CrisisMappersUK announce their deployment for the London Olympics 2012

CrisisMappersUK will provide real time situation awareness to public, services and security personnel during the London Olympics 2012.

CrisisMappersUK was founded in June 2012 by Justine MacKinnon and Francesca De Florio. The non-profit organization is the UK and only branch of Crisis Mappers.

During the “London Olympics 2012: Situational Awareness Deployment”, volunteers will collate and distribute real time information to the general public, services and security personnel, to support situation awareness and facilitate rapid reaction in case of an emergency. CrisisMappersUK will collate and distribute data using an open source information collection, visualization and interactive mapping tool platform. The mapping tool platform, an open source website generated from Ushahidi, was successfully tested in June 2012 during the Isle of Wight festival and helped people stranded on the island to reach accommodation, information, food and clean clothing.

CrisisMappersUK will lead the project in collaboration with members of the the WHO-curated Virtual Interdisciplinary Advisory Group for mass gatherings (VIAG).

CrisisMappersUK is currently recruiting volunteers through the online registration form to filter and collate information.

Crisis Mappers is a global organisation leveraging mobile & web-based applications, participatory maps & crowdsourced event data, aerial & satellite imagery, geospatial platforms, advanced visualization, live simulation, and computational & statistical models to power effective early warning for rapid response to humanitarian and events emergencies.

The VIAG is an informal network of experts in mass gatherings public health and related fields that provides support to host countries in the planning and operation of mass gatherings, as well as the operational and response aspects of public health and health security. VIAG members, in consultation with the WHO mass gathering team in Geneva and London, are beta testing both secure and open resources that can be a useful, free desktop and Android/iPhone-iPad capable platform to field baseline common operational data and annotations.

CrisisMappersUK is looking for volunteers to collate and organise data received from social media and other channels on the CrisisMappersUK platform to make it available to the general public, emergency services and other stakeholders involved in public security and safety. These stakeholders will be able to freely access this data which will facilitate and speed up situational awareness and rapid reaction in case of an incident or emergency.

See website above to submit application. No experience necessary.

ASPRS - Quarterly GISD Conference Call - August 3, 2012

GIS Division Meeting
Quarterly GISD Conference Call

Date: August 3rd 2012
Time: 12:00 pm EDT

Dial in Information: (712) 432-0175, Pass code 1022039#.

Agenda:
· Progress Report of the 2013 Plan.
·Summary of activities from the volunteers that staffed the ASPRS booth at ESRI conference.

Special Sessions

Spring 2013 (Baltimore)
o Geo-statistics (Special Session & Workshop) § Dr Melissa Rura § Dr Pierre Goovaerts § David Alvarez
o Location Based Services (LBS) session. § Dr Bandana Kar
o Big Data (Joint session with D&I committee) § David Alvarez
Fall 2013 (San Antonio)
o Disaster management/Response § Judd Muskat

Workshops /Webinar
o   A Soils/Hydrology TBD – David Alvarez
o   Geo-statistics  (Dr Pierre Goovaerts)
o   Web-Mapping  (TBD – Possible Dr. Tsou)

Other Activities
·Looking for volunteers to assist the lead (Dr Bill Hazelton) on the development of the document “the Best practices or guidelines on Datums”.
·Looking for volunteers that would represent the GISD and participate with other divisions or committees  (Lidar, Remote Sensing/Climate Change, D&I)
·Call for papers for the Special PE&RS Issue on Disaster Management Response is out.
·Looking for volunteers to assist with the judging of the awards that the GIS Division is responsible (ESRI Best paper, SAIC ….)

Ideas – Suggestions

Supporting Documents: The call for abstracts for the different sessions and the workshop descriptions are located in the link: https://docs.google.com/folder/d/.
Abstracts for the Special Sessions are due August 20.

Hope you can join us!

Thanks.

