system (GIS)...

LBS Wireless location aware safety notification apps on the iPhone for Boating, Trekking & ...: LBS Wireless launches location aware safety notification applications on the iPhone for Boating, Trekking Flying - Gone...

COM.Geo 2010 1st International Conference and Exhibition on Computing for Geospatial: COM.Geo 2010 1st International Conference and Exhibition on Computing for Geospatial 8-11 June 2010 Washington, DC

GeoSocial Tip - Woices Geolocalized audio guides - wow!: This is a bit of a Beta test of mine for a very cool application that enables users to create...

GeoSocial Tip - Foursquare Rolling out 50 more cities: Are you a Foursquare user? If not, chances are really good that in the near future you will be!

Oklahoma DOT and Department of Public Safety Select Transportation Solution From Intergraph: Oklahoma DOT and Department of Public Safety Select Transportation Solution From Intergraph(R) and Cambridge Systematics -- Automated oversize/overweight routing and...

Directions Magazine

Internet Age Data Exploitation, Pending . . .: Cars, electronics, even toys come with manuals and warnings. This helps protect providers and users (hopefully) from harm. But what helps providers and users of geospatial data avoid harm? Where is the software infrastructure that provides rights management, security and privacy? Sam Bacharach tackles that question in these times when geospatial data sharing is a goal of private companies, governments and individuals.

Podcast: A Hallway Conversation with Jay Tilley, Senior VP, Sanborn: Adena Schutzberg interviewed Jay Tilley, Sanborn's Senior Vice President about why 3D data is important and how the industry is overcoming challenges such as cost, data fusion and the integration of real time data. Tilley also speaks to the future growth of 3D data development and its use in augmented reality applications. This interview is part of a series of interviews with geospatial insiders and outsiders.

The View From Here: Changing Perceptions - Looking Back at the World From 20, and Forward From 45: It's fun and somewhat heartening when the spaces and places of your childhood seem so much smaller and closer together when you return to them as an adult. It's not as heartening when you look ahead to how the world might seem when you are senior citizen. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg looks back to childhood and ahead to the future.

Army Corps Website Protects Endangered Shore Species: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is keeping an eye on threatened and endangered birds by collaborating with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District. One of the results of the collaboration is a GIS-based website called the Threatened and Endangered Species System (TESS), which provides current information on threatened and endangered bird and plant species living along the New York and New Jersey coasts.

Podcast: The Line Between Geo Amateur and Professional: If anyone can make a map today, what is it that distinguishes the amateur from the professional when it comes to geospatial? Is it training? Perspective? Tools? Our editors weigh in.

Geospatial: Mapping Iraq's Ancient Cities: What do U.S. Army mapping specialists do in Iraq? Some of the same types of things we do here. For example, Sgt. Ronald Peters of the Multi-National Corps-Iraq C-7 combines datasets and creates maps to serve his customers. This article addresses the challenges and rewards of creating a map of archeological sites in Iraq.

Podcast: Executive Interview with David Schell, Chairman, Open Geospatial Consortium: In this executive interview, Editor in Chief Joe Francica spoke with David Schell, chairman of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). Schell discussed a broad range of topics including OGC's initiatives with other standards bodies, how the economy is impacting OGC's mission, its new Law and Policy Committee and several other issues. Schell helped to found the OGC in September 1994 and served as its first president.

Podcast: A Hallway Conversation with Stefan Knecht, CIO, United Maps: Adena Schutzberg, executive editor, interviewed United Maps CIO and Co-Founder Stefan Knecht about the challenges of collected and conflating data across Europe (and the U.S.), the challenges of mapping public transit and why only a small percentage of cemeteries appear in most commercial datasets. This is the fourth in a series of interviews with geospatial insiders and outsiders.

Watching the Geospatial Resumes Come In: There seem to be many people with geospatial skills looking for jobs. But, not all of them are putting their "best foot forward" when it comes to cover letters and resumes. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg has reviewed a set of documents and identified some areas that need additional attention.

GIS Programmers: From Different Worlds: Tad Larsen is trying to make sense of the two different types of GIS programmers an employer might want: "geographers and GIS professionals who know how to program; or programmers and IT professionals who know how to develop in GIS environments." He's likely not the only one who is either hiring or trying to be hired to ponder this issue.

Product Review: BusinessMap ver. 5.0: BusinessMAP's included data and functionality continue to make it an outstanding desktop mapping value. Version 5.0 includes updated business listings from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), integration with Google Earth and Google Maps, and the capability to place geo-referenced photos on the map.

