I spent a day at the GIS In Action 2011 in Portland, OR this week. While it was a relatively small conference (~200 attendees), the former Governor of Wyoming and current Esri Director of Policy & Public Sector Strategy, Jim Geringer, was the keynote speaker who had a interesting perspective.

The most interesting part of Mr. Geringer’s keynote was not really about GIS, at least not technically. He posed the question “If you had 10 minutes at the top, what would you talk about?”

It’s an interesting question. What if you had your 10 minutes at the top? What would you talk about? The “top” may be your state Governor or it could be your organization’s IT department chief, Budget Director, or anyone else with little knowledge about GIS but who makes policy and/or budget decisions that affect your department’s GIS.

Mr. Geringer, undoubtedly one who was on the receiving end of many of these 10 minute lightning talks, emphasized that you’ve got to make your talk relevant to something that is on that person’s list of current topics. Following is a slide that Mr. Geringer displayed when talking about this subject.

For example, if there’s a severe drought in your state, it might be in the Governor’s Top 10 list of concerns. In that case, you might emphasize the importance of GIS in analyzing the water resource problem and how it might help develop solutions. Another example might be criminal activity in your city. If you were to have 10 minutes with your City Mayor, you could explain how GIS could be (or is) used to analyze trends in criminal activity so that crime-fighting resources might be more efficiently allocated.

I think the Governor’s point well-taken. It’s very easy (I’m guilty of it as much as anyone) to get caught up in our own world of technology and forget how to explain to people outside of our geospatial industry how important geography is in most challenges we face.

Another interesting subject the former governor discussing were the top 10 issues facing state government, from his perspective.

His point is well-made that all of these issues have a geographic element to them.

To emphasize the #1 issue facing U.S. state governments, he presented the following slide.

And, of course, a conversation about GIS trends would not be complete without a discussion about the explosion of mobile devices.

Another presentation I attended at the conference was one from Jon Aschenbach who discussed a snowboarding half-pipe mapping project on Mount Hood in Oregon.

The problem was that the operator didn’t know exactly where to position the half-pipe during the fall before the snow fell. If they didn’t position it correctly, they would have to move it mid-season, due to lack of snow, at a cost of $10,000+.

The elevation difference from the top of the half-pipe to the bottom of the half-pipe is nearly 1,000 feet.

The crew collected topographic data when the snow was largely melted to understand the best placement for the half-pipe. If they place the half-pipe optimally, they will avoid rocks emerging in the late spring as the snow begins to melt and enjoy a longer season and avoid having to move the half-pipe.

During the winter, the crew took measurements to understand the depth of the snow at certain locations on the half-pipe.

One of the challenges was finding a solid surface to locate the GPS base station and also to optimize the range of the spread-spectrum RTK radios.

According to the presentation, Mount Hood receives an average of 550 inches of snowfall each year. It’s high elevation helps retain snow into the summer. It’s a world-class area for skiing and snowboarding. Olympic snow ski and snowboard teams train at Mount Hood during the summer.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

Three Cool Things in Geospatial

Corning Glass

After watching this video (5:33 in length), you may feel like buying stock in Corning Glass!

How important are graphic displays to the geospatial professional? I’d say vital. I’m not sure about all the consumer glass stuff they show in the video, but it does show where glass technology is heading. I was at a municipal transportation advisory meeting last night and I can imagine a dual-purpose whiteboard/mointor in a city planner’s conference room where one could display the City GIS for detailed discussions instead of the dated, static maps taped up on the wall. The only question is cost. Given the cost reduction of large, high-resolution monitors in the past two years, Corning’s vision, at least for geospatial apps, may not be that far off.

Augmented Reality

Hmmm…do you see a trend here? Tablet computers, glass displays, augmented reality software.

It’s pretty clear where things are heading. You can already see this on mobile phones today.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I bought a Samsung Galaxy S (Epic 4G) phone. It’s screen is large enough (4″ display) that you can use it like a tablet computer. The touch screen display is such that I use it like you saw in the Corning video using Swype or similar technology.

