Slashgeo

Following last week's story of Digital Globe's deal with Google, many voices pointed to the importance of data in the industry. From this short O'Reilly Radar entry: "As Microsoft's acquisition of Vexcel earlier this year also confirms, this is unlikely to be the only or last case of landgrabbing and does a good job in reminding us of Tim's argument that Data is the next Intel Inside -- a source of competitive advantage." There's a link to Jo Walsh's excellent post named "Why open geodata in an open source software foundation?" See also the numerous related stories below.

In the same wave as the data is the next Intel Inside story, Directions Mag assembled a summary of why data ownership is important. From the editorial's conclusive remarks: "Do you want Google to have exclusive Web rights to commercial imagery from DigitalGlobe? Do you want all of your data to be fed to you via a Web service from Denver or Rolla or Redmond or Redlands? Do you want there to be just a few large data vendors? Could they possibly have the expertise needed to create, maintain, serve and update the data you require, even with their partners? They hold the data, but we hold the dollars."

All Points Blog links to a Reuters article telling us DigitalGlobe is to acquire GlobeXplorer. From the press release: "Together, DigitalGlobe's industry-leading archive and high-resolution, high-capacity satellite and GlobeXplorer's effective Web-based search and delivery applications create the commercial remote sensing (CRS) industry's most extensive, complete and easy-to-use solution for acquiring, integrating and distributing all types of high-quality digital Earth imagery and data." See the numerous relevant related stories below.

Last week the geoblogs mentioned the important exclusivity deal between Google and GeoEye (GeoEye is Space Imaging and OrbImage together, since early 2006). Why important? Because Google already has an exclusivity deal with DigitalGlobe which can cause difficulties to casual buyers. The GEB has a nice summary: "Not only that, as part of the deal, Google's logo is being flown on the side of the rocket. The new satellite is capable of up to .41 meter resolution, but by [U.S.] law Google will be limited to .5 meter/pixel resolution. This is still VERY good resolution, and a bit better than DigitalGlobe's typical .6 meter imagery." APB also offers coverage. The EOPortal informs us on GeoEye-1, to be launched later this week: "[...] the satellite will make 15 earth orbits per day and collect imagery with its ITT-built imaging system that can distinguish objects on the Earth's surface as small as 0.41-meters (16 inches) in size in the panchromatic (black and white) mode. The 4,300-pound satellite will also be able to collect multispectral or color imagery at 1.65-meter ground resolution. While the satellite will be able to collect imagery at 0.41-meters, GeoEye's operating license from NOAA requires re-sampling the imagery to half-meter resolution for all customers not explicitly granted a waiver by the U.S. Government." See also related stories below. Update: Slashdot now discusses the story.

Ogle Earth informs us DigitalGlobe has extended its agreement with Google regarding the use of satellite imagery. Maybe this means there will be less bad surprises for casual users. From OE: "It's described by DigitalGlobe in their press release as a "new multi-year, non-exclusive content agreement". I wonder if that means the terms have been changed. The previous agreement gave Google exclusive web use of the imagery." Google has an exclusivity deal with GeoEye now. See also related stories below.