Hallowell, Maine – Blue Marble Geographics ( bluemarblegeo.com) is pleased to announce that institutes of higher education in the U.S. and Canada will shortly be granted free access to the company’s renowned GIS and geodetic software, Global Mapper and Geographic Calculator. Beginning on May 1st, 2017, colleges and universities will have an opportunity to deploy both applications for classroom teaching, hands-on lab instruction, and personal student use, at no cost.
For over two decades, Blue Marble’s affordable, user-friendly GIS software has been meeting the needs of hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers throughout the world. Users come from all industries including software, oil and gas, mining, civil engineering, surveying, and technology companies, as well as government departments and academic institutions.
Blue Marble recognizes the important role academia plays in preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s workplace. As the geospatial sector continues its rapid evolution, it is critical that graduates have the skills and aptitude to maintain this momentum. Blue Marble’s investment in GIS programs through this generous licensing policy is motivated by a desire to ensure that instruction on the fundamentals of science is not curtailed for budgetary reasons and that GIS technology is accessible for all students.
Over the last twenty years, Global Mapper has quietly gained a worldwide following among discerning GIS professionals, researchers, and teachers all of whom are drawn to the extensive data format support, raster and vector processing capabilities, powerful analysis tools, and perhaps most importantly, ease-of-use. Ideally suited for classroom and lab use, Global Mapper allows instructors to build a curriculum focusing on applied GIS rather than software instruction.
For students needing a comprehensive introduction to the field of geodesy or coordinate system management, there is no better tool than Geographic Calculator. Built on the foundation of the largest database of geodetic definitions and coordinate system parameters commercially available, this powerful software is designed to ensure accuracy and consistency in any geospatial data management process. During the calculation process, intuitive dialog boxes prompt the user for not only coordinate system selection, but datum, units, formats and datum transformation.
“At Blue Marble, we believe that teaching GIS should entail the practical application of the principles of geospatial data processing and analysis, not countless hours of software instruction,” stated Patrick Cunningham, Blue Marble President. “Overly complicated software can be detrimental to the learning process when students must spend valuable lab time learning how to use the requisite tools instead of putting them to use. Blue Marble software enables faculty to spend their time teaching the science as opposed to how to use the software.”
Blue Marble’s academic licensing program allows the use of Global Mapper and the Geographic Calculator for instructional use only. The software can be freely installed in a classroom or lab as well as on students’ personal computers. Under the academic license, the use of the software for commercial or research purposes is strictly prohibited.
For more information or to sign up to be notified when the academic licensing program is available, visit:
www.bluemarblegeo.com/academic
About Blue Marble Geographics: Blue Marble Geographics of Hallowell, Maine is a leading developer and provider of software products and services for highly accurate geospatial data conversion solutions. Blue Marble is known for their coordinate conversion and file format expertise and is the developer of the Geographic Calculator, GeoCalc SDK, Global Mapper, LiDAR Module for Global Mapper and Global Mapper SDK. The company has been writing GIS software tools and solutions for over twenty years and currently serves hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.
