got geoint?

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post on got geoint? As always, we hope you had a restful weekend spent with family and friends. But here we are again. It’s Monday. And if you think about it, Monday is not such a bad thing for us GEOINTers. The bottom-line is that we are passionate about what we do for a living. As such, Monday just means opportunity (that should be an inspirational poster). So, we hope you all take the opportunity to read all the actionable news you need to kick start your week in this post. Happy Monday!

Digital Maps Don’t Always Tell the Whole Story
Thanks to Google Earth and MapQuest and GPS and all the other digital mapping products, an image of where we are, or where we are headed, is always just a click away. These geographical services are so omnipresent, in fact, it would be easy to assume that there’s nothing left to map. But the blanket of digital geographic information doesn’t contain the whole story about the physical world we live in, nor does it necessarily offer an objective, value-neutral view. Bay Area map aficionados are pushing the boundaries of mainstream mapping conventions, and their work is both beautiful to behold and fascinating in the questions they raise about how knowledge is defined. Read the full NY Times story here.

Former CIA Director Speaks Out
We are six years out from one of the most far-reaching reforms of U.S. intelligence in its history. In 2004, Congress passed legislation that created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to oversee and coordinate the sprawling collection of agencies that act as our nation’s eyes and ears. In thinking about the consequences, we now have an extraordinary World Affairs article by Gen. Michael Hayden, who has served as director of the CIA, director of the National Security Agency, and deputy to the first director of national intelligence, John Negroponte. In short, he knows whereof he speaks. Hayden sees the reform as mixed bag. Like many in the intelligence world, he had opposed it at its inception, noting here that in the midst of war “[o]ur operational tempo was extremely high and we all knew that any major restructuring would be a drain on time and energy.” But given the lapses that led to 9/11 and the erroneous estimate of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a restructuring was almost inevitable. Congress chose to strip the director of the CIA of his coordinating role and convey that power to the head of the new agency that it created. Read the full SF Examiner article here.

Adobe and TerraGo Collaborate on Geospatial Capabilities for Acrobat X Solutions
Adobe Systems Incorporated and TerraGo® Technologies, a leading provider of geospatial collaboration software and an Adobe Gold Partner, have announced an initiative to support geospatial capabilities for customers of Acrobat X solutions. TerraGo has been working closely with Adobe to provide an upgrade path for Acrobat 9 Pro Extended customers who need to continue to author geospatial PDF files and perform advanced geospatial functions. In addition, Adobe and TerraGo have signed an agreement under which TerraGo is providing software engineering services in support of geospatial PDF consumption in Acrobat X and Reader X. These efforts leverage TerraGo’s deep geospatial PDF expertise and the company’s track record of delivering innovative collaboration software since it first invented geospatial PDF nearly 10 years ago. Thousands of government and commercial organizations around the world use TerraGo integrated software suites to create and interact with TerraGo GeoPDF® maps and imagery, the company’s brand of geospatial PDF. Read the full press release here, and check out the TerraGo landing page for more information here.

Oil Change Reignites Debate Over GPS Trackers
Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage. The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They freed it from the car and posted images of it online, asking for help in identifying it. Two days later, FBI agents arrived at Afifi’s Santa Clara apartment and demanded the return of their property — a global positioning system tracking device now at the center of a raging legal debate over privacy rights. One federal judge wrote that the widespread use of the device was straight out of George Orwell’s novel, “1984″. Read the full AP story here.

USGIF Announces 2010 Scholarship Program Recipients
The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) today announced the recipients of its 2010 Scholarship Program, for what was the Foundation’s most competitive year yet. This year, the Foundation awarded $86,000 to 19 recipients. Four Ph.D. candidates, six master’s students, six undergraduates and three graduating high school seniors received scholarships from this year’s program. High school recipients received $2,000 scholarships, and all others received $5,000 scholarships. “Thanks to the generous support of our membership, the scholarship program continues to gain momentum and give promising students the opportunity to advance their education,” said USGIF President Keith J. Masback. “I’m proud that our Foundation is playing a pivotal role in these students’ futures as well as that of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft. Read the full press release here.

California City Withheld Data on Fires, Report Says
San Marcos city officials kept secret a color-coded map showing the risk of wildfire danger to various neighborhoods for fear insurance companies would use the information to justify raising rates or dropping policies, according to a newspaper report. Officials opted to circulate a version of the map that omitted the marking of Coronado Hills and neighboring Attebury as deep red, which signifies “extreme wildfire hazard,” city leaders told The North County Times. Shadings showing five other neighborhoods with “very high” risk were also left off the map. Read the full NY Times/AP article here.

World’s Military Projects Still Dominate Space
Cold War paranoia may have eased up on the Space Race decades ago, but a new report finds that military projects still take up nearly half of all spending worldwide on space assets. The United States is by far the biggest spender on defense-related space programs, yet its technical savvy also makes it the country most dependent on such systems, according to a report, “Space Security 2010,” released in September. American efforts to project military power across the globe have helped drive such dependence on space power, said military and security analyst John Pike, who runs GlobalSecurity.org. Read the full SPACE.com article here.

Boeing’s Defense Turnaround
The defense unit of the world’s biggest aerospace company is regrouping after a decade that began with great promise turned into a series of nonstop setbacks. In a single day during the spring of 2009, Defense Secretary Robert Gates wiped out a quarter-trillion dollars in potential bookings at Boeing Defense, Space & Security by proposing termination of an array of programs begun during the Bush years, forcing the company to rethink its business plan and reorganize its operations. The agent of change emerging from that shakeup is an improbably young aerospace engineer named Dennis A. Muilenburg, who may be the most dynamic leader the defense sector has produced in this generation. Muilenburg is charting a course for Boeing’s defense unit that, while different from that of his predecessor, could prove far more profitable than anyone on Wall Street expects. Read the full Forbes blog post here.

Happy Monday!

Tags: Boeing, Boeing's Defense Turnaround, California Wild Fire Map, CIA Hayden, Digital Maps, GEOINT 2010, got geoint?, GPS, GPS trackers, Intel Reform, Military Dominates Space, Oil Change and GPS, TerraGo, TerraGo and Adobe, USGIF, USGIF Scholarship Program, Wild Fire Map