The Bing Maps Webcasts Now Open for Registration

The Bing Maps Platform from Microsoft enables organizations to easily and cost-effectively deliver geospatial content to the customers and businesses they serve. Not only does this optimize existing investments in GIS and imagery services, it allows organizations to save money using Bing Maps by making strong connections with customers and exposing relevant content easily on a map from Bing.

Register today to attend a webcast and learn more. Topics include:

 

What’s New in the Bing Maps Platform?  | February 16, 2012, 2pm Eastern time, 60-minutes

Attend this session for an overview of the latest capabilities in the Bing Maps Platform. You’ll learn the latest on the Bing Maps Imagery program, how to view the meta data and other features in the platform including the best portal to see the latest new imagery sets.

 

Using the BingMapsPortal.com and keys with Bing Maps Platform | March 15, 2012, 2pm Eastern time, 60-minutes

Attend this session and learn how to use the bingmapsportal.com, tips for using/hiding your Bing Maps key and other helpful development hints.

 

Bing Maps Spatial Data Services | April 19, 2012, 2pm Eastern time, 60-minutes

Attend this session and learn how to take advantage of the Bing Maps Spatial Data Services included with the Bing Maps Platform for data hosting and findnearby/bound box queries.

 

 

GIS and Inside Buildings things

 

Clearly Google doesn’t understand anything about Professional GIS.  30 years ago, GIS and CAD came to a conclusion.  GIS would work outside the building shell and CAD would handle the inside.  Clearly this has been respected for a generation of GISPs.

But in typical Google fashion, they ignore the truce and now their GIS system (yes I’m not crazy) supports inside the building queries.

Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you’re viewing the map and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. The familiar “blue dot” icon indicates your location within several meters, and when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the interface will automatically update to display which floor you’re on. All this is achieved by using an approach similar to that of ‘My Location’ for outdoor spaces, but fine tuned for indoors.

So it is a stupid Andoid app and nothing more, for now.  But clearly there is an API in there just waiting to be used.  Of course New Yorker’s fear being tracked on their cell phones so it remains to be seen if Google will feel any backlash for tracking your cell phone (cue the old “opt-in” defense).

Now I’m not sure how stupid Google thinks users are though.  Is “Find my Favorite Coffee Shop” still something that people need help with?

via:James Fee GIS

Introduction to ArcMap 10

This tutorial will familiarize ArcMap beginners how to use ArcMap 10. Topics include opening projects, the organization of the data view, adding data to the project, using tools and toolbars, and saving projects in different ArcMap version formats.

http://www.youtube.com/v/hqHCJUudPvs?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata

Users Demand Google Maps or They’ll Leave Garmin

I’m sure there were good reasons for Garmin to use Bing over Google Maps, but their users weren’t sold on it.

…a year later, Garmin acted. Users may now select which of the two providers to use. It’s a bit of a cop-out fix, likely due to the positive things some users said about Bing. Or, perhaps it is based on an agreement with Microsoft, as many forum posters wondered.

As ProgrammableWeb points out, this has to be expensive to offer both Google and Bing.

Most likely, Garmin is now paying twice for its mistake. Both Google and Microsoft have enterprise versions and Garmin is likely not eligible to use the free versions.

For consumer applications, clearly Google Maps is the only choice you can offer.  Even with pricing changes, companies will continue to have to offer Google Maps otherwise they’ll face unhappy users.

A little pepper spray removes that Bing Maps from your apps.

by: jamesmfee