Points of Interest: January 26, 2005

NYC Hearing on Geodata Sharing Friday. New York City council's Committee on Technology in Government will hold a hearing entitled "Oversight: Releasing Geographic Information Systems Data -- Ensuring Security and Safety and Making Public Information Accessible" on Friday, January 28, 2005 at 10 A.M. in the City Hall Committee Room. The idea is to look at, among other things, "possible policies to adopt that would make the data available while protecting public safety; and whether or not current licensing of the service is too restrictive." If an NYC reader is attending, I'd love to share what went on with readers.

Red Store. Just in case you haven't read enough hype about "red state blue state" (one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish?) here's one more tidbit: The new Red State Store is "an online shopping experience dedicated to red state voters who want to sport their political colors with pride." If it matters, the PR for this establishment was found exclusively on the "free distribution" PR websites, that is, they didn't pay to distribute the release.

More Red/Blue Trivia. ESPN ran an online poll for its readers before the NFL playoffs, this past weekend. Results were presented using a presidential-election style map of the country, with red states going for the Patriots, blue for the Steelers and gray for undecided. The map was drenched in red - 43 Patriot states, one Steeler state (Alaska) and six undecideds, including Pennsylvania. For the Atlanta-Philadelphia NFC final it was an even split: 50% for the Falcons, 50% for the Eagles. It's not great mapmaking, but clever marketing, to be sure!

Geo Conferences Tame? If you think that conferences in our industry are getting dull consider the two of many hot topics being addressed at the MAPPS annual meeting next week. "The Death of Professionalism: Is the Geospatial Community Dumbing Itself Down?" and "Is 'GIS' An Antiquated Word?: A Look Beyond This Year's GIS Software Release" I don't recall anything like those at the conferences I attend.

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Source: Material used herein is often supplied by external sources and used as is.