iPad minis are cool. Their size means they are easy to carry; ideal for field work. But they are poor cousins to their larger relative. The biggest complaint is their lack of resources. Put simple they are badly under-powered. RAM is the biggest problem, try running too many apps or start using the camera and slowness and app crashing is inevitable. We wanted to demonstrate mobile offline data collection on an iPad mini. Our integrated ArcGIS Online mobile disconnected app has been recently optimized with this aim in mind. The short video shows the app in action:
The full potential of GIS is only just being realised. Esri and other location focused companies are driving forward with regular, new service releases which extend the possible applications of the technology. A wave of company mergers and acquisitions is underway in the location sector.
There are many exciting new ways to apply location technology. We thought it worth listing 5 cool new applications of Mobile GIS:
5 Cool New Applications of Mobile GIS
Geo-Triggers
Geotrigger technology adds location awareness and location based alerts to mobile apps. Esri’s 2012 purchase of the Portland based Geologi, has helped raise the profile of this technology. They describe how the service works as follows:
GIS was once a technology used only by those with the deepest pockets. Today things have begun to change. In this post we will discuss 3 reasons GIS is now more affordable, for big and small organization alike.
Our development team really like the GeoEnrichment service from Esri. We’ve been working with this service for some time and see some key commercial areas of application. In a previous blog we mentioned a mobile app we were building as a demo. Our focus was using GIS on your mobile for location selection. The development effort was largely driven by requests we have received from a number of retail organizations looking to improve how they assess potential locations for new stores. Moving forward we see this as an important area in our commercial GIS development division.
The possibilities presented by mobile technology and GIS is only just beginning to truly be realised. As a company we have been actively developing Android and Apple mobile GIS apps for over 2 years. We are ever more excited about how we can now apply GIS in the field. One new release from Esri which really caught our attention was the GeoEnrichment service. Below is an iPad demo of site selection analysis using ArcGIS Online, and this new service.
With this years conference now over, I thought it worth listing my 5 reflections on the South West User Conference (SWUC) held last week in Salt Lake City. The conference was a great success. WebMapSolutions was one of the sponsors of the event, along with a number of other local GIS focused companies including Gateway Computing and CityWorks. We took an informal survey of SWUC attendees.The results we thought were surprising. Below we reflect in our overall thoughts on the conference. (more…)
Last week we were one of the sponsors of the excellent South West Users Conference (SWUC), here in Salt Lake City. One of our activities at the conference was to conduct an informal attendee poll. Nearly one third of attendees responded. It proved to be a very interesting survey on ArcGIS Online. We asked 4 simple questions; the results are below: (more…)
WebMapSolutions have started honoring Veterans with GIS; story maps providing the perfect mechanism.
The Military Banners Program has been adopted by many US cities: honoring local veterans with banners hung along designated streets. WebMapSolutions wanted to share these banners with those being honored. Now those serving overseas can find and view their banner in a story map published over the Internet.
WebMapSolutions have adapted an existing story map to enable search and enhanced viewing capabilities for data from the city of Chino Hills. Data collection was done using Esri’s Offline Mobile Editing App. (more…)
Offline ArcGIS editing on an iPhone cannot be done right?
We could just as easily have asked if offline editing can be done period!
At WebMapSolutions we have been building an offline ArcGIS Online editing solution. Offline is complex; the process involves reading and writing data to/from the mobile device, then syncing with ArcGIS Online. But there is a huge need for such a mobile app, given such spotty Wi-Fi coverage in so many areas.
This initial version is targeted at iPad and Android tablets. We’ve made it affordable to both large and small organizations. The mobile app was launched in September to the Esri Marketplace, and has proven very popular. (more…)
Collecting feedback from citizens has always been a challenge for local government. Pot holes, graffiti, localised flooding, blocked roads are all citizen and local government concerns. But having a simple system in place which is easy for citizens to use, and local governments to view and act upon, has proven difficult and expensive. We have all done it, wanted to report an issue of concern. Usually we would phone the city office, be passed between departments and finally our concern noted by a staff member. And that was that; no feedback mechanism for citizens – the issue is in our system and will be fixed tomorrow – and no way for city staff to centrally log the issue.
Sure, there are systems in place which provide this mechanism, but they are often very expensive. That is not the case any more. New technology means citizen engagement apps are now easy to develop. Thus the title of this post ‘Citizen Engagement Apps Made Easy’. Here we will discuss new approaches to engaging with citizens using location technology. (more…)
