WeoGeo is pleased to announce that James Fee is the keynote speaker for WhereCampPDX 2009. WhereCampPDX is a free unconference focusing on all things geographical. This informal meeting of minds welcomes all geo-locative enthusiasts, anyone who asks “where am I” or feels the need to “know their place”. Last year, our CEO, Paul Bissett led a session called “Illuminating the Dark GeoWeb”. This year, James will kick off the conference with a presentation on data sharing and standards. Click here for more information.
James Fee Is the Keynote Speaker for WhereCampPDX 2009
September 1st, 2009Paul Bissett Featured in VerySpatial Podcast
August 28th, 2009Paul Bissett, founder and CEO of WeoGeo, is featured in Episode 214 of VerySpatial podcasts. The conversation provides a detailed overview of WeoGeo – what WeoGeo is and does, the technology behind WeoGeo and how it helps end users. Listen to the episode here.
WeoGeo Featured in Directions Magazine Podcast on Cloud Computing
August 28th, 2009Cloud computing continues to make in roads into the Geospatial community. Directions magazine provides a very good overview of this topic in a podcast presented on Aug 11, 2009. WeoGeo is mentioned as a best example for applying cloud computing in Sofware As a Service (Saas) model. Our partner Safe Software, the leaders in spatial ETL and the makers of FME, is also mentioned in this podcast. For more information, listen to the podcast here.
James Fee Joins WeoGeo
July 20th, 2009WeoGeo is pleased to announce that James Fee has joined our team. James will help integrate our Library content management system and Market content exchange services into the work flows of our customers and channel partners.
James, a certified GIS professional, has extensive experience is GIS programming (ESRI, Autodesk, OSGeo) as well as developing GIS implementation plans. A highly regarded blogger, James has also developed a dedicated GIS community on the web through his personal blog, Spatially Adjusted, and geospatial news aggregator, Planet Geospatial. You may reach James Fee at jfee [at] weogeo [dot] com.
The Oregonian Profiles WeoGeo
April 13th, 2009Reprinted from The Oregonian
Startup: Vital signs of a young regional company
by Jonathan Brinckman, The Oregonian
Friday April 10, 2009, 4:02 PM
Startup
•WeoGeo Inc.
•Portland
•Founded October 2006
Products: A device, called the WeoGeo Library Appliance, that manages survey, engineering, architectural and other mapping files for large companies; software as a service that does the same thing for smaller clients; a market that allows customers to sell their files. Think of the market as iTunes for digital maps.
What stage? Six library appliances have been sold; the software as a service is in private beta; more than 10,000 map files are on the WeoGeo market.
Prices: The library appliance is $50,000; the monthly fee for the software as a service will range from $15 to $12,000 or more; market listings are free, WeoGeo charges $5 per sale plus 10 percent of the sale price.
The founders: Paul Bissett, 44, the chief executive, was born in Tampa and has a bachelor’s in business from the University of Florida in Gainesville and a master’s and Ph.D in oceanography from the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. He was a civilian oceanographer for the U.S. Navy for two years before starting the Florida Environmental Research Institute, a Tampa nonprofit that he ran for 10 years. David Kohler, 36, the chief technology officer, was born in New Jersey, has a bachelor’s in civil engineering from Rutgers University and a Ph.D in civil engineering from Cornell University. He was a research scientist for the Florida Environmental Research Institute.
Employees: Ten full time, including the founders, and two part time.
Where they work: At the Portland State University Business Accelerator
The idea source: During their tenure at the Florida Environmental Research Institute, the two founders concluded there was unmet demand for both managing and trading the huge number of detailed maps that exist.
Why here? The two looked hard for a place to start their company and chose Portland because of its large open source and geocentric communities, and a low rate of employee turnover.
The money: $2.5 million in investment capital from friends and family.
Bissett’s dream: To build the planet’s biggest computer library of maps and allow more efficient use of planetary resources.
His fear: That the companies that could most benefit from his technology, such as surveying, civil engineering and architectural firms, might be hurting too much from the recession to try something new.
Web site: WeoGeo.com
–Jonathan Brinckman
WeoGeo Opens Cloud Computing to Geo-Focused Professionals
March 24th, 2009WeoGeo’s new, economical Library Service breaks the bonds to desktop and data center geodata storage and manipulation
Portland, Ore., March 12, 2009 – WeoGeo, known for its geodata all-in-one storage Library ApplianceTM server and internet-based WeoGeo MarketTM service, released a subscription-based geodata storage, retrieval, and customization service for professionals in the engineering, architecture, and geographic analysis fields. This offering will make it easier than ever before for organizations to manage, access, and deliver their spatial data and for costs significantly lower than entities spend today.
Based on the successful Library Appliance, the new WeoGeo LibraryTM internet-based service gives customers a viable geo-content management solution: where local data hosting has otherwise been technically challenging, ineffective, or costly. The service provides a geo-centric file repository, browser-based search and retrieve functionality, and various data-manipulation capabilities. All these computing functions are supplied in a scalable, cloud-computing environment where a customer’s IT load is greatly reduced, reliability and access are vastly increased, and high performance, instant scalability is enabled. It simply allows users to better organize and quickly access their data.
Library provides users a quick upload of their maps, surveys, building plans, reconnaissance photos, utility plans, exploration analyses, and more, into a private internet-based storehouse. Once loaded, authorized organization-wide access to the data is available via an easy-to-use, geo-centric web application. Users can rapidly search and discover files based on their location, or other key parameters. Files can then be instantly retrieved or customized in Library, allowing a download of just what is needed. Library saves the organization from expensive, hard-to-use in-house systems. Alternatively, it offers a solution in situations where there is no current organized content storage. In today’s economic climate, saving money on critical functions is paramount. Library allows customers to avoid maintaining or adding in-house hardware, software, and staff for these content management functions.
Library is available in a number of affordable monthly levels, giving the customer the choice of selecting their subscription based on the desired data volume and users. A free evaluation period is included.
WeoGeo has an existing Market service where buyers have an easy-to-execute shopping experience for seller-posted professional geo-content. All Library Service customers automatically have the ability to post their content on Market for free, opening up a global exchange opportunity to other professionals seeking mapping and CAD data, and giving the Library customer a new revenue generating capability. In cases where customers already sell geodata, content posted to Market via a Library account can save time and money over the typical laborious and costly search, copy, and mail approach to vending.
“This is another example of our commitment to providing leading-edge solutions that enable the mapping industry to access data no matter how it’s structured or where it’s located,” says Paul Bissett, President of WeoGeo. “By moving our Library Appliance into a scalable, flexible internet-based service, we will enable more organizations to take advantage of the cloud’s infrastructure to distribute usable data to those who need it.”
To learn more about this announcement and see Library in action, visit WeoGeo’s booth #814 at ASPRS in Baltimore, Maryland, March 11-13. You can also learn more by visiting www.WeoGeo.com
About WeoGeo
WeoGeo delivers Geo and CAD data repository and market services to surveyors, engineers, architects, cartographers, and scientists. WeoGeo’s content management systems allow convenient storage, search, customization, and exchange of global mapping and geo-content. The core technology base is flexible enough to serve economically driven requirements, yet robust enough for large-scale applications. The system’s customers come from locally owned independent professional service companies, large international engineering corporations, industrial or utility concerns, and all ranges of government agencies. WeoGeo was borne from the industry for the industry. For more information, visit www.WeoGeo.com.
Media Contact:
Daniel Dye
Technology Evangelist, WeoGeo
+1.800.928.6402 x106
ddye@WeoGeo.com
iPod Drawings at ASPRS 2009
March 19th, 2009WeoGeo held three drawings for iPod nanos at the ASPRS 2009 conference in Baltimore, MD. The three lucky winners were:
From left, Joe Liadsky of Optech, Dan Morath of University of South Carolina, and Sam Knight of Blue Marble.
TerraColor® Satellite Imagery Listed on WeoGeo Market
November 13th, 2008Portland, OR – November 13, 2008
WeoGeo (Portland, OR) and Earthstar Geographics LLC (San Diego, CA) today announced that Earthstar’s TerraColor satellite imagery will be resold on the WeoGeo Market. With the announcement, the ocean-masked version of the TerraColor 15-meter satellite imagery for the continental United States was made publicly available on the website.
TerraColor satellite images provide colorful, detailed and seamless views of the earth at medium resolution, and are used for land use analysis, web-based mapping, television, print and film images, 3-D visualization, and many other applications. By listing this geocontent for sale on the WeoGeo Market, users can browse and preview the available imagery. Once a listing has been selected for purchase, it can be customized to meet the user’s needs at no extra charge. Thus, the users only pay for the coverage that they are interested in and are spared the time and expense of post-processing.
“We are excited about the relationship with WeoGeo, and look forward to having TerraColor be part of their geospatial imagery offerings,” said Eric Augenstein of Earthstar Geographics.
WeoGeo Evangelist, Daniel Dye, commented, “This is a valuable addition to the WeoGeo Marketplace because medium-resolution imagery is extremely important for cartography and visualization at some map scales. This color-balanced and cloud-free mosaic of Landsat imagery is really beautiful.”
WeoGeo creates a one-stop marketplace for the mapping industry. It supplies surveyors, engineers, cartographers, and scientists with the ability to conveniently store, search, and exchange global mapping and geo-content. Geo-content providers can easily list their data for sale, and users can quickly find the data they need. For more information, visit www.weogeo.com.
Earthstar Geographics LLC specializes in products and services for the geospatial data industries with over 20 years experience in remote sensing and image processing. For complete information on the TerraColor imagery, visit the TerraColor website at www.terracolor.net.
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Safe Software Partners With WeoGeo to Bring Spatial ETL Technology to the Cloud
July 17th, 2008Safe Software Partners with WeoGeo to Bring Spatial ETL Technology to the Cloud
Vancouver, BC, July 17, 2008 – Safe Software, the leaders in spatial ETL and the makers of FME today announced that they have partnered with WeoGeo, known for its marketplace and cloud computing expertise, to bring the powerful data transformation capabilities of FME technology to the cloud. This combined offering will make it easier than ever before for spatial data to be accessed when, where, and how it’s needed.
