Links to Recent Spatial Law Matters

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206903550 is a link to an article from information week.com sent to me by Carl Reed. The article discusses how an author of two books on Google believes that the company may develop a business plan around its patented bus transportation process - currently used to transport its Bay Area employees. According to the article, the system combines Google's mapping technology and GPS and is linked to employees' cell phones to inform them real time when buses are approaching. One can easily see the numerous benefits of this technology for consumers. However, one can just as easily see privacy advocates expressing concerns about the potential implications.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/14/street_mix_up_delays_police_response_to_slaying/ is a link to a Boston.com article that explains how police officers responding to a 911 call were sent to the wrong address based upon information provided by a computer mapping system designed for such occassions. Apparently, there were at least three identical street addresses in the system for the neighborhoods covered. It appears from the article that the mistake was at least partially due to human error, for not clarifying which neighborhood the crime occurred and for not checking a secondary computer system - which indicated that there were three such addresses. However, one can imagine a plaintiff's lawyers asking why the primary system did not provide the same information. According to one official, "In this particular case there was an over-reliance on the new technology."