Product Review: MapInfo Professional Ver. 9.5: MapInfo Professional version 9.5's new features include ease of use and data access enhancements, .NET support and a new license server. Those and some other goodies planned for a November maintenance release are explored in this review from Paul Amos. He's especially pleased with the new MapCAD tools for editing and tools for users to provide immediate feedback on the product and suggested enhancements. If you've not had a look at MapInfo for a while, this is a nice round up of what's new.

Product Review: Maptitude Ver. 5.0: Caliper Corporation's Maptitude has a reputation for being a powerful, easy-to-use desktop mapping program. Version 5.0, released early this year, should turn a few heads according to reviewer Michael Cline. He suggests that GIS professionals will find more advanced analytical capabilities that take Maptitude beyond a simple mapping tool. Users will also like the low cost offering, which includes some functions unavailable in more expensive packages.

Product Review: Terrain Navigator Pro Ver. 8.0: Terrain Navigator Pro lets you access the U.S. Geological Survey topographic quadrangle maps and USGS Digital Ortho Quarter Quads. The newest version offers new data enhancements and new functions to incorporate data from Google Earth. Paul Amos offers this review.

GEOINT: The Relationship Between the Intelligence Community and Private Industry: Deciphering the military intel-speak at GEOINT 2007, which ran this week in San Antonio, Texas, was challenging. On one side was the military brass, who seemed impatient with the way business is done. The other side included commercial vendors who have the tools, data and supposedly the knowledge base. General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, kept emphasizing that "we need to change the incentive structure." Joe Francica reports.

Microsoft Shares Details on SQL Server 2008 Spatial Support: Last month Microsoft announced that the next version of Microsoft's SQL Server, code-named Katmai, will include support for spatial data. <i>Directions Magazine</i> contacted Ed Katibah, spatial program manager for SQL Server, to get further information.

Product Review: DeLorme XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise: DeLorme XMap 5.0 GIS Enterprise is one of the components of a three-tiered software solution suite from DeLorme that provides increasing levels of functionality for GIS professionals. DeLorme has taken the approach of providing scalable solutions with its software and data products so that users only purchase the required amount of software and data they need. Paul Amos reviews the product.

Has There Been Enough Response to the MAPPS Litigation?: In the past few weeks this and other publications, along with a few blogs, have discussed the not-as-yet-begun trial resulting from the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) et al. suing the United States regarding how the Brooks Act is implemented in federal law. Adena Schutzberg has wondered, and other people have asked her, why it seems so few people care about this litigation, which may have significant impact on who does what in the geospatial arena in the future. That's a good question.

Top Ten of 2006: For each of the last six years Adena Schutzberg has put together the top ten "things" of the past year. Some are events, some are non-events, some are products and some are people. It's her opportunity to look back and highlight topics worthy of attention as we head into the New Year.

Introduction to 2007: Change is inevitable when you work in a technology sector like ours. We felt the need for some "tweaking" with our Web presence, as editor-in-chief Joe Francica explains.

Product Overview: GeoIQ - Making Your Maps Smarter and Better Looking Too: GeoIQ is an open platform that allows you to create applications integrating your data and other folks' data using Google Maps and Microsoft Visual Earth APIs. This combination provides not only interesting visualizations, it also allows for fairly complex analysis in an easy-to-use interface. GeoIQ operates as a Web service; the API lets you configure its usage, the data sources and the level of analysis. Hal Reid provides an overview.

Tsunami Warning-You Are Located in the Threat Area: On October 15th of this year, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Big Island of Hawaii about six miles north of the Keahole-Kona Airport at 7:07 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Joe Francica happened to be on the Big Island at the time, approximately 15 miles from the epicenter of both quakes, and found himself "in the dark" about what was going on and how much danger he was in. Here he tracks the information flow and offers suggestions about how it could be improved.

Editorial: Becoming New Again: Last week Hal Reid attended a Webinar titled "Improving Business Decisions through Location Intelligence" which was presented by <i>BusinessWeek</i> Research Services and MapInfo. Here he offers his thoughts on how some things we thought were old are new again.

The View from Here: Adena Schutzberg considers three topics: navigating and why some signage is highly effective; we're still "talking among ourselves" instead of getting the word out about what we do to a wider audience; and the inherent value of including a "click to see the map" option.

NSGIC Trends: Last week's National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) annual meeting was a whirlwind tour of agencies, states, technologies, visions, suggestions, questions and proposals. Here are some of the key themes and ideas Adena Schutzberg came away with after four days of meetings in Little Rock, Arkansas.

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