This week, Juniper Research concluded from their research that Augmented Reality will be a $1.5 billion business by 2015. They cited the availability of software development tools, device manufacturers decision to pre-load augmented reality apps on mobile devices, and trends in mobile device advertising as key drivers of augmented reality.

I have not found a better one-minute video than the one below that exemplifies the beauty of augmented reality. It’s truly an example of technology integration as GPS and digital compass data are used to correctly position the mobile device.

iPad 2

Although it hasn’t panned out to be the geospatial tool it could have been, the iPad has given the tablet industry some mojo. It’s pure speculation on my part, but I think it’s safe to say that more tablets have been introduced in the past year than in the previous five years, thanks to the iPad.

What does the the iPad 2 offer?

33% thinner, 15% or so lighter, faster processor, front and rear cameras. Nice features, but it’s more of an update than an upgrade. Still no support for Bluetooth SPP (Serial Port Profile), so you still can’t interface it to external GPS receivers.

iPad 2

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

It’s easy to jump ahead and talk about the exciting things happening today and on the horizon in the geospatial industry. Rich 3D visualizations, complex databases, sophisticated analysis, high-tech data collection equipment, etc. But what about the thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of people who could benefit from just being able to take the first step of importing basic information and coordinates into a mapping program.

Last week, a reader sent me a small dataset of simple lat/lon coordinates in Excel and asked me the best way to import them into some sort of mapping software. My first inclination was to use ArcGIS.com or Google Earth, or something online to avoid having to download, install and maintain software on local computers. But alas, that was not to be. After a quick post to the ArcGIS Resource Center Forum, I quickly found out that ArcGIS.com was not going to work.

“Nelson” responded to my post with the following:

Hmmm….I briefly considered Google Earth, but my experience has not been great with Earth or Earth Pro. It’s ok, but still a little cheesy for my tasted.

When I suggested that my back-up plan was to investigate ArcGIS Explorer, Nelson responded:

ArcExplorer is definately the route you should take.

There are a number of advantages to it:

1) The points can be imported very easily using the GUI.

2) If they ever do decide to shift to a GIS, the layers in ArcExplorer can be shared using Layer Packages or KML files.

3) The Google Earth interface is not as user friendly as ArcExplorer and you also have the ability to change to a number of Basemaps on the fly — ArcGIS Online (Imagery, Topographic, Streets) Bing and OpenStreetMap with 2D/3D rendering.

Lastly, if you yourself are an ArcGIS user, it will probably make your life a little bit easier to work with a format that is well organized and familiar to you.

Cheers,

P.S. At the Federal User Conference, Esri announced there is going to be tons more functionality built in to ArcExplorer over the course of the year.

At that point, I committed to trying ArcGIS Explorer. Please note that I’m the last person to open a manual for this kind of software. I really think it should be straight-forward enough to figure it out in a few minutes. The only reference I used was the online ArcGIS Explorer Desktop FAQ and I accessed the Help file once. Of course, I used the ArcGIS Explorer Forum, which is very good.

Here is a screenshot of the data I had to work with. it was 62 records long, a subset of the actual dataset.

I spent the most time making sure the coordinates were formatted correctly. The original spreadsheet had N/S/E/W to indicators instead of positive and negative. For example, instead of -17 04.201, it was formatted as 17 04.201s, with the “s” denoting south latitude. For your reference, north latitude is positive values, south latitude is negative, east longitude is positive, and west longitude is negative. This had to change. With only 62 records, I could do it by hand in a couple of minutes. If I had to change 600 or 6,000 records, I would have used a more automated method.

The other item I needed to figure out were the attributes. None were provided in the spreadsheet, so I inserted a description number and a title for each point.

Once the spreadsheet was formatted correctly, the rest was very quick and straight-forward. After installing ArcGIS Explorer, this is what you see when you run the program.

