Snowflake News

AGI GeoCommunity - sneak preview

2010-07-23T10:11:09Z

Can't believe it's nearly a year ago. Once again we are in full preparation mode for the AGI annual conference and looking forward to it.

We've got a few tricks up our sleeves for this year's exhibition. But I'm just going to have to keep you in suspense. Don't want to let the cat out of the bag too early!

But this is what I can tell you...

We're really proud that we've had both of our papers accepted. So make sure you plan a visit to one of our infamous presentations by either our CTO, Eddie Curtis or our MD, Ian Painter:

Presentation by Eddie Curtis - Wednesday 29 September: 14:30 - 15:00 (Delivering on policy track)

The principles of INSPIRE, more than just an EU stick!

Every man, dog and vendor is talking about INSPIRE. You can rarely have a conversation these days without somebody mentioning it. When you are under pressure to deliver better services with ever decreasing budgets INSPIRE can seem like yet another requirement to put on the task list.

But take a step back and look straight to the overall aims and objectives and you will see that INSPIRE is a model for efficient service delivery. By laying down a framework for collaboration between organisations INSPIRE provides a ready-made road map for improving efficiency which you can apply to many parts of your business.

In true Snowflake style, Eddie Curtis will present this paper to demonstrate real business benefits of INSPIRE and encourage you to look beyond the legislation.

You can follow Eddie on Twitter: @e_j_curtis

Presentation by Ian Painter - Thursday 30 September: 12:30 - 13:00 (The power of free track)

Oi! Sir Tim: Hand off my spreadsheet!

Who would have thought that the inventor of the internet would be interested in that spreadsheet on your computer? That’s Open Data for you.

More than just a hot topic, recent legislative and government policies such as data.gov.uk and INSPIRE have made it a reality. But do you know what it really means, how it affects you and what you can do to unlock and exploit the benefits?

In true Snowflake style, Ian Painter will present this paper to demonstrate real business benefits of Open Data and how you can easily achieve them, big or small, through user communities.

You can follow Ian on Twitter: @iapainter

We'll also be submitting the two presentations above as full papers, so if you enjoyed the sessions, read the papers. And if you find it interesting, useful or you just enjoy the read, why not vote for it in the 'Best Paper' category?!

The infamous georant - A.K.A. The 'AGI Soapbox'

So last year, Ian Painter wowed us all with his Soapbox (honest, we didn't know he had it in him). Nevertheless, it was a resounding victory for Ian on the hot topic of paleaotards vs. neogeo's.

If you didn't catch it, or you're wondering what the soapbox is - take a look at his winning rant.

Behind every neogeographer there is a paleotard > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5IcyFFA1zg

This year, Ian will be attempting to defend his title. Be sure to watch. It's a great session and there is often free 'geo-beer' to get you in the mood.

Register to attend

All that leaves me to say is we really hope to see you at the AGI GeoCommunity in September. If you haven't yet registered, the early bird registration is open until 31 July (but limited to an allocated number - so get in quickly).

You can find out more about some of the other great sponsors, presenters and activities as well as register for your place on the AGI GeoCommunity '10 homepage: http://www.agi.org.uk/agi-geocommunity/

Watch this space for more information about Snowflake Software at the AGI GeoCommunity in September.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Test your knowledge on INSPIRE

2010-07-12T14:53:37Z

The INSPIRE framework and all its supporting legislation, implementation dates and general terminology can be very daunting. But it doesn't need to be.

For many, INSPIRE is not a choice. It's a framework that must be complied with. The framework impacts many organisations from service delivery to policy implementation. Yet the benefits extend far beyond just INSPIRE compliance:

Easier access to spatial data
Enhanced, structured data infrastructure
Interoperability through open standards

Many organisations are major data users and producers of spatial data and need to take steps to comply.

But do you know what steps you need to take to comply, when, why and how?

Well, to help you find out we've created a really short quiz so you can test your basic knowledge. Think of it as INSPIRE for beginners. There are only four questions, so have a go and find out whether you're INSPIRE ready.

Take the INSPIRE Quiz >>>

And if you think you could benefit with a bit more information, why not take a look at attending one of our popular INSPIRE Essentials training courses. On the course you'll get the lowdown from our INSPIRE guru, Debbie Wilson, from the very beginning right down to action you need to take by when and also what you don't need to do.

