The Facebook Bureau

This past weekend, I saw the film The Adjustment Bureau. It's a entertaining movie — not great, but sort of fun and interesting. The plot (and I'm not giving anything away that the trailer doesn't) involves a man who stumbles upon a shocking reality: he's not in control of his destiny. Instead, there's actually a secret group, the Adjustment Bureau, that runs the show behind the scenes. The story is actually a somewhat rehashed one in movie lore (The Matrix, Dark City, etc). And it's even older in the science fiction realm (this one is loosely based on a short story by Philip K. Dick). But reading over the blogosphere the past couple of days, I feel like I'm still watching the movie. It's as if some people on the web truly believe that Facebook is this Adjustment Bureau. Increasingly, they control the network, and thus, our lives, and maybe even our fate. So while we're all having this discussion about Facebook Comments, let's be clear what this is really about: Facebook. It has very little to do with the actual commenting side of things. That's becoming more and more apparent.

The Facebook Bureau

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/EB37KoRqKOc/

Bureau of Meterology Launch Signals a �Significant Milestone� for Advancement of Water Information

The Bureau of Meterology launched Phase 1 of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) product at the spatial@gov conference held in Canberra last week. The Geofabric offers the most comprehensive spatial view of hydrological data in Australia and is contributing to enhanced management of water resources in Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Director, Dr Greg Ayers, explained the launch of the product as a
“significant milestone in the advancement of high quality, integrated, water information in Australia”.

The Geofabric is a specialised Geographic Information System (GIS) that registers the spatial relationships between important hydrologic features such as rivers, dams, lakes and catchments.  The new product shows how water is stored, transported and used in the landscape, as Mr Ayers explained.

 “Users can now determine the area that a particular catchment gets its water from. The Geofabric enables them to visualise where the catchment for features of interest such as wetlands or water storages start and finish”.

“By detailing the spatial dimensions of these hydrofeatures and how they are connected, we are delighted to provide users a picture of where water is in the landscape and where it is flowing” he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology is tasked with the responsibility of compiling and delivering Australia's water information. That information is stored in the Australian Water Resources Information System (AWRIS) which delivers high quality water data, essential to managing our nation’s valuable water resources.