Top Story

Private vs. Publicly funded Base Maps - Is Google Earth a Public Trust?

Some in the federal government hold the view that the most common operational pictures (COP) in the world are in Microsoft and Google. Is there something a bit "off kilter" when federal agencies talk about using Google Earth or Microsoft Virtual Earth as their standard for COPs? Editor-in-chief Joe Francica poses the question of what is considered a public trust... Several readers respond with their own thougths.

Additional All Points Blog posts related to the  ESRI Federal Users Conference.

• NGAC Looking To Many Sources for Input...Including the Consumer
• Homeland Security Data Model and GDM-O-Matic
• Quote of the Day - "Adding technology to a bad process..."
• Quote of the Day - Dangermond: "Fully employed for a long time"
  

Books

Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship
In the last decade, historical GIS has emerged as a promising new methodology for studying the past. Historical GIS is the use of geographic information systems software and allied geospatial methods for historical research and teaching. Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship offers case studies and essays on key issues involving historical GIS, highlighting the unprecedented range of tools to visualize historical information in a geographical context. Quantitative social science historians are embracing GIS to facilitate the mapping of large datasets, but anyone with access to the software and the skills to use it can include mapping in research. This change is little short of revolutionary considering how few scholars or students made maps even ten years ago. Historical maps are suddenly in great demand as digitally modified, georeferenced images that enable researchers to study GIS as a visual medium of communication and analysis. From ESRI Press, 2008.

Digital Geography: Geospatial Technologies in the Social Studies Classroom
A volume in International Social Studies Forum: The Series Series Editors Richard Diem, University of Texas at San Antonio and Jeff Passe, University of North Carolina, Charlotte The purpose of this volume is to provide a review and analysis of the theory, research, and practice related to geospatial technologies in social studies education. In the first section, the history of geospatial technologies in education, the influence of the standards movement, and the growth of an international geospatial education community are explored. The second section consists of examples and discussion of the use of geospatial technologies for teaching and learning history, geography, civics, economics, and environmental science. In the third section, theoretical perspectives are proposed that could guide research and practice in this field. This section also includes reviews and critiques of recent research relevant to geospatial technologies in education. The final section examines the theory, research, and practice associated with teacher preparation for using geospatial technologies in education. From Information Age Publishing, 2008.

International Perspectives on Maps and the Internet
The Internet has redefined how maps are used. No longer restricted to paper, maps are now transmitted almost instantly and delivered to the user in a fraction of the time required to distribute maps on paper. They are viewed in a more timely fashion. Weather maps, for example, are updated continuously throughout the day. Most importantly, maps on the Internet are more interactive. They are accessed through a hyperlinking structure that makes it possible to engage the map user on a higher level than is possible with a map on paper. Finally, the Internet is making it possible to more easily distribute different kinds of cartographic displays such as animations. The Internet presents the map user with both a faster method of map distribution and different forms of mapping. This book provides an international perspective on this growing area of information dissemination. From Springer, 2008.