This years Esri UC in San Diego was the best yet. So much cool new technology. The GIS revolution is in full swing. But now it is all over, as you sip your coffee on your first day back at the office. Now what are you going to do?
Floods on new information, ideas, products. Its your job to organize your thoughts, and take action on implementation within your organization. Inertia is your biggest enemy.
What’s your mobile strategy?
Mobile is everywhere. Quite literally. We have become so dependent on our mobile devices. At this years UC it was hard to avoid discussions around mobile. More than any other advance, mobile is having a profound affect on GIS. Esri are pushing forward with new mobile technology. There is no doubt that Collector has raised the profile of mobile ArcGIS. Mobile data collection integrated with ArcGIS is hot at the moment. Old methods of using paper and pen are rapidly being replaced. Collector took a while coming, but it was well worth the wait. We are working with ever more clients helping set up Collector, and train staff.
Mobile presents new opportunities to apply GIS in new ways To replace outmoded methods. To use GIS technology in a seamless manner both in and out of the office. Data collection is but one application of mobile GIS technology. As was demonstrated at this years UC, there are a plethora of new applications of mobile GIS.
Mobile GIS is exciting. It offers a new ways for field based staff to get their work done more efficiently, and provide more accurate data. Energy sector regulation and management have many challenges. Field surveys are often done in remote areas outside of mobile communication coverage. Data collection still relies on a disjointed combination of equipment. New mobile GIS technology offers potentially dramatic improvements in how Mineral Exploration Regulation Teams get their work done. We will discuss a new integrated approach in this article.
Mobile GIS and Energy Sector Regulation
Its worth providing some background on a typical scenario for mineral and energy activity regulation.
Mineral Exploration Regulation Teams
Much of the work done by mineral exploration regulation teams is centred on monitoring ground exploration activities. Comparing reported activity and impacts, against what is observed. Field inspections are typically ground based and often done in remote areas. Off-road 4WD vehicles and possibly air support may be needed depending on the activity, urgency of an inspection, the availability of staff and accessibility of sites. There are other dependencies on ground conditions such as weather, agricultural and cultural practices.
Many organizations are now considering mobile GIS. Much of this is a move to efficiency, to get out of the traditional cycle: collect field data on paper, submit this to a GIS specialists, who then enters this into a GIS. Mobile GIS means field data can be uploaded directly from the field to the GIS.
So what needs to be considered when adopting mobile GIS technology? We’ve been developing and implementing mobile GIS solutions for a number of years. As we have found, mobile GIS implementations are not straightforward. Careful consideration, planning and preparation is needed. In this post we share 7 key areas to consider when moving to mobile GIS.
Mobile GIS is becoming ever more popular in organizations. The advent of cheap mobile smartphones and tablets has meant that location technologies like GIS are no longer confined to office use only. Mobile GIS is helping to empower field staff, as well as provide new tools to all mobile users. In the post we discuss 4 popular uses of mobile GIS.
4 Popular Uses of Mobile GIS
1) Data Collection
Pen and paper have been the traditional way data has been collected in the field. Sometimes it is the main storage method also. Mobile GIS presents a new way to collect data accurately. Leveraging GPS, in-built cameras and Internet access, mobile GIS provides new ways to collect, and upload data to a central location. This provides a dramatic improvement in efficiency, no more paper storage or manual data entry. Now rich, accurate field data can be collected, uploaded and shared across an organization in real time. Collector for ArcGIS is a nice new mobile editing app. We’ve built a flexible framework which provides much of what is in Collector, but is customizable and runs across all popular mobile platforms (Apple, Android, Windows)
Caught your attention? Those words: change your company change you career. Today you have the opportunity to light a fire under your career or company. You’ll ask:
“But where do I begin?”
First understand. Don’t be overwhelmed by information overload. Filter and focus. GIS is changing. Its changing for the best; moving from the periphery to the core. What does that mean? See Esri repeating “whats your location strategy” to business executives for a clue.
We are in the throes of upheaval. Look only as far as the end of your nose, focusing on your jobs tasks at hand, and you’ll miss it. Look back at how you always did business before, and you will be out of business.
Forget yesterdays leaders. Who are the leaders of tomorrow?
Questions. Questions. Its confusing. Nobody knows the path things will follow. That is because it is not set.
YOU CAN SET IT (am I shouting?)
So get up and go. These are amazingly exciting times. Don’t be told the path. Set it. Your career and/or company are depending on it!
Offline mobile editing has been one of the most common GIS requests over the last couple of years. Finally with Collector, Esri have released a fully functioning online and offline mobile editing app. We’ve been helping many of our clients with training and set up for Collector. The feedback has been very positive, but we keep being asked:
“We would like a custom version of Collector (which also runs on Windows mobile devices)”
Branding, custom functionality and greater mobile device support. Given our years of working with mobile offline ArcGIS editing, we threw some weight at this problem. We have come up with a Web based offline editing solution; one which runs in a mobile browser. The solution can be used on all popular mobile platforms (iOS, Android, Windows) and across devices: smartphones, tablets and smablets. It is also, and mostly importantly, very flexible. Some of the notable features:
a) Loads both ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online hosted layers.
b) Easy custom styling and branding.
c) Flexible offline basemaps.
d) Responsive, so styled for all mobile devices.
e) Easily extended to support custom functionality.
f) Includes templates for custom reports.
g) Simple, intuitive workflows for all users.
Custom Version of ArcGIS Collector
Below is a video showing a demo version of the app. We highlight specifically the custom reporting functionality:
Just to advance the discussion on the work we have been doing with offline editing in the Web browser. We have extended the demo app shown in a previous post to be responsive. In other words to run well on all mobile devices: smartphones, tablets and smablets. The short video shows the same offline ArcGIS editing application running in a browser on a tablet and smartphone.
If you have wondered about offline ArcGIS editing in a browser, wonder no more. Below is an Web application which uses either ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS Online layers to allow offline editing:
Let’s keep this mobile and cloud GIS theme moving forward. We’ve spoken in this blog about the realities, as we see them, of GIS in 2014. Chris Cappelli at Esri talks about muscle memory. Its a good analogy. Mobile and cloud GIS remain a tough sell. Do they provide anything new? In many ways no: if you have deep pockets anything is possible. But that is the point, few of us have deep pockets, and all of us are looking to do things better, quicker and cheaper. And that is what we get with mobile and cloud GIS.
You want proof?
Its time for demos I think. Let’s show what is now possible. From data collection, to focused customised, cloud based GIS Web apps to location analytics for business users. (more…)
Turmoil, resistance, adjustment, fear, confusion …. this is what I am sensing from the GIS community over the enormous changes we are experiencing in the industry.
From the non-GIS community, education is the main challenge. What does location intelligence bring me that I am not getting from my business intelligence system?
Change is good. Change is scary. But with change comes opportunity. In 2014 its all about realizing those opportunities. (more…)
