got geoint?

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? Yes, it is Monday once again, and it’s time to get back into the work game. Sunday NFL games are over — well not for the Vikings and the Giants. And, if its any consolation, we are entering the holiday party season and the work-flow tends to slow down a bit. Though if it’s any indication of productivity levels, today’s MMNKO post shows that the GEOINT sector is still cruising along at a fast clip. So, fire up that second cup of coffee and read on.

Location Lucrative: Check-in Services Boast Coveted Demographics
Foursquare now boasts 5 million users with 25,000 newcomers signing up every day. But that massive growth isn’t the only reason the company turned down a $140 million offer (likely from Yahoo), as revealed this week. The demographics of its users may be far more valuable in the long run. According to a report released Friday by Forrester Research, location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla are attracting some top clientele. Location-based app users are far younger and more affluent than the average online user. Around 86% of those checking in are under the age of 43. More than 70% of users have earned a college degree or higher. And most impressively, the average annual income stands at $105,000–at least 30% more than the average Netizen. Read the full Fast Company article here.

INFORMATION: The Fatal Consequences Of Not Sharing
The biggest casualty from the Wikileaks disclosures is not the information that American soldier PFC Bradley Manning stole and passed on to Wikileaks, or the fact that this was a major breach in American security. The big danger is that the American intelligence community will go back to pre-September 11, 2001 practices. Back then, “need to know” and unwillingness to share data with other branches of the government meant that a lot of vital connections were not made. For example, if there had been more data sharing before September 11, 2001, those four aircraft would not have been hijacked. Read the full Strategy Page post here.

Endangered birds — Space technology: Concern Over Anti-Satellite Weapons is Changing The Way Satellites Are Designed, Built and Launched
IN JUNE the US Strategic Command, an arm of America’s Department of Defence, began operating a spy satellite called TacSat-3. It can see objects on the ground as small as four metres across, and its “hyperspectral” imaging system (which combines visible with infra-red light) can distinguish between various types of metal, rock and other materials. The results can then be beamed directly to soldiers on the ground, providing detailed information about the terrain and nearby targets. Being able to get precise, timely information from a satellite (or “bird”) in this way is of great military value, and not just to ground troops. America’s forthcoming “Prompt Global Strike” non-nuclear hypersonic missiles will be able to hit almost any spot on earth in less than an hour—provided excellent satellite data is available. Read the full article from The Economist here.

Army Sees Future of Intelligence in the Cloud
The Army’s efforts to enlist cloud computing to modernize its intelligence capabilities is in step with similar efforts across the military services. A key part of the Army approach will be to empower commanders, program managers and soldiers to develop tools and applications on their own, within a set of servicewide standards, Mary Lynn Schnurr, director of Intelligence Community Information Management for the Army Intelligence Chief Information Officer, said today at Army IT Day in Vienna, Va. Read the full Defense Systems article here.

ITT Makes Geospatial Play with Acquisition
ITT Corp. plans to buy EchoStorm Worldwide in a deal to bolster its geospatial portfolio. EchoStorm delivers video and data management technology to the military, government and commercial customers. Its products let users capture, manage and disseminate full-motion video in near real time, ITT said in a statement. The products also help deal with system interoperability and bandwidth. The addition fo EchoStorm will help ITT with its airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance customers, said Chris Young, president ITT Geospatial Systems. Read the full press release here.

Conn. Demands Google’s Street View Data
Connecticut Attorney General Richard M. Blumenthal demanded Friday that Google turn over data from unsecured wireless networks collected by its Street View cars in the state, saying the information is necessary to determine whether the company broke state laws. Google has repeatedly apologized for the data breach, which the company says was inadvertent. Google has until Dec. 17 to respond to the civil investigative demand, the equivalent of a subpoena. Federal regulators closed their inquiry into the data breach in October, saying they were satisfied with the privacy changes Google announced. Read the full Washington Post article here.

Students and Staff from GIS Program Join Defense Personnel at Conference in New Orleans
Students and staff from Washington College’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program joined top national-security partners from government and industry at the GEOINT 2010 Symposium in New Orleans, November 1-4. GEOINT is government-speak for geospatial intelligence, which is playing an ever more prevalent role in the nation’s defense. Read the full press release here.

Happy Monday!

Tags: Army and Cloud computing, GEOINT, geospatial intelligence, Google Street View, got geoint?, ITT, ITT and geospatial intelligence, USGIF, Washington College, Washington College GIS program