Take the INSPIRE Quiz >>>

Good Luck!

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware.com

INSPIRE Conference 2010 - transformations, SDIs, salt and a cave troll

2010-06-29T12:46:42Z

Phew. What a week it's been.

Last week saw the annual INSPIRE conference, held in the beautiful city of Krakow.

With a delegate attendance of over 600 across the four days, the conference agenda was packed with hands on workshops, packed plenary sessions, seven presentation tracks and a comprehensive exhibition.

As silver sponsors of the event, we spent alot of our time getting to meet the delegates down in the exhibition area (did you know it was a converted car park?!).

And when we weren't doing that, we were either taking the other sessions in, presenting our own findings or hosting workshops and demos.

It was a jam-packed agenda. And if I had to sum up my thoughts, here's what I'd say:

INSPIRE is now on the agenda for organisations across Europe in a very serious way.
Transformation and schema translation were the buzz words of the conference.
INSPIRE forms part of a bigger process in data harmonisation and consistency.
Cross boundary data (across EU/non-EU zones) is an unnecessary challenge.
Open Standards are key for interoperability and future proofing (think OGC and ISO).
Real implementations and examples of deployments of INSPIRE services demonstrate real business and organisational benefits.
Spatial Data and National Spatial Data Infrastructures continue to be top of the agenda for INSPIRE.
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is key. Working out the TCO of an open source versus commercial off-the-shelf implementation (or perhaps a combination of the two) is important for implementations.
Eye candy is important for exhibitors (think maps, mash ups, 3D visualisations and Google Earth).
The Wieliczka salt mine is a beautiful tourist attraction well worth a visit, but beware the cave troll guarding the entrance ;)

Did you attend the conference? Have you got any thoughts or take-outs? Let us know in the comments below.

You don't have to miss out

At the conference we unveiled our web feature service (GO Publisher WFS 2.0) product and offered delegates the opportunity to take out a pre-release version, free for 30 days. The great news is that you don't have to miss out.

You can register for your copy of the pre-release version here: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/campaigns/prerelease.htm

And this is what you can expect:

INSPIRE ready
Off-the-shelf software based on open standards
Works on top of your existing infrastructure - no need for change or costly investments
Easy to use, easy to deploy, point and click user interface
Full support for the OGC WFS 2.0 web feature service standard
On-the-fly-schema translation
Stored queries
Temporal queries
Proven, robust and scaleable

Our CTO, Eddie Curtis also held a workshop and hosted subsequent demonstration sessions on Schema Translations for WFS 2.0. Once again, if you'd like to see a repeat of the popular 20 minute sessions, get in touch with me at melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com as I'm currently arranging some webinars.

We'd love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a message in the comments if you're feeling INSPIRE'd, INSPIRational, un-INSPIRE'd etc etc... (Sorry, couldn't resist it.).

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

INSPIRE Conference 2010

2010-06-18T07:50:50Z

With all the final preparations well under way for next week's INSPIRE Conference, here's a reminder of what you can expect from Snowflake and the team.

Workshop

Eddie Curtis will be kicking off the conference agenda with his workshop on Schema translation at 9am on Tuesday 22nd June.

Title: Demonstration of data exchange and reporting within SEIS using INSPIRE Services

When: Tuesday 22/06/2010 09:00

Where: Sala Seminaryjna room

Track: Number 6

More information: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2010/abstracts/50.docx

Speaker slot

Debbie Wilson, Snowflake's very own INSPIRE guru will be presenting her paper on some recent work within the Aviation industry on the OGC OWS-7 testbed. A key feature being the final testing and delivery of the WFS 2.0 standard that is being offered as an exclusive pre-release to any INSPIRE attendees.

Title: Modernising Aeronautical Information Management

When: Friday 25/06/2010 14:00 (Please note change of time from original)

Where: Aula Mala

Track: European Research Projects for GEOSS track

More information: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2010/abstracts/49.docx

Exhibition

Snowflake Software will be in the Auditorium Maximum with their team on hand to help you with any queries at their exhibition stand. They'll be running regular demonstrations with their INSPIRE partner, Envitia of their new unified INSPIRE capability and they'll be taking pre-registration requests for the hot off the shelf GO Publisher WFS 2.0.

Product launch

Snowflake will be unveiling their brand new GO Publisher WFS 2.0 and will be taking registrations for a pre-release copy of the full product. This is an exclusive for anyone at the INSPIRE conference and can benefit you with the following:

INSPIRE ready
Off-the-shelf software based on open standards
Works on top of your existing infrastructure - no need for change or costly investments
Easy to use, easy to deploy, point and click user interface
Full support and testing for the OGC WFS 2.0 standard - a requirement of INSPIRE
On-the-fly schema translation
Stored queries
Temporal queries
Proven, robust and scalable

(If you're unable to attend the conference but you're interested in the GO Publisher WFS 2.0 pre-release please get in touch with the team: info@snowflakesoftware.com).

Friends and colleagues at the conference

In addition to our own speaker sessions and workshops, here's a lits of our customers, friends and colleagues who will be speaking about their own projects, that have used GO Publisher to successfully achieve their INSPIRE requirements:

Thursday 24th June - 12:00: Romanian Integrated Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) - Room: Aula Srednia I

Friday 25th June - 15:00: Benefits of a European Air Quality Data Model for CAFE reporting and Data Exchange - Room: Aula Srednia II

Looking forward to seeing you all next week. Please pop by the stand to say hello.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Peter Woodsford awarded Order of Chivalry

2010-06-14T13:45:10Z

This weekend, our Chairman, Peter Woodsford received an MBE for his services to the Geographic Information Industry in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. The award is recognition of his contribution to the growing maturity and importance of the Geographic Information industry.

Member of the British Empire

For our overseas friends and colleagues, you might be interested to know that an MBE is an order of chivalry awarded by The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. It is awarded by the Sovereign on advice of the Government.

So naturally we're very proud to have him as our Chairman.

On receiving the award, Peter said:

“Although the award is to me personally, I see it as a mark of the growing maturity and importance of the GI industry, and of the contributions towards this of my two companies, 1Spatial (formerly Laser-Scan) and Snowflake Software, the organisations I have worked with (AGI, EuroSDR, OGC and ISPRS) and universities I have been associated with (UCL, Edinburgh and Nottingham) to name those that come most readily to mind".

Meet Peter at the INSPIRE Conference, Krakow

Peter will be attending the INSPIRE Conference with Snowflake from 23-25 June and will be chairing a session there. You can visit the Snowflake Software stand to congratulate Peter on receiving his MBE or to ask him any questions.

From everyone at Snowflake, Congratulations Peter, a very well deserved award.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Collect CPD points with our Summer School

2010-06-09T16:13:25Z

Yes, it's back.

Dust off your skills and get ahead of the game this summer with the Snowflake Summer School.

Earn valuable CPD points

Back by popular demand, the summer school is a series of 4 day intensive courses aimed at anyone wanting to get their hands dirty from the basics all the way through to some advanced techniques to put you at the leading edge.

You'll collect CPD points and of course, we'll do it the Snowflake way so you can be sure to have fun too.

Vuvuzelas at the ready

And, football fans, don't worry, we'll be showing each match of the World Cup in HD from the Group Stages to the Final. So you can join in the fun and you won't miss a thing (when you're not busy learning of course)!

Choose from four different themed training series:

GML Series (XML Primer, GML Fundamentals & GML Hands-On) 15 CPD points
INSPIRE Series (INSPIRE Essentials, GML Fundamentals & GML Hands-On) 15 CPD points
GO Loader Series (GO Loader Fundamentals & GO Loader Advanced)
GO Publisher Series (GO Publisher Hands-On)

Take a look at our Summer School Schedule to find out more: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/training/course_dates.htm

Register for the Snowflake Summer School

If you'd like to take advantage of the Snowflake Summer school, register your interest and a member of the training team will be in touch to discuss your training needs and availability.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

INSPIRE Conference 2010 - Krakow

2010-06-04T09:13:16Z

With the INSPIRE conference at just over two weeks away; we're busy making our final preparations before we head over.

We're sponsoring the event, which also means you'll get to catch up with the team in the exhibition hall. Here's an overview of who's going, what we're doing and how you can catch up with the team:

Day 1: Tuesday 22nd June, 9:00 - Workshop

Title: Demonstration of data exchange and reporting within SEIS using INSPIRE Services

Eddie Curtis, our CTO will be running a workshop on schema translation. A sequel to last year's popular workshop, Eddie will be educating attendees on deploying translations via WFS 2.0, performing temporal and stored queries and setting up KML services (think Google Earth).

More details: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2010/abstracts/50.docx

Day 4: Friday 25th June, 12:00 - speaker session (European Research Projects for GEOSS track)

Title: Modernising Aeronautical Information Management

Debbie Wilson, our INSPIRE expert will be talking through her paper that details some recent work we've been doing to help the aeronautical industry overcome some of their challenges to data exchange. Creating and implementing standards to assist with demands to increase safety whilst supporting increases in capacity. Geospatial data used for real critical business decision making - think ashclouds- well, don't think about them too much...

More details: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2010/abstracts/49.docx

Day 4: Friday June 25th, 15:00 - speaker session

Title: Benefits of a European air quality data model for CAFE reporting and data exchange (Trans-national SDI projects track)

Our friends and colleagues working on the Clean Air For Europe (CAFE) project will be presenting the work undertaken under JRC's contract "Development and demonstration of technical IT solutions linking INSPIRE services to the reporting and data exchange requirements of the proposed CAFE Directive". Debbie Wilson, our INSPIRE expert was a key member of the project.

More details: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2010/abstracts/198.doc

Visit the stand

We'll be in the exhibition hall from Tuesday 22nd - Friday 25th where you can catch up with any of our speakers, our chairman Peter Woodsford or the rest of the Snowflake team.

We'll be unveiling our new solution for INSPIRE with our partner, Envitia; we'll hold regular demos at the stand as well as the chance to register for the beta version of our newest release of GO Publisher featuring:

Full support for existing and upcoming INSPIRE Annex themes
WFS 2.0
Temporal and Stored queries

And you can pre-register your interest for the full release as well.

It's new, it's exciting and we'll be announcing more details soon. Watch this space.

So, to catch up with the team in Poland, find out about our new partnership with Envitia for INSPIRE, attend one of our workshops or speaker sessions and to be the first to get your hands on our new GO Publisher release, make sure you visit us at the INSPIRE 2010 Conference in Krakow, Poland.

More details: http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events/conferences/inspire_2010/index.cfm

*Image at top, left to right: Eddie Curtis (CTO), Debbie Wilson (Business Consultant), Peter Woodsford (Chairman), Melissa Burns (Marketing Manager), Richard Rombouts (Technical Sales Manager).

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Our Techies have started blogging - check it out

2010-05-14T11:00:43Z

Yes, it's true. Our technical team here at Snowflake have started blogging.

Affectionately known to us as 'Techies', they've only gone and created their own blog as well. Which is great news for anyone who wants to get the lowdown on anything more technical from Snowflake. Just be sure to bookmark it.

The 'Techie blog' is free for anyone to view and is an information rich source of technical content that will help you get the most out of GO Loader and GO Publisher as well as some hints and tips for standards based data exchange.

We'll also post news and announcements on product updates and new releases so you can be sure you're running the most up to date version.

You can visit the blog here or subscribe to the Technical Blog RSS feed for hassle free updates.

Publishing to Google Earth using GO Publisher Community Edition

The latest pearl of wisdom to emerge from the technical arm of the team is a fantastic user guide for publishing to Google Earth.

Specifically designed for our free product, GO Publisher Community Edition, the KML user guide covers the basics from;

Setting up the project;
Configuring the translation;
Converting 2D to 3D placemarks;

right through to the more advanced features such as;

Creating multiple styles;
Screen overlays;
Creating balloon styles.

View the full document by reading Dan's blog post on the new Technical Blog.

The team will also be posting a 'Tip of the Week' on the Techie Blog so watch this space!

We'd love to hear from you as well. If you've got any technical questions you'd like to see answered or any topics you'd like the Techies to cover in their blogs, please add your ideas as a comment to this post. We'll try and get through as many as we can.

Happy reading!

P.S. If you haven't yet downloaded your copy of GO Publisher Community Edition, or you'd like to find out more, visit www.snowflakesoftware.com/gpce/.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager (non - techie person!) | www.snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Press Release: Snowflake Software launches Manifesto for Open Data

2010-05-04T12:57:25Z

Inspired by the UK General Election (taking place on Thursday 6 May 2010), Snowflake Software has today launched its pre-election manifesto for Open Data.

