A fourth GeoWeb conference wrapped up in Vancouver last week and, once again, there were many strong presentations by both invited speakers and track presenters.  In general, I think there was both growing acceptance of “GeoWeb” as a thing, . . . → Read More: It’s about the sharing as much as the geography

For some, one of the more optimistic scenarios for the future of humanity is what author and inventor Ray Kurzweil has labeled the “singularity”.  Kurzweil looks at the exponential character of some aspects of technology development (Moore’s law, memory . . . → Read More: Singularity is near indeed, but which is it?

Early in my own career, I had the opportunity to work briefly with a helicopter-based flight simulator. This was not a stationary simulator with a simulated visual environment as one might imagine, but rather a real helicopter that had . . . → Read More: Imposing the Constraints of Physical Reality

One of the great challenges that will face humanity over the next 20 years is to find effective means to regulate our use of the global commons (meaning the air and the oceans).  While not part of any nation . . . → Read More: GeoWeb and the regulation of the commons

One of the interesting events of GeoWeb 2009 – Cityscapes was a very entertaining debate on the “ideal” architecture for the GeoWeb.  This was an interesting debate… not simply for the insights provided by the debaters about the relative . . . → Read More: GeoWeb – a Web of Systems

As technocrats, many of us are either uncomfortable (or at least unfamiliar) with dealing with issues of politics, and in particular with concepts of the public good.  The role of government, especially for those of us educated in the . . . → Read More: Globalization and the GeoWeb

In a recent trip to China, I discovered something of the direction of the national policy of that country towards the development of the Internet.  In a speech in Wuxi, the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao spoke of the . . . → Read More: GeoWeb and the “Internet of Things”

There has been much discussion within OGC, OASIS, and ISO of late, on the issue of backwards compatibility – but much less action.  Some initiatives, such as the attempt to harmonize UML models across the various ISO specifications, are . . . → Read More: Backwards Compatibility and Open Standards

When geographic information technology was new, old time “paper map makers” (today we would call them paleo-geographers) complained that the new computer-generated maps could not draw proper symbols, area fills, or line weights. They railed against the inability of . . . → Read More: Communications and the GeoWeb

Living in a seamless world in time and space

It has become commonplace to say that the arrival of the Internet is an event as significant as the invention of moveable type, but often little is said as to . . . → Read More: Beyond projects and documents