Failure To Update

I recently read Very Spatial blog entry about how the recent Comair crash was likely due in part to out-of-date maps. The out-of-date-map tragedy quickly reminded me of the accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in the Balkins in the early 1990's. There is very interesting Congressional Testimony of how this accident happened. In my opinion the Chinese embassy bombing is a case study in why maps must be maintained.

The report goes on to say that some maps had the correct location of the Chinese Embassy, and others did not. Some maps had the correct location of the intended target, while others did not. The problem was that the decision makers, in the fog of war, used the set of outdated maps with the wrong location of the target and didn't cross-check it with another map showing the location of embassies. This failure resulted in tragic consequences.

Unfortunately, this is not much different than Comair. The pilots used the maps they though to be accurate, but wasn't. The controller tower wasn't able to cross check the pilot's actions. This all lead to deadly consequences.

These examples should be brought up anytime a question of the need for map maintenance comes up. Sure - the failure to maintain the parcel or address centerline database won't result in an airline crash or an bombing of embassy. Yet the local effects of such a mistake could still be disastrous.

Maps must be maintained and constantly updated for them to remain effective

Oblique Imagery for Milwaukee County

Oblique imagery for Milwaukee County is now available on Microsoft's Virtual Earth Live.Local.com mapping site. This was added just this week. As far as I can tell, the only oblique imagery (bird's eye view) available in Wisconsin is Milwaukee County. Let me know if you find anywhere else. Here's a view of the Milwaukee County Zoo.

ESRI-UC 2007

I see that ESRI is already calling for presentations for the ESRI-User Conference 2007 in San Diego. The user conference is earlier this year (starts June 18th), so it makes sense that the deadline is sooner. Even so Oct 6th just seems a little too soon. So if your planning on presenting in San Diego, you best be getting to work on your submission.

As always, if you can't make it to San Diego, EWUG is the next best place to be for Wisconsin ESRI users.

EWUG Conference Registrations

EWUG 2006 - is less than two months away!

We are now accepting registrations for the 2006 EWUG Conference, to be held November 1st & 2nd at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton. The registration form has been posted on the website, and the preliminary program is available as well.

This year looks to be a great conference. This is a our first time in Appleton, and the hotel is right in the center of Appleton's entertainment district, so the conference won't neccessarly end at 6:30pm.

Don't forget to book your room soon, as the conference rate is only good for bookings prior to Oct 2nd.