New Jersey Geospatial Users Group

From the Daily Record:

On Tuesday, just as dusk settles, a dozen hilltops covering 108 miles from Beacon, N.Y., to Princeton will be illuminated with bright spotlights to mark the day 225 years ago when the last British troops boarded ships in New York harbor and sailed away, leaving behind a free nation.

How is this relevant to GIS? The head of the Crossroads of the American Revolution Association is asking Google Earth to take a snapshot of the event.

She said the groups are trying to arrange with Google Earth to snap a photograph of the light show.

I didn’t realize Google was in the photography business. Would beacons look impressive from the air/space anyway?

With all the recent news about cattle orienting themselves in cardinal directions (and the debate on the story’s veracity) I found it more interesting that the researchers used Google Earth to find oriented photography, instead of say, going out and observing cattle.

“The Last Guy” introduces an even more esoteric use of aerial photography. This zombie/survival action game for the Playstation 3 uses high-res aerials of cities as the playing field.

Microsoft recently posted another episode on Channel 9 dealing with the UltraCam. Three interviews and some in-flight footage of the camera.

Microsoft is starting a new video series on its Channel 9 blog. Focusing on Virtual Earth and the technology behind it, the first episode of Behind the Maps deals with the UltraCam and its UltraMap software.

Virtual Earth is looking to partner with state and local governments to share geospatial data, specifically aerial photography.

From their announcement:

Why should we publish our imagery in VE?

GoVE supports the data sharing goals of many public sector organizations by providing a free publishing service. Through GoVE, your taxpayer-funded information will be provided on a free, open access web site that benefits taxpayers, government officials, your corporate tax base, state and local governments, etc.

You can read more about it at the Virtual Earth blog.