Facebook users are able to share their location in real-time using an iPhone or a web page accessed through a mobile browser that supports HTML 5 and geolocation.  Checking in sends a message to friends News Feeds and shows up in the Recent Activity list associated with the relevant Place page.  Places also allows users to tag friends who are present in a location, just as they can tag friends in photos posted to Facebook. 

Does Facebook Places have what it takes to make Foursquare (a popular location sharing network) obsolete?  Many location based services have had trouble getting users to continue checking-in (check-in fatigue).  Foursquare offers incentives to its users while Facebook’s Places does not offer any extra thrills.  However, according to InformationWeek, Facebook’s acquisition of Hot Potato was publicized on Friday.  The speculated $10-$15 million acquisition should lead to some Hot Potato integration into Facebook’s Places application.   What do other location-sharing services offer to overcome check-in fatigue, and will Facebook Places end up suffering from this debilitating condition?  Take a look in PC World’s article.

How is it competing with Google?  If your business is a brick and mortar location that customers visit in person, odds are good that it will end up in Facebook Places whether you put it there or not.  Even if you don’t choose to take advantage of Facebook Places to promote business, you should still claim ownership of your place to ensure the information is accurate.  By claiming your place, you are able to edit the address, business hours, profile picture, contact information, and other settings such as designating administrative authorization to alter the Places page.  Read more on how to claim your Business in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The majority of the authors that are writing about Facebook Places seem to believe that the application is fairly useless, gimmicky, and borderline creepy.   However, I believe that Facebook is turning to the right direction as GIS becomes a more useful tool in our everyday lives.  At an FAA conference, in Dallas, TX, a speaker suggested that although the need for GIS is not understood by many non-GIS players, neither was the internet and email at one time.  It will be interesting to see what Facebook and developers will do with Places and how it will compete with Google Latitude.   

Please share your thoughts about Facebook’s Places with us by leaving us a comment.

Ian posing for the cover of "I'm probably Smarter than You Magazine."

The title is a reference to Pablo Fransisco’s standup check it out on youtube if you have some time to play on this wonderful Friday! We are very excited to welcome our newest staff and the work he will be performing for Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport!  Ian comes to us from West Monroe, LA now residing in Baton Rouge. While attending LSU, Ian received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Cultural Geography. Ian also worked at LSU for several years as a Teaching Assistant and Geography tutor for Student Athletes.

Ian’s duties at GEO-Jobe GIS are to concentrate primarily on the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (BTR) project while documenting progress and performing most tasks involved with this project. Ian will be working out of the Baton Rouge Airport full-time. His email address is idebnam@geo-jobe.com.   He is available to answer any of your questions about the work he is doing with the airport!

Scientists have recently discovered a crossbred “human-like” species from Old Hickory Lake, Tennessee.  An Environmentalist was collecting wetland data using a Trimble handheld with the Timmons Group’s WetCorrect software when he stumbled across the alien creature.  He claims that

the species might have never been found if Trimble hadn’t partnered with Timmons Group to provide an integrated system for the field collection, management, and submittal of wetland delineation data. The solution combines Trimble Mapping & GIS handheld computers with the WetCollect™ wetland delineation software from Timmons Group to comply with the reporting requirements of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) which determines whether or not a wetland is a “water of the United States” and thus regulated under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA).

The discovery of the unique being has prompted massive geographical research using waterproof Trimble GIS Mapping Equipment.  Don’t believe me?  Watch this guy collect data in his pool! I wonder we he got scuba lessons…  We have posted pictures of this unknown creature on our Facebook page. Have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

I thought you’d like to know that Georgia State Parks is launching a statewide geocaching program called the Geo-Challenge and you and your readers are welcome to join in!

Starting May 8th, you’ll find an official cache page for each Georgia State Park (all 42) on http://www.geocaching.com. Many thanks to all the volunteer members of the Georgia Geocachers Association for placing and maintaining the caches! A complete list of participating parks and links to each cache page will live at http://www.gaparksgeocaching.com after the 8th.

You and your friends are invited to the kickoff event, May 8th, at Fort Yargo State Park. It’ll be a day of food, fun and of course, geocaching. This will coincide with the monthly meeting of the Georgia Geocachers Association. More details about the event and the program are available at http://www.gaparksgeocaching.com or you can call 404-657-9858.
Hope to see you there!

