2007 March 8
This issue sponsored by
Professional Surveyor Magazine
Contents
Departments
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Editor's Introduction
This week I report on GITA's 30th Annual Conference and Exhibition, held March 4-7 in San Antonio, Texas. At the conference I also accumulated many excellent story leads that I will pursue in the coming weeks.
GITA Conference
The 30th Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA), in San Antonio, Texas, this week, featured 14 in-depth seminars, during the first one-and-a-half days, followed by 99 educational sessions over two-and-a-half days. Nearly 300 speakers covered such topics as critical infrastructure protection, enterprise integration, interoperability, field and mobile technologies, homeland security, return on investment, and Web applications. The exhibit space featured about 150 industry vendors—representing a wide variety of hardware manufacturers, software developers, data and service providers, and consultants.
MAPPS Lawsuit
A frequent subject of conversation in the hallways was the lawsuit by MAPPS et al. against the federal government regarding the application of quality-based selection (QBS) to the procurement of surveying and mapping services. GITA, the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the GIS Certification Institute (GISCI), the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), and the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), have lined up in opposition to the lawsuit. The ACSM has not taken a stand directly on the lawsuit; it is, however, a member of the Council on Federal Procurement of Architectural and Engineering Services (COFPAES), which is one of the plaintiffs. At the conference, GITA distributed a two-page legal briefing on the subject.
Announcements
As usual, many vendors chose the conference as the venue for various announcements. Among them:
Awards
At the opening plenary session and at a luncheon, GITA gave its annual awards.
Interview with Mary Ann Stewart
On Wednesday afternoon I discussed the conference with Conference Chair Mary Ann Stewart, of Mary Ann Stewart Engineering LLC.
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So far, what's been the best part of the conference?
The thing so far that has worked the best that the Program Committee worked on was all the seminars. Except for our traditional ROI seminar, we put out completely new seminars, created from scratch. We recruited people who had not done seminars for us—or had done something like [the seminar they conducted at this year's conference] but had not turned it into a seminar. Three people on the Program Committee, primarily, did all that work.
News Briefs
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CONTRACTS & COLLABORATIONS
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RAMTeCH Software Solutions Acquires GIS Data Services Business of Analytical Surveys, Inc
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3-GIS Wins Contract To Enhance and Commercialize EPRI-Developed Technology
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Johnson County, Kan., Uses MultiVision 3D Plus Oblique Imagery for Agriculture Assessment
PRODUCTS
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Encom releases free personal data management software for MapInfo Professional datasets
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Mcelhanney Consulting Services Ltd (MCSL), Provider Of Digital Airphotos, Releases Free Viewer
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CONFERENCES & TRAINING
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PEOPLE
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OTHER
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Matteo Luccio, Editor
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