Virtual Globes session at ISDE5

We have Bern Szukalski of ESRI, Bill Gail of Microsoft, Patrick Hogan of World Wind, Chuck Stein of Geofusion, and Brian McClendon of Google. Overall the discussion started off with general discussions on Digtial Earth and Virtual Globes from ESRI and Microsoft and has narrowed to detailed discussions of software from World Wind and GeoFusion, then finishing with a focus on KML from Google.

Questions: KML in VE…standard MS answer of maybe. GeoRSS in GE…simple Yes. NetCDF or other time knowledgeable data format…ESRI yes but not in AGX yet…others talk about time series viz. Efficiency in using Lat/Long for Virtual Globes, especially for the poles…there are issues, but check GeoFusions projection that addresses this issue…sometimes a globe isn’t the best way to go…Definitely check out GeoFusions square projection. Bathymetry question…WW, GF, and AGX yes…VE and GE not so much. Education, did GE leap into edu too quickly for a general choice…everyone wants to support education. Serious Games and VGs…NASA grants. Volumetric atmosphere data…some options already in each VG.