Since 2004, over 2000 people from 25 different cities around the world have participated in Christian Nold’s Bio Mapping experiment.  Using a GPS and GRS (Galvanic Skin Response) device (invented by Nold), Nold maps variant emotional responses of people as they travel through a city.  The bio-sensor (GRS device), which is based on a lie-dectector, measures changes in the sweat level of the wearers’ fingers and the GPS captures response geographically.  The assumption is that these changes are an indication of emotional intensity that is tracked by the GPS device and later mapped in Google Earth.  I wonder what the map would look like at a Dashboard Confessional concert…

The London based artist, describes the unique mapping experience as a “total inversion of the lie-detector, which supposes that the body tells the truth, while we lie with our spoken words.”  He further explains, “With Bio Mapping, people’s interpretation and public discussion of their own data becomes the true and meaningful record of their experience. Talking about their body data in this way, they are generating a new type of knowledge combining ‘objective’ biometric data and geographical position, with the ‘subjective story’ as a new kind of psychogeography.” 

Although I joke about connecting emotions with geography,  Nold’s device opens up a world of new marketing and psycho/social research capabilities.   It also presses on the ever increasing questions of emergence of technology and the human emotion.  Read also has an online book containing a collection of essays called Emotional Cartography.

The high collection number not only fired up competition among the three Smyrna staff members, but also increased their productivity, satisfaction, and responsibility in the data collection process.  ”They (Smyrna Staff) were focused on getting the numbers and doing it right.  It was no longer just another day collecting manholes.”  The beauty behind the competition was that it was fertilizing business growth in an exciting and fun way.  What ensued was a three week sprout of heavy data collection, with each day getting closer to that 100 mark.  The competition ended when Mark and Smyrna staff member, Jason Schuler, collected 101 manholes before finally pooping out (those things are heavy!).  The competition pushed out short term data collection efficiency up to 200% and has since influenced their overall data collection productivity 115%.

How could such a small goal make such a big splash?  A lot of things came into play that you might not think about…  Smyrna hired three competitive employees to work with Mark on the project.  All three guys respect their co-workers to the point where “a little competition” won’t affect their personal relationships with one another.  There was no bonus or extra vacation day given to the winner.  The competition offered a mere ego boast to the winner.  The weather did not stop (because of rain/storms) their data collection efforts for longer than two days in a row, enabling a continuous catalyst for competition.  The goal was attainable and simple, making it more desirable to reach.  Mark although a major part of the project was seen as a buffer, coach, and referee enabling the workers to feel like the competition was fair to all.  The goal was set by a fellow employee, not the boss, so it was perceived as a choice rather than a “do it or get fired” necessity.

So if your other data collectors are getting a little pooped out from the “same ole, same ole,” don’t be a meadow muffin, try adding a little fun competition to their day!

Step 2 – - Using a GPS find the geocaches near the location of your geocaching event.   You could use them in your event and/or make sure that you’re caches aren’t close to those already hidden.

• Register for a free basic membership at www.geoaching.com?
• Click “Hide & Seek a Cache.”
• Enter the postal code of your event
• choose any geocache from the list and click on its name.
• Enter the coordinates of the geocache into your GPS device.
• Use your GPS device to assist you in finding the hidden geocache.

Step 3 —  While searching for the caches, also capture your geocaching event locations.  We suggest using a more accurate GPS device, like the Trimble Juno SC.

Step 4– Tranfer your points to a KML file and upload them to Google Maps and/or Google Earth.  We did this to check over our points and measure the approximate miles traveled between caches.  We don’t deem this step necessary, but it is still a lot of fun.

Transfer File into Google Maps

• Upload data from your GPS device into Pathfinder Office and save it as a KML file.
• Open Google Maps and log into your Google account.
• Go to “My Maps”
• “Create New Map”
• Import the KML file, make any editing changes, and click “Done.”

Transfer File into Google Earth

• Upload data from your GPS device into Pathfinder Office and save it as  a KML file.
• Open Google Earth
• Click “File”
• Click “Open”
• Find your saved KML file
• Click “Open”

Oh, That's Where He Hid It!

