LOC-AID Technologies Receives Honors for Exceptional Work Using GIS Technology

location based services

San Diego, California — LOC-AID Technologies was recognized for excellence in the geographic information system (GIS) field with a 2006 Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) award at the Twenty-sixth Annual ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California. ESRI, the world leader in GIS software, presents the award to organizations and agencies that display dedication and commitment through their use of GIS technology. The winners of the award are chosen out of more than 150,000 organizations worldwide. “The SAG awards celebrate the achievement and vision of innovators in the GIS field,” says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. “Each winner brings benefits to their communities and influences others to do the same.” A GIS is a collection of computer hardware, software, and geographic data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information. With a GIS, users can link information to location data such as people to addresses, buildings to parcels, or streets within a network. This innovative technology enables users to layer the information and present a visual representation for analysis that leads to more informed decisions and a better understanding of their communities, businesses, and the environment. “LOC-AID Technologies is pleased to be recognized yet again for innovation in LBS,” says David Allen, vice president of marketing for LOC-AID Technologies. “We expect our unique approach to pay dividends to carriers who choose to offer their subscribers LBS in ‘functional bundles.’. LOC-AID People reflects our vision of location as a powerful enabler of mobile content by offering a suite of functions that subscribers incorporate into their daily lives. Likewise, LOC-AID Treasure enables a broad range of subscribers—from an informal friendly gathering to a national marketing campaign—to host and run a treasure hunt game.”LOC-AID People provides subscribers a suite of solo and interactive LBS functionality, including “find me” (with points of interest), as well as friend-finder, “follow-me” location history, geo-fencing, and alerting and messaging (geo-FAM™). Formal and informal social groups such as friends, families and enterprises enjoy flexible access to these functions through Web, SMS, or handset-based applications. LOC-AID Technologies utilizes ESRI’s ArcIMS and ArcSDE tools for GIS rendering and GIS database management. “Leveraging ESRI’s tools allows us to focus resources on bringing our applications to the mobile community,” Mr. Allen notes. “We appreciate ESRI’s broad perspective and feel gratified to be recognized.”Some of the other organizations being honored at the 2006 User Conference include The Royal Court, Kingdom of Bahrain; USGS National Wetlands Research Center; Geological Survey of Austria; City of Philadelphia Mayor Office; Library of Congress; Nova Scotia Community College Centre of Geographic Sciences; Missouri Botanical Gardens; and Charlotte County, Florida.To learn more about all of the 2006 SAG Award winners as well as previous years’ winners, visit www.esri.com/sag. Visit www.esri.com for more information about GIS technology and its applications.About LOC-AID TechnologiesLOC-AID, based in Boca Raton FL, has developed a suite of award-winning location-based services (LBS) solutions, which include Friend Finder, Social Networking, Gaming and Workforce Management, as well as creating the first fully integrated LBS aggregation Gateway. LOC-AID's current LBS offerings are available for download through the Telefonica (Movistar), Iusacell and Unefon networks, and will launch in the U.S. in 2006. For more information, visit www.loc-aid.net. LOC-AID is a registered trademark of LOC-AID Technologies Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.About ESRISince 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com. ESRI, the ESRI globe logo, GIS by ESRI, www.esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.