Continued supporters of Open Data, Snowflake decided to put itself to the test and continue its efforts to educate the industry about Open Data and what it really means.

With the recent release of the OS OpenData sets in the UK, Snowflake has already been working hard to make the data available in a truly open manner, by converting the data to the open data exchange standard – GML.

In the manifesto, Snowflake also commits to providing customers with OS OpenData in GML – the Open Standard for data exchange.

Eddie Curtis, CTO comments:

“Open Data isn’t Open until it can be used and understood in a form that you can quickly read and understand. Because our technology is driven by Open Standards, we were able to quickly load and publish the data to GML. Our customers now have access to even more data for their business processes and decision making”.

Snowflake has also stayed on topic and used the opportunity to serve the OS BoundaryLine data using its Web Service technology – GO Publisher WFS. Accredited by the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) Web Feature Service standard, Snowflake has used its technology to serve Westminster constituency electoral boundary data in GML.

You can access the data here: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/webservices/OpenData.htm

Party Leader and Managing Director, Ian Painter added:

“Whilst we’re injecting a bit of fun around Open Data and the UK General Election, there are some very serious underlying messages which we fully support and commit to. For us, being an Open Standards data exchange company, open data and open standards go hand in hand. We're passionate about Open data in Open standards so vote for us and keep your data truely open.”

Snowflake is also taking its campaign on the road as part of the free series of training seminars run by Training4GIS. You can meet the team and discuss the Manifesto by registering for one of the remaining GeoDATA 2010 events:

Cardiff – 11 May
Liverpool – 13 May
London – 20 May
Glasgow – 10 November
Belfast – 16 November

Download and read the full Snowflake manifesto on Open Data here: Snowflake Open Data Manifesto

Aviation Conference - AIXM/WXXM - 4 - 6 May 2010

2010-04-28T14:49:51Z

Once again, we'll be attending this international Aviation conference hosted by the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington.

It's a great event, and if you're involved with Aviation it's definitely worth the trip. Find out more here: ttp://www.aixm.aero/public/standard_page/2010_05_aixm_met.html

Last year, we unveiled our OWS-6 test-bed, and you can read about it here: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/markets/aviation/solution.htm

Worldwide, common and accurate situational awareness

In the space of a year, we've been working on several projects within the aeronautical industry. With more air traffic than ever, natural and man-made hazards challenging the skies every day and the ongoing barriers of legacy ‘silo’ systems; the aspiration to increase capacity and safety through interoperable, standards based data exchange continues to pose several challenges. The move towards worldwide, common and accurate situational awareness has never been more relevant.

Snowflake continues to play its part in the efforts to make this a reality and we'll be hostings regular demonstrations at our exhibition stand, showing you exactly how you can achieve it.

Join us. Visit our stand and listen to our keynote

Meet up with Debbie Wilson and Ian Painter, our industry experts and challenge them with your questions. Additionally, on day three of the event, you can hear Debbie and Ian present their most recent work on OWS-7 during the keynote.

As part of the OWS-7 overall presentation, Debbie and Ian will be demonstrating our groundbreaking WFS-T for AIXM.

Where

Washington Plaza Hotel, Washington DC, USA

When

Tuesday 4 - Thursday 6 May 2010

If you can't make it and you'd like to find out more about our support for Aviation and how we can help you enable AIM, take a look at our website: www.snowflakesoftware.com/aviation/ or get in touch info@snowflakesoftware.com.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com

GeoDATA Dublin: A cancelled flight and some modern technology

2010-04-22T08:34:22Z

Yesterday saw the first of the GeoDATA 2010 tour dates (a series of free, geo-information based seminars), held in Croke Park, Dublin.

Over the weekend, I was following the news avidly, hoping our pre-booked flights to Dublin wouldn't be cancelled. But unfortunately, along with the disappointment of many travellers, we found out on Tuesday (the day we were due to fly) that our flights were cancelled. Eeek!

With all the hard work and preparation put in by both the team here at Snowflake, all the other GeoDATA partners and the event organisers themselves, it would certainly be a crushing defeat not to attend.

Ian Painter and I were due to attend and we were sorely looking forward to meeting all the delegates. With over 80 booked, we didn't want to let them down either.

Video, Skype and Twitter - nothing can stop us

With a bit of creative thinking and the help of some modern technology, Ian and I worked away to make sure that Snowflake would still be able to attend - if not in person, via some kind of live link up (reminiscent of a Terry Wogan style link up to the Eurovision voters).

So, with a live video recording of our seminar keynote: 'Open Data: Changing The Way We Work' (thanks to Ian for working so hard on the Tuesday to make sure this happened) , a live video conferencing link up with a little bit of help from Skype, and feedback via Twitter using the #geodata hashtag - we were on a roll.

And at this point, I feel I must thank and give praise to the conference organisers, Training4GIS, namely Alun Jones and Fiona Cocks who worked so hard to make sure the show still went on, despite all the challenges.

The delegates weren't disappointed.

Onward to England and Wales

The delegates' feedback on the day was great, with the majority of the post event evaluation forms saying:

'....more of the same next year please...'.

If you attended, why not let us know what you thought?

The next three roadshows are tightly packed in May:

May 11 - Cardiff, Angel Hotel
May 13 - Liverpool, Aintree Racecourse
May 20 - London, Emirates Stadium

With a further two coming up later in the year:

November 10 - Glasgow, Trades Hall
November 16 - Belfast, Hastings Stormont Hotel.

For more information about these free GeoDATA seminars, take a look at the website: http://www.citiesrevealed.com/events/geodata10/ and register for an event near you, today.

But hurry, because it's free, places at the events are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing you at the next one.

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Volcanic ash, airspace closures and Snowflake Software

2010-04-15T08:43:38Z

Today, most of the UK and Northern Europe woke up to the news that an Icelandic Volcano had errupted causing a plume of volcanic ash to rise to 55,000ft high: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8621407.stm.

Timely, decisive airspace information.

Whilst it won't affect air qualty on the ground, at that height, it can affect aircraft engines. Nats ( the UK Air Traffic Control Service) and Eurocontrol (the European air safety body) have worked to close down UK airspace causing many flghts to be delayed or cancelled for much of the day. The Met Office are serving specific weather updates to help with predictions on how the weather systems will carry the smoke plumes and which areas might be affected.

Here at Snowflake, we're pretty excited about this.

We're currently involved in the development of the next generation of air traffic control systems through the OGC's OWS-7 testbed where our GO Publisher product is being used to send notifications about flight path obstructions including volcanic ash plumes and extreme weather. GO Publisher serves data to allow air traffic controllers, airlines and pilots to make rapid and well informed decisions about diversions and alternative flight plans.

Aviation Conference

What's more, we'll be unveiling the findings at an international Aviation Conference - The AIXM/WXXM event in Washington on 4-6 May - http://www.aixm.aero/public/standard_page/2010_05_aixm_met.html.

Come and see us at the exhibition.

Aviation expertise

We've been working in the Aviation industry to provide specific solutions for many data exchange and interoperability challenges. Read more about it on our Aviation webpages: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/markets/aviation/index.htm

Take a look and get yours today

Read more about the work we did on the OGC OWS-6 Testbed: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/markets/aviation/solution.htm
Find out about our work in the Aviation arena: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/markets/aviation/index.htm
Trial and download the core engine behind the sucess - GO Publisher: http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/products/gopublisher/eval.htm
Keep up to date with the Twitter #ashtag

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | www.twitter.com/sflakesoftware

Training Discount - Back by popular demand

2010-04-13T08:54:16Z

Here at Snowflake, we've been blessed with the brains of several industry experts. You can meet them on one of the many training courses we offer:

INSPIRE Training - Book by 30 April for £100 discount at training@snowflakesoftware.com

Hosted by our very own Debbie Wilson. Debbie's background in INSPIRE extends back to her days working on the UK Location Programme at DEFRA. She's hot on the INSPIRE framework and can help you learn the basics right through to implementation. She'll also give you tips on what's needed and what isn't, so INSPIRE doesn't have to be a challenge, and you can realise the benefits.

