November 2006 eNews
Highlights include WALIS Collaboration Portal, Spatial Technology in Schools Competition winners, JPEG2000, new access to Applied GIS journal
What’s Happening in the WALIS Community?
SSI Spatial Technology in Schools Competition
WALIS Stakeholders in the News
Latest Achievements for the Shared Land Information Platform (SLIP)
Department Delivers Improved Coastal Data for Exmouth
Science and Management Strategies Sought for Dying Tuarts, Wandoos
Australian Angle
Launch of Emergency Information Website
MapConnect Online Mapping has Arrived
RFID Yet to Reach Government Tipping Point
Exploration in the Third Dimension
NGIS & Great Southern win at the 2006 WA Industry & Export Awards
News from Around the Globe
GPS Phone Tells Others Where You Are
City in Idaho Maps Grave Sites with GPS and Photo Mapping Software
GPS-Equipped Pigeons Enlisted as Pollution Bloggers
A Single Version of the Truth: Empowering Governments with a Single Mapping Database
Upcoming Events
Details of events in Australia and around the world
Interesting Website of the Month
What’s Happening in the WALIS Community?
WALIS Collaboration Portal
The
WALIS Collaboration Portal is the latest edition to the WALIS website and
provides secure web access for any group in the WALIS Community. The Portal provides full web functionality,
governed by the WALIS Office. Features
of the Portal include discussion forums, notice boards and surveys.
The first WALIS Community group to be utilising the Portal is the WA Local Government GIS Focus Group.
If you have a group that would like to gain access to the WALIS Collaboration Portal, contact Tessa Barkman on (08) 9273 7608 or tessab@walis.wa.gov.au.
SSI Spatial Technology in
Schools Competition
The
winners of this year’s competition were announced at a special awards ceremony
conducted on 15 November, International GIS Day, at the Burswood on Swan
Reception Centre. All teachers, students
and mentors celebrated the most successful competition to date, with the
prize-giving ceremony and a viewing of all projects.
The Overall WA Winner for 2006 is the John Calvin Christian College, for their project “Reducing the fire risk at Manjedal Scout Camp.
Second place went to Perth Modern School, with Wesley College in third.
Nyindamurra Family School, located in the Margaret River region, was voted the Best Entry - Primary School Category at both WA and Asia-Pacific levels, for their project “Rescue a Frog Today (RAFT)”.
The Overall Winner of the Asia-Pacific region for 2006 is John Calvin Christian College.
Full details are available from the WALIS website at: www.walis.wa.gov.au/education/STS.
If you’d like to get involved next year you can register your interest to bronwenc@walis.wa.gov.au. Participation rates in this competition are expected to grow substantially next year and we’ll need more mentors!
JPEG2000
Findings
of the project were reported to both the JPEG2000 working group and to WALIS
Council. The major recommendation was to proceed towards adoption of the
JPEG2000 format, where possible, as it appears that there are few barriers
and immediate tangible benefits in adopting the format. It will
be up to individual agencies to determine the best strategy for adoption,
however, it is anticipated that the WALIS Office will develop advice
and procedures on how agencies should best proceed. For some agencies
such as DLI (as an imagery provider), further work may need to be done, such as
client surveys to determine whether clients can adopt the format prior to roll
out.
The adoption should be gradual to cause little disruption and to commence a learning curve within the WALIS community and general public.
The WALIS Office will specifically:
1. Seek input from DLI as the major industry imagery provider for WA which would include:
- Research conducted by DLI to examine a potential format for implementation and distribution;
- A large marketing campaign for any imagery customers/consumers (with a long lead-in time).
2. Advise the WALIS community of the decision to endorse JPEG2000 as a standard and promote JPEG2000 through various marketing avenues (letters to WALIS member agencies agencies, WALIS eNews, WALIS News, WALIS website, and through DLI's marketing area).
- This should include a recommendation for gaining advice on copyright and data protection issues through legal avenues;
- This should also include feedback on WALIS agency ability and/or willingness to change formats.
