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Intergraph:
A
Company in Transformation
by Joe
Francica, Editor-in-Chief
 On June 7th, I met with Halsey Wise (pictured at left), CEO
of Intergraph
Corporation, to talk about the recent reorganization and the company’s
financial
performance. In a frank discussion, Wise provided his take on issues
where
I have been critical in some of my recent editorials and blog entries (1,
2).
Wise explained the decisions he made regarding the investment of the
awards
from intellectual property law suits and offered insights to the
actions
he has considered to grow the company.
Later in the day, I spoke with
Intergraph's President of the Security,
Government, and Infrastructure (SG&I) division, Preetha Pulusani
about
the specific focus she is bringing to the newly reorganized geospatial
division
that she leads. Some of her comments are included here as well.
Intergraph and its Peers
Over the past year, I have questioned Intergraph's direction and base
many of my opinions on the quarterly financial reports. I expected the
company to grow at a pace comparable to that of its competitors. In
particular,
Autodesk and MapInfo have demonstrated strong financial growth over the
last year. Autodesk reported a 30% increase in revenues for fiscal 2004
and its stock split two for one in November of last year. In April,
MapInfo
reported that it has had eight consecutive quarters of year-over-year
increases
in both operating income and operating margin. It has demonstrated
expertise
in acquisitions, as well. By comparison, Intergraph's year over year
earnings
growth looks weak at 4.8% for fiscal 2004. Wise and Pulusani revealed
another
perspective on these numbers. ... Read
more 
Where
2.0 - This is not your father's GIS conference
By Joe
Francica, Editor-in-Chief
 O'Reilly
Media's first Where 2.0 conference in San Francisco
illustrated one key fact: GIS people are welcome so long as you leave
your desktop mapping software at the door. This was not your father's
GIS conference nor was it supposed to be. But the GIS vendors were here
sniffing curiously at the consumer mapping phenomenon that is rapidly
impinging on their space.
Where 2.0 might be an introduction
for the hackers and serious software developers new to the mapping
technology sector, but make no mistake, there are some very different
applications being demonstrated. Some examples:
Stamen Design - They worked with MoveOn.org
to help them visualize online town meetings. When attendees logged into
the meeting, they were asked to give their ZIP Code. From there,
polling of attendees resulted in a map showing responses from which
MoveOn then tailored specific messages.
Magic Window - An application that is kind of a "looking glass" whereby
a tablet is
equipped with GPS and a smart, transparent display that is being tested
with firefighters in mind. In a smoke filled room, the display will
show the user the actual walls and other features of the building. As
the user moves, the display updates the location to continuously show
building features. If you point the display upwards while standing
inside a building, it is likely to show you constellations of the night
sky.
PlaceSite - Uses
a WiFi router so that your typical wireless cafe patron can talk
to others doing the same and not just within the same cafe but
potentially in other cafes, worldwide.
Dangermond schools the
"young mappers"
Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, had a few pointed, but polite
comments for the audience of O'Reilly Media's Where 2.0. "There have
been 'old guys' who have been doing this for a long time; there are
young guys who are just starting; they are coming together through the
magic and standards of the web."
There are two "take-aways"
here. One, we welcome the 'young pups' but maps have been cool to us
for a long time. Two, there are web standards that are emerging from
the OGC that you need to
carefully understand, appreciate and use.
Dangermond
also said, "Google is one expression of the world. GIS networks contain
libraries of information and layers that are managed and serve up
data." In other words, wake up and smell the terabytes of geospatial
data that exist (e.g. Geospatial One-Stop) already; there's more to the
world than streets and points.
Dangermond issued a caution as I
spoke to him after his presentation. "This reminds me of LBS." He was
referring to the hype that surrounded wireless location-based services,
a bubble that burst and has yet to recover.
Watch for further coverage
of the Where 2.0 conference next Wednesday.