If any of you had used ArcExplorer in years past like I did, this is totally different, and refreshing.

I saved the Excel spreadsheet as a CSV file (Comma-delimited text file).

To import into ArcGIS Explorer, simply select Add Content/Text Files.

Once you select the CSV file, it reminds me of importing a CSV file into Excel in that you have to define what each spreadsheet column means, although ArcGIS Explorer does recognize some of the fields automatically. For example, if the top of a column is labeled lat, latitude, y, y-coord, y-coordinate, ArcGIS Explorer automatically assumes the data in the column contains latitude data. The same goes for the longitude and elevation fields. For a good description of importing text files, click here.

First text import screen:

Second text import screen:

After clicking on Finish, the data is imported and displayed in ArcGIS Explorer.

The background imagery is automatically displayed and there are a number of display and analysis options.

To query a particular feature, simply click on it. A window is displayed as follows:

The pop-up window could display a number of things such as hyperlinks, photos, videos, etc.

Once your data is imported, other map data can be added to customize the final to your liking.

Finally, there is a 3D view that I tried, but it didn’t work for me. I suspect it had to do with my laptop video card or video memory, but I would like to have seen it work. That would have been cool to see, especially if a rough terrain surface was visible.

Alas, there is an online version of ArcGIS Explorer I didn’t try. There was some discussion about it at the 2011 Esri Federal User Conference (FedUC) a couple of weeks ago. Click here to see what’s coming in future updates of ArcGIS Explorer Online.

Thanks, and see you next week.

<
span style=”font-size: 11px; color: rgb(82, 82, 82); line-height: 16px; font-family: Arial;”>Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

It’s not often that I share content between the two newsletters I write (Geospatial Weekly and Survey Scene), but this week is one of them. Europe’s version of GPS (named Galileo) will have a profound effect on the geospatial industry in the future. In the past, I’ve written about how cheap accurate positioning is going to get. Europe’s Galileo is a big step in that direction and an important factor in making it happen faster than GPS alone.

Being able to collect accurate geospatial data, whether it’s a utility pole, a wetland monitoring well, or a catch basin, will be infinitely easier, cheaper, more efficient and more accurate than it is today. Therefore, with accurate data becoming much more available and accessible, what do you think will happen to geospatial applications?

To answer that question, I’ll use an analogy that we can all relate to.

Remember in the early ’90s when the average person accessed the Internet via a dial-up connection? You were lucky to get a connection speed of 56 kbps, and more likely it was 28.8 kbps or 14.4 kbps. At that speed, there is only a limited amount of activity one could do on the web. Geospatial professionals and geospatial users are particularly heavy users of Internet bandwidth. GIS vector data, imagery, and maps in general create sizable files. Can you imagine the typical geospatial professional trying to accomplish their daily tasks using a 56 kbps dial-up connection to the Internet?

Think about how much economic benefit the world has gained with the introduction and proliferation of broadband (cable, DSL, high-speed wireless, etc.) Internet connectivity. Not only are we more efficient with broadband connectivity, we are more enabled. Take one example, cloud computing. That emerging technology is totally reliant on broadband Internet connectivity. If only dial-up existed, cloud computing wouldn’t exist.

To put GPS/GNSS (Galileo, GLONASS, etc.) in perspective, we are still in the “dial-up” phase. Even though GPS/GNSS is a multi-billion worldwide industry today, imagine what it will be when it enters into the “broadband” phase. Try to imagine the tremendous number of applications that will be enabled when GPS/GNSS is orders of magnitude less expensive and more accurate than it is today. Then, think about how much of the GPS/GNSS industry has a geospatial component to it.

The following is lifted from my Survey Scene newsletter we published this week. It describes the path to cheap accuracy and how Galileo will help us get there faster.

