VANCOUVER, Dec. 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - UrtheCast is pleased to announce the acquisition of GroundMap - a media geo-archiving and aggregator tool - which will allow for seamless social media aggregation into the UrtheCast Platform. As part of the acquisition GroundMap will be merged into UrtheCast to lead development of the UrtheCast web platform.

GroundMap was founded in San Francisco in 2009 by Matt Boyd and Eric Bieller. It served as a social geo-tagging platform and allowed for the tagging of all online media on an interactive map. "GroundMap gave our users a tool to engage with and track online media - documents, photos, videos, and more - in a real time, collaborative manner," stated Boyd.

With the addition of GroundMap to the UrtheCast portfolio, operations have expanded to Silicon Valley. The San Francisco office will house UrtheCast's development team and complement operations in Canada, Russia and the United Kingdom. The GroundMap team will focus on product development, including UrtheCast's user interface and user experience. "We are currently focused on hiring upwards of 25 developers and engineers" says Scott Larson CEO of UrtheCast.

Bieller highlighted that, "The UrtheCast web platform will be a natural progression of the geo-tagging platform we were developing at GroundMap.  The ability to tie in images of Earth from Space, in near real time, is a revolutionary concept and we are very excited to be a part of it."

This is UrtheCast's first acquisition and follows recent news of their partnership with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

Scott Larson, President of UrtheCast says:

"We see GroundMap as a very good fit with what we are doing here at UrtheCast.  It is a great foundation for us to build from and we are excited to have Matt and Eric join our team.  They immediately understood the goals of UrtheCast and we look forward to their support as we progress into 2012"

UrtheCast is preparing for the launch of their beta version in Spring 2012. To sign up, visit www.urthecast.com.

About UrtheCast

UrtheCast (pronounced "EarthCast") is a company created around a unique vision: to provide the world's first ever, live HD video feed of Earth from space.  Working in an exclusive relationship with world-famous Russian Aerospace giant RSC Energia, UrtheCast is building, launching, installing, and operating two cameras on the Russian module of the International Space Station. Video data of the Earth collected by the cameras will be down-linked to ground stations around the planet and then displayed in near real time on the UrtheCast web platform or distributed directly to our exclusive partners and customers.

For further information and interviews please contact:

Christian Darbyshire - tinePublic Inc.

tinepublic@shaw.ca or 416-419-9953 

 

SOURCE UrtheCast

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