Yahoo! is currently running an invitation-only beta test for it’s Fire Eagle location broker. The idea is as simple as useful: Fire Eagle takes your current location as input from different services or applications and passes them on to other services or applications. To locate yourself, the Fire Eagle web site, services like plazes.com, or (possibly GPS-based) applications on mobile devices can be used. The location information is then passed on to all kinds of location based services that provide you with local weather information, shopping guides or simply update your current location on twitter.

It is quite obvious that this raises privacy issues, but I think the people behind Fire Eagle have done quite a good job addressing them: every application or service must be enabled for every user, both for setting and receiving the user’s current location. This permission can be revoked for any service at any time. What is more, Fire Eagle can even be activated only for a given time (1 or 3 months), before the user is required to reactivate it. This is supposed to prevent users from forgetting they are on this services, but still (unknowingly) providing it with location information. And, of course, you can just temporarily disable it.

Having that said, you still have to decide whether you want a to permanently provide Yahoo! with updates on your current location, since they provide the collection point for all your location information, which might raise concerns for some people, although the website says:

If a new piece of ‘Exact Location’ information comes in, then we throw away the old one. No historical record is kept of your location.

After all, you need trust the people behind such a tool. This applies both for Fire Eagle and the applications that you permit to share it your location with. If you do not trust these people, it is probably better not use such tools at all. (Which makes the whole post sound more negative than it was meant to be. It is a neat idea.)

The 52°North Open Source Initiative hereby issues a call for entries for the 52°North Student Innovation Prize for Geoinformatics.

The aim of this innovation prize is to encourage students to make a contribution to the development and practical realization of innovative concepts in the field of geoinformatics. The competition is directed primarily at students of geoinformatics, computer science, business informatics and media informatics. Applications are requested from small teams of students (2-4 members); applications will also be accepted from individuals (who will also be referred to as teams for the purposes of the competition).

More here

Sounds interesting. The winner team wins some cash and is invited to spend time here in Münster with 52North to further develop their ideas in a professional environment. Hope they get some high quality submissions.

]]> http://www.gisblog.net/news/52%c2%b0north-student-innovation-prize-for-geoinformatics/feed/ http://www.gisblog.net/research/geospatial-web-services-workshop-cgs-nottingham/ http://www.gisblog.net/research/geospatial-web-services-workshop-cgs-nottingham/#comments Sat, 31 May 2008 15:30:39 +0000 Theodor Foerster http://www.gisblog.net/?p=97 The Center for Geospatial Science (CGS) and the Service-Oriented Software Research Network (SOSoRNET) are organizing a workshop about Geospatial Web Services. It will be held at the CGS in Nottingham from 16-17 June 2008. It is meant to get insights into key research activities in the field of Geospatial Web Services, but also to give researchers the opportunity for networking. The workshop is free of charge and the number of participants is limited to 50. So anybody, who is around in the UK and not able to travel to the GI-days conference might suggest going there.

This beast is based on a browser plugin (hence the OS-dependence), and it has all the cool stuff you (as a user) know from Google Earth, plus all the cool stuff you (as a developer) know from Google Maps. Just like Google Maps, it is controlled via its JavaScript API – which means that you can even add it (with a single line of code) to existing Google Maps sites. You will get an additional button for the map type selection on the top right and once a user clicks on it (labeled Earth), the plugin will load in exactly the same place where your Google Map used to be, with all the layovers and markers you created on it – just in 3D.

If I had some time right now, I would develop a new version of our ArgooMap (which is now a SourceForge project; check out the demo) based on that. Maybe later.

The overall program can be found here.

Have you ever wondered why people still move into crowded cities, with incredibly expensive rents, crowded public transport systems and hardly any green spots to relax, when you can live for cheap out in the green, and still be connected to the world through the Web? The answer is pretty simple:

Harvard economist Ed Glaeser, an expert on city economies, argues that communications technology and face-to-face interactions are complements like salt and pepper, rather than substitutes like butter and margarine. Paradoxically, your cell phone, email, and Facebook networks are making it more attractive to meet people in the flesh.

Given the fact that there are also other factors like better cultural offerincs in the city, I am pretty sure that the situation when it does really not matter any longer where you are is still a long time coming. In other words - geography is here to stay.

Just in time, 52north released a new version of the 52n WPS, which implements this new version of the WPS interface specification. The 52n WPS is available as open source and implements all the features as described in the specification. You can get more details about it at the 52north wiki.