Step 5 — Purchase inexpensive containers.  We suggest purchasing small plastic paint containers (microcaches) for the event from Wal-Mart.  You can keep the paint in the container or clean them out and put other things in them.

Step 6 — The day before the event, take your points and hide the caches.  If you don’t know who is going to be apart of the event, try to avoid placing caches in dangerous/hazardous areas that could be harmful to others.  Follow along with your GPS device as if you were in the cache.  (We found a few issues with our locations that could have been avoided by following our GPS device more precisely.)

Step 7 –Email the geoacaching locations  map you created to the geocachers signed up for the event (You can also email links to the google maps you created).  Make sure each point is attributed correctly with at least the latitude and longitude, cache name, and any other comments or hints you would like to give the geocachers.  Don’t forget to include a meeting location and time in your email!

Step 8 –Create questions about each cache that could only be answered if the cache was found by the geocachers.  Print off enough for everyone in the event and make sure you bring pens/pencils for those who need them.  Also print off the latitude and longitude list of all the attributes in case the geocachers did not previously store the points from the email you sent them prior to the event.

Step 9 — Go over the rules and hand out all of the information.  Consider taking away points for people not back within a set time.  For our last event, each correctly answered cache question was worth 4 points but for any geocachers out past two hours, 1 point was reduced for each minute late.

Step 10 –Enjoy the event and make sure everyone gets back safely.  Go back and pick up the caches you placed.  If you plan on leaving the caches, fill out the online form on the geocaching website under “Hide & Seek A Cache” (you must be logged in).

Why Your Field Crew Needs the Eye-Fi and TrimPix Pro System…

Trimble’s TrimPix Pro system Datasheet explains how the immediate transfer of photos from the camera to the handheld minimizes the effort spent back in the office where you were previously required to process the images in bulk.   Your field crew can take multiple pictures of an electrical infrastructure while collecting it’s assets in on the handheld.  And like two college kids on Spring Break (some call it true love), the Eye-Fi and Trimble handheld will automatically hook up!..The pictures will automatically load as additional attributes (in TerraSync) enabling field workers to quickly check the pictures for quality and accuracy with the other assets collected.

Use the TrimPix Pro system with:  GeoExplorer 2008 Series handhelds, Juno series handhelds, and Trimble Nomad G series handhelds

Wireless, streamline, time-saving, error prevention…Romantic isn’t it???

I’m sure this post didn’t answer all your questions.  However, Trimble’s FAQ page might do the trick!

The modem was designed with the field worker in mind!  Charged with a 3,000 mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery, the TDL 3G will work for a full day on one battery charge.  It’s designed to work in +14 degree weather (probably tested at a Chicago Bear’s game last January).  It was also tested in 140 degree scorching sunshine by a man sporting a plaid onesie and chugging hot sauce.  On a serious note, this is a seriously rugged modem and has been drop tested onto a steel surface at 3.9 ft.  Did I mention that it’s also waterproof?  I wonder if they just ran that test from the sweat off the guy in the onesie?..

At lower connection speeds (BT connection at 2G/2.5G), the TDL 3G device can last for up to 12 hours in the field.   Bluetooth connections are ideal for accessing high accuracy VRS connections over the Internet.  RTK for 12 hours could mean longer work days (if your boss is like ours), but it also means you are collecting high quality data, more quickly locating assets in the field, and removing the need for postprocessing in the office.

At normal connection speeds (Wi-Fi connection at 3G/3.5G), you will receive up to 5 hours of battery life.  Although not a full work day, most Wi-Fi connections are used only when you require high speed Internet access.  We assume you’ll be downloading project files and maps, sending/receiving email, and sending in your data to the office at the end of the day.

If you think the standard belt clip or pouch is too fancy or your pockets are full of keys and tobacco, Trimble has also created a pole mount option.  Trimble’s handheld devices can also use the TDL 3G connection within typical Wi-Fi ranges (50 m/165 ft indoors and 100 m/ 330 ft outdoors).

Have more questions?  So did we.  Find answers on Trimble’s Customer FAQ page.

Will the TDL 3G cellular modem work in my region?

Does the TDL 3G come with a cellular connection/SIM card?

Can I charge the battery in a vehicle?

Is there an extended warranty available with the TDL 3G?

GPS Status

GLONASS Status

Galileo Status

Satellite Launch Schedule