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!

In it’s latest version ArcPad 10, ESRI has enabled users access to ArcGIS Online basemaps, improved drawing speed and memory output, created a simple “quick capture” toolbar for collecting features, and made it easier to use and hyperlink cameras/photos.  For more information check out the ArcPad Team Blog.

Are you compatible?

1. The current version of GPS Analyst (v2.20) is not compatible with ArcGIS 10.

2. The current version of GPScorrect (v3.10) is not compatible with ArcPad 10.

If you try to install either of the Trimble software, they will receive an error message stating the version of ArcGIS/ArcPad is not compatible. Trimble is working on the compatibility issues and should have a compatible version out shortly.  In the meantime, we suggest that you downgrade to ArcGIS 9.3.1 or ArcPad 8.  And as always, let us know if you have any questions!

It’s also not too late!… 10 Cool Things for ArcPad Users and Fans to do at the 2010 ESRIUC

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!

Click to See Larger View

Recent infrared aerial photographs of the Nashville area flooding were taken by TN Department of Transportation.  Generally TDOT charges for their imagery, however, according to folks at TDOT, these photos may soon become available to state and local governments for free.

Click to See Larger View

TDOT flew Monday, May 3rd – Saturday, May 7th over major flood areas.  As you can imagine, some of the later photos taken Friday and Saturday did not capture the full flood epidemic.   The good news is that we have the flight patterns.  Hopefully some of you will be able to incorporate these photos into your GIS soon.

No wonder it took all week, they flew all over the place!  Oh, and thanks for the screenshots Google Earth.  -We obtained all data through a standard query using appropriate communication channels.

The seminar was broken down into sections.  Here is a resource list that might be helpful to those who both did and did not attend based off of the seminars agenda. 

Session 1 Building Basemap

• Map Template Gallery (Download professionally designed templates to make better, faster maps).  http://resources.esri.com/maptemplates
• Best Practices for Working with Map Templates (Free one-hour online training seminar.  Learn tips on creating professionally designed maps using cartographically rich map templates and your data).  http://www.esri.com/training
• ESRI Mapping Center (ArcGIS cartographic tips).  http://mappingcenter.esri.com
• Cartographic Representations (Learn to symbolize your data).  http://www.esri.com/representations
• Labeling with Maplex for ArcGIS (Documentation for Maplex for ArcGIS includes a 60 day trial).  http://www.esri.com/maplexdocumentation
• Creating and Publishing Maps with ArcGIS (Instructor-led training course.  Learn techniques for creating professional quality maps using a standard cartographic workflow).  http://www.esri.com/training
• ArcGIS Community Basemap Program (Contribute or obtain authoritative geographic data from this ESRI-hosted, GIS community map).  http://www.esri.com/communitymaps

Session 1-A Deploying the Map

• Using Data from Different Coordinate Systems http://www.esri.com/article34129
• Managing and Configuring ArcGIS Server (ESRI White Papers).   http://www.esri.com/serverwhitepapers
• Geodatabase Replication  http://www.esri.com/article34131
• Authoring and Deploying Fast Web Maps (Free one-hour online training seminar.  Learn best practices for designing and publishing map services).  http://www.esri.com/training
• How to Plan a Map Cache  http://www.esri.com/mapcache

Session 2 Sharing Content

• ArcGIS Online (Sign up for free) (You will receive 1 GB of free storage, making it easier to share content with others through groups you either participate in or create).  http://www.arcgisonline.com
• How to Get Started Using ArcGIS Online (Online video).  http://www.arcgisonline.com/help/help.htm
• Layer Packages  http://www.esri.com/layerpackages
• Sharing Layer Packages with ArcGIS Explorer (This blog post explains how to create good layer packages for sharing maps and content).  http://www.esri.com/agxlayerpackages
• Creating Models (Online Video).  http://www.esri.com/creatingmodels
• Introduction to ArcGIS Server (Instructor-led training course.  Develop skills in authoring and sharing GIS content on the Web or across your organization).  http://www.esri.com/training
• ArcGIS Explorer (download for free) (Start visualizing, analyzing, and presenting your content now.  http://www.esri.com/arcgisexplorer
• ArcGIS Explorer Quick-Start Tutorial (Free one-hour online training seminar.  Learn the basics of working with ArcGIS Explorer and how to create dynamic geopresentations in ArcGIS Explorer)  http://www.esri.com/training
• Enhance ArcGIS Explorer with Add-on Tools (Click/Search: TOOLS)  http://www.arcgisonline.com

I’m not going to tell you what’s coming in ArcGIS 10. 

Look How EASY I Made It For You.  Let me know if you want me to also read them off and click the links…

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!