Mobile GIS & LBS Archive for the ‘location data’ CategoryNow we are not called mapping guys or gals what is holding us back?Thursday, August 27th, 2015
I’ll admit it was a little tongue in cheek. But my blog post entitled “Please stop calling me the mapping guy” proved to be amazingly popular. Our blog is generally well read but this post pushed things off the chart. See Google analytics below:
But a well read blog post does not indicate approval or disapproval. Simply interest in the topic. From the responses I received it would seem many readers agree with the general thrust of my argument. Which leads me to this next post …. Please stop calling me the mapping guyThursday, August 13th, 2015
“You must love maps” “Could you make me a map?” “So your job is map making” “Talk to those guys down the hall … the map guys”. Grrrrrrrrrr! Please stop calling me the mapping guyEnough is enough. Seriously. I did not like it then. Today, I am even less tolerant. I am not a mapping guy. Period. Don’t belittle me. Don’t label me. Understand me. We can bring new insight to your organization. Can provide new ways to view and analyse your organizational data. We are an important (new) face in the changing world of technology. Give us a hug, tell us we are special, then allow us to dramatically change how you run your business You can tell I have had enough. If you head up an organization and are not leveraging GIS across your organization. You aren’t properly doing your job. Seriously. Now I have your attentionLet me tell you two stories. We need GIS apps which are super simple to useWednesday, August 12th, 2015
We seem to hear so often now: “We need GIS apps which are super simple to use” . Why? A history of GIS App ComplexityI’m afraid its true. We’ve been building GIS apps which are too complex. Too many GIS apps need users to be trained before use. GIS has a history of complex and confusing apps In 2005 Google Maps introduced us to simplicity. True, their target audience were consumers, not the enterprise, but still the simplicity was a thing of beauty. GIS has been pushing out applications filled with (too many) tools. Tools which are complex to use. Applications which are not intuitive. Applications which need training. New Non-GIS UsersWe are in the midst of geospatial revolution, driven by cloud and mobile technology. The geo world is being turned on its head. Traditional GIS users are being joined by a new far wider user base: non-GIS users. That’s not just consumers, but private organizations recognizing their business intelligence (BI) software is only giving them part of the story. By your staff who are looking to location based technology to improve how they work, and improve their organizational insight to make better decisions. What we learned from a failed ArcGIS ImplementationThursday, June 18th, 2015We pride ourselves on honesty. To not just talk UP about our working world, but discuss the DOWN. Our (my) biggest lessons in life were learned from failure .. not success. Its time to talk about a WebMapSolutions hiccup. And what we learned from a failed ArcGIS implementation. We spent the first part of 2015 working with a private company who had no experience with GIS. They had a forward thinking senior staff member who quickly grasped the possibilities GIS might bring to their company. They enlisted WebMapSolutions to help evolve that vision. ArcGIS and Making Sense Out of Google’s Geospatial EvolutionThursday, June 11th, 2015
I thought it worth following up on John-Isaac Clark’s article Making Sense Out of Google’s Geospatial Evolution. I’ve met John at past geo-conferences. He is Chief Innovation Officer at Thermopylae Sciences & Technology. Thermopylae have built their product suite on top of Google, so the recent changes announced by Google around their geospatial products could have a direct impact on Thermopylae’s business. In some ways Johns blog post was written to reassure his companies existing clients. Aside from this, there are some interesting points made worth discussing. Google Impact on GeospatialThe launch of Google Maps in the mid 2000’s sent ripples (tidal waves?) across the geospatial industry. Suddenly interactive maps were easy to access and use. The Google Maps interface was beautifully simple. No head scratching was needed to use their maps. And with slippy tiles the user experience was extraordinary. For those of us developing mapping applications, simply finding good base map data was a huge undertaking. Google changed all of that. Rich base map data-sets suddenly became available. That was a huge change. I agree with John that the Google geospatial releases “enabled geo-literacy to be introduced to non-geographic information system professionals”. GIS anywhere, anytime, on any deviceMonday, March 23rd, 2015
Inside of WebMapSolutions we repeat often “GIS anywhere, anytime, on any device”. The phrase is actually included in our mission statement. But what does this phrase mean to us? We will jump around a little in this blog post in explaining. Some while ago we wrote an article entitled The Democratization of GIS. In the post we wondered whether GIS is like the automobile of the early 1900’s, and paraphrasing Henry Ford: “I’m going to democratize GIS, and when I’m through, everybody will be using the technology.” The democratization of GIS is about mass market adoption. Take an ArcGIS Javascript Widgets Based approach to Field Asset ManagementTuesday, March 17th, 2015Short and punchy the title of this blog post is not. But keeping things simple is the focus of this discussion. In place of ‘Take an ArcGIS Javascript Widgets Based approach to Field Asset Management’ we could have simply put ‘Make your ArcGIS field apps modular’. Better. In this post we will discuss widgets. Dojo widgets (don’t worry we wont be getting technical) to be precise. We have moved past the days when we need to build big bloated web applications loaded up with tools. I used the analogy of a cruise ship versus a speedboat in a recent post: Esri, Me and my Cats.
