Use of geographical data promoted in Japan by new law
Having recognized the great contribution of applications derived from data obtained through a combined use of GIS and positioning systems for a lot of valuable uses (cadastre, floods, spatial planning, statistics on old buildings, criminality rates etc.), the Japanese government decided to draft a law for the use of these data and to give guidance for orientation of future needs as well as for financial and human resources required. This will help avoid fragmentation of initiatives efficient use by different Japanese ministries. www.gmes.info

Jack Dangermond, ESRI President receives honor from ASPRS
ESRI president Jack Dangermond has been awarded the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Outstanding Service Award for 2007. Dangermond is being recognized for his endowment of the ESRI Best Scienti? c Paper in GIS Award. Established in 1991, the award is given each year by the ASPRS Foundation to individuals who publish papers of scienti? c merit that advance the knowledge of GIS.

NRCan offers digital topographic data for free
As of April 1, 2007, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) began offering its electronic topographic mapping data for free over the Internet. It is now permitting people to freely redistribute this data, helping to ensure that users receive accurate and consistent information. It will make its data collections available through GeoGratis (geogratis.gc.ca), which is a portal, provided by the Earth Sciences Sector of NRCan.

GIS ILWIS migrates to open source
The Integrated Land and Water Information System (ILWIS, http:// www.itc.nl/ilwis) is a PC-based GIS & Remote Sensing software, developed by ITC. The ITC directorate has recently decided to make current ILWIS software free of charge and to migrate it as such to open source software under the 52° North initiative. Leading research organizations in the ?eld of geoinformatics (ifgi, conterra, ITC, ESRI) participate in 52° North’s innovative development for establishing open spatial data infrastructures (SDI) and transformation of these into practical technological solutions.

Geospatial Intelligence Standards: Enabling a Common Vision
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has issued a new document that provides guidance and direction to develop an overall baseline for common geospatial standards used to share, manipulate, and exploit digital geospatial data. The document, “Geospatial Intelligence Standards: Enabling a Common Vision,” outlines the standards that will be used in the National System for Geospatial-Intelligence (NSG). The NSG is the combination of technology, policies, capabilities, doctrine, activities, people, data and communities necessary to produce geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in an integrated multi-intelligence, multidomain environment. www.nga.mil

NATO awards GIS contract to TENET
NATO NC3 Agency has awarded the GIS Data Preparation Contract to TENET supported by Galdos Systems Inc. and IIC Technologies Inc in Canada. The project involves the generation of a wide range of geospatial data models compliant with some of the latest spatial open information standards from OGC and ISO and the conversion of many terabytes of vector, raster and gridded data. A large proportion of NATO’s paper holdings of maps and charts will also be digitized and converted to the same set of open standards. The objective is to create an open and shareable map database as part of NATO core GIS infrastructure withinz the Alliance. At the forefront of these open standards are the two key encodings of GML and GMLJP2 to provide effective encoding for Raster and Coverage data.
www.galdosinc.com

£2 million printing press for paper maps
Ordnance Survey Director General and Chief Executive Vanessa Lawrence officially pushed the on button of a massive new £2 million printing press at the mapping agency’s Southampton head office recently. The six-colour printing press is one of the largest in the country and will be used to produce Ordnance Survey’s paper maps, including the 650 different recreational and leisure maps that together cover every corner of Britain. www.OrdnanceSurvey.co.uk

India, ASEAN sign agreement to boost science and tech cooperation
India and ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) have signed a joint declaration for cooperation in Science & Technology. Mr. Kapil Sibal, Minister fo S&T and Earth Sciences and Dato’ Dr. Jamaluddin Mohd. Jarjis, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia and Leader of ASEAN delegation said that the declaration will not only strengthen the Science & Technology ties between the countries in the region but will also make ways for new horizons.
India has offered ASEAN countries training in space technologies, including remote sensing applications and satellite design, as a part of measures to step up co-operation in the field. India, through the Indian Space Research Organisation, has offered ASEAN countries short-term training programmes in satellite design to help them fulfill their aspirations in the niche field. Besides, satellite design India has also offered access to remote sensing data, including satellite imagery of the region for weather forecasting.
The Heads of Science and Technology Agencies of the State/ Governments of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam and India gathered and met in New Delhi, India on 6th November, 2006 for the 12th Technology Summit and Technology Platform, organized jointly by the Department of Science & Technology, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and ASEAN Committee on Science & Technology (COST).
www.financialexpress.com

China’s GI industry to exceed $10 billion by 2010
The geographic information industry is a burgeoning and fast-growing industry. Statistics from overseas authoritative institutions show that since 2000, the annual growth rate of the geographic information industry has exceeded 25 percent. More and more large international enterprises, such as Microsoft and Google.com, have begun to enter into this field. According to a recent report published in the China Economic Net website China has proposed in the Outline of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economy and Social Development “to intensify the construction of infrastructures and facilities for surveying and mapping, enrich, develop and utilize the fundamental geographic information resources, and develop the geographic information industry”. The report further says that the total output value (based on incomplete statistics) of China’s geographic information industry reached RMB 26 billion Yuan (more than 3 billion USD) in 2005 and the industry is becoming a rapidly rising burgeoning industry among modern service industries and a new growth point for the economy. The annual total production value of China’s geographic information industry is expected to exceed RMB 80 billion Yuan (more than 10 billion USD) by 2010. http://en.ce.cn

Ordnance Survey vision helps shape a VISTA for underground assets
VISTA (Visualising integrated information on buried assets to reduce street works) is a collaboration of 21 organisations developing an integrated infrastructure to enable data sharing for all buried assets across Great Britain. Ordnance Survey’s intelligent large-scale data OS MasterMap Topography Layer is the reference base underpinning preliminary trials by researchers at Leeds and Nottingham Universities to integrate disparate records of buried pipes, cables, ducts and wires. VISTA will combine this information with in-situ survey observations using real-time centimetre-level services provided by OS Net, Ordnance Survey’s GPScorrection network, and by Leica Geosystems’ SmartNet, which is enabled by OS Net. OS Net is a network of more than 90 GPS base stations that improves the standard accuracy of raw GPS readings to augment any application that requires GPS positioning. www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk