{"id":1790010,"date":"2021-01-27T09:14:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T14:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1790010"},"modified":"2021-01-27T09:14:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T14:14:06","slug":"michael-t-jones-1960-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/01\/michael-t-jones-1960-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael T. Jones, 1960-2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keyhole co-founder Michael T. Jones died January 18th at the age of 60<\/a>. He\u2019d been undergoing cancer treatment. Geospatial World<\/em><\/a>: \u201cWords can\u2019t describe the contribution and impact of Michael Jones\u2019s work on democratizing and personalizing maps. He is to be credited for not only launching Keyhole in 2000\u2014the original version of Google Earth, quite accidentally as he put it<\/a> in a conversation with Geospatial World<\/em>\u2014but also for his years of work on improving on it as the Chief Technology Advocate of Google after its acquisition by the IT giant.\u201d Last year the Royal Geographic Society awarded him the 2020 Patron\u2019s Medal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(To be honest, between Jones, John Hanke and Brian McClendon I\u2019m not sure who did what at Keyhole and Google Earth: the company history isn\u2019t quite as ingrained in computer lore as, say, Apple\u2019s is.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keyhole co-founder Michael T. Jones died January 18th at the age of 60. He\u2019d been undergoing cancer treatment. Geospatial World: \u201cWords can\u2019t describe the contribution and impact of Michael Jones\u2019s work on democratizing and personalizing… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[581],"tags":[462,178],"class_list":["post-1790010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-google","tag-google-earth","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5968,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/02\/map-anniversaries\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790010,"position":0},"title":"Map Anniversaries","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 February 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"Google Maps turned 10 years old on Sunday\u2014a milestone observed by Samuel Gibbs in the Guardian. See also Liz Gannes's retrospective at Re\/Code. My reaction on launch day was pretty effusive\u2014I was blown away mainly by the user interface. But it wasn't immediately dominant: it took roughly four years for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Industry"","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1810189,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/12\/geospatial-data-is-stuck-in-the-year-1955\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790010,"position":1},"title":"‘Geospatial Data Is Stuck in the Year 1955’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"2 December 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"James Killick\u2019s blog, Map Happenings, looks very much like one worth following. Killick\u2019s been around the block more than a few times, working at Mapquest, Esri and most recently at Apple\u2019s Maps division. He\u2019s seen things, in other words. In his latest post, he decries the geospatial industry\u2019s lack of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1791428,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/07\/the-geospatial-revolution-project-mapping-the-pandemic\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790010,"position":2},"title":"The Geospatial Revolution Project: Mapping the Pandemic","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 July 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CjAuDfnVKi4 A decade after the Geospatial Revolution Project, which explored the use and impact of digital mapping technologies, released its fourth and (apparently) final episode, there\u2019s a new episode focusing on how digital mapping tools were conscripted into the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Project has posted a version\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/CjAuDfnVKi4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1842701,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/06\/exploring-the-history-of-geospatial-software\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790010,"position":3},"title":"Exploring the History of Geospatial Software","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 June 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Ingrid Burrington is working on a PhD dissertation on the history of geospatial software and she\u2019s posting through it. Two gems I\u2019ve run across so far: (How) do computer maps make money? \u201cThe first thing that seems important to state upfront, even though it seems obvious: the business of maps\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GIS"","block_context":{"text":"GIS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1788244,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/a-list-of-geospatial-podcasts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790010,"position":4},"title":"A List of Geospatial Podcasts","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 January 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"I haven\u2019t been keeping up on what mapping and geospatial podcasts are out there. (My last post on the subject was nearly a decade ago.) Fortunately, GIS Lounge has a roundup of geospatial podcasts, most of which I was not aware of (see above); interesting to see that Very Spatial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts & Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts & Radio","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/podcasts-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1881,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/05\/india-proposes-fines-jail-terms-for-incorrect-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1790010,"position":5},"title":"India Proposes Fines, Jail Terms for ‘Incorrect’ Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 May 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The government of India has long been\u00a0obsessed with maps that failed to show its\u00a0official and \"correct\" borders\u2014i.e., maps that showed the Pakistan-controlled parts of Jammu and Kashmir as part of Pakistan, or Chinese-controlled\u00a0Aksai Chin and Chinese-claimed\u00a0Arunachal Pradesh as part of China. Maps for an international audience that showed the de\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/censorship\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1790010"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790012,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1790010\/revisions\/1790012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1790010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1790010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1790010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}