2011: The Year for Galileo

January 18, 2011

By Eric Gakstatter

Back in December 2006, I wrote about the momentum of Galileo (Europe’s planned satellite navigation system) in an article discussing GNSS trends. Galileo been discussed off and on for well over a decade and was a hot topic for a number of years. In fact, back around 2001, the U.S. really didn’t want the European Union to embark on the project. While there was not a clear policy against Galileo, certainly the sentiment was questioning the creation of another satellite navigation system when GPS already exists that’s free for everyone to use. Ok, it probably wasn’t that simple, but you get my point. No bueno from the U.S. at that time.

The following is an EU slide that illustrates why the EU wants to develop its own satellite navigation system similar to GPS:

Source: European Commission – Montpellier, France – October 2010

Then, in 2004, the U.S. government abruptly changed its tune. It really doesn’t matter why and I’m not sure I’d believe the answer if I was given one, but President George HW Bush instituted a new policy that encouraged international cooperation. The U.S. SPACE-BASED POSITIONING, NAVIGATION, AND TIMING POLICY issued in 2004 stated, among other things, that the United States shall:

“Seek to ensure that foreign space-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems are interoperable with the civil services of the Global Positioning System and its augmentations in order to benefit civil, commercial, and scientific users worldwide. At a minimum, seek to ensure that foreign systems are compatible with the Global Positioning System and its augmentations and address mutual security concerns with foreign providers to prevent hostile use of space-based positioning, navigation, and timing services;”

Also in 2004, the U.S. and European Union signed the landmark GPS-Galileo Agreement that established a basis of cooperation. This was great news for the GNSS user community. More satellites and more signals usually equates to better performance.

The next policy update after 2004 was last year (2010) and it was simply titled “NATIONAL SPACE POLICY“. The sentiment regarding international cooperation was the same, if not leaning more towards cooperation:

“Engage with foreign GNSS providers to encourage compatibility and interoperability, promote transparency in civil service provision, and enable market access for U.S. industry;”

After the 2004 GPS-Galileo policy was published, the question from the civil user community was, “When are we going to have satellites in orbit broadcasting signals we can use?”

The answer to that question wasn’t easy, and took longer to answer than anyone predicted, including myself.

Now, we have the answer.

Unlike GPS and GLONASS, Galileo is a civilian
project, not a military-funded one. I’m not saying GPS and GLONASS were easy to fund, but the core application was defined (military use), and the funding required to develop and maintain GPS and GLONASS is drawn from the military budget. Furthermore, the European Union is comprised of 27 member countries. The political dynamics are, obviously, very complex.

The Galileo funding modeling initially was to be a public-private partnership (PPP). Part of it would be funded with public money and part of it would be funded by a consortium of companies. But, that wasn’t so easy. How much funding would each contribute? What’s the return on investment? How would it generate revenue? Would there be a tax receiver sales? Would there be a user charge?

We’re not talking about small sum of money. We’re talking about several billion Euros just to get it off the ground.Think about it, how much money has the U.S. military spent to develop GPS? $30-$35 billion for development, deployment and long-term maintenance. Granted, Galileo will cost a lot less than that, but it’s still a healthy sum that no company would be willing to gamble without a solid return-on-investment (ROI) argument.

Eventually, the PPP (Private-Public Partnership) funding model was abandoned and in late 2007, and as described in a January 2008 GPS World article:

“European officials responsible for the EU budget said they had found funds for Galileo, proposing to draw unused money originally earmarked for natural resources programs this year and next. The move would provide some €2.4 billion ($3.3 billion) for Galileo — the budgetary shortfall left with the dissolution of the public/private partnerships — over the course of the next six years. The following month, European parliamentarians agreed with the plan, but felt it didn’t go far enough. They boosted proposed funding for Galileo, increasing the money set aside for the program in 2008 to €739 million ($1.06 billion), up from the much more modest €151 million under the transport officials’ original proposal for next year.

