This year’s conference, Identifying Geospatial Solutions opened with the Keynote Address on Wednesday, May 9 delivered by Michael Jones, Chief Technologist, Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Local Search; and, John Curlander, General Manager, Microsoft Boulder. Jones’ address “The Neighborhood Geospatial Agency” pointed out the popularity of Google Earth and the new questions in national security, privacy, business and governance it raises. He offered some suggestions on how these issues can best be handled. Curlander spoke about “The Virtual World Online -- Mapping as a Web Service,” pointing out the emergence of web-based mapping services that allow individuals with little or no GIS experience to visualize critical data over the internet while gaining unprecedented insight into environments and situations. He demonstrated the pros and cons of this service using Microsoft’s Virtual Earth web service. An audio recording of Curlander’s address is available at www.asprs.org/tampa2007. An audience of more than 750 found both of these presentations very timely.
