Sunday, November 24, 2002

GIS group advances info-sharing project Open GIS Consortium, Census Bureau work on prototypes for sharing geospatial data By Brian Robinson, Federal Computer Week, Nov. 11, 2002 The Open GIS Consortium Inc. (OGC) this month expects to launch the next stage of an initiative to help federal, state and local governments share information about systems of vital interest to national security. OGC expects to announce participants for the second phase of the pilot program of its Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative (CIPI), with hopes of having systems to demonstrate by April.... More find their way to mapping software Spreading GIS benefits depends on clearing technology, cultural hurdles By Brian Robinson, Federal Computer Week, Nov. 11, 2002 Geographic information systems have gained ground as a niche technology in some government agencies, with the expectation that GIS and geospatial data analysis would eventually become mainstream agency tools. Until last year, however, that outcome was slow to materialize. As with the use of other new technologies, last year's Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed many attitudes about GIS. Since then, the ability to quickly locate facilities and other resources on a map, and to relate that information to other kinds of data, was an obvious need.... 10:13:54 AM

Privacy questions still loom over biometrics By Dibya Sarkar, Federal Computer Week, Nov. 11, 2002 Biometric technologies have expanded greatly in the past decade, especially following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but experts say there are few policies, procedures and laws regarding the collection of biometric identifiers, even as public policy debates have swelled over their use and potential to invade people's privacy. 10:04:08 AM

Finding Surprises in the Garbage By Kirk Johnson, New York Times, November 22, 2002 ...But the most profound conclusion that emerged from the records, Dr. Walsh said, was not the historical nuggets, but the underlying engine that produced them. The big economic drivers of the 20th century - improved transportation and refrigeration, the transformation of consumer convenience, the pressure on businesses to cut costs - all moved in one direction: toward less waste, not more. He stressed that those findings were a result of independent research at Columbia, not his environmental work for the state. "Everything relates to two principal factors - one is reducing costs, making things lighter and easier to transport, and the other is making them more convenient to the consumer," Dr. Walsh said. "And that often means making them lighter, also. I see this pattern throughout the century."... 7:44:05 AM

Cash cards rule, change is passé in Hong Kong By Dan Gillmor, Mercury News Technology Columnist, 11/24/02 HONG KONG - I still reach in my pocket for coins or bills when I go to the corner newsstand for the daily papers. I have a different routine when I take the bus or buy groceries or grab a cup of coffee. [He goes on to describe an optionally anonymous smart cash card] 7:39:16 AM

About TheFeature Revolutions come more rapidly today than in the past. In the old days, big industry wrought the wealth of nations in iron and steel. Today, information - accurately processed and rapidly accrued - is the fount of international wealth. But what before took decades today takes only months, weeks, days or even hours - thanks to the Internet. It shouldn't come as a surprise that a new revolution is now fast upon us. The Canadian visionary Marshall McLuhan predicted it more than 30 years ago, when he foresaw the convergence of media - text, audio, video, and interactivity. To this add a fifth element - mobility - and you have a formula for what will perhaps be the most sweeping change since the discovery of telephony itself. Soon, anytime, anywhere communications and access to vital information will be as routine and simple as switching on the television.... 7:36:25 AM

Working in the park Walker in the Wireless City By Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times, 11/24/02 It is a late autumn day in Bryant Park. Red and yellow leaves swirl around clusters of green folding chairs. People sit in the thin afternoon light, talking on cellphones, to others, to themselves. The scent of a piquant cigar mixes with the crisp tang of fall As I sit in this verdantly genteel place, a whole other flurry of movement and social interaction is going on around me, one invisible to the eye. I watch it on my laptop, the modern equivalent of Jimmy Stewart in a wheelchair, binoculars in hand, in "Rear Window." In the small browser window of my iBook's Airport card, an antenna of sorts, I find myself at the nexus of any number of the wireless networks that have come to blanket the city. 6:38:15 AM

The End of the Hardware Era? BusinessWeek Commentary by Alex Salkever, 11/22/02 IBM's decision to put $1 billion into services R&D is a telling sign that the ground under info tech is shifting radically. 6:31:51 AM

Culture Clash DG researchers plumb the factors that make and break e-government partnerships By Mack Reed, dg.o Communications Manager Public-private IT partnerships always look attractive on paper: Government collaborates with industry, melding strengths and resources to deliver public services that are both efficient and profitable. But as veteran public-private collaborators can attest, the struggle to leverage public IT resources with the muscle of private innovation can be a strain - a frustrating clash of cultures that often takes more time and money than expected and yields less-than-perfect results. Soon, though, public-private partners will find the hazard-strewn path to success lit by results of an international Digital Government study.... 6:01:44 AM

Assembling the Digital Sky MIT Technology magazine, by David Essex, November 22, 2002 U.S. astronomers are gathering terabytes of data into a worldwide "virtual observatory" that will be accessible to scientists and laymen alike. Scientists in the United States, armed with a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation, are building a National Virtual Observatory (NVO) that will make the world's huge store of astronomical data available to anyone with a Web browser. 5:46:48 AM

"Computer, where was Captain Picard at 3:15 PM, on March 27th?" Ars Technica Newsdesk, 11/23/02 5:39:16 AM