Not all were sold on public funding for Galileo. But in November, European officials said they had ironed out their differences. At the 11th hour came heated debate about how Galileo funding and contracts would be awarded among member states and their respective aerospace companies. Eventually, a final accord was reached. Europe anticipates spending €3.7 billion on Galileo through 2013.”

(Updated figures: €2.1 billion for IOV and €3.4 billion for FOC)

That was three years ago. The EU folks have been working hard since then, but talk is cheap and people stopped talking about Galileo with the exception of a few information spikes here and there. There was nothing else to say until now.

2011 is the Year for Galileo

Galileo will likely meet a major milestone this summer, launching their first two satellites for in-orbit validation. But unlike the two Galileo test satellites already in orbit (GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B), these satellites will be part of the planned 30-satellite operating constellation.

For you Galileo naysayers, the EU is past the point of no return. Eighteen satellites are contracted. There is no reversing the process. And, if I were to place a bet, it’s very unlikely to stall at 18. That would be sort of like building a structure, but not finishing the interior.

Although I haven’t seen a detailed launch schedule or control segment plan, the latest Galileo public document I’ve read (European Commission – Montpellier, October 2010) presents the following timeline:

2011/2012 – In-Orbit validation: Four IOV satellites and ground segment (based on European Commission presentation from October 2010).

2014/2015 – Initial Operating Capability for early services — 18 satellites (based on European Commission presentation from October 2010).

2019/2020 – Full Operating Capability — 30 satellites (based on mid-term review released January 18, 2011)

2014 Will Be the Year of Cheap GNSS Accuracy

I believe the magic year for GNSS will be 2014. That’s when GNSS receivers are going to be very interesting.

Why?

It’s no secret that I think the new L5 signal is a game-changer. Last summer I wrote an article titled “What’s Going to Happen When High-Accuracy GPS is Cheap?”  It’s all about L5.

L1/L5 dual-frequency receivers are going to be cheap, and accurate. Today, dual-frequency (L1/L2) receivers are thousands of dollars. L1/L5 receivers will be a fraction of that cost because open signal specifications will lead to increased competition.

As I mentioned in the article last summer, the GPS Directorate is planned to have 24 satellites broadcasting L5 by 2019. The beauty of Galileo is that it can cut that time in half and make it happen by 2014, only three years from now. Here’s how.

Since Galileo supports L1 and L5 similar to GPS, you only need 12 x GPS satellites broadcasting L5 and 12 x Galileo satellites broadcasting L5 to have something close to 24 satellites broadcasting L5.

The BIG question is if the U.S. and EU will coordinate orbit slots so the 12 x GPS and 12 x Galileo satellites are in a somewhat optimal 24-slot constellation instead of an uncoordinated configuration. The civil economic benefit from taking advantage of L5 as soon as possible would be substantial. Just this week, the EU issued a reportstating that 6-7% of the GDP of EU countries is dependent on satellite navigation. Better accuracy enabled by L1/L5 will spur a mind-boggling number of new applications that will further broaden the GNSS user base and economic impact. It would also stimulate GNSS receiver development from a much broader range of GNSS receiver designers than we see today.

With a combined GPS/Galileo constellation, not only will accuracy become cheaper, but availability will increase significantly. The new GPS 24+ 3 configuration is certainly a big help for high precision users with respect to availability. Can you imagine how much precise positioning availability will improve when 18 Galileo satellites (not to mention 30) are added to the mix? Last summer, the EU-U.S. Cooperation on Satellite Navigation Working Group C published a report entitled “Combined Performance for Open GPS/Galileo Receivers.” The report succinctly draws the following conclusion, with which I wholeheartedly agree:

“The studies demonstrate and quantify the improvements that can be expected when using GPS and Galileo open services in combination under different environmental conditions. In all studied cases, the combination of GPS and Galileo led to noteworthy performance improvements as compared to single system performance. The most significant improvement is for partially obscured environments, where buildings, trees or terrain block portions of the sky. The increased number of satellites available provides robust performance even as some signals are blocked, which is reflected in a significant increase of positioning accuracy and availability.”