3. Develop guidance for WALIS member agencies to encourage a gradual change to JPEG2000. This may include:
- Formulating a strategy to ensure JPEG2000 is adopted in a consistent manner (searching, cataloguing, standard implementation). DLI to take a lead role in the research of a suitable format (as a major imagery provider of both satellite imagery and aerial photography).
- Providing advice and recommendations on how to best take up the adoption of the format such as only using JPEG2000 with new imagery (as provided by DLI) and leaving old imagery in ECW format, or converting old ECW imagery to JPEG2000 as well.
Drainage Project
A
drainage workshop is being held on Thursday 23 November at Gloucester Park (free parking available
inside the gates). It starts at 7:30 am (with breakfast) and
concludes at 12 noon. Please register your interest and
dietary requirements with dans@walis.wa.gov.au.
A select few initial key stakeholder meetings have occurred to pre-empt
the workshop agenda.
SLICP Review
The
WALIS Office will be aiming to kick off an implementation plan early in the new
calendar year by forming an implementation team with various stakeholders in
industry. The SLICP 06-07
program is on track, contact dans@walis.wa.gov.au
for further details.
WA Atlas
Data
determined to be suitable for the Atlas should be migrated in the near
future. Back end processes such as setting up help files, FAQs and
workflow processes are also underway. This will include regimes for
quality control of data, and the WALIS Office conducting a small user interface
testing workshop. A small number of datasets are also still undergoing
review for inclusion in the new Atlas version.
Interragator+
Testing
of the migration process to go from the existing metadata format to the
new format has commenced and subsequent migration of metadata records will
occur in the near future. Training for publishers and agency
administration will occur shortly to give users a chance to become familiar
with the interface and workflow processes.
WALIS Stakeholders in the News
Latest Achievements for the Shared Land Information Platform (SLIP)
During
the preceding months with the continued efforts of WALIS Agencies in the
development of the WALIS Strategic Plan 2007-2010, significant progress has
also been made towards integrating the governance structures of SLIP and
WALIS. There has been agreement in
principle from the SMC e-Government sub-committee, the SLIP Executive Committee
and the WALIS Core Management Group to the rationalisation of governance
arrangements for both WALIS and SLIP.
The WALIS Executive Policy Committee (EPC) will oversee both WALIS and the implementation of SLIP. The EPC will be advised by the WA Spatial Management Group (WA SMG), which is to be formed from an amalgamation of the current SLIP Executive Committee and the WALIS Core Management Group. WALIS Council will continue to operate as the coordination mechanism for the WALIS Program and will include a range of committees and working groups.
The ‘final’ SLIP Executive Committee meeting will be held on 1 December 2006 and will include a keynote speech by Grahame Searle, Chief Executive, Department of Land Information. Grahame will reflect on the achievements of SLIP, two years on, and prospects for a bright future.
Electronic Land Development Process (eLDP)
(Lead Agency: Department for Planning & Infrastructure)
The eLPD Business Case for Phase II has been submitted under Department for Planning and Infrastructure’s Strategic Information Plan and Capital Investment Program to the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure and the Department of Treasury and Finance for funding in 2007/08. The submission is now under consideration.
Emergency Management (EM)
(Lead Agency: Fire & Emergency Services Authority)
Across government, the SLIP-EM management team has continued liaising with representatives at all levels from FESA, WA Police, Department of Environment and Conservation, and Local Government Authorities in order to roll out support for HAZMAT, Search and Rescue, and Bushfire Management Support.
The requirements analysis phases for these releases have clearly documented the requirements for remote access to spatial data through EmerGeo. A potential technical solution to meet these requirements has been identified and a proof-of-concept is being pursued.
Arson Investigation and Pilbara Region fire incidents have been identified as possible areas that have the potential to form the basis of the pilot for the Common Incident Spatial View, drawing fire and arson information from a variety of State Government and Local Government agencies for display using EmerGeo.
