FREE Data Viewer/Translator/Finder - Product Release Announcement

Hello,

As promised last week, Blue Marble Geographics is proud to announce the availability of Version 3.0 of our Geographic Explorer.  This new release is available at no cost, freely downloadable from our website at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com.  Please find the original product announcement enclosed below this message.

Thanks for the overwhelming response from all who posted us regarding this product and its release on a free and open basis. 

We are in the process of formulating the means for a community of both users and developers who can jointly promote and evolve this product and others like it.

This announcement is part of a strategy that has been forming within our industry in a strong way over the last few months.  We are offering this product freely as a way to break down barriers that have existed within our industry to date.  We intend to evolve the functionality of the Geographic Explorer, and to work with others who want to help us by providing an architecture wherein collaborative development to extend it's features is possible.  This will potentially provide a powerful "open" view/translate solution for as many individuals and businesses who want to use geography within their decision making processes as possible.  

We view this as just an initial step, a necessary way to get the ball rolling.  We have already identified areas for future improvements and extensibility and are looking for suggestions as to the best way to evolve this idea in a free and open way as the market moves forward.  Let's all see what happens along this exciting journey!

Thanks,

Jeff Cole
[log in to unmask]

Blue Marble Geographics
"The Geographic Software Component Company."
www.bluemarblegeo.com
261 Water Street, Gardiner, Maine 04345 USA
Voice: 207-582-6747  Fax: 207-582-7001


Product Announcement
-----------------------------

Blue Marble Geographics is proud to announce Version 3.0 of our Geographic Explorer.  This new release will be available at no cost, freely downloadable from our website at http://www.bluemarblegeo.com begining early next week.

What is the Geographic Explorer and who can use it?

Are you looking for a simple, free, fast map file viewer that supports all of the common map file formats including MapInfo MIF and TAB, ESRI Shape, Microstation DGN, and AutoCAD DWG and DXF directly without conversion?

Have you ever used Hijack (a system utility by Inset that optimizes Windows for graphics)? Are you looking for something similar for your map files?

Do you want to quickly convert files from one format to another, with a simple click of your mouse?

Do you want to find all map files (by type, area of coverage, size, etc.) quickly on your local machine or on your network so that you can drag and drop them directly into your mapping application?

Are you looking for an extensible architecture wherein you can add support for additional map file formats?

This announcement is part of a strategy that has been forming within our industry in a strong way over the last few months.  We are offering this product freely as a way to break down barriers that have existed within our industry to date.  We intend to evolve the functionality of the Geographic Explorer, and to work with others who want to help us by providing an architecture wherein collaborative development to extend it's features is possible.  This will potentially provide a powerful "open" view/translate solution for as many individuals and businesses who want to use geography within their decision making processes as possible.  

We view this as just an initial step, a necessary way to get the ball rolling.  We have already identified areas for future improvements and extensibility and are looking for suggestions as to the best way to evolve this idea in a free and open way as the market moves forward. 

The Geographic Explorer (version 3.0) will be available for free download from http://www.bluemarblegeo.com early next week.  We will post more details shortly and as requested and certainly provide notice when the product is available for download.

Blue Marble Geographics is an interesting company with more interesting things coming...


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