Following are some data from the report that back up the conclusions on availability.

Availability with a 15° elevation mask

GPS only – 99.10%

Galileo only – 100%

GPS/Galileo – 100%

Availability with a 30° degree elevation mask

GPS only – 57.28%

Galileo only – 75.02%

GPS/Galileo – 98.93%

Granted, you should take these numbers with a grain of salt. These are based on positioning with four satellites in view. The reality is that for high precision users, we need data from at least six satellites for robust positioning. But, I think the scale of improvement when going to GPS/Galileo constellation is obvious and will scale similarly when considering six satellite positioning.

For all the reasons above, I’m putting my stamp on 2011 as being The Year of Galileo. Look forward to further coverage on Galileo in the coming months.

———————————————–

Upcoming Jan. 26 Webinar: SBAS, DGPS or Post-processing? Which Should You Use?

Speakers:

Eric Gakstatter, Editor, Geospatial Solutions and Survey Scene newsletter &

Dr. Mike Whitehead, VP of Technology at Hemisphere GPS

Event Date: 01/26/2011 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, 5 PM GMT

Tens of thousands of users around the world utilize GPS/GNSS receivers for mapping, surveying and navigating. Since autonomous GPS/GNSS typically does not provide the needed accuracy, users must rely on a source of GPS/GNSS corrections. There are three sources of GPS/GNSS corrections available to users who desire reliable GPS/GNSS accuracy in the sub-meter to three meter range: SBAS, DGPS and post-processing. Dr. Michael Whitehead, Chief Scientist at Hemisphere GPS, will join me in presenting a background on the three technologies as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each. I’ve known Mike for a number of years. He was an early innovator in the development of SBAS technology at Satloc as well as SBAS and DGPS receiver technology at Hemisphere GPS. He is one of the leading GNSS engineers in the world. I’m particularly excited about this event and promise a lively discussion that’s full of useful information, data and concepts that anyone using or considering using GPS/GNSS for mapping, surveying or navigating will find useful.

Thanks, and see you next time.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

Ok, a little later than other folks out there, but I’m in Belgium and the beer is good.

Here’s my Ten Big Ones in the geospatial industry for 2011.

Ten Big Ones

1. Open Street Mapping (OpenStreetMap.org)

Yes, this is real and its gaining traction. This is a Wikipedia-like effort to create a digital map of the world, for anyone to use free of charge. You can be contributor, or you can be a user, or you can be both. Think about it, the latest OpenStreetMap blog is talking about mapping public toilets. Strange, but frighteningly useful.

2. Crowd-sourced data

Highly related to OpenStreetMap.org but not dependent on said .org, crowd-sourced data has the potential to go viral. It’s going to take one funky app or news story to get people hooked on crowd-sourced data. Of course, that’s a fad, but it has daily usefulness too such as citizen reporting (eg. graffiti, broken sidewalks, downed trees/powerlines, etc). Moving slower will be land surveyors, engineers, land planners who buy into Esri’s Community Base Map initiative that Jack Dangermond promoted at last year’s Esri International User Conference Plenary.

Mobile Devices, Content, and Other Top GIS Trends

More on Crowd Sourcing

3. LBS apps

Watch where the venture capital money is being invested. Like me, you may not like the Wall Street mentality, but you can rest assured that like vultures, they follow the money. And they are putting their money into LBS ventures, such as Foursquare, Gowalla, and Telenav.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter started as LBS apps, but both went there.

Got an Android phone? If so, you’ve got a free street navigation tool, Google Maps Navigation.

Social networking LBS apps are projected to be a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years.

What is an LBS App?

4. Location Privacy (think LBS apps)

LBS apps are highly dependent on knowing where you are.

GPS is being designed into most mobile phones.

It’s great to know where you are, but do you want someone else knowing where you are? Your friends? Maybe. An advertiser? Maybe. A stalker? Not.

This issue is heating up and will got hot in 2011.

