Are We Nearly There Yet?

Are we nearly there yet? Andrew Coote ConsultingWhere Ltd Independent Geospatial Consultants [email_address]

Yes: we’ve arrived
Many of the technology challenges we faced at the time of Chorley have been swept away;
Geographical Information is now a part of the Informational Systems mainstream;
More digital spatial data exists than we could have ever imagined in 1987.
Geotagged photos on Flickr (50m in 2008)
15cm Aerial Photography for 600 cities worldwide
Massively improved awareness of the power of geographical information.

No: the destination has changed
Depends on where we want to get to.... that’s moved
Since Chorley the industry has been changing but in relatively small increments – there were breakthroughs but their effects emerged at a rate businesses and Government could absorb and adapt to.
What we are seeing now is the biggest paradigm shift the industry has seen in my professional career – the cheese has moved!
The industry will look a lot different in 2-3 years time.

What is different now?
Pace of change (demise of the record industry: as we knew it)
Speed of Communication (e.g. Twitter)
Medium of Communication (television / newspapers -> web)
Chips with everything (e.g intelligent fridge)
Globalisation (China has more internet users than the US)
Artificial Intelligence (the web has a level of consciousness)
Cultural Change
Generation Y
Work / Life balance
Social networking
The truth is for the first time no one can control information

Operating Environment Analysis

UK GI Market Size £650m* in 2007 * Estimated within +/- 10% Source: Size and growth prospects for the UK Geospatial market, downloadable from www.consultingwhere.com

UK Industry Business drivers
Continued recessional outlook, leading to:
Emphasis everywhere on cost reduction rather than new investment;
More important Green agenda
Moving climate change, flood risk management, alternative energy applications into focus
Greater regulation / reporting requirements
already affects utilities and can be expected to increase in commercial and Government sectors;
Enterprise Computing – Geospatial enters the mainstream
Location Strategy
– offers some hope of a more coordinated approach from UK Government
OS Re-structuring
INSPIRE ?

Information management Paradigm Shift
Few data providers
Striving for perfection
Passive users
Specialist GPS
Total stations
2D Representation
Disconnected information “silos”
Data Centre
Periodic Update
Private Data
Many data providers
Acceptance of errors
Participative Consumers
Ubiquitous SatNav
Laser scanned Point Clouds
3D Reality
All data on the geoweb and “mashable”
Remote Hosting (cloud computing)
Real time feeds
Public data

Software Paradigm Shift
Informational web
Client-server
Desktop software
Mobile
Software development
Visual Basic
Records management
Onshore Development
Collaborative web (web 2.0)
Service-oriented Architecture
Software as a Service
Ubiquitous computing
Configuration
Flex / Flash
Decision Support
Nearshore Development

The changing shape of the Industry
Growth of Consumer Location-based Services
Mass market Visualisation services e.g. Google earth, Virtual Earth
Device manufacturers e.g. Nokia, Tom-Tom, Apple
System Integrators
Big bones need big dogs
GIS vendors
Software margins under pressure
Increased emphasis on solutions (GIS + application software + services)
Resurgence of CAD / GIS Integration Products
Open Source
Software
Crowd Sourced data
Neogeography
Niche Applications

Whither the GI professional?
We come with “spatial inside”
New skills required:
Technical to Business
Manufacturing product to Delivering Services
Capture to Analysis
Data Management to Consultancy
Understanding quality is still marketable
GIS Specialists -> geo-enabled domain experts

Summary
We’ve gone a very long way to achieving Chorley’s vision in many respects;
Institutional barriers remain but the web will sweep many of these away;
Technology is driving a paradigm shift in the industry;
There are new kids on the block – the balance of power is changing;
As an industry – we need to adapt or die.

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Are We Nearly There Yet?

by UCL on Jul 28, 2009

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Are We Nearly There Yet? — Presentation Transcript