As in, literally…

Today we’re excited to announce a partnership with Intelligent Direct, the market leader of custom print and data solutions for business. Through publication of custom electronic and printed maps of all sizes, companies can better manage the impact of location, geography and demographics.

Urban Mapping’s neighborhood boundary database will be incorporated into custom solutions. IDI’s MarketMAPS division has served thousands of clients in its 25+ year history.

Umibot is most excited about the offline possibilities. Even though it’s not clear if a bot can exist in the real world, there’s no question direct marketing does. And it’s huge. And small/medium-sized businesses think about overall marketing impacts and budgets, not segmenting by channel. This announcement is the first of several to link interactive and direct marketing efforts.

-The official news

Urban Mapping’s own (guess who) Ian White will participate at MediaPost’s Search Insider Summit May 18-21 on Captiva Island, FL. Ian will participate on several panel discussions and breakout sessions. Umibot is thrilled that UMI will be at the event as it will provide a good opportunity to take the pulse of search engine marketing and local search.

Urban Mapping’s Ian White will perform a hat trick at this year’s conference, participating on a panel, Monetizing Maps & Mashups. Greg Sterling will moderate and other panelists will be revealed in short order…

Umibot recently caught up with a few favorite blogs, including the -ist family. In not so unbelievable, yet simultaneously incredible fashion, here is the change of service announcement from hell.

Umibot may not be human, but he still understands that too many facts in too short a space equals too much confusion….Information anxiety, for sure. Stay tuned for UMI’s Urbanware Transit product–a fully robust and highly-structured database of mass transit systems.

Thanks Gothamist

After some hard work/late nights and prodding from the geo-techno elite, we’ve humbly completed and are pleased to offer RESTful access to our neighborhood API.

What does this mean for developers? Probably less time spent developing and more time doing. Since we offered the SOAP-based free neighborhood API last month, dozens of individuals and companies have signed up, and we’re confident this announcement will spur another wave.

We’re also thrilled to be using Mashery to manage our multiple APIs. Ciaran and team twisted themselves pretzel-wise to get us up and running in no time at all. Calling Mashery ‘on demand’ is exactly what what they offer, and it’s what they delivered.

The news release with a quote from Brady Forrest and other goodness.

Today Umibot is pleased to announce a partnership with Placebase. Their map Pushpin map API is powerful and gives developers great flexibility in creating applications. Pb will distribute UMI’s Urbanware Neighborhood data product. Their map tile factory has been hard at work, making freshly-rendered tiles of SoHo, Nob Hill, LoDo, centre ville and about 25,000 other names. A Manhattan demo is available for you to look at and play with. Note different layers of neighborhoods as you zoom.

The neighborhood data news over at Placebase.

Rafe Needleman’s Webware offers a concise overview of UMI’s neighborhood database product.

Urban Mapping’s Ian White will participate on a panel, Online Maps: Plotting the Direction of Local Search, at the annual SES Chicago Conference & Expo at the Chicago Hilton, December 3-7.

Urban Mapping seeks an inquisitive and capable entry-level researcher for a unique multidisciplinary role. Working with business and technical staff, we seek candidates who have proven themselves in conducting research through non-traditional and creative channels. You will support development of Urban Mapping’s print and digital products by taking guidance from product managers to identify, source, standardize and manage spatial data. You will use your technical skills to manipulate data, create reports and contribute to development of our home-grown tools.

Required skills include:

• 0-3 years professional experience
• Interest/background in geography, urban planning, cognitive psychology or computer science
• Strong computer skills (PC/Mac)
• Able to structure/perform complex web searches (think Google advanced search)
• RDBMS experience including basic SQL
• Detail-oriented, self-managed
• Clear, cogent written and oral communication skills.

We pride ourselves on working in a creative, entrepreneurially-driven environment. Our methods are novel, but our approach has yielded valuable insights and results. We are interested in candidates who have a solid technical foundation but want to apply these skills in a broader context. This position will be a contract position of about 20 hours per week.

Please Note: If you come from ‘traditional’ GIS training, this position is (unfortunately) not for you.

Urban Mapping employs user-focused techniques to develop geo-spatial data products to industry and innovative maps and wayfinding-related tools for consumers. We are based in San Francisco.

To be considered for this position, please forward a resume and brief note speaking to your training and experience. Email to talent [at] urbanmapping [dot] com. Indicate “Geodata Analyst” in the subject line. Compensation is hourly rate. No phone calls please!

UMI’s Ian White will participate on a panel, ”Maps: They’re Not Just For Driving Any More” at the Kelsey Group’s ILM conference, cosponsored by Search Engine Strategies, November 28-30, 2007 in Los Angeles.