In my inbox just now:
Dear Geospatial User,
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging would like to introduce a technology preview of Leica TITAN: a new paradigm for enabling a network of geospatial users to discover, communicate, visualize and share data and information across an internet-enabled, 3D rich-content forum.
We have selected you to participate in our limited release Technology Preview. This technology preview is an initial release and future updates with additional functionality will be made available on a regular basis over the course of the next four months. Our objective is to receive user feedback and ideas regarding the TITAN product, feature requests and how TITAN can evolve.
Because this is a limited release we would like you to treat this information with confidentiality and not re-distribute the product outside of your respective organization. Similarly we ask you not to publish information regarding TITAN on your ‘blog’ or any internet web site until the first official release of the product. We thank you for your understanding and consideration!
Hello Leica. I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m sorry, but you can’t just mass email me a form letter out of nowhere telling me I can’t post its contents on my ‘blog’, especially if it’s sensational-sounding, and especially if it means I’ll definitely find out about it through other channels. It doesn’t work that way. Send me a personal email, or else first ask me if I agree to your terms of confidentiality. If I give you my word, I’ll keep it. OK? Otherwise, I have readers to feed.
And no, you can’t unilaterally embargo information for FOUR months.
The rest of Leica’s email is below the fold. I’ve taken out the download link because I’m fundamentally a nice person. [And yes, I’ve considered the possibility that this is a viral marketing ploy.] So, then,
What is Leica TITAN?
Leica TITAN is a new interactive 3D gateway that provides a rich-content forum to view, access, communicate and ultimately share geospatial data with users from around the world. Leica TITAN provides an online geospatial forum for communities to share and distribute geospatial content (images, terrain, 3D models, vector data). The primary driver behind Leica TITAN is to build a community of organizations and users that want to maintain rights to their geospatial data, while simultaneously offering other users within the community the ability to discover, access and visualize the data in a secure environment. Members access the community and participate in the TITAN network through a free 3D rich client application.
What can you do with Leica TITAN?
The Leica TITAN client application allows ‘local’ users to publish and share geospatial data with a global network of users. Similarly, local users can search, discover and access global data, ‘locally’ on their desktops.
Leica TITAN allows for the creation of the geospatial equivalent to ‘MySpace’. Similar to online social network concepts, users will be able to create, publish and share a geospatial ‘MyWorld’ which contains rich geospatial content authored by a user. Communication within the TITAN network is facilitated by a ‘Geospatial Instant Messenger.’ Users within a community will be able to publish and share imagery, feature datasets, 3D models, terrain data and other non-spatial content that has associated location (i.e. live camera feeds, pictures, news feeds, links to websites, etc.). Using search tools, users can navigate to a specific area of interest in order to view geospatial content.
Leica TITAN Key Features:
– Load and visualize imagery, vector data and 3D models to create your own ‘MyWorld’
– Add live camera feeds, news feeds, pictures and publish to your ‘MyWorld’
– Chat with other users within the TITAN network and view their ‘local’ data on your desktop
– Create flight path movies and share and publish to your ‘MyWorld’
– Publish a ‘MyWorld’ and view its content on your custom web page
– Create and integrate custom scripts to build unique applications
– Publish a WMS which can be consumed other OGC WMS compliant applications
Who is Leica TITAN for?
Leica TITAN is for organizations that need to solve the problem associated with sharing data throughout an intranet or the internet community.
Leica TITAN is for organizations and users who have current and reliable geospatial data holdings and want to retain the rights to the data while also allowing internal and external customers to discover, view and access the geospatial data.
How do I get it?
The following website link will allow you to download Leica TITAN and preview movies showcasing specific workflows.
[snip]
The product download is approximately 9 MB in size.
How do I provide feedback?
Please email titan@gi.leica-geosystems.com or ltitan@lggm.com to ask us questions and provide feedback on Leica TITAN.
You can also Register online with the Leica TITAN Forum and submit ideas, report bugs and ask questions.
In order to view on the online tutorials it is recommended that Internet Explorer be used.
Thank You and Kind Regards
Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging Development Team
Oh you read that email. I moved it to Trash before reading it.
I just pulled it out and read it again. Guess they need to thank you for posting this! ;)
Just the other day I was looking at my 2007 calendar and saw something missing–no new paradigms! So I read the above email with an immense sense of relief. And the marketing acumen is right on: who isn’t excited about “the geospatial equivalent of MySpace”?
Which is cleverly named “MyWorld”.
Not knowing anything about this before today, I’ll just throw out some suppositions:
–The marketing folks at Leica were charged with a “get-us-into-this-Web-2.0-thing-in-a-big-way” mission.
–The engineers, who for all I know have created a great 3-D viewing environment, can barely stand to be in the same room as the marketing folks
–Whoever is running point for the marketing effort is probably not a geospatial veteran because I doubt that the true target market for this product/service–military, defense contractors, the larger engineering/infrastructure firms–is one where MySpace analogies resonate. For many in the over-35 set, MySpace falls somewhere on the puzzling-pointless-creepy side of the Internet continuum.
So yeah, I can’t wait for the kids to send me links to their MyWorld content with cool mashups of terrain models, chat, imagery, custom wallpaper, and some bad indie rock blaring out of my computer speakers.
BT
IE only? How web 2.0.
“For many in the over-35 set, MySpace falls somewhere on the puzzling-pointless-creepy side of the Internet continuum.”
Like me, exactly.
Now FBI guys posing old pervs can see where the FBI guys posing as teenage girls are located exactly. Fun.