ReadWriteWeb

Since data scientists Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden (disclosure: Pete writes for ReadWriteWeb) presented information about how iPhones store a log of your location data in an unencrypted file, there's been a mix of reactions. Some are outraged by the privacy implications. Some don't see why it's a big deal, citing either the forensic community's prior knowledge of the logs or the fact that many people share location information on Foursquare. Others have been intrigued at the possibilities of exploring their own personal location information.

Last week we told you about how Twitter is migrating its search stack from Ruby to Java. But Twitter is also known for being an early adopter of Scala. This presentation by Marius Eriksen at the Commercial Users of Funtional Programming 2010 conference explains how Twitter uses Scala to scale.

Consumer location based services such as Foursquare and Facebook Places are hot right now, but how is location being used in the enterprise? There are numerous applications for location-based technologies in the enterprise - such as asset tracking, routing and geo-fencing. Several companies are working in this space now to enable businesses to use location for more than just marketing. Here are a few that we've found.

SAP employee Timo Elliott has unveiled a prototype for an augmented reality business intelligence iPhone app. He emphasizes that it's a prototype, not a supported product. It's not available for download yet, but Elliott gives us a look at what an augmented enterprise could look like.

Elliot released some proof-of-concept mock-ups on his blog earlier this year (see our coverage), but the project is now in development at SAP in the BusinessObjects Innovation Center, which Elliot says is based on Google Labs.

Unemployment numbers across the U.S. may slowly be dropping, but there is still much to be done to help our economy recover from one of the worst downturns in decades. The Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the chief government branches tasked with providing resources to the unemployed to help them find training and work. Today, with the addition of its 16th competency model designed to help people discern hirable job skills in various job markets, the DOL has extended a helping hand to a popular emerging tech field: geospatial technology.

Fans of geographic information systems (GIS) can now get their mapping fix on the go, as the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) has launched an impressive mapping application for iOS devices. The California-based company specializes in providing GIS and geodatabase software applications, and holds a significant share of these markets. With the free ArcGIS app, users can now access and explore an enormous database of maps, including street maps, topographic maps, ecological maps and more.

Washington, D.C. CTO Bryan Sivak is creating the infrastructure for a city that makes everyone a map maker in the cloud. His plan? Give citizens easy tools to create their own mapping applications that can be augmented with additional data.

Sivak spoke at the Gov 2.0 conference this past week where he outlined projects now underway in the city.

According to Information Week, these include his plans to create a private cloud that acts as a shopping experience for the IT manager. After adding a server to an online shopping cart, the order is completed and a server automatically spools up into the private cloud.

The advent of geodata and its use in the enterprise is evident in the advancements we're seeing in the cloud computing space.

This past week ArcGIS Beta launched. It's an online mapping service that provides tools for making maps. You can share maps or build maps with other community members. It's an example of how geodata is being used to create a new generation of data services that have multiple uses in the enterprise.

Yahoo! today released a developer preview of its Yahoo! Internet Location Platform, a collection of in-depth geo-location based APIs. We expect to see location be more smartly used in many applications around the web thanks to this platform.

The gist of what's being enabled is this: applications can provide the name of one location and then the Yahoo! APIs will report neighboring and "parent" locations. Flickr developer and map lover Dan Catt articulates the potential power of the API very well in a blog post today.