There are many uses for interactive maps, and as we’ve shared in the past, these uses go far beyond interactive campus maps. Staying on top of map uses helps keep us up to date on interesting ideas and eventually additional markets for our products. So in the mean time dissecting and sharing maps like this interactive map of the upcoming Olympic torch relay are just as much a hobby as a learning experience.
Read MoreDid you see the post last week on the TargetX iThink blog, The “Secret Menu” of the Campus Visit by Trent Gilbert? Trent has been exploring college campuses getting his fair share of tours of the scripted nature. In a short video clip Trent tells us, “There are all these things I could do… but I’m never invited to do them.”
Read MoreVery similar to the Interactive Airport Map I wrote about last week, this story that broke out in the New York Times, Toxic Waters – Clean Water Laws are Neglected at a Cost in Suffering, is another eye opener that is made even more compelling through the use of an interactive map.
Read MoreAn interesting article in USA Today last week, Feds keep little-used airports in business, brings to light billions of dollars in tax revenue generated every single year and spent on airports. Although this very interesting article explains how billions of dollars each year are collected from taxed airline travels, what is so interesting is the number of airports that receive this revenue. There are close to 3,000 airports nationwide, 2,834 to be exact, and although we only hear and know about a handful of public commercial airports, this revenue is split across all of them.
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When web developers think about designing an interactive map or virtual tour one thing that comes up, especially in the education world, is Section 508 compliance. The basic guidelines for Section 508 is that Federal agencies are required to make electronic and information technology accessible to individuals with disabilities. With many public education institutes being government entities this requirement also falls on them. Interactive maps are specifically designed with multimedia elements to enhance the experience, but what happens for those individuals who are blind?
If you have been paying attention to the news over the last few weeks I’m sure you have heard about the wildfires in California. What has really interested me is the range of interactive maps that have been put together to monitor these fires. People in California love their web technology, and this fire has only further shown their innovative uses of technology.
Read MoreA recent featured article in Wired discussed the idea of “Good Enough” products. What this means is that we don’t care as much about product features as we do about product cost. The article gives a few great examples starting with the Flip video camera, comparing it to the more expensive offerings by Sony and others.
Wal-Mart has proven to us that people care about paying bottom dollar for products. We all want more for less, but with things like electronics I think we can all admit that we don’t use half the features they contain. So why do we need them all? Being able to pay only for what we use isn’t a new idea. It’s just not always that simple or practical. When people design products, having a low and competitive price is definitely important, but each customer wants different features. So in order to make a product competitive and more interesting they add additional features. Additional features allow you to charge more. The other approach is to create additional types, which is what we see in things like gum and soft drink flavors.
Over a year and a half ago, an article in Forbes proclaimed that cloud computing would lead to the Death of Hardware for many companies.
The next revolution in high tech is taking place inside the “cloud” of the Internet. Small outfits looking to do lots of computing in a hurry are not buying hardware anymore; they’re renting from established players that already operate vast networks of cheap computers. Time-sharing, a concept from the dawn of the computing age, is back with a vengeance.
A while back a PC Magazine wrote What Does Cloud Computing Mean for You?, and it is definitely worth a second look.
Some of the important takeaways from the piece are about how it will effect not just corporate users but also end users. In fact I think it’s safe to say that we probably are doing more with cloud computing today than most of us even realize.
“The most important single characteristic of a cloud is abstraction of the hardware from the service,” says John Willis, a noted cloud-computing expert and blogger, explaining that the location of the servers is not as important as easy access to the data. “However you define it, I think cloud technology will have a footprint in every business that does IT within the next five years.”
Read MoreBacking up data is a vitally important thing to all organizations, including colleges and universities. With a warehouse full of past and current students’ data it becomes extremely important to keep this information safe and secure.
Amazon recently announced an Import/Export service for S3 that lets you ship or have them ship a hard drive loaded with hundreds of gigabytes or more that would normally take days or longer to backup through even the fastest data connection. In the announcement Amazon states:
Amazon Web Services has announced the limited beta of AWS Import/Export, a new offering that accelerates moving large amounts of data into and out of AWS using portable storage devices for transport. For significant data sets, AWS Import/Export is often faster than Internet transfer and more cost effective than upgrading your connectivity. You can use AWS Import/Export for migrating data into the cloud, sending backups to AWS, and interchanging data with others.
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