Out of the UK comes a company called OpenStreetMap - they are using volunteers with GPS devices to collect location data. It makes sense. The real challenge is ensuring controls on the user supplied data. How is the data verified and how is it protected from vandalism?
http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39164006,00.htm
http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2BBC66E99FDCDB98!7573.entry
3D maps is out the door and lets you view 3D perspectives of land and cities using the mouse, keyboard, or an Xbox 360 Controller for Windows.
With the navigation control you can view cities and streets from different heights and angles. Latitude, longitude, and altitude appear in the lower-left status bar of the browser window. A scale bar in the lower-right corner of the map indicates the distance from your viewing point to the objects below you.
The most important aspect of a locator is the ability to locate the closest store/dealer. If the mapping tool you are using isn’t current and doesn’t place the store/dealer location on the map at the address level then some systems will default to the center of ZIP code. This can provide false information to the user and misguide them, which typically isn’t what you want in a locator. If you think about it spatially the center of a ZIP Code could be miles from the actual street address of the store/dealer location so you could be telling a customer that the location is close to them when in reality it is much farther. Or the opposite could be true and you could be telling the customer that you can’t service them when in reality you can. In this case the search radius didn’t capture the ZIP Code centroid so the results would not show a store/dealer that is very close to the customer. For anyone contemplating a store locator, it is very important that your data be clean. If the locations aren’t in the right spot on the map then the ROI is devalued and the user experience is poor. Having locations wrong on the map can also lead to increased costs because customers will call and complain or worse go to a competitor who can provide them a quality experience the first time out of the gate.
Microsoft is about to upgrade its mapping product, Live Local, to Microsoft Virtual Earth.
A pilot program is flying new ”virtual billboards” above buildings with advertisements on them as part of a pilot advertising program, said Stephen Lawler, general manager of the Virtual Earth group. For instance, Fox has a virtual billboard hovering above the AMC cinema in downtown San Francisco. Other advertisers are Nissan Motor, Zip Realty and John L. Scott realty.
Great story about the private sector using non-classified satellite imagery to validate North Korea’s nuclear test claims.
http://www.leesburg2day.com/articles/2006/11/02/loudoun_business/biz68geoeye110106.txt
Article here about a cellphone that snaps pictures of maps instead of using something like GPS.
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn10416&feedId=online-news_rss20