Natural Resource Management
(NRM)
(Lead Agency: Department of Agriculture and Food)
The second release of “NRM Info” is now available. Please visit the NRM Info page to view the products available.
Work on the theme areas for the NRM Info Interface continues with the development of Invasive Species products, and new marine products which will include over 1,000 marine habitat sampling points (from DEC, Fisheries and Museum) and potentially video footage for selected sites (following further investigation).
Interest Enquiry (formerly
Register of Interests)
(Lead Agency: Department of Land Information)
During October, the Interest Enquiry Project Team reviewed business requirements and the principal business sponsors are now supportive of the new approach. A question that has been raised at various times regards the extent that Interest Enquiry may cater for the general public. The final direction from the principal business sponsors is that Release 1 of Interest Enquiry will be made available for Landgate customers and a subsequent release will allow for general public users. Specific Interest Enquiry products may also be made available in Landgate’s “Shopfront” system (due for release during 2007).
The Enabling Framework (EF)
(Lead Agency: Department of Land Information)
Proof-of-Concept for the SLIP MapViewer has now concluded and planning for the replacement of WA Atlas is underway. The WA Atlas will be replaced by the SLIP MapViewer environment. The MapViewer project will deliver a map viewer capable of supporting the requirements of the respective SLIP focus areas identified within the SLIP program and will provide a generic spatial portrayal service:
- to view spatial data available through the SLIP Enabling Framework;
- that can be customised for use within WA State Government Agencies using and through the SLIP Enabling Framework.
Key features of the MapViewer include: publication from multiple sources; multi-resolution vector and raster streaming; continuous interactivity; ‘on-the-fly’ re-projection; open interface to security; authentication and service monitoring; and Java-based technology which supports all popular platforms.
For
more information please visit the WA Atlas Upgrade or MapViewer page.
For further details on SLIP, refer to the SLIP Collaboration Portal.
Department Delivers Improved Coastal Data for
Exmouth
Commercial
fishermen and the recreational boating community operating out of Exmouth have
access to detailed information about current ocean conditions following the
Department for Planning and Infrastructure’s extension of its wave data
collection network to the North-West of Western Australia. Tides and Waves Coordinator Tony Lamberto
said the Department’s second permanent ‘directional’ wave buoy had been
deployed off Exmouth to provide fishermen, boat owners, surfers and the wider
community with comprehensive information about coastal conditions. Mr Lamberto said the information from the
buoy, which includes the direction and height of waves, would significantly benefit
the safety of those going to sea and provide long-term data to assist in the
management of the coastline, and also in the planning and design of coastal
infrastructure. “The initiative
represents a significant improvement in the information available to skippers
operating out of Exmouth as previously they only had weather reports to predict
conditions at sea,” Mr Lamberto said.
Read the Media Statement for full details.
Science and Management Strategies Sought for Dying
Tuarts, Wandoos
The
chronic decline in tuart and wandoo forests and woodlands in the South-West was
discussed at a symposium in Mandurah on 9 November. Opening the Woodland Decline Symposium,
Environment Minister Mark McGowan said it was unknown why many of the trees
were sick and dying. Mr McGowan said
tuart woodlands between Mandurah and Preston Beach and wandoo woodlands from
the Darling Scarp through to the Wheatbelt were affected by the decline. “The underlying reasons for this decline are
not clear but may be caused by fungal diseases, lack of water or nutrients, a
change in fire management or changes in the ecological balance of native
insects and their predators,” he said.
“A significant amount of research has been conducted into the causes of
this problem but there is still a long way to go.”
The
Minister said more than $1.5million had been allocated to research programs
over the past three years through collaborative arrangements between the
Commonwealth and State Governments, local authorities and industry. “Research into the tuart decline is
continuing and will expand investigations by using geographic information
systems to map the extent and spread of tuart decline and look at the impact
other factors have on tuart health,” he said.
Read the Media Statement for full details.
