The folks who keep Open Street Map thriving are having a conference in Limerick, Ireland in July to discuss the State of the Map. If you aren't familiar with Open Street Map, I'd encourage you to check it out, and then to get out your GPS and digital camera and get some data on the map! Most of the current US data is from the TIGER/Lines data set, and in my area of DC is pretty out of date.

A very interesting map from Ben Fry's website, including detail on the meaning and origin in this article. The map itself is made only of roads, no terrain features, no boundaries, just roads... all of the roads in the US. Best use of the TIGER/Line data set I've seen in years. A thumbnail of the real map is used by gracious permission of the author. Thanks!

With all of the recent move to put cartography and GIS data on the internet, it should come as no surprise to readers of this blog that there are a lot of web sites out there with nice looking maps and data that everyone expects to be real. This is where people should stop to think about the source of the data. A beautiful map is a beautiful thing. And, once upon a time, a nice looking map with data on it was a sign that some dedicated organization had paid a lot of money to create it. Nowadays, that …

Real estate web site Zillow has announced that they are making the shape files that they use to indicate neighborhoods across the US available under the Creative Commons license. That's right, a commercial data provider who is willing to make data available for free. As they'd say in New Zealand, "Good on you!" The license requires attribution only, and that you make future versions available under the same license if you change the data.

In the Google Maps blog yesterday, they carried an announcement that Google Maps will be adding support for the hCard microformat in Google Maps. What does this mean for you and I? More machine-usable data in Google Maps. The hCard microformat is a way of taking normal HTML (or XHTML) and putting additional contextual information into it so that software looking at the codes will be able to recognize the information for what it is. An example of this would be the following: Gaige Bradley Paulsen ClueTrust 11654 Plaza America Drive Reston , VA , 20190 USA This hCard created with the …

According to an article in MacWorld today, Garmin has announced that Training Center for the Macintosh is "now available" (although they also indicate that the software will be available for download in Late January, it will be distributed on CD at MacWorld in a week and a half). No word on firmware upgrading and support of non-training devices, but this is a step. Congratulations, Garmin.

If you know your geography and are from the UK or the US, then click on over to Geography Cup and help your team win! The contest lasts until December 31, 2006 and has been going on since November 12. The UK is clobbering the US in terms of score per participant, but the volume of US participants is keeping them in the lead. Show your team spirit and help out!

In mapping-related personnel news, Ed Parsons, the CTO of Ordnance Survey, will be leaving effective December 22, 2006 to pursue other interests. Having met him, he's a nice guy with a lot of good ideas and it's going to be interesting to see where he ends up. Best of luck, Ed!

Worldmapper is a site that uses Cartograms (maps that have been distorted to show non-geographical data in interesting ways. Public Health Spending, as an example, shows how much of the world's health care dollars are spent in the US. Compare that with Population, and you get an idea how distorted spending is relative to population. It's an interesting way to view information, using maps as a reference point instead of an accurate rendition, like so much of online mapping. There are some 227 cartograms and they can be looked at online or downloaded in PDF form. Further, they provide extensive …

As an ESRI customer, I've been interested in getting my hands on 9.2 to check out the new features. Yesterday (annoyingly close to Thanksgiving here in the US) my package arrived. Expect some commentary on the advances and changes in 9.2.

The latest release of Google Earth Pro version (additional $400 per year, subscription only) now includes the GIS import module, the movie making module, and the premium printing module, each of which were paid extras before this week. These modules increase the amount of data manipulation that can be done directly inside of Google Earth, although they don't change the data visible in the application. Although the GIS Import module is interesting, it appears that its free inclusion is just and admission that the features in it have been available in free add-on and web based software for months now …

In Boulder, CO this weekend, Carol and I happened upon a store called Art Source International. They specialize in prints and maps, but really in maps. They have about 25,000 in their online listing and will frame and ship, and in some cases provided high-resolution (OK, they're medium resolution, because 1600x1200 stopped being high resolution a few years ago) images of the maps. Ask for George, he knows what he's doing!

Up next on Google Earth, support for WMS in the free version of the viewer, support for a neat UI for playing timeline "movies", and Featured Content. Among the new features for this competitor for your geospatial content exploration and viewing pleasure are a variety of things that make looking at real data more interesting. Most importantly is the accessibility (in the free version of the player) of the ability to use overlays that come from WMS servers. WMS is the standard for sending out pixel-based (as opposed to shape-based) mapping data on the Internet. Although the particulars aren't completely …

The Daily Mail is again reporting that when put to the test, people need to pay close attention to what their satellite navigation systems are telling them instead of following blindly. The report stems from an article in Which? magazine (available to subscribers or free for 30 days from their site) that contains head-to-head tests of 14 different systems.

For Macintosh users trying to match up their photos with their GPS devices, the GPSPhotoLinker software (with a newly released version for the first time in over a year) provides a relatively simple way to do that. New features include Universal Binary support, and support for downloading data directly from a GPS. The basic gist of the program is pretty simple: load up your GPS tracks, set the time-zone of your camera, and then let GPSPhotoLinker put the times with the photos. So, this good one-trick pony now has a second pretty-good trick.

According to an article on Mobilewhack Casio is going to release a new GPS enabled watch. The specs indicate that the watch "comes equipped with a built in speedometer and a GPS radio! " As is apparent from the previous quote there is not a lot of information known just yet about the new watch. However, from the looks of the picture accompanying the article, the watch looks smaller than other GPS watches from Suunto or Garmin. More information as it become available.

The NY Times (Registration Required) has a fun article today about the "fiercest rivalry in all sports" and how the rivalry plays out geographically. The article details the methodology used to obtain a dividing line between Yanks and Sox fans similar to the famous Mason-Dixon line separating uncouth Yankees from Genteel Southerners. The article states that the slightly un-scientific methods used were to "use a company-issued 2002 Pontiac Grand Am to traverse the highways and back roads of Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. Roll into towns unannounced. Choose a person or group of people — preferably those with a bead on …

Tom Tom announced the release of their new pockety GPS unit the One. In appearance and size it is similar to the Garmin Nuvi, yet it differs in cost and in some of the feature set. As for features, the ONE has a 3.5 inch touch screen Bluetooth for hands-free calling, SiRF Star III chip, and pre-installed maps all for around $500 (about $400 less than the Nuvi). The maps come loaded on SD cards and from what I can tell, they can be swapped out easily for other maps. Moreover, users have access to all of the TomTom …

According to GPS Tracklog Garmin is releasing a new footpod that will allow users of the Forunner 305 to use the gadget indoors. Apparently the footpod works like footpods from Nike or Suunto. According to the Garmin press release the footpod will cost $99.00 and be released sometime in October. As we find out more we will bring it to you.

For those who don't know, the annual ESRI user conference is currently going on in sunny San Diego. As happens from time to time, ESRI is getting to release a new version of the flagship software ArcGIS 9.2. Any of those of you who are interested in a listing of the new features can check out the following link to the ESRI webpage. Of interest to many is the new feature that allows direct connectivity to Excel spreadsheets. Amazing that this feature has taken so long considering how many people use Excel to handle data. Thanks to Very Spatial …