Privacy Push Will Impact Geolocation Sector, Attorney Says

Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) Urges FCC to Use Extreme Caution

5. Augmented Reality

The newest breed of LBS apps has a huge potential. In my opinion, it’s just a matter of time before this technology winds it way into many parts of our lives. In transportation apps alone, it will make our lives a lot more safe.

It’s hard to contain myself when writing about this technology, so I’ll stop here. You will hear about it and you will experience it, this year and beyond.

Augmented Reality

Wikipedia entry

6. Tablet computers

Did you watch news coverage of last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas?

Do you know what they featured?

Tablet computers.

‘Nuf said.

CBS News coverage at CES

2011 will be another great year for tablet computers.

7. Galileo

This is going to sneak up on people in 2011. Galileo (Europe’s version of GPS) will launch its first two satellites in 2011. They are highly compatible with GPS.

Unlike GPS which launches one satellite at a time, multiple Galileo satellites can be launched at one time. They will launch two-at-a-time to get the first four into orbit.

The European Commission says they are on schedule to have 18 satellites in orbit by 2014 (more like 2015, though).

Either way, this is a game-changer.

It will make L5 a reality sooner than GPS-alone.

“What’s Going to Happen When High-Accuracy GPS is Cheap?”

GLONASS? What’s GLONASS?

8. Smart Phones

Guess what the other hot topic was at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas last week?

Yep, smartphones.

Check out CNET’s Jessica Dolcourt’s comment when asked, “What trends will we see in smartphone hardware and software in the next two to five years?”

“We’re going to see quad-core processors and 3D. Gaming will really take off with much better processing speeds and hardware acceleration. Battery technology will also have to improve to handle the much richer multimedia. In terms of hardware, NFC (near-field communication) chips will proliferate as one way that smartphones will largely replace physical wallets.”

I agree. Wallets are going to be so 2010. Good riddance. I didn’t like you in my back pocket anyway.

Putting on my professional geospatial hat, smartphones will change the way we collect data, period.

In 2010, Gartner reported that smartphone sales were up 96% in Q3 2010 compared to Q3 2009; 417 million smartphones were sold in Q3 2010 alone!

And that was before Microsoft introduced the Windows Phone 7.

9. GPS-enabled Digital Cameras

Ricoh seems to be taking the lead and others are following. As a geospatial professional, it’s clear that you value georeferenced digital photos. It’s one of the most highly searched terms on our website.

Digital camera sensors are moving towards becoming ubiquitous. It’s going to become just another feature like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.

GeoSpatial Experts Bundles Three New GPS Cameras with Photo-Mapping Software

10. Cloud Computing

Didn’t we used to do this, but it was called something else? I think so.

Nonetheless, it’s got traction again. Think not? Read this.

Dude, We’re Working in the Cloud

It won’t replace all client apps, but for non-sensitive content, it’s a no-brainer. It’s a big money-saver for enterprise organizations.

Microsoft is going to take a hit. Note to self: Sell MSFT stock.

Thanks, and see you next week.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric

Last week, I wrote about the unpredictable software development landscape for tablet computers and smartphones. The iOS (iPhone/iPad) has firmly established its presence, Android is picking up steam like locomotive, and Windows Phone 7 is making its debut.

I heard from a few readers. One in particular was an employee in a larger enterprise. He bent my ear about “working in the cloud.” He said their office apps were all heading towards being cloud-based, and he suspected that mobile GIS apps were headed that way, too. Essentially, he said that if your tablet or smartphone or whatever runs a compatible web browser, you’re ready for mobile GIS.

“Dude, we’re working in the cloud.”

That said, let’s cover the basics…

What Is “the Cloud” and Where Is It?

