Links List 10.17.08

James Fee writes that The ESRI JavaScript API is better than WebADF. “The simplicity of the JavaScript API and the way it works, makes the classic WebADF and HTML viewers obsolete for most users…”

Jeff Thurston at VectorOne discusses map intelligence and data workflows. While most workflows using a GIS follow a step-by-step procedure, Jeff states that, “no matter how proficient you are with a GIS, or the data in question, it is near impossible to know what else surrounds the question you are working on.” This leads to questions of map intelligence and the procedures and workflows that are related to making a map. To be intelligent, GIS becomes more than just following the process, but processing the information in a meaningful way.

Applications using Yahoo Fire Eagle are highlighted on Google Maps Mania. These applications include Spot, Wikinear, Rummble, Metrosphere, Map My Tracks, and ekit. Each has a different goal in mind, from building a travel journal on Google Maps to list geotagged events happening near you.

We did a lot of work mapping Hurricane Ike this year, providing maps important information such as storm surge and wind speed, wave heights, and the impact on energy infrastructure. GISuser shares that 3-D pre- and post-storm lidar topography data will be made available to local, state, and federal agencies to aid post-storm disaster recovery and future erosion mitigation.

It appears that there is a spatial data exchange in Ireland with multiple agencies contributing data. Directions’ All Points Blog reports that metadata searching is available via text search or accompanied by spatial extent and date, but there is no “map viewer” to examine found live data at this time.