Lessons learned while taking a geocentric mashup to being a business

Why should you care?

Web2.0

Why should you care?

Are complex GIS products needed to build a geocommunity?

Numbers: * Comscore July 2007 amount spent on GIS approx. £5,000 employees 8 countries 2 types of geodata 10+ unique UK users* 219,000 UK homes 500,000

Challenges: geocoding understanding user intent merging diverse geodata internationalisation open API

geocoding

understanding user intent

merging diverse geodata

internationalisation

open API

Geocoding: free text to longitude, latitude 10 Poland Street, W1F 7NJ to 51.512438, -0.133619 100,000s transactions/day (10,000/min peak) multiple countries

free text to longitude, latitude

10 Poland Street, W1F 7NJ to 51.512438, -0.133619

100,000s transactions/day (10,000/min peak)

multiple countries

Free Trade Wharf, 340 The Highway, Wapping/Limehouse London Fountain Road (Flat 2), Edgbaston, UK 15, ASTLEY HOUSE, LONDON Albert Villas, Gilbert Mews, LEIGHTON BUZZARD, Bedfordshire, LU7 1NF Lake Lock Drive, Wakefield West Yorkshire Church Lane, London

UK postcodes (((^[BEGLMNS][1-9]d?) | (^W[2-9] ) | ( ^( A[BL] | B[ABDHLNRST] | C[ABFHMORTVW] | D[ADEGHLNTY] | E[HNX] | F[KY] | G[LUY] | H[ADGPRSUX] | I[GMPV] | JE | K[ATWY] | L[ADELNSU] | M[EKL] | N[EGNPRW] | O[LX] | P[AEHLOR] | R[GHM] | S[AEGKL-PRSTWY] | T[ADFNQRSW] | UB | W[ADFNRSV] | YO | ZE ) dd?) | (^W1[A-HJKSTUW0-9]) | (( (^WC[1-2]) | (^EC[1-4]) | (^SW1) ) [ABEHMNPRVWXY] ) ) (s*)? ([0-9][ABD-HJLNP-UW-Z]{2})) housenumbers (d+[-/]?d*[-]?[A-F]*[-/]?w*)

about 800k streets, 350k unique names in UK 1341x High Street 1319x Station Road 1015x Church Street 140 abbreviations Av, Dr, Rd, Sq, Pl, Pk ... cleansing, typos, spacing, utf8, house numbers ...

about 800k streets, 350k unique names in UK

1341x High Street

1319x Station Road

1015x Church Street

140 abbreviations

Av, Dr, Rd, Sq, Pl, Pk ...

cleansing, typos, spacing, utf8, house numbers ...

User intent I want to live “near “ Central London I want to live “near “ Soho I want to live “near “ Speyton

‘ Waterloo’ five different Waterloos in the UK

‘ Waterloo’

five different Waterloos in the UK

‘ Rushton’ three different Rushtons in the UK

‘ Rushton’

three different Rushtons in the UK

Merging diverse geodata MP constituencies no correlation to boroughs/postcodes/anything

Photos of every OS grid no correlation to boroughs/postcodes/anything

Internationalis(z)ation

Major differences: base data RoyalMail vs. Tele Atlas character set different scales UK postcode is not the same as an ES postcode market differences ‘ The flat is in central Madrid’

base data

RoyalMail vs. Tele Atlas

character set

different scales

UK postcode is not the same as an ES postcode

market differences

‘ The flat is in central Madrid’

Exposing geodata Google mapplet

Facebook Application

Widgets

Literally cut and paste

Open Formats GeoRSS API You can have our data Sharing is good! Yahoo Pipes, Facebook Platform …

GeoRSS

API

You can have our data

Sharing is good!

Yahoo Pipes, Facebook Platform …

Why should you care?

It’s very possible to build a geocommunity without GIS

Is the professional GIS community relevant?

Points to consider: Openness wins You can’t compete with free Data is becoming a commodity. Rapidly

Openness wins

You can’t compete with free

Data is becoming a commodity. Rapidly

What to do? Communicate more Free your data Engage with innovators, don’t fight them

Communicate more

Free your data

Engage with innovators, don’t fight them

Questions/Discussion

Other interesting things I haven’t mentioned Text analysis/cleansing

Text analysis/cleansing

Detecting duplicates

Detecting duplicates

Learn more: http://blog.nestoria.co.uk

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