More Where 2.0 items from the All Points Blog
... More
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by Adena Schutzberg, Executive Editor
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Acquis Wins Sole Source Contract from U.S. Census worth $21
Million
No big
press release from this Irish company, but a huge win
nonetheless. The company’s
Acquis Data Editor (ADE) will support topology editing within the
Oracle 10g Topology Data Model. That’s the model for the MAF/TIGER. If
you’ve not heard of the product, according to the company, it’s “the
first low-cost, web-based solution for editing Oracle Database 10g
topology and Oracle 8i/9i/10g Locator, Spatial geometry, and attribute
data.” This is
interesting from a few perspectives: the contract was sole source, it’s
to an international company, and it’s not a long time GIS hanger on of
Oracle.
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ORBIMAGE
Announces Exclusive Agreement with Microsoft to Provide Global
Satellite Imagery for MSN Virtual Earth
Neither
DigitalGlobe nor (rather quiet of late) Space Imaging will provide
Microsoft with the apparently now required satellite imagery for its
MSN Virtual Earth. The “new kid” on the block with a 1 M satellite,
ORBIMAGE, will.
“Under the terms of the 5-year agreement, ORBIMAGE will allow Microsoft
to incorporate ORBIMAGE's global library of satellite images into MSN
Virtual Earth. Microsoft will also have an exclusive source of updated
imagery that ORBIMAGE will continue to produce with its OrbView-2 and
OrbView-3 satellites as well as new satellites it plans to place into
service in the next 18-24 months.”
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Mapping
APIs Available
Google and
Yahoo! both announced the
availability of application programming interfaces for their mapping
offerings (Google Maps
and Yahoo! Maps
respectively). Google’s is now
fully JavaScript and Yahoo’s “is built around RSS 2.0, the W3C geo
extension and other open standards.” Both are free to use for
non-commercial purposes. If you are a Web developer do you look here
first or at ArcWeb Services?
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Pictometry
Announces $500,000 in Grants For 9-1-1 Centers for Purchase of
Pictometry Technology
“The
Pictometry
9-1-1 Grants (P9-1-1) will enable new Pictometry county customers to
receive up to $5,000 per PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point)
location.” Counties with more than one PSAP can get up to $15,000. The
company is also offering
information on other grants that are applicable to purchase of its
software and “Agencies can also contract with the provider of the grant
information, Grants Offices, LLC of Rochester, NY to write their grant
applications.”
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Letters and comments
from the previous week (or so) will appear on Fridays. If you missed an
article referenced below, it might be because you are not subscribed to
all of our newsletters. You can change your preferences here.
- Last week’s article
on The National Biological Information Infrastructure prompted
a question and a suggestion.
Tyler Mitchell is looking
for information for accessing the data holding via Open Geospatial
Consortium specifications.
Emilio Mayorga noted the Global
Biodiversity Information Facility. He describes it as a “global
effort, with more and more interconnected, distributed databases going
online all the time.”
- Human-tracking
Goes Mainstream got under Paul van Zoggel’s skin. He asks,
“What will kids say when a school or parent demands to wear a tracker?
And if they do not wear one, they will be grounded? I think kids will
become smart very fast..” He points the finger as us, “That we are not
reacting: we all became dull, we just let all information come over us.”
- The quick look
at newly released Google Earth had readers “talking.”
Jason from Japan
is “excited to see what's next in the world of
GIS!”
Kent Hargesheimer, Geographic Enterprises, LLC noticed that Google
Earth provides “older than what is offered by GlobeXplorer and others.”
He wonders, “Maybe they have the most recent data available with the
fee based services.” Adena Schutzberg responds: In an interview on
Monday, John Hanke of Google confirmed that all three services do
indeed access the same database. The “for fee” versions provide better
resolution and enhanced tools.
Bob Thompson, 24th & 1/2 Century Travel, Inc. shares his take: “So
Google Earth isn't pro-grade GIS. Well, who gives a bunnie's backside?
