Web GIS: Principles and Applications

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13 December 2010 | By Jeff Thurston | 8978

Geographic information systems (GIS) have evolved from being desktop focused software to become internet oriented and offered as web services. Today many people actively engage GIS through web services delivered over the internet. These activities are continuing to expand and will undoubtedly offer the widest variety of spatial information services well into the future, providing a wide variety of GIS functionality.

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OpenStreetMap - Be Your Own Cartographer

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24 November 2010 | By Jeff Thurston | 3362

OpenStreetMap is a global mapping project that is built through the contributions, efforts and experiences of individuals in communities. Frustrated with a myriad of legal complications for using traditional maps, the OpenStreetMap community consists of individual and group efforts that contribute vectors for streets and places, resulting in cartographic products that anyone can use and build upon. This book describes how that process is achieved - from using GPS to collecting data to use in geographic information systems (GIS) and much more...

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MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World

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25 November 2010 | By Matt Ball | 6422

There is an important book from Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams that is a follow-on to their groundbreaking work Wikinomics. This latest release takes on the application of crowdsourcing and the ‘hive mind’ to rethink our staid institutions for more immediate and measured outcomes that address the global problems of today.

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Ecosystems Goods and Services from Plantation Forests

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13 November 2010 | By Jeff Thurston | 2332

Ecological goods and services represent a new approach that seeks to link the total value that forests contribute to society. Often these are interpreted to include health, social, cultural, and economic needs. Not all forests are the same though. In some places on the planet forests grow wildly, and are not impacted by humans directly. However, in other places forests are managed more closely and operated as plantations. Ecological services and values can be attributed to both cases. This book considers plantation forests and the values that they contribute toward society.

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