Australian Angle
Launch of Emergency Information Website
An
internet website that allows the public to access emergency information across Australia was launched in Adelaide on 17 November. The Australian Disaster Information Network
(AusDIN) will provide links to emergency management organisations in every
state and territory. The
Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, launched the site at a meeting of emergency
services ministers and said it would prove invaluable. “With the internet being such a popular
source of information, this initiative will give people the information they
need to learn about events such as bushfires, floods or cyclones,” Mr Ruddock
said.
The
AusDIN site will also tap into weather reports, spatial information, warnings
and alerts, and provide information on preparing for disasters and what to do
in times of evacuation. There will be
links to recovery organisations, charity and support groups, and international
links. AusDIN is the first
whole-of-government emergency management initiative to use the internet to link
and share information relevant to the sector.
Click here for full details.
MapConnect Online Mapping has Arrived
Geoscience Australia
has launched MapConnect,
the next generation of online mapping applications. MapConnect enables personal and
professional users alike to download and print maps of their chosen area, in a
standard web browser environment without the need for additional software. The application utilises Geoscience Australia's
GEODATA TOPO 250K Series 3 data that covers the entire nation. A unique feature of MapConnect is the
ability to turn on and off specific feature layers. This means that users can customise their own
map by including features that are important for their needs, or alternately,
excluding features not required. The
data is extracted directly from a spatial database that is constantly
maintained to ensure that the most recent data is available to users.
Click here for further information.
RFID Yet to Reach Government Tipping Point
Despite growing recognition of the benefits of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), results from a Booz Allen Hamilton study into RFID awareness and adoption revealed that less than 30% of government departments gave RFID any priority in their business plan. Conversely, 75% of the study's respondents plan to investigate or use RFID within the coming three years.
Respondents saw competing priorities for tight budgets as the greatest challenge to increased adoption of RFID, with security changes, business process changes and software upgrades as the most significant change issues. The results of the Australian study contrast the international focus, where awareness and adoption of RFID based systems is on the rise. Although there appears to be limited local uptake of RFID to date, there is considerable recognition of the benefits of RFID implementation, supported by government pilot and education projects.
For
more information, visit Booz Allen and for a copy of the study “Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Survey
2006: Measuring Government Understanding,” please contact Debra Beck-Mewing.
Source:
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
Applied GIS
Applied
GIS, published by Monash University ePress,
has only available on a subscription and pay-per-article basis, but in 2007 the
journal will be available on an open access basis: anyone will be able to read
the journal free of charge. This holds
out the promise of increased readership and greater access to the important
research and findings that are published in this journal. The journal will also no longer be published
by Monash University ePress, but will be
independently published. However, the
journal content will be stored and published online through the Monash
University ARROW repository. ARROW is an institutional repository that
aims to permanently store Monash research publications using soundly managed
online repository software that provides a permanent and widely accessible
address for individual papers.
The new issue of Applied GIS (volume two, issue 2) is about to be published and is a special issue, guest edited by Japanese scholar Jun Tsutsumi of Ehime University.
Applied GIS is archived regularly and available at http://www.epress.monash.edu/ag.
Exploration in the Third Dimension
Geoscience Australia's
3D Visualisation Laboratory (3D Vizlab) is the latest research tool developed
to aid geoscientists explore underground Australia. Launched by the Parliamentary Secretary to
the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, the Hon Bob Baldwin MP, the
3D Vizlab is a full stereo theatre that uses three-dimensional imagery to identify
Australia's
underground resources. The 3D Vizlab
displays high quality geological interpretations and models that will be
critical in exploring Australia
for new ore bodies and petroleum fields.
The information displayed allows geoscientists to probe Australia's
continent without removing a single stone, and applies the latest cutting-edge
technology.
