News:

• FCC bans drones produced abroad
• Mattel releases Barbie doll honoring astronaut and imagery analyst, Dr. Ellen Ochoa

Topic:

• The annual annual review and prognostications

Events:

• Digital Cultural Heritage in the Era of AI and Extended Reality: 26 May, Cyprus
• NEH 250 Years of Teaching With Maps Summer Institute, 13-31 July, 2026, Chicago, IL Due March 6

Music: "Are you with me" by Josh Quat

• Topic:
  • Gifts for your computer
    • Hardware, software, services, knowledge…

Topic:

• Alli Crandell, Director of The Athenaeum Press and Digital Initiatives
  • Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University
• Cross over episode with Recreat.us Podcast

News:

• Gemini is Google Maps
• MapGuide Open Source 4.0
• GISCI recertification grace period
• New Emlid models
• Sentinel 1D

Web corner

• #30DayMapChallenge

Topic:

• Geography Awareness Week
• Making Spaces of Possibility
  • https://www.aag.org/geography-awareness-week-2025/
  • https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/242619483f124ee2b10848e9ddb49782
  • https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/celebrate-geography-awareness-week/
  • https://www.gisday.com/en-us/overview

Events:

• GeoWeek: Feb 16-18, Denver

Music: A Place Called Home by Justin Morgan

News:

• Grounding with Google Maps
• Geospatial Reasoning and Gemini in Google Earth
• Google AR/Galaxy XR
• Meta Ray-Ban Display
• Meta's Wearables Device Access toolkit announced
• Amazon AR for delivery drivers

Web corner:

• The Leventhal Center's Atlasscope Map Tool

Events:

• GeoAI 2026: 3-5 June, Ghent city center, Belgium CFP due 20 January
• The 2026 International Conference on Geographical Information Systems Theory, Applications and Management (GISTAM): 21-23 May, Benidorm, Spain CFP due 5 January
• The 2026 GIS-in-Central-Asia (GISCA) conference: 28-30 May, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

News:

• 2026 Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) ROV World Championship Open

Web corner

• Mapping the Past: The Welsh LiDAR Portal

Topic:

• Unique GIS Jobs (From reddit)

I'm a geography major with a concentration in GIS and I've done some digging through jobs but what are some unique GIS related jobs? What companies that you wouldn't think have a GIS person have them?

Events:

• AAG: 17-21 March, San Francisco - Abstracts due October 30
• PA GIS Conference 2026: 15-17 April, State College, PA - oral submissions due Jan 11
• Esri UC: 13-17 July, San Diego - Abstracts due October 24

Music: Link in the Chain by The Old North

News:

• First images from NISAR, joint NASA-ISRO SAR mission
• Niantic spatial creates geospatial Death Stranding game
• Earthmover climate startup focuses on weather data
  

Web corner:

• Maps Learning Hub

Topic:

• Geography as an interdisciplinary binding agent

Events:

• CalGIS 2026, January 20-23, Redlands, CA, call for papers
• GISSuRF 2026, January 30-31, Andhra Pradesh, India, call for papers
• 2026 GIS/Valuation Technologies Conference, March 30 – April 2, Mobile, Alabama, call for papers

News:

• International Geomagnetic Reference Field Explorer Updated
• Researchers use AI machine learning to uncover hidden earthquakes

Web corner

• McAtlas - McAtlas.com

Topic:

• This week we return to a discussion on worldbuilding this time focusing more on games that allow for worldbuilding.

Music: Who Put That Ceiling There by niko