ACSM Bulletin | February 2011 | #249 DYNAMIC VERSION
EDITORIAL
 gisdevelopment.net |
The FutureOn this Presidents' Day, as we look forward to the 2011 Surveyors Week, I am reminded of three past presidents among our forty four—George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan. The future of our country and its people weighed heavily on Washington, Lincoln, and all the other presidents after them. In his State of the Union speech early February, President Obama called for investing in America's future; he talked about another "Sputnik moment" we're faced with. more >> Want to read the magazine's dynamic edition? Click here. |
MAPPING
 The Director of the Census Bureau Robert M. Groves |
From loading dock to downloadingIn January, the Census Bureau began sending states details collected in the 2010 Census, enumerating inhabitants down to the block level. The census data are far less cumbersome and more attainable than ever. The data are on the bureau's Web site, available for anyone to download and even try their hand at redistricting themselves. But in a theatrical touch, the data were delivered overland to the states the day before it was made public, mostly via Federal Express. |
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RiskCity and WebRiskCityMore and better training is needed to identify and prevent or mitigate risk presented by natural hazards. Too often, the concept of risk is misunderstood, and neither responders nor the public may fully understand what is at issue here. Clear terminology is the first line of defence. But, in order to facilitate widespread sharing of information and knowledge necessary for the development of reliable and extensible solutions for dealing with risk, one also needs to employ the web and its graphic communication capabilities. more>> |
SURVEYING
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How atomic clocks will improve undersea surveyFirst introduced in 2011, the chip scale atomic clock (CSAC) will likely see quick adoption by companies doing seismic surveys to look for oil and gas deposits beneath the ocean floor. The CSAC can replace the OCXOs (oven controlled crystal oscillators) or TCXOs (temperature controlled crystal oscillators) currently used in underwater sensors deployed in large grids on the ocean floor. more>> |
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Occupying the top of HaleakalaRE: Steepest (Sea Level to over 10,013') and shortest ascent in the U.S.; Dr. Map, August 2010 I found this to be quite an amazing fact. Now I guess I know why we were turned back by a snowstorm on that stretch of road one evening in February, 1962, while headed for the top of Haleakala to occupy a geodetic station there for astronomic observations. more>> A companion article "Kolekole markers 101" was written by George Leigh |
THE FUTURE
 esri.com |
What will it look like for geospatial professionals?We have fast computers and even faster computer networks. We seek high web – cellphone connectedness which enables "pervasive computing." We are moving toward the next big step of our times—"Geo on the web." We use crowd-sourcing and cloud geo-databases to define relationships in time and 3D. Enhanced by Open Source access, these converging forces have the potential to make geospatial data available to scientists, educators, officials, and the citizenry to an unprecedented degree. Society will benefit from better leveraged sharing of geographic data more>> |
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Association 3.0: Strategies to win the battle against commoditizationIs your association becoming a commodity? It is if your members can't see the quantifiable difference the association brings to their life, business, or profession. Does the organization have a value proposition that clearly articulates the benefits of membership? If it doesn't, you run the risk of falling into the commodity trap. The commodity trap is one of three traps associations as well as for-profit businesses can find themselves falling into if they aren't diligent about continually giving members a reason to belong. more>> |
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