By Justin Fazzari, Ph.D., Senior Broadband Strategist THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO! Why Go Through the Hassle of Cost Modeling?  It’s one of the most impactful things you can do to STRETCH your BEAD Allocation  It’s the most critical part for developing BEAD project areas in the Subgrantee Selection Process.  My house is about 50 years old, similar to most other houses in my neighborhood. One night a couple of months ago my basement began to flood. I called out the plumbing company and they opened the main sewer line between my house and the street and scoped it with a remote camera ..read more

When Should States Initiate Their State Challenge Process? By Justin Fazzari, Senior Broadband Strategist – This is the second in a two-part series that analyzes the question, When Should States Initiate Their State Challenge Process? Click here to return to Part 1. If the term “Challenge Process” has become confusing, you’re right.  In this blog, I discuss some issues states should be considering before deciding when to initiate their State Challenge Process.   The purpose of the State Challenge Process is to give state stakeholders an opportunity to challenge the classificatio ..read more

Which Version of the National Broadband Maps Should States Use for the Challenge Process? By Justin Fazzari, Senior Broadband Strategist –  This is the first in a two-part series that analyzes the question, Which Version of the National Broadband Maps Should States Use for the Challenge Process? Click here to jump to Part 2.  If the term “Challenge Process” has become confusing, you’re right. It’s understandably confusing because when NTIA issued the final State “BEAD Challenge Process” policy notice in June, that notice created a third challenge process for states to focus on. So, l ..read more

Bill Johnson, Carpe Geo Evangelist, AppGeo Photo credit: Photo by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash Numerous times in the past few weeks I have heard representatives from the NTIA, the FCC, and others say that the new FCC Broadband Map “will never be perfect.”  We can concede a basic truth to that statement, just as we can say that “no measurement will ever be free from error”, or “no two snowflakes are identical.”  What bothers me is that this phrase seems to be asking us to accept a flawed map as good enough.  It strikes me as a call to lower our expectations ..read more

Srini Dharmapuri, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Scientist, and Tom Harrington, Ph.D., Chief Marketing Officer, Sanborn How ChatGPT differs from Google Search People have been using search engines (mainly Google) to explore the Web for over two decades. In response to queries, search engines produce lists of links and snippets of responses, as well as images and other types of content. Search engine algorithms are designed to reward or highlight certain types of content based on its authority, relevance, and other factors. Everyone who has used a search engine has had the experience of scroll ..read more

Bill Johnson, Carpe Geo Evangelist, AppGeo Photo Credit: Bill Johnson, Restorer of Antique Clocks Some of you may have attended a webinar we held on December 7 where I was interviewing Sanborn CEO John Copple along with VP of Business Development and Sales Jason Caldwell and AppGeo COO Kate Hickey.  The purpose of that webinar was to explain how the new combination of Sanborn + AppGeo (Sanborn acquired AppGeo in September) is an excellent fit for meeting the unique needs of state geospatial leaders.  The main theme of our conversation, however, was centered on the incredible opport ..read more

Google Earth Engine (GEE) is now available for commercial use! We wanted to answer some questions surrounding this momentous occasion. Earth Engine has been around for 10 years, but Google is now releasing GEE as a Google Cloud product. Google Earth Engine contains over 50 petabytes of data composed of 900 out-of-the-box datasets to combine with your data with, many being refreshed daily. In addition to the high quality Data Catalog Google has curated, GEE is capable of consuming your own imagery asset and enriching spatial data to inform your analysis. More than that, Google Earth Engine can ..read more

This article was originally published by Applied Geographics Inc. (AppGeo), a company acquired by The Sanborn Map Company Inc in September 2022. API-based Mapping Platforms are changing the way we leverage spatial data and create applications. Choosing among the many offerings is a challenge. There are truly different offerings in the market and many ways to solve problems using mapping platforms. Some platforms provide enormous amounts of location data, while others excel in map customization and GIS functionality. Each provider goes about creating mapping platforms differently. You need t ..read more