Creating detailed and comprehensive maps is difficult in the sense that it takes a lot of work, but it’s not a hard technical problem. Google has already done it for roads around their corporate headquarters in Mountain View and some of its competitors likely already have the same capabilities. Expanding these maps nationally doesn’t require a conceptual breakthrough, it just takes money — and Google has a lot of money.

The crash in oil prices has taken its toll. The number of rigs drilling for oil and gas in the U.S. is plunging toward the lowest level in more than 75 years of records. The animated map shows the deployment of rigs over five years, culminating in the collapse of almost 75 percent of the rig count.

Across the globe, governments use GIS to move communities toward healthier, more resilient, and safer outcomes. From actions as simple as optimizing routes for field workers, to visualizing policy impacts and developing intelligent transportation systems, GIS supports governments at all levels—local, state, and national.

ESRI has announced a significant change to its Small Municipal and County Government Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) program. Now Governments with Populations Up to 250,000 Are Eligible.

George Washington studied surveying, practiced it on familiar lands owned by his family, and was appointed as official surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia by the young age of 17

Esri owns more than half of the market for so-called GIS (short for “geographic information systems”) software, and its technology is used around the world by some 350,000 businesses, government agencies and NGOs, which collectively create 150 million new maps every day.

Please fill out the survey it’s for a good cause Drone (UAV, UAS) Survey    

My goal is to put together an interesting list and I’m hopeful that it helps someone who may have missed one of these stories over the past year. By Alex Chaucer