David Alvarez
GIS Division Director
davidalvarez76 (at) gmail (dot) com

Matthew D. Dunbar, PhD
GIS Assistant Division Director
mddunbar (at) uw (dot) edu

ASPRS - RSAD - Monthly Teleconference

Remote Sensing Application Division

Monthly Teleconference
30 July from 4:15 - 5:15 pm EST.

The Remote Sensing Application Division respectfully requests your participation in the newly-established monthly teleconference.  Scheduled for the last Monday of the month, we will begin meeting 30 July from 4:15-5:15 EST.

Preliminary agenda:
1)    RSAD Climate Change Committee Report
2)    Suggestions for 2013 Spring Conference  Special Sessions and Hot Topics
3)    Student involvement for academic credit
4)    Future RSAD activities
5)    Expanding RSAD involvement

Final agenda will be posted on the RSAD Web page: http://www.asprs.org/RSAD-Division.html
Phone bridge information:
USA Toll Free Number : 866-700-5166
Participant Passcode: 2453047

Mark your calendar and I look forward to hearing your input!

Thanks.

POC and host Dave Szymanski, Director RSAD
Szymanski_David (at) bah (dot) com

Event for the 40 years of Landsat

Here at Virginia Tech we will have a local event to commemorate the 40th year anniversary of Landsat. There will be a public viewing during the NASA/USGS press conference at McBryde Hall, room 136 at 11 am this Monday, July 23. Some free food and drinks will be provided.

Ioannis Kokkinidis
President of the Southwest Virginia ASPRS

Nominate GEOINT Community Best of the Best

USGIF 2012 Awards Program

NOMINATE TODAY!

USGIF is accepting nominations for its annual geospatial awards program. The USGIF Awards Program recognizes the exceptional work of community members for intelligence achievement, to include government, military and industry; and academic achievement, to include top graduates and R&D.

We encourage you to nominate yourself, an individual, or team you think is deserving of such recognition. Assistance in spreading the word about the USGIF Awards Program to your contacts and other GEOINT Community members is always appreciated.

If you’d like to submit a nomination, you can download applications at usgif.org/community/usgifAwards. The deadline for awards nominations is 5 p.m. EST Friday, August 17.

Those selected for awards will receive free registration to the GEOINT 2012 Symposium where their achievements will be acknowledged on stage during the general session, in the program guide, on our multiple websites, and in press releases and news articles. Teams and individuals chosen for this honor also receive an award and certificate to commemorate their achievements. Winners attending the Symposium also have the amazing opportunity to hear the keynote speakers, experience panels and breakout tracks, and discover cutting-edge technologies in an exhibit hall of more than 200 organizations.

If you have any questions or would like more information, please visit our website at usgif.org/community/usgifAwards or contact USGIF at (703) 793-0109.

Thank you,

The USGIF Awards Subcommittee

Official: Immediate UN Activation of SBTF for South Sudan!

Hi Mapsters!

We hope this finds you all well.

Our colleagues at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have just activated the Standby Volunteer Task Force for an important project in South Sudan. The activation request is urgent because OCHA is deploying a team to South Sudan this Friday and needs some information on the situation as quickly as possible.

The team arriving on Friday is in need of data so they can make informed decisions during their field mission. The data will be used by the United Nations to better assess and analyze the impact of emergencies on the population of South Sudan. Our role is therefore to collect secondary data (i.e., information obtainable from the Internet) which is essential to provide the team with targeted and effective assistance to those in need.

The deployment starts on July 4th (11am GMT/London time) with the bulk of the work completed at the end of the day July 5th (11pm GMT). They are asking us to remain on standby through July 20th (12pm GMT) for any follow up support that may be required. To participate in this unique deployment, please follow this link and join the Ning Group:

http://standbytaskforce.ning.com/group/south-sudan-july-2012

Please ask Kirk Morris (SkypeID: km5050) or Melissa Elliott (mellomely) or Anahi Ayala (anahiii) to add you to the dedicated UN Skype Chat. Please also sign up to the schedule only so we have a sense of who is and when you are participating.

Thank you! Go Team!

Peace,

Patrick & SBTF Core