got geoint?

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? We hope everyone had a restful Father’s Day weekend. BBQs and family time surely abounded for many this past weekend. Well, now it is time to get back into the flow of work and productivity. As always, we have pulled together a cornucopia of defense-, intelligence- and satellite-related stories to kick start your week on the right foot. So, while you are focused on getting back into the gym and eating health food after the weekend, why don’t you load up on some power food for your brain. Enjoy and happy Monday.

White House Withheld Report From Top Intel Officers
he White House has withheld a key report, which maps out a strategy for fixing the troubled Director of National Intelligence, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The classified report, “Study of the Mission, Size, and Function of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,” was completed by the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board (PIAB) at least as early as March, several weeks before President Obama asked DNI Dennis Blair to resign. The report came at an inopportune time for the White House, which has pursued a policy course counter to the report’s advice. Read the full Atlantic story here.

Military Looks to Small Satellites as Costs for Large Spacecraft Grow
After some 50 years of launching large, complex, multi-million dollar spacecraft, the military and industry are rethinking the way satellites are built and acquired. Large satellites aren’t going away, experts said at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo. But the need for systems that don’t take a decade to develop and deliver, and can survive an attack, or be quickly replaced, is driving the trend toward smaller spacecraft. The “operationally responsive space” concept that calls for simpler and faster-to-orbit satellites will be endorsed in an upcoming Defense Department posture review. Read the full National Defense article here.

Changes in Geospatial Technology and Threats to the Private Geospatial Market
Forces affecting the private geospatial profession such as government insourcing, sensor fusion, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), IVHS, consumer “apps”, ethics, and cloud computing will be discussed during the MAPPS Summer Conference July 29 – August 2 in Lake Tahoe, NV. The future of the Global Geospatial Intelligence (CGI) data production and how the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) is moving from a product based system to a database maintenance system will be presented in the keynote by Ms. Karen Thomas, Director, Source Assessment and Global Foundation at NGA. Thomas will also highlight how this information will provide a new wave of the National System for GeoINT (NSG). Read the full press release from GIS User here.

Data.gov’s Next Big Thing: Mashing up Federal Stats with Maps
Data.gov, the federal government’s clearinghouse of downloadable information, plans to release new gadgets that will enable the public to easily create mashups of maps and statistics, according to officials working on the enhancements. Mashups are a fusion of information and images that can illustrate relationships or patterns and, in this case, provide transparency into the business of Washington. Data.gov is the brainchild of federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, who has said he envisions the website becoming an online marketplace where people worldwide can exchange entire databases and reuse content in ways the federal government could never imagine. Read the full Nextgov post here.

Google Earth Arrives for iPad
Flying across the world like a virtual Superman just got a little more portable and touchable, as Google has updated Google Earth in the App Store with an iPad version. A longtime iPhone and iPod touch app, Google Earth has been updated to version 3.0 with a handful of new features. Most notably, the app has gained a native iPad version, complete with a new toolbar, a search field, and a layers popover for choosing exactly what kinds of information you want to view while you’re floating around. Read the full PC World article here.

The Geolocation Trend Expands to More Apps
By now, most technophiles have heard of services like Foursquare that allow users to share their location through their mobile devices. Skyhook Wireless, a start-up that provides geolocation technology, is looking to expand the location trend beyond these services to any individual application on your phone. Four apps, including music app Sharetunes and wine app Drync, will introduce services on Thursday built with Skyhook’s software-development kit, “Local Faves.” Read the full WSJ blog post here.

Happy Monday!

Tags: Director of National Intelligence, GEOINT, geospatial intelligence, got geoint?, Monday Morning News Kick Off, Spy Satellites, Threats to Private geospatial market, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF