Collaborate.org launches new platform to map the world

Dan Farber in CNET: “Collaborate.org wants to bring geospatial data to the masses, beyond where Google Earth has gone. The company, which launched Wednesday at the Future in Review conference here, is built around a geospatial visualizer, with more than 2 million data layers that can be overlaid on maps, and a broad set of collaboration tools.
“We want to harness the collective knowledge of the online global community, sharing expertise and enthusiasm,” said company CEO Kevin Montgomery. “We are providing worldwide geospatial infrastructure to empower people.” Collaborate.org grew out of Intelesense, a company headed by Montgomery that provides monitoring products for wireless sensor networks and a spatial data exchange.
Collaborate.org is built around World Wind, an open-source, spatial visualization platform developed by NASA. Google Earth doesn’t allow for the global community to contribute data or modify the code…
Collaborate.org is currently in private beta. The company will offer the service in a “freemium” model, Montgomery said. Users can upload data for free as long as it is publicly available. The company will charge fees for storing private data. In addition, Montgomery said Collaborate.org will generate revenue from consulting and possibly from custom data services. Versions of Collaborate.org for mobile devices also are in development.”