“Unlike viewing a geological model on a flat
computer screen, viewing the models in 3D creates the perception that you are
underground, exploring the subsurface structures and systems of Australia,”
said the Parliamentary Secretary. “This
tool will be invaluable for identifying new exploration opportunities, and for
encouraging international interest.” The
Parliamentary Secretary likened the theatre and its capabilities to ‘something
out of Star Wars’. “It wasn't long ago
when technology like this was only dreamed up in movie scripts, now it's
becoming reality. This is the first big
step into exploration methods for the 21st Century.”
Click here for full details.
APSEA 2006: SSI Award Winners
The winners of the Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA) 2006 were announced at a Gala Dinner at the Hilton, Brisbane on Thursday 9 November. These awards, a joint event of the SSI and ASIBA, are now in their third year of recognising and rewarding spatial excellence in the industry, the professinoal and now the government sector categories. In the Individual Category conducted by the SSI for spatial professionals, the winners/recipients for 2006 were:
SSI Award for Education and Professional Development: Dr Megan Lewis of SSI SA Region;
SSI Service Award: Richard Stratham of the SSI QLD Region;
Young Spatial Professional of the Year 2006: Penny Baldock, Chair of the SSI Young Professionals;
Spatial Professional of the Year 2006: Bruce Thompson of SSI Vic Region:
SSI President's Award: Duncan Brooks of SSI Vic Region; and
SSI Award for Eminence and Excellence: Warwick Watkins, Chair of ANZLIC.
The President, on behalf of the Directors, Office Bearers, Staff and alll the members of the SSI, wishes to thank the many quality entrants from across the membership and to congratulate the finalists and winners of these prestigious awards. Photos of the winners may now be viewed attached to the What's New article "APSEA 2006 Individual Winners" on the SSI home page.
Watch for full reports on APSEA 2006 which will appear in Position Magazine, Landmark, Spatial Voice and in the next e-Newsletter for APSEA 2006 on the website of this year's host ASIBA and be thinking now about nominations for APSEA 2007, to be hosted by SSI in Sydney.
NGIS & Great Southern
win at the 2006 WA Industry & Export Awards
NGIS
Australia and Great Southern Plantations have won the prestigious C.Y.O’Connor
Award for Excellence in Engineering and Technology category of the 2006 Western
Australian Industry and Export Awards.
“We are delighted to receive another award for the development of our
Forestry Management System, ForMS. Our
success in these, and other recent awards demonstrates the depth of expertise
NGIS offers, and the ongoing commitment we make to meet the needs of our
customers,” said NGIS Managing Director, Paul Farrell.
NGIS
and Great Southern have developed the innovative forestry management system
using the latest in internationally recognised software development standards
to provide Great Southern with a centralised means of managing over 150,000
hectares of timber plantations around Australia on behalf of thousands of
investors. The project has been driven
by Great Southern’s rapid expansion in the hardwood plantation industry,
quickly outgrowing the existing management systems.
Click for full details.
News from Around the Globe
The Map Gap
As the world's oldest printed atlas sells for £2m,
our impression of what the Earth looks like has changed almost beyond
recognition. But even now, it's hard to
find a truly accurate picture of our planet. Looking down at a map, the viewer thinks their
eyes are taking in a snapshot of the Earth. But are they?
Between the oldest and the most modern incarnation
of the printed atlas there are 500 years of mapping history filled with debate
over how to represent the world. How to
show countries' size, relief and relations? How to project an almost-spherical surface on
to a flat one, but keep it accurate? “If
you peel an orange, you can't lay it flat and there's never an answer to that,”
says Steve Chilton, chair of the Society of Cartographers. And that is the problem: map-makers have
always compromised for their art - tweaking scale, distance or area to paste
the world down. Making Greenland
loom large, or squashing Africa
to a narrow frame in the process.
For
more information, visit BBC News.
Source:
BBC News
GPS Phone Tells Others
Where You Are
According to CNet, a
company called Benefon has launched a cell
phone with a built in GPS receiver — nothing new there. However, this particular GPS cell phone,
called the Twig, does something extra.
It can send your GPS coordinates to another Twig owner and then that
person can navigate directly to you using the preloaded navigation
software. Sounds like this could save a
lot of time and effort when trying to explain to the in-laws where your new apartment
is.
