Mobile GIS & LBS Archive for the ‘Mobile GIS’ CategoryThe Democratization of GISThursday, February 19th, 2015
Henry Ford famously wrote in the early 1900’s: “I’m going to democratize the automobile, and when I’m through, everybody will have one.” It was a bold statement. And though Ford did not invent the automobile, he was one of the pioneers of mass production providing low cost, reliable automobiles. Similar to the automobile 100 years ago, are we now at the explosive growth phase of GIS? 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. Google Esri and the Huge GeoSpatial for Business OpportunitiesWednesday, February 4th, 2015
Announcements this week from Google and Esri surprised everybody. Esri have now posted a ‘Common Questions’ web page providing answers around the transition from Google Earth Enterprise and Google Maps Engine (GME) to ArcGIS. We find the fact that Esri and Google have started working together very refreshing. Our speculation here is that we are seeing an admission by Google that with Enterprise and GME they have strayed beyond their core base which has always been consumers. Lines have been drawn in the sand. This is a win for us all as both Esri and Google turn their attention back to what they do best. But is that the end of the story? Google and Esri SurpriseSunday, February 1st, 2015
So there I was sitting comfortably happily writing a blog post post entitled Enabling Jack Dangermond’s GIS Vision commenting on Jacks excellent ArcNews lead article when bam the following stops me in my tracks: What is the Esri/Google relationship?Google and Esri are working closely together to provide replacement software and training to all of Google’s enterprise customers and partners who have implemented Google Earth Enterprise and Google Map Engine technology. Esri will be providing the new 10.3 version of ArcGIS for Server and related client/app technology to all Google Enterprise customers and partners. Is Google Getting out of the Mapping Game?Friday, January 23rd, 2015Two recent announcements caught my attention: “The Google Earth API has been deprecated as of December 12th, 2014. The API will continue to work on supported browsers until December 12th, 2015, and will shut down on that date.” See the full Google Earth API announcement “Google will end support for the Google Maps Engine (GME) product on January 29, 2016. After January 29, 2016.” Emerging GIS may not be what you think!Monday, January 19th, 2015In this post I am going to return some of the discussions we started last year with our “Is GIS Splitting” post. The general consensus from these conversations was that we are seeing a polarization of GIS. Traditional GIS remains solidly in place, but a new emerging GIS sector is developing. Let’s discuss this polarization. Traditional GISI’ve described traditional GIS as ‘business as usual GIS’. That sounds a little belittling, which is not the intention. GIS has a long history. It has and continues to serve well the geospatial community. Traditional GIS is the bedrock of the discipline. Attend a GIS conference and you’ll be surrounded by peers who talk, think, discuss, and present on deep geospatial issues. Traditional GIS is our comfortable GIS niche. 2015 GIS PredictionsFriday, January 2nd, 2015Happy New Year. Like many other we have been mulling over our 2015 GIS predictions. But before we jump in let’s review 2014. GIS in 2014We saw GIS in 2014 as a year of advancement and self examination. Mobile technology, fed by data and services in the cloud, has put location on the tips of many tongues.
The (niche) GIS industry is in the process of reinventing itself. Our blog post suggesting GIS is Splitting was met with a considerable reaction: from outright agreement to “what do these guys know they don’t even have GIS in their title!” We don’t actually believe GIS is splitting, but it is definitely changing. In 2014 we saw a more polarised GIS sector; on one end traditional GIS, or business as usual. On the other emerging GIS; the wild west of GIS: uncharted, rule free, a little scary, but filled with opportunities. We also began to see discussions on these changes, challenges and opportunities. Location Strategy .. Huh?Monday, December 8th, 2014
The geotechnology industry has always used interesting terminology …. geospatial, GIS, geomatics, Géomatique. As we discussed in a recent blog post called GIS is Changing, we seem to have have developed our own language. Location strategy is somewhat easier to understand. Well maybe. Location Strategy .. Huh?What exactly is a location strategy?
Historically where has not been important outside of the geotechnology or GIS industry. But increasingly business executives are realizing that thinking geographically can improve their business and organization: saving money, and helping in the decision making process. Much of this awareness has come from the popularity of cloud and mobile computing. Why you might ask? The cloud has made a plethora of services available 24×7. Geographic or geospatial services, which answer the where question, are among these many services. ArcGIS Online from Esri is a good example of such a service. We are seeing a clear split in how these various service are being used. The consumer and advertising location-based search kind of experience is a key part of the Apple, Google and Bing offering. GIS in contrast is focused on managing authoritative data sources. Thus supporting geocentric workflows like fixing roads, making cities more livable through better planning, environmental management, forest management, drilling in the right location for oil, managing utilities, assets and people.
What do we mean by authoritative data source? Another term used here is the system of record, and defined as:
Traditionally heavily used in the public sector, GIS is now seeing dramatic growth in the commercial sector. This will accelerate over the next few years, with greater access to maps across organizations and the increasing use of GIS to manage the business. The increasing popularity in GIS, and changes in the traditional user base, has created much disruption in the GIS industry. It would be an overstatement to use the term chaos, but considerable change and self examination is underway. More on this in a future post. At WebMapSolutions we have geared ourselves up to help a new set of industries and users. We have GIS jumpstart processes in place to help organizations implement and use GIS. Contact us for more information 801-733-0723.
Web ArcGIS Apps are AmazingMonday, November 24th, 2014An odd title for a blog post: Web ArcGIS apps are amazing. Why would we make such a profound statement? We still see mobile and web apps treated separately. “Mobile enable your web page” we hear. Have clever ‘native’ developers build your iPad, Android or Surface Pro app is another. In Praise of Web TechnologyWeb technology is wonderful. Anybody with a browser can use a web application. That means access from any device: office PC, smartphone, tablet. But what we can do in an ArcGIS web application is limited right? Wrong! |
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