Africangeogeek, spatial geekery in Africa

Well, this is kind of a request to the guys over at Google. Why aren’t Google Geo Tools well supported on Linux? I find this to be a PIA , especially now? Google continue making Google Earth better and better support for KML but problem is Google Earth on Linux, specifically Ubuntu sucks. Alot could be done to improve the services on Linux. I have an issue with Graphics support on Linux, all they need to do is very little to perfect it on Linux and Ubuntu specifically. The Google Earth plugin is the other tool i would like ported into Linux well. I had to keep changeing operating systems in a particular project simply because my favourite editor Notepad ++ was on mu Ubuntu while Google Earth Plugin only works on Windows and Mac.

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I know its been loooooong. Lack of time is not sufficient excuse for not occassionally blogging. you must be wondering what i have been up to but tht will come later on another post. But this is for all you geo-geeks out there. It is with disapposintment that i noticed that africa’s contribution to quantum gis is not as much as say the other continents. Well some say South Africa is not really Africa, but lets face it they are the most vibrant African quantum gis community. there are very many devs in the other parts of Africa, and my question is why aren’t they contributing to quantum gis? I too am disappointed by my self, being a q-gis user and not have contributed even one plugin nor having contributed to its development. Read the rest of this entry »

If you have not yet heard, GeoJson is out. GeoJSON is a format for encoding a variety of geographic data structures. A GeoJSON object may represent a geometry, a feature, or a collection of features. GeoJSON supports the following geometry types: Point, LineString, Polygon, MultiPoint, MultiLineString, MultiPolygon, and GeometryCollection. Features in GeoJSON contain a geometry object and additional properties, and a feature collection represents a list of features. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I am e sorry, as one of my Spaniard friend says since his English is very e-scanty. Instead of spain , he says Espain. Well its been a while since you received any communication from the blog. Well a lot has been happening of late. I got my self involved in some project where we are using the latest tools. Well i can not tell you the details since is am bound by the Official Secrcts ACT. But this for sure is the next frontier, not only in the Geospatial sphere, but also affecting the computing aspect.

I remember, some one asking me, are you interested in applications or the technology. Well i said applications, but any improvements in technology bring about improvement in applications. So it is a cascading effect. The field is cloud computing. You must have heard about it and must be saying, no way, Africangeogeek, do not go down that way. No need to tell us of stuff we know. Well all geo providers have to factore this in on their budgets. I recently was in a meet up with some guys of ESRI and this is what they also see as the future. Well advancement in computing also bring about advancement in applications. Well why the need to push this technology now? Some clients say, this technology has come a century too soon, they have not settled on current technology.

My argument it is a matter of time and the last thing organizations should do is to end up in a situation where they are trying to catch up with technology. this has an effect on their Business. Adaptation of technology could bring about business process re-engineering. Reminds me of a phrase i have heard constantly, Never put off for later what you can do now! When new technology is released EMBRACE IT.

A good case study of this is Safaricom which is now busy testing 4G on their network. Zain on the other hand is still on 2.5. Well Safaricom are reaping from their 3G investment big time.

And you must be like, what happened to the beta invites. Well continue watching this space. almost ready peeps, more time please!!

Adios

Well, Kenya is positioning itself to be one of the worlds major ICT hubs in Africa. The ministry of Information and communication are busy trying to get Kenyans to create content. Well this being a spatialists blog we also need to look at geo-content. Well does Kenya publish alot of geo-content. To my surprise, Kenya has a lot of geo content, only that it is in the hands of either organisations or government. We all know how organisations are not ready to part with some of the content they created. But then came the idea why not release the content, but under a licensce where a revenue sharing model is agreed upon?

The Kenya National Spatial Data Infrastructure has alot of data, but holding on to it. I think it is our right to access government data, spatial data for that matter. Unless it is information on Abdul Faizal. On realeasing such data, people come up with innovations on how to use the data, and thus commercializing up to the extent of covering the initial mapping costs?

Well i can say that Kenya has had a good 2009 in terms of Spatial developemt.In April we had Wherecamp Africa then Google also had the Google Earth Outreach training in Novemeber. We also had the Map Kibera project. The Africa GIS event though not in Kenya , i think was very successful and good for the continent. Ushahidi is also putting Africa on the map. All in all 2010 will be a year to watch.

You may be asking, what the heck will africangeogeek be doing? well currently i am working on a mapping aspect of Drumnet. It is  done. This year i will release some two spatial applications. I am not telling what they do? Both are in progress and will soon be calling upon beta testers.. watch this space.. 2010 is the year,.