got geoint?

The editorial staff of got geoint? is wishing everyone a healthy, happy and safe Thanksgiving this year! For those got geoint? readers who have kids, or are partial to crafts, we recommend you check out this Thanksgiving project where you can make a map of the Pilgrim’s voyage. Fun stuff on this special Turkey Day. Enjoy.

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I’m finally coming up for air after an incredible few days at GEOINT 2008. As the VP of Marketing & Business Development for TerraGo Technologies (commonly known as the GeoPDF guys), I viewed this event as an opportunity for us to re-introduce ourselves to the defense and intelligence market in such a way that people begin to understand the true value that our software provides. It’s not just a data conversion tool that creates GeoPDFs. It’s about software that helps non-GIS users collaborate with each other and with GIS headquarters more effectively. In our opinion, they to do this most effectively using our GeoPDF format, but our software can take any geo-enabled PDF and make it more useful. Today, we’re focused on delivering the software that actually helps people do great things with these PDFs.

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As CEO, Chairman and essentially the founder of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), Mr. K. Stuart Shea plays an instrumental role in advancing our tradecraft and has an unrelenting passion for our community and protecting our nation.

We were able to catch up with Mr. Shea a few weeks ago, and he shared with us why he started USGIF and where he sees us going – during a most interesting and challenging time of transition.

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FortiusOne clearly has a strategy aimed at bringing geospatial intelligence, GIS and the mapping world into the hands of the masses and to virtually any industry/government sector that can benefit from mapping data. We recently received a briefing on its Geocommons offering by Sean Gorman, who founded FortiusOne in 2005 when he was a student at George Mason University.

Side note: our readers may recall that in 2003, Mr. Gorman made the headlines for developing very detailed maps of U.S. infrastructure along with the fiber-optic network that connects businesses and government (all collected from public sources), which caused quite a stir.

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As we head into the weekend, we would like to share some news and insights surrounding the geospatial intelligence/GIS world that is interesting, cutting-edge and sometimes strange in our new section called “Friday’s Food for Thought.” Last week’s premier “Food for Thought” column covered potential new defense secretary candidates (Richard Danzig), and in news-in-the-same-vein, we mentioned USGIF board member, Chris Tucker, being the “dark horse” candidate for CIA Director (although this was a mid-week post for us), Twitter being a tool for terrorists and other news.

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USGIF will be at George Mason University today from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. taking part in its GIS Day@Mason. Presentations in the Johnson Center will include “The Role of GIS in Geospatial Intelligence” from USGIF President Keith Masback, among others. Ongoing GIS software demonstrations and exhibits to develop your skills in digital mapping will take place in the Fenwick Library.

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It has been an interesting few days for Christopher Tucker. A USGIF board member and ERDAS Senior Vice President for Americas and National Programs, we’ve heard his name being whispered as a potential choice candidate for the position as the new Director of the CIA under an Obama Administration. We’re not the only ones hearing this either.

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Today’s Washington Post featured an fascinating article about Martin Waldseemueller, whose world map from 1507, which is in near-perfect condition and with no other known copies, is the oldest document that labels “America” as the land mass between Africa and Asia.

Also, in more recent news, it seems the Pentagon has given industry a few more days to respond to a request for information on the provision of space-based synthetic aperture radar imagery.

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On December 2, The Project on National Security Reform will make its 648-page collection of national security case studies on events that range from the Allied occupation of Japan in the 1940s to the deployment of foreign troops in Somalia in the 1990s to the ongoing war in Iraq public, as well as available to President-elect Barack Obama.

The report, financed primarily with $6.4 million from Congress, studied the way the U.S. national security structure has worked over the past 60 years. The main takeway is that today’s challenges require better integration of expertise and capabilities from across the government. Here’s Washington Post’s coverage.

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Much of intelligence remains understandably focused on external terror threats, reports Homeland Security Today. DHS’s Charlie Allen is quoted in the piece from the GEOINT Symposium stage.

USDI James Clapper’s keynote received some more play over the weekend in a Washington Post article on the deal reached between Pakistan and the United States regarding airstrikes within the country’s borders.

For one journalist covering the symposium, this information combined with the other keynotes, panels, tracks and exhibits was “like drinking from a fire hose.” That’s good, right?

And from a perspective we don’t see often, one exhibitor new to the GEOINT experience chronicled her personal experiences in Nashville and life as a tradeshow booth personnel.

Enjoy!

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