Full details are available here.
City in Idaho Maps Grave Sites with GPS
and Photo Mapping Software
The
City of Nampa, Idaho, is using GPS and digital photo mapping software to create
a web-accessible map database showing the precise locations of all grave sites
in its public cemetery. Completed in
just one summer, the mapping project was made possible by GPS-Photo Link software
from GeoSpatial Experts in Colorado. “With the growing interest in genealogy, our
city clerks were spending many hours every week handling inquiries from people
wanting to know where their relatives were buried in our cemetery,” said Rod
Collins, GIS Manager in the Nampa Engineering Department. “Pinpointing a specific grave was time
consuming because the clerks had to page through paper maps and records dating
to the late 1800s.” A long-time user of
geospatial technology, Nampa decided to develop a
digital map of the cemetery.
“Mapping
grave sites in cemeteries is a rapidly growing application of GPS technology,”
said Rick Bobbitt, President of GeoSpatial Experts. “Many cities have purchased our GPS-Photo
Link software because it provides one of the easiest and inexpensive means of
creating a geographically accurate digital map.”
Click here for further information.
GPS-Equipped Pigeons Enlisted as Pollution Bloggers
If
pigeons wrote their own blogs, they might talk about where to score breadcrumbs
or find prime roosting spots. Now, with
the help of tiny high-tech backpacks, pigeons really have become bloggers—but
they’re posting messages about California smog.
In a project known as PigeonBlog, sensors in the backpacks collect data on toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, as the birds wing through city skies. The information is then sent back to a central computer, which automatically posts a map of the pollutants’ concentration on the Internet.
Beatriz
da Costa, a professor of arts, computation, and engineering at the University of California, Irvine, dreamed up the idea. One of the inspirations for the project was
moving to California and “seeing the smog in L.A.,” she said. Around the same time she ran across a
century-old photo of a pigeon with a camera around its neck. “Pigeons were clearly one of our first ...
delivery systems,” da Costa said. She
decided to update this idea for the 21st century and “use pigeons as
journalists to report on a current situation.”
For
more information, visit National Geographic.
A Single Version of the Truth: Empowering
Governments with a Single Mapping Database
Many
state, county and municipal governments are plagued with a fundamental problem
which can severely hinder the goals of their individual agencies, interagency
collaboration and the overarching mission of protecting and serving the
public. The problem is the lack of a
single, highly accurate, shared mapping database and subsequent uniform spatial
understanding. At best, the lack of a common
mapping database can result in minor inconveniences - duplicate street naming,
mailing errors or traffic snarls from insufficient signage. At worst, results can include serious public
health hazards, poor emergency response and lapses in environmental
protection. When armed with different
maps, multiple agencies do not share a common understanding of reality or mode
of communication, which can lead to serious operational and policy disconnects.
The key is to develop a single, comprehensive mapping database including all
the common information needed by state agencies (as well as counties and
municipalities within the state), while supporting the unique data,
applications and “language” of each agency.
The goal is to develop a uniform understanding of location.
For
more information, visit Directions Magazine.
Source: Directions Media
Upcoming Events
Course
on Emerging Approaches to SDI Implementation
27 November 2006, Geoscience Australia, cnr Jerrabomberra Ave
& Hindmarsh Drive, Symonston
Spatial
Data Infrastructures (SDI) allows cost-effective sharing of information and
services in support of multiple business activities. To meet future needs considerable care is
required to design and implement them.
This course presents a framework for understanding SDI design with an
emphasis on identifying the practical issues affecting governance and
implementation, and emerging best practices around the world. The course is organised by the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial
Information (CRCSI) and will be run by Rob Atkinson of
Social Change Online.
The
cost is $250 per person ($200 per person for registrants of the SEE Grid
conference). Further details are available from the CRCSI website. To register, please email training@crcsi.com.au.