If our “industry” can ever hope to deliver the next
killer app (har, har, har), we need consumers and Joe Bagodonuts needs
to understand what we do.”
Brian Timoney, The Timoney Group, describes Google Earth as “the most
visually compelling example to date of what I refer to as 'lower-case'
"gis": easy-to-use apps that let the average user view their data in a
geographic context as opposed to the bulky, learning curve-laden
software…” He goes on, “In the reviews of Google Earth, what has gone
unemphasized in the recitation of product features is the ability to
merge your own vector data, imagery, and symbols residing on your local
machine seamlessly with the Google's imagery stream coming over the
Internet.”
Aleda Freeman of MassGIS notes the “mesmerizing” affect of the “flying
motion.” She points out that “the Local Search data not being up to
date, … makes it less useful” and hopes Google will address the issue.
A reader from RSI UK was impressed with the new offering and offered
his take on the market in which it launches. “Some have argued that
behind the scenes that this is probably a proprietary system which is
not OGC compliant and has been tweaked for performance purposes - my
opinion is 'who cares!' when you've got as much financial muscle as
Google and you're giving away access free. If I were ESRI I would be
quaking in my boots!”
We welcome
your praise and
criticism via our comments tools provided along with articles on the
website, or via e-mail.
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Product
Briefs
compiled by Nora
Parker, Senior Managing
Editor
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Azteca
Systems Inc. announced the release of Cityworks Version
4.3, its GIS-based Asset Maintenance Management System software.
Cityworks 4.3
core functionality improves with new tools for Service Request and Work
Order, along with enhancements to Storeroom, Layout Manager, Designer
and Asset Management. ... More
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PCI
Geomatics announced the newest release of
Geomatica 9, Version 9.1.7. Geomatica is PCI Geomatics’ image-centric
geospatial software solution capable of handling both
large- and small-scale geomatics projects. New
features include improved accuracy of PCI
Geomatics’ Rational Functions modeling for multiple-image blocks,
improved accuracy for
user-specified polynomial adjustment orders for ground
control, and support for three dimensional tie points in RPC modeling
projects. ... More
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GeoDecisions
introduced IRRIS 6.0, offering
improved mapping, reporting and querying capabilities. Through patented
IRRIS technology, information about
transportation infrastructure – including roads, bridges, tunnels and
dams, as well as real-time weather, traffic, and real-time vehicle
locations – is integrated and displayed in a Web-based map
format. ... More
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LandVoyage.com
released
aeronautical charts for the entire continental United States. The
aeronautical charts are now available as part of the LandVoyage.com
subscription service. The Federal Aviation Administration
publishes and distributes
aeronautical charts and flight information publications through the
National Aeronautical Charting Office. LandVoyage.com acquired and
processed the entire collection of digital raster charts
including all of the Sectional Charts as well as the Terminal Area
Charts. ...
More
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Blue
Marble Geographics announced the release of an off-the-shelf
version of the BeyondGeo Internet Mapping technology. The Blue Marble
GeoMapServer is a re-write
of the BeyondGeo MapServer that has been developed according to a Open
Geospatial Consortium specification. Blue Marble re-wrote its
mapserver technology to be
more robust and flexible. GeoMapServer contains a Web mapping server, a
map creation and display tool and a customizable Web interface for
on-line display of maps.
... More
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ObjectFX
Corporation announced
availability of version 4.1 of SpatialFX, the company's patented
Java/J2EE spatial enterprise software platform. Version
4.1 includes enhanced spatial "rule and event" processing, a
new 3D visualization option, and compatibility with North American
street level data from NAVTEQ. The new product
release includes capabilities that enable
customers to integrate spatial capabilities more tightly into their
internal business processes, as well as to provide more accurate
portrayal of geospatial context through 3D visualization. ... More
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Thanks for reading Directions Magazine,
and
be sure to tell a friend.
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