We need world-class software engineers to help us create petabyte databases of Google Earth imagery and terrain. You will have a chance to contribute to the most powerful mapping application service on the planet.
James at Spatially Adjusted will be happy to know that “Experience with GIS data, formats, and conversions would be a plus.”
Vint Cerf, who co-developed TCP/IP, was hired to be Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist. But what does that mean? If you hear CNET tell it, it’s because Cerf believes the location-based navigation of information is the next big thing. Or so CNET gathers from an interview they had with him back in July.
Techweb also talked to Cerf recently and they came away with the same impression:
Among Cerf’s interests today is mobile communications, both textual and through images. As a result, he’s particularly interested in Google Earth, a desktop application that provides satellite images and overlaid roadmaps for many locations in the world.
“I’m now persuaded that geographically indexed databases are going to be extremely valuable over time for people who are in mobile operations,” Cerf said.
Google should get Cerf to blog.
This is getting tedious. According to Norwegian TV, Thailand’s military has discovered Google Earth, and they don’t like what they see.
To paraphrase (not that I speak Norwegian or anything), the Thai military sees the images as a threat to national security, and is considering asking Google to censor important state buildings, but also those of tourist attractions.
The article incorrectly notes that in the US, the White House and military bases are censored. The White House and Area 51 were censored, but no longer are.
[Update 7:13 UCT: Ah here is the story in English. I’m pretty sure that net-net all this complaining is a positive for Google Earth’s popularity. Note that hackles are almost always raised by non-intelligence types — nuclear agency heads, local councilmen, politicians, military types… These are people unused to the capabilities of satellite surveillance technology. In Australia, the US and the Netherlands, intelligence officials invariably have to quell these hotheads.]
Nagoyan the Earthhopper has been keeping an eye on super typhoon Nabi, which is tracking for Okinawa and possibly thereafter the Koreas, ETA September 7.
Over on Google Maps Mania, he links to Digital Typhoon, a site maintained by Japan’s National Institute of Informatics that provides typhoon Information for Google Earth.
National weather agencies really need to start offering KML overlays and tracking data as a default. We can make our own, but many more will use these tools if they are “official” and seamless to download. The Tulsa forecasting office of the US National Weather Service led the way, but not without getting into trouble for it (just a little). Yet if the USGS can publish in KML, there should be no reason why the NWS can’t follow suit.
[Update 13:01 UTC: Nagoyan’s Flikr page with a shot of Nabi.]
Although this blog sometimes succumbs to mission creep, I usually try to keep it on target: Documenting new and innovative uses of Google Earth, as well as the social issues raised by the sudden democratization of GIS tools.
I didn’t blog weather map overlays of Katrina, as that is now a pretty mainstream use of Google Earth, and the obvious place to look for these resources is on Google Earth Community and Google Earth Hacks (I try to avoid me-too blogging). Then I was at a work retreat for a few days, only to find Katrina had turned into a category 5 story in the meantime.
The images from the ground in New Orleans are truly moving. Is there anything worth reporting from the periphery, from the perspective of a Google Earth-centric blog?
Yes, two things: First, Google Earth and its imaging provider Digital Globe, are intent on providing a much accelerated response time for image updates when it comes to mapping significant natural (and man-made) disaster news stories. If this continues, this will turn Google Earth into a much more useful real-time tool than the reference work it amounts to currently.
Second, many news organizations added their own overlays in Google Earth and used them prominently on screen — CNN in particular. The best way to grasp the extent of environmental disasters like Katrina is Google Earth, and now many more people know it.
[Update 2005-09-02: Google has a page up with overlays for Google Earth.]
Google Earth/Maps raises security fears in Korea.
The latest Beta lets you right-click on any item in the Places window and “Share with Google Earth Community…” So what does that mean?
What it does do is offer a shortcut to posting network links, layers or placemarks to a forum on Google’s own Google Earth Community bulletin board. This makes the process just a little bit quicker than saving the item and then going to a forum there to post it.
What it doesn’t do is let you store the contents of your Places window online, so that other people can subscribe to them, live. That kind of sharing is still a little ways off, presumably.