Blue Marble Launches New Academic Licensing Programme

Blue Marble Geographics has announced the launch of its new academic licensing programmeme with a new web page now available with detailed information and an online application form. This pilot programme allows institutes of higher education in the US and Canada to deploy both Global Mapper and Geographic Calculator free of charge for classroom teaching, hands-on lab instruction, and personal student use.

Since the preliminary announcement of the academic licensing programme at the annual Association of American Geographers conference in Boston in early April, the response from college course administrators and faculty has been overwhelming. Unshackled from budgetary constraints and technical limitations, college instructors and lecturers can now build a hands-on curriculum that allows students to experience the practical application of spatial technology instead of countless hours of software instruction.

Flagship products

The programme covers Blue Marble's flagship software products: Global Mapper and Geographic Calculator. Ideally suited for classroom and lab use, Global Mapper is a multifunctional GIS application with particular strength in format support; raster and vector creating and editing; terrain analysis; and, using an optional add-on module, Lidar processing. Geographic Calculator is a geodetic and coordinate conversion software. Built on the foundation of a large 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.

 The motivation behind this programme is founded on the belief that tomorrow's graduates should have the skills and aptitude needed to meet the ever-changing needs of the GIS sector, stated Patrick Cunningham, Blue Marble president. He sees this as a long-term investment and one that will yield positive results for institutes of higher education, for graduating students, and for the companies and organisations that will ultimately hire them.

Blue Marble's academic licensing programme 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.