When we grade the major events in the map industry within the first half of the year, Facebook’s acquisition of a startup Mapillary is definitely one of them. What is Mapillary? Many drivers have such experience: The road that was still clear not long ago was obstructed, and the driver was forced to change to another route, causing unforeseen delay. This seven-year-old Swedish startup has been working with the public to collect and bring together hundreds of millions of street images from around the world to update city maps continuously.
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In a place where land is scarce like Hong Kong, the housing problem not only exists for people alive, but also for those after death. Everyone is resistant to the setting up of funeral area near their homes, afraid of the bad “feng shui" and their property price being adversely affected. These make it difficult to set up columbarium niches.
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According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2019 was the second warmest year on record, with the five years from 2015 to 2019 being the five warmest since recording. The Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) also confirmed that May of 2020 was much hotter than usual. The monthly mean temperature of 27.7 degrees in May was 1.8 degrees above the normal figures. Moreover, the annual mean temperature this year is expected to be above normal, very likely to be among the top 10 warmest on record.
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The Legislative Council’s Establishment Subcommittee Meeting held in January discussed the Development Bureau’s request for additional staff to oversee the promotion of the common spatial data infrastructure (CSDl). The participating councillors have prepared well for the meeting and raised very specific questions. One pointed out that the data should be connected to the geographic location, so that different information related to the same location can be connected for the convenience of research and development of applications.
The first global COVID-19 dashboard by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) of the United States has received enthusiastic response around the world. The dashboard attracts an average of 1.2 billion views per day. It is an exemplar of the benefits of open data – and how quickly it can be deployed to good effect when the will is there. Hong Kong cannot use the COVID-19 crisis or other pettier considerations stand in its way to securing the obvious benefits of open data. 繼續閱讀
