ACSM Bulletin 240
What's inside
Summer 2009 was a period of intense national debates on issues ranging from health care reform, to the future NASA program, to the proposed cap-and-trade legislation. For the geospatial community, the Congressional hearing on federal geospatial data management in late July, the NGAG town hall meeting at the ESRI User Conference in early July, and the COGO meeting late in August were the highlights of summer. In this issue of the ACSM Bulletin, we report on the congressional hearing (p. 18) and introduce an exciting new software, ENVI EX, which takes airborne imagery into GIS (p. 10). An interview with Richard Cooke, president of ITT Visual Information Solutions, provides a background to this new techncology. As usual, Bill Hazelton challenges us to think far into the future in his article on Apple’s venture into the surveying market (p. 14), and Lewis Soloff takes a look at legal descriptions and how well they describe land. At ESRI, the President's Award this year went to the State of Maryland; excerpts from Governor O'Malley's acceptance speech are on pages 29 and 30. Initiated at the conference was the new GeoMentoring program, and we also have an invitation from the FIG Young Surveyors to all young surveyors and GIS professionals in the U.S. to become involved in this program. The ACSM FIG Forum is sponsoring a new student fellowship award which will enable a student to participate in the FIG Congress to be held in Sydney, Australia, in 2010. Melinda Peacock, a GIS professional and student of surveying, writes about “three professions with one goal” (p. 31) and inaugurates one of our two new columns, GISworld, on page 22 with her review of ArcGIS 9.4. Much of the discussion in the geospatial world eventually gets down to standards. The approved federal wetlands mapping standard is described on page 21 and ASPRS’ LAS 1.3 specification on p. 23. On the following pages, 24 and 25, Dawn James introduces four of the six surveyors who had earned the highest certified surveyor technician level early this year. With fall round the corner, the concept of time creeps again into our consciousness; read about the annual “do-over” exercise we go through each November 1st (p. 46). Is NASA's human space flight program "worthy of the cost and effort"? Read about the verdict pronounced this August by the commission appointed to answer this question. With Congress back in session in September, our Government Affairs Committee has a number of issues on its fall agenda. The second new column debuting in the August issue of the ACSM Bulletin is the "Un-confort Zone with Robert Wilson,"and it's all about the "secret" of being effective.The article on p. 50, "Clear on identity," stresses another important point -- how we identify ourselves is fundamental in life. Finally, we have something for all "geo-sleuths" -- a Dr. Map mystery -- and for book reviewers, a page full of new books waiting to be reviewed. Have a good end-of Summer read.
The advertisers in the August issue of the ACSM Bulletin are: Barnette Industries, Leica, Topcon Posititioning Systems, and Trimble Navigation. John Hopkins University has an ad on page 28, and if you want to know who has been nominated to run for office on the NSPS and AAGS boards, go to pages 45 and 48, respectively.
Editorial Submissions
Submit bylined articles, news, event information, and other pertinent editorial to the editor of the magazine, Ilse Genovese, at ilse.genovese@acsm.net. For information on the style and format of the contributions, access Contributing to the ACSM Bulletin.