Standards:
What busy managers need to know
28 November 2006, National Library of Australia, Canberra
9:00am – 4:30pm
The
Office of Spatial Data Management (OSDM), the Australian Government Information
Management Office (AGIMO), Department of Finance and Administration, and the
National Library of Australia (NLA) are hosting a full-day event on Standards:
what busy managers need to know. The
seminars will focus on the business of standards - why standards, which ones
are important, how do standards fit together, what is the business case for
adopting standards, what are the benefits, how are standards relevant to the
spatial domain: in essence, what do busy managers need to know? A selection of international and national
experts will address these issues, and a panel session will conclude the day.
The
program and venue details are available on the OSDM website. To register for this event, email info@osdm.gov.au
3D
Geological Mapping
28 November 2006, Geoscience Australia, cnr Jerrabomberra Ave &
Hindmarsh Drive, Symonston
An
open invitation is offered to anyone with an interest in 3D geological mapping
to attend a GeoModeller user meeting, Tuesday 28
November 2006
at Geoscience Australia. For the past 18 months, the State and
Territory geoscience agencies, Geoscience Australia and CSIRO have supported
the development of the GeoModeller software for 3D geological mapping and
potential field inversion by Intrepid Geophysics and Bureau de Recherches
Géologiques et Minières (BRGM). The user meeting will include an overview of
the GeoModeller 3D mapping methodology, a run down on the features in the v1.2
release, a special focus on the batch gravity and magnetic inversion module,
plus presentations from a range of users.
There is no charge to attend this meeting, but you must register with Ainsley Austin of Intrepid
Geophysics.
For
further information, please email Richard
Lane of Geoscience Australia or phone (02) 6249 9264. For
further information about GeoModeller, visit the GeoModeller website.
Workshop
on Strategic Issues for Building, Managing and Delivering 3D Models
30 November 2006, Geoscience Australia, cnr Jerrabomberra Ave &
Hindmarsh Drive, Symonston
The
Government Geoscience Information Policy Advisory Committee (GGIPAC) is
extending an invitation to people interested in the online discovery,
management, and delivery of 3D models and modelling attributes, to come to a
one day workshop. The aim is to help
flesh out data management issues related to the 3D modelling process and to
better understand the increasing diversity of use cases for 3D models.
The
cost is $150 and further details are available through the SEE Grid home page.
SEE
Grid III Conference
30 November –
1 December 2006, CSIRO Discovery Centre, Black Mountain, Canberra
The
third SEE Grid conference in Canberra has been designed to
provide an integrated perspective of the latest international advancements
towards data access and applications.
Advancements in standards, supporting infrastructure and practical
applications will be addressed at the conference. The theme for the conference is “Computational
Modelling and Decision Support in the Solid Earth and Environmental Community”. For more information or to register,
visit the conference website.
Cartography Commission Exhibition
4 December 2006, John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University of Technology, Kent St, Bentley
5:00 – 7:00pm
The
Spatial Sciences Institute invites members and guests to attend a special
viewing of two significant “spatial” exhibitions at John Curtin Gallery. Western Edge: this exhibition contains one of
the most extensive bodies of rare and original maps presented in Perth. It explores the process of charting the
continent through a carefully selected collection of unique historical
documents drawn from the collections of Jock Clough and Kerry Stokes. Chart: six local artists examine contemporary
notions of mapping as a creative strategy to interrogate current issues in Australia. Guest speaker Brian Goodchild, from the Department
of Land Information, will provide an overview of "The Explorers
Diaries" - a new compilation featuring extracts from WA explorers. Cost is $15.
For more information or to register now, please contact Eugene Brown on ssiwaeo@iinet.net.au or (08) 9386 6601.
Interesting Website of the Month
WMS
Sites
WMS Sites is a collection
of useful Web Mapping Service sites. The
Web Map Service (WMS) implementation specification is a standard that describes
how mapped information should be communicated on the internet. This site aims to be a visual catalogue of
public WMS resources online.
http://wms-sites.com/