This column is sponsored by ESRI
The increasing innovation of online mapping continues to amaze and surprise me, particularly this week after viewing many interactive maps dealing with the U.S. elections. Clever interfaces for map-based views push the interest in mapping, and expand the prospects for the entire geospatial industry. The elections also provide a high-profile opportunity for some spatial analysis.
The tools and interfaces for online mapping provide an opportunity for innovation from a far flung group of developers. Developers with geospatial backgrounds are pushing more professional capabilities online that extend the GIS publication and analysis capabilities of professional practitioners. There are also many developers without a geospatial background that provide a new perspective that often leads to exciting innovations. GIS software makers are opening up via standards, developer-focused APIs, and other means, and the increased openness is having a positive impact on available features and the creation of exciting visualizations.
While the innovation is at a fast and exciting pace, there are some areas that I’d like to accelerate in order to spread more intermediate and advanced geospatial capabilities to much broader audiences. As I contemplate the steps to make geospatial capabilities more useful and universal, I think it has less to do with new features and functionality, and more to do with creating intuitive and customized applications with a certain amount of wow factor.
Broadcasting Geo Reach
The business benefits of geospatial technology are well known to practitioners and a growing number of companies, but they’re still not immediately apparent. I’d love to see some more geographic education by those that make use of the technology in order to benefit their bottom line. Businesses have the means to impress their customers in terms of their operational scope and efficiency. One thought is to weave geospatial analysis as a means of outreach and media, similar to the weight put on podcasts and webcasts these days. Why not a geocast?
A geocast could illustrate innovative uses of geospatial tools as part of multimedia promotion of a company’s inner workings. The geocast would be an interesting element to most websites, particularly if it tells a strong story about the company’s mission, projects, distribution or customer base. For instance, wouldn’t it be great to view not only the sites of a company’s retail locations, but also distribution facilities, and the web of an organization’s suppliers? The level of detail need not be precise for information deemed proprietary, but the global reach of an organization could prove instructional.
For organizations interested in green, the local nature of their business might be of strong benefit for marketing. For organizations with strong international spread, their interests in developing markets could be promoted for their global citizenship. The geocast would take advantage of all the great geospatial data and visualization tools, and would help to advance development in sophisticated geospatial visualization.
Tracking with More Flash
I enjoy the capability to track the delivery schedule of packages that I’ve ordered, particularly with the holidays coming up. It would be great if there were a real-time routing and trace-back feature for all shipments that incorporated more of a map interface. I like the thought of being able to see a package leave a warehouse and make its way to my house, perhaps with an optional text alert as it’s nearing my door. This would be a critical feature for items requiring signature, and would improve the efficiency and customer service of commercial shippers.
More visual tracking would be a great way to illustrate the distance that goods travel, and the route that they take. The near real time tracking of the truck could add a fun sense of anticipation, particularly in the young. And it would be a great geography lesson too. I’d love to send an e-mail note to my neices and nephews that their package has been ordered and is on the way with a link that let’s them see it happen. I envision a little red line from my house to the supplier, and then a map and timeline showing their house and the progress of the package. It would provide a more meaningful sense that I’m thinking about them, and they’d get a chance to visually connect with my distant location. Grandparents would really eat up this idea.
Armchair Traveler
Travel is becoming more of a luxury these days, but the idea of visiting the far reaches of our world is even more compelling now in this age of globalization. I like to think about the workings of the world, and would enjoy a richer means to explore places of interest online. While the 3D immersive global exploration tools are moving forward in this regard, there’s considerable progress to be made to bring the sights and sounds of a location to life.
I enjoy collaborating with a far flung network of web workers, but I’d love to make more of a visceral connection to their location. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to share a better sense of your location, weather or local happening with those that you’ve come to call colleagues. The age of project based work that spans the globe is becoming all the more common, and there’s a learning opportunity about our world with every connection that we make. Just last week, a project had a temporary hold due to a festival in India. I would have loved to catch a glimpse of what that festival was like.
I’m excited by many different online advancements of late. The richness of the online experience is poised to become much more exciting and interactive. I’m hoping that a good deal of the excitement will revolve around geospatial visualization and spatial analysis tools that spread this functionality to a wider and wider audience.
Read what Jeff Thurston has to say on this topic here.
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