Today we do not need to spend the time and money building one big web application to serve all needs. We can start with a simple configurable map viewer and add widgets to provide focused functionality. 6 ways to Dramatically Improve your ArcGIS Return on InvestmentSunday, March 1st, 20151. Look to use GIS to solve business problems. Today GIS talks easily to other business systems. Collaborating directly with a GIS will reduce complexity, provide rich location analytics, reduce costs and much more. See our recent blog post: What is ArcGIS Geo-Enablement?. 2. Still printing or generating pdf maps? Use GIS for more than just maps. GIS answers any and all location focused questions: show me which valves need inspecting? Where are our most profitable stores? Which homes are in areas at greatest risk of flooding?
3. Start thinking about platform. ArcGIS is one product made up of many complementary elements. Integration or geo-enabling has never been easier. See our white paper on our approach to leveraging and integrating with ArcGIS. 4. Consider configuration, before customization. For ArcGIS, Esri have made available over 50 applications or templates which are ready to be used. Simply configure and launch. Check out our ArcGIS Templates package if you need help. 5. Think about your data. Bad data, means a bad GIS – fix your data: the incorrect, incomplete, or old data. Simplify your asset data model: favour simplicity over complexity. Build the cleanest data system with only the core attributes, and remove data duplication. 6. Implement cross-device ArcGIS applications. In the utility sector close to 70% of field staff still use laptops in preference to, or in combination with tablets. The trend is towards greater tablet adoption, particularly as more ruggedized versions are released. But, given this mix of field devices, it make sense to adopt or develop GIS applications which work across devices. That means applications which is usable on laptops, tablets even smartphones. Web technology provides true cross-device access. Great strides have been made with Javascript/HTML5. It is now possible to build a single web app which can be used on any device: laptop or mobile. More than that Javascript/HTML5 provide advanced functionality. We have been building ArcGIS web applications which provide disconnected capabilities. See our white paper on offline ArcGIS Expanding the Reach of GISThursday, February 12th, 2015Let us in the post revisit the notion of emerging GIS. We have in other posts discussed what emerging is not: wearable’s, virtual reality and the like. We see emerging GIS as expanding the user base beyond GIS trained staff. Traditional GIS still serves a narrow user base. A huge untapped audience is crying out for the services provided by GIS. A user base so far largely excluded from this technology. Widening the use of GIS InternallyLook across your organization. Think about your staff. Who today uses the output and services from your GIS? My guess is in many organizations this is a small group. Now consider who COULD benefit from maps and GIS services: maintenance workers, attorneys, engineers, surveyors, inspectors, installers, auditors, sales staff, site managers the list goes on. So the question is how to provide access to the benefits of GIS to these staff? The question the is how do we widen the reach of GIS within organizations? We see the key is providing new intuitive, user friendly GIS tools. Take as an example the Web based offline ArcGIS editing application we have just released. This provides the ability to view and edit ArcGIS maps when in or out of wi-fi range. We’ve designed it so no training is required. The diagram below shows the application interface:
Easy to use GIS applications which provide focused functionality (editing, redline, custom forms etc) and improve on how users currently get their jobs done, is crucial for wider adoption of GIS technology New GIS User BaseMany organizations simply do not use location technology. Visualizing organizational data on maps, and searching or analyzing this data spatially is hugely powerful. Spreadsheets are common in many organizations to track assets, analyse and chart other business components. Pen and paper remain popular with many field based staff; recording work done, completing forms, and more. GIS brings the power of maps and location intelligence to organizations. It brings new tools to users which can be made available across devices (PC, tablet and smartphone). It has never been easier nor cheaper to implement and use GIS. ArcGIS Online from Esri is one of a number of cloud based GIS solutions which make publishing and providing access to maps and mapping services very easy. Historically we have helped our customers configure ArcGIS Server, which had its challenges. Now much of our focus is getting organizations quickly set up with ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS. A super easy process. Business GIS the New FrontierThe use of GIS to help run businesses remains limited. Business systems such as ERP’s historically have lacked spatial components. This is being recognised as a huge gap. Geo-enablement has become increasingly more important. This is the application of location or geospatial information as part of business processes or using ‘location intelligence’ to augment non-spatial information systems and/or Business Intelligence (BI). This leverages location information in processes and workflows of a business system without the need to fully integrate with a geographic information system (GIS). Geo-enablement provides the best of both worlds – location intelligence combined with business intelligence – without the expense and complexity of full integration. We’ve taken a data driven geo-enable approach with a web based framework called Geo-EnableJS for ArcGIS. This is one of a number of powerful new geo-enabling frameworks.
Emerging GIS is focused on widening the reach of GIS. To provide new spatial tools to non-GIS users to improve both insight and workflows. Our Geo-Future is BrightTuesday, September 4th, 2012We live in changing times in the geo-space. Our work with location data as a company, began in the 90’s. Its been an interesting ride; from desktop to Internet, to now the cloud and mobile. New conferences appeared like Where 2.0; too many so called experts and innovators were thrust at us. Much of this left us cold; GIS for the masses with venture capitalists lurking in the background. We became a little cynical.
But truly exciting things are now happening. As the term GIS fades; location data and the integration of other business systems (SAP etc) with geospatial services moves our work from its historic niche, to solving real business problems. With mobile, new location data is becoming available. Mobile apps now provide access to location services, for both the consumer and the Enterprise. ArcGIS Online we see as huge. Its a pleasure to hear guys like Sean Gorman talk about our geospatial future. In fact talking about Sean, here is an excellent recent James Fee interview with the man: |
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