Why Google Earth (and now Sky) Matter
by Brenda Cooper on 27/08/07 at 4:42 am | 
I’ve been managing geographic information systems (GIS) professionals for a long time, I’ve listened to Jack Dangermond, who owns the biggest GIS company – Environmental Systems Research Institute talk passionately about mapping as a way to save the world. Look in our archives for an article I wrote in 2000.
ESRI has always been a true innovator, and essentially created the GIS industry. They created maps that could help make sense of the world. Animal migrations. People migrations. Global warming. Legal boundaries of houses, towns, and countries. War. Hurricane Katrina response…I could go on and on.
And then Google Earth, and eventually Microsoft Virtual Earth, made this power accessible to everyone. We can use it to find common places and specific addresses. We can all look up aerial photography of our homes, or the house our family member just bought 3 states away. We can map out the route for upcoming triathlons. We can see Iraq, and Darfur. In a virtual way, they’ve given us the view of astronauts.
And now they’ve given us Google Sky: a view of all we know about the heavens. This should do four things:
1. Astonish us at how much we know about things that are truly very, very far away
2. Remind us how small and insignificant we are
3. Convince us to take care of our little planet, since the rest of the Universe is so far away
4. Keep us yearning for the stars (we are, after all, adventurers)
Best of all, Google Earth, and now Sky, are compellingly easy and fun to use.
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Future of Environmental Auditing at Futurist.com
Oct 1st, 2007
[...] Sensor Society One outcome of the standard GRIN technology revolution (Genomics, Robotics, Information Technology, and Nanotechnology) has been the development of better and better sensors for such things as airborne toxins. These can be placed in personal ID badges, as well as placed geographically to provide early detection and warning systems. Nanotech promises, some day, to shrink such sensors to the size of dust, and at that point we ought to be able to monitor most anything we want to. Add to this the ubiquitous nature of cameras, especially personally operated cameras such as cell phones, and we can see a future society where environmental, health and safety issues cannot be hidden, but are immediately exposed. In fact, the ability of workers to record and report problems will lead to increasing conflicts over secrecy versus exposure. Our recent blog about Google Sky is related. [...]