This partnership will be the first offering of spatial ETL on the cloud. The first phase will strengthen WeoGeo’s data download web site by introducing the data transformation power of FME Server on www.WeoGeo.com. The next phase will provide organizations with the option to deploy FME Server through WeoGeo’s cloud computing expertise using the resources of Amazon Web Services (AWS). This innovative approach will enable organizations to use FME’s powerful data integration and distribution capabilities on the cloud for sharing spatial data with online data consumers on an infrastructure that automatically sizes to match current demand.
“Spatial ETL is the backbone for effective spatial data sharing, enabling data to be distributed in a structure and format that is immediately usable to end consumers.” says Paul Bissett, CEO of WeoGeo. “As the leaders in spatial ETL, Safe Software was the clear choice to partner with in our quest to build a more efficient spatial data exchange solution. Together, our combined expertise will provide a powerful and innovative way for organizations to share spatial data online.”
WeoGeo will use FME technology as the basis for its spatial ETL offerings in the marketplace, providing users with the ability to restructure their spatial data into the required format and data model. Specifically, organizations will be able to author spatial data flows that convert and integrate spatial data using FME Desktop and then push the resulting datasets to the cloud for distribution using FME Server.
“This is another example of our commitment to providing leading-edge solutions that enable the GIS industry to access data no matter how it’s structured or where it’s located,” says Don Murray, President of Safe Software. “By working with WeoGeo, we will enable organizations to take advantage of the cloud’s infrastructure to distribute usable data to those who need it.”
To learn more about this announcement and see FME Server and WeoGeo in action, visit the Safe Software booth #6 and WeoGeo booth #7. See also Safe Software’s and WeoGeo’s presentations at the GeoWeb conference on Thursday, July 24, 2008, including:
- Don Murray’s “Integrating 3D, BIM, Vector, and Raster Data with Spatial ETL” at 10:45 am
- Plenary Session “Visions of the GeoWeb” at 2:30 pm
- Safe Software Vendor Spotlight at 4:20 pm
- WeoGeo Vendor Spotlight at 4:30 pm
You can also learn more about FME Server by visiting www.safe.com/fmeserver or by contacting fmeinfo@safe.com to request a personalized web demo.
About Safe Software and FME
Safe Software powers the flow of spatial data with its software platform, FME. The recognized standard in spatial ETL (extract, transform and load), FME is the only complete solution for data conversion. It delivers the most extensive format support for data translation and integration, and provides unlimited flexibility in data model transformation and data distribution.
FME is used by thousands of customers worldwide in a variety of industries including government, utilities, and petroleum. Its powerful data access technology also makes FME the choice of leading GIS, CAD, and database vendors for integration into their own solutions. Designed for true data interoperability, FME unleashes spatial data so people can use it where, when, and how they want to. For more information, visit www.safe.com.
About WeoGeo
WeoGeo creates a one-stop marketplace for the mapping industry. It supplies surveyors, engineers, cartographers, and scientists with the ability to conveniently store, search, and exchange global mapping and geo-content. Geo-content providers can easily list their data for sale, and users can quickly find the data they need. For more information, visit www.WeoGeo.com.
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Media Contact:
Lakhvir Brar
Marketing Communications Manager
Safe Software Inc.
(604) 501-9985 ex 274
lakhvir.brar@safe.com
Daniel Dye
Technology Evangelist
WeoGeo
(813) 574-3141 ex 106
ddye@WeoGeo.com
FME is a registered trademark of Safe Software Inc. WeoGeo is a registered trademark of WeoGeo Inc. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
WeoGeo Named One of The “Coolest Tech Startups”
June 26th, 2008Oregon Business Magazine names WeoGeo as one of the 10 coolest tech startups:
| WHO THEY ARE: WeoGeo WHAT THEY DO: Map-making services WHERE THEY LIVE: Portland State University AGE: 2 years old NAME YOU SHOULD KNOW: Paul Bissett, CEO and co-founder HOW TO FIND THEM: weogeo.com |
WeoGeo is undoubtedly the wonkiest startup on the list. And they’re also the newest to wear the “based in Portland” label. The company moved here from Florida earlier this year and now shares office space with other startups in PSU’s business accelerator. The company describes itself as a “one-stop marketplace for mapping.” But these aren’t maps for Sunday drivers. These are high-resolution, data-intensive maps used by scientists, surveyors and engineers. Users store, sell and buy data. That sounds simple until you see the server-busting size of these maps, which makes distribution, storage and even search functions very difficult.
Combining the searchable and selling aspects of geospatial data was a first, and one that Bissett says has been a big hit. The company, he says, hopes to create an eBay-like effect in the mapping community. But instead of used kitchen utensils, they’re helping sell the data that underlies everything from freeway construction to scientific research.
