"I reason that online mapping tools ought to be highly interoperable, allowing one to fuse, integrate and manipulate spatial information from numerous sources in a myriad of ways. Secondly, they should provide a higher level link to visualisation that is more seamless - I’m thinking of more than cartographic presentation alone. They could include more virtual reality functionality. Thirdly, the link from online map information to mobile devices, laptops and other devices should be ’smarter’."

Jeff Thurston, Editor, EMEA and Russia, jeffthurston vector1media.com

"The increasing innovation of online mapping continues to amaze and surprise me, particularly this week after viewing many interactive maps dealing with the U.S. elections. Clever interfaces for map-based views push the interest in mapping, and expand the prospects for the entire geospatial industry. The elections also provide a high-profile opportunity for some spatial analysis." 

 Matt Ball, Editor, Americas/Asia-Pacific, mattball vector1media.com  

1. FUTUREFARM Integration of Farm Management Information Systems
2. MegaCity TaskForce
3. GeoData Portal - King's College London
4. Visual Methods - Information visualisation design for people
5. Volcano Live - Volcanoes of the World

1. Voltree Power - In the final stages of prototyping a maintenance-free, mesh-networked sensing system to predict and detect forest wildfires.
2. Wildlife Conservation Network
3. GenGreen Life - A directory of diverse resources for people looking to live a locally-focuses, environmentally conscious lifestyle.
4. Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning (SNAP) - Objective data for people who make policy, management, and economic decisions.
5. Green Routes - A tool to find green places to eat, play, shop, sleep, and learn.

Submit suggested links to anything you would like to recommend that fellow readers do, see or read via e-mail to mailto: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

MediaLab Prado

Catalogue and Index

It’s a daunting task to synthesize and analyze global knowledge regarding the health of the environment. The United Nations Environment Program’s World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge, United Kingdom, has a dedicated staff of more than 60 people that work to bring together data on global biodiversity and conservation to guide policy. A primary data product of UNEP-WCMC is the World Database of Protected Areas.V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Derek Gliddon, head of the Informatics Program at UNEP-WCMC about the goals and challenges of the organization.

James Fee is well known in the ESRI development community, on the GIS blogosphere for his own blog, and as the person behind the blog aggregation site Planet Geospatial. James recently joined an architectural and engineering firm that is focusing a good deal of effort on building information models. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Fee about the growing opportunity of BIM, and the implications that this modeling software will have on the GIS industry.

Under sunny skies and with 1600 registered users in attendance, the annual ESRI EMEA User Conference was held in London, UK last week at the Queen Elizabeth Convention Centre under the theme 'GIS for everyday life'. Richard Waite, president of ESRI (UK) opened the show welcoming guests from across the globe. He said that this gathering was the largest European GIS conference by number in attendance as well as the largest in the country- “GIS is an indespensible part of life.”