Next course date: 27 April 2010
Visit theINSPIRE Essentials training pages for more information
Take a look at the course overview

GML/XML Training - Book by 30 April for £100 discount at training@snowflakesoftware.com

With the movement in the industry towards Open Data, there's never been a better time to learn about these data exchange standards. Our very own Ballal Joglekar will explain the fundamentals around XML and GML - working with profiles, creating application schemas as well as giving you some great tips on how to work with these standards to open your data.

Ballal also runs our highly popular 'Hands On' courses which take the theory into practice. A mainly practical session, you'll work through several exercises in our training suite to build your knowledge and confidence around Model Driven Architectures and UML, Geometry, Feature Relationships, Web Feature Services and GML Simple Features profiles.

Next course date: 28 April (Fundamentals), 29-30 April (Hands On)
Visit the XML and GML training pages for more information
Take a look at the XML andGML course overviews

GO Loader/GO Publisher training - Book by 30 April for £100 discount at training@snowflakesoftware.com

We also run training courses for our key products GO Loader and GO Publisher so you can find out some user tips and get your hands dirty to start making the most of them straight away. For more information about our product related course, contact our training manager at training@snowflakesoftware.com.

Flexibility around your needs

You can get trained right here at our HQ in Southampton, or if you have more bespoke needs, why not get in touch to discuss the option of having us visit you at the location of your choice? For all of your training needs, contact training@snowflakesoftware.com.

Prices start from £390 (+ VAT) per person, and with the extension of our £100 discount, why not make the most of it and book your training course today?

Melissa Burns | Marketing Manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com

Join us for free at GeoDATA 2010 Dublin

2010-04-07T15:08:46Z

GeoDATA Dublin: 21 April 2010

GeoDATA is a FREE to attend, one-day seminar that will provide an insight into the many issues surrounding geographic information.

The theme is "Changing Times" which includes issues on how technological changes and economic influences have impacted on the GI community. Leading GI data and service providers will offer you advice and ideas for projects and practices surrounding this theme.

Reasons to Attend

Hear from key data specialists all under one roof
Be inspired by real world applications
Source the latest geospatial data and services
Build a business case for data investment
Receive advice through the showcase exhibition

Date & Venue

21 April 2010, Croke Park, Dublin

Snowflake Software at GeoDATA 2010

We'll be covering 'Open Data: Changing the way we work' and we'll also be offering attendees some free data exchange software to get you started. We’ll be presenting and exhibiting at every venue throughout the GeoDATA tour:

12 April - Dublin
11 May - Cardiff
13 May - Liverpool
20 May - London
9 November - Glasgow
18 November - Belfast

Register to attend

You can register to attend for free at www.citiesrevealed.com/events/geodata10

Melissa Burns | Marketing manager | melissa.burns@snowflakesoftware.com

GO Publisher creates the first derived dataset from OS Open Data

2010-04-03T12:06:34Z

With the arrival of OS Open Data I thought I'd dust off my old skool data skills in an attempt to create the first derived dataset from OS Open Data. Using our GO Publisher product I mashed OS Code-Point Open with the WOEIDs of Yahoo! GeoPlanet Data and created a derived product in KML , here's the detail ...

1) First things first, make sure that historic open data licence is covered in the header ...

2) Convert to KML (something a little more internet friendly than the default CSV)

3) Sort out the spacing on the Code-Point Open Post Code making it single spaced.

4) Convert the coordinate system to WGS84. Note: Where the Positional Quality value of 90 (geometry unknown - usually 0.0, 0.0) there is NO Point geometry. You'll notice that the Post Code value is in the kml:address tag and so if you display in Google Earth it will geocode any missing geometry on the fly for you.

5) Put all the Code-Point Open properties in the kml:ExtendedData tag

6) Process the Post Code to create a new Out Code property also in kml:ExtendedData

7) The cool bit ... Cross reference the post code to Yahoo! GeoPlanet Place postcode, attaching woeid and parentWoeid to the original OS Code-Point Open data.

All credit goes out to our GO Publisher Community Edition product which let me do all of this so quickly. Here's some screenshots and there's some sample data for comment at the end of the post.

You can access the first cut sample data here:

http://www.snowflakesoftware.com/webservices/opendata/cpoww-sample1.kmz

Just click on the link and it should open up in Google Earth, if not open Google Earth first then click on the link.

I'll put this sample out for comment, if people are happy with it I'll create a national set for you all.

Enjoy

Ian