The cloud is essentially internet servers (computers) that run the applications your computer uses. These servers reside at companies that offer cloud services. Users connect to those servers via the Internet. For example, instead of installing Microsoft Office on your computer, you would access Microsoft Office applications on the cloud servers using your web browser. All you would need on your computer is a compatible web browser. Essentially, it’s off-loading the IT tasks to someone else. There’s no need to install application software on each desktop computer. With cloud computing, a lot of IT department overhead just disappears. In a true cloud environment, all of your apps reside on servers similar to the diagram shown below.

Source: Wikipedia.org

Some of you may be working in “the cloud” already with some of your apps. In my case, the vast majority of the apps on my computer are resident on my computer (I installed them). However, I’m writing this article with an app running in the cloud. I’m not even sure where the server is located. I connect to the cloud server(s) and log in using a standard web browser (Google Chrome at the moment).

I’m still uneasy with using cloud computing.

In my limited experience, I’ve had a few negative experiences:

1. The application responsiveness is dependent on Internet connection and cloud server capacity. I’ve experienced occasions where the app was running very slow (especially when integrating images) due to the server capacity and/or my Internet connection speed. It’s even worse when I’m accessing the Internet using my wireless data card while traveling.
2. I’ve had occasions when I’ve accidently pressed the wrong key on my keyboad and the application backed up to the previous screen, losing my work.
3. I’ve accidentally used the web browser running the app to perform a Google search, again losing my work.

In all fairness, I think #2 and #3 are a function of the app software rather than cloud computing. It should have an “Are you sure?” warning before taking the user away from the app screen.

Another major concern is information privacy. With cloud computing, every keystroke is sent out into Internet land. That makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Now, I’m sure cloud app providers like Microsoft and Google have thought this out pretty thoroughly, but I’m still hesitant about this. A New York Times article published in 2009 summarized my attitude the best: “Don’t put anything in the cloud you wouldn’t want a competitor, your government, or another government to see.”

Lastly, the pricing structure is much different than purchasing a CD with your application(s). Cloud computing typically charges a monthly per user fee. For example, Microsoft Office 365 (targeted at small businesses) is US$6 per month per user.

How Is Cloud Computing Going to Affect GIS Data Collection (Mobile GIS)?

The readers who contacted me in response to last week’s article all believe that cloud computing will dominate mobile GIS in the future. For the most part, they said that the operating system of the device, whether it’s iOS (Apple), Android (Google), or Windows Phone 7 (Microsoft), won’t be a major factor as long as the smartphone (or other mobile device) can run a web browser. Notice I haven’t mentioned BlackBerry much. I’m not sure they are a long-term player in this game.

Esri has already made its push into GIS cloud computing with its introduction of arcgis.com earlier this year, and then subsequent introductions and updates of its iOS ArcGIS app and API and plans for an Android app, and I imagine, Windows Phone 7, too. Cloud computing was, obviously, a major topic at the Esri International User Conference last summer.

I believe there will be many, many GIS apps for smartphones. It’s hard to debate that. One of our readers, Larry Evans, manages the GIS unit, among other things, for the State of West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. He also teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses on GIS at Marshall University.

Larry was kind enough to send some compelling slides from his course that illustrate the emerging smartphone boom. It’s no secret, but certainly makes one think about where we will be in five years with respect to mobile GIS.

Mobile Devices: Next Computing Cycle? (Courtesy: Larry Evans)

Wireless data growth (Courtesy: Larry Evans)

Mobile data growth (Courtesy: Larry Evans)

New Kids in Town (Courtesy: Larry Evans)

Larry writes:

The one thing I’m certain about in all this is that as the mobile side technology matures we’ll see much more powerful mobile apps that bridge that gap to professional mapping/surveying. As mobile begins to tap better into the potential of sensory networks, things get really interesting in a hurry. Future GPS chips, as we all know, will be an order of magnitude more accurate because of the greater number of SVs (GPS satellites) overhead and our ability to improve antennas and receiver sensitivities. I seem to recall you did a great little write-up of that not long ago. To sum up where my head’s at, I guess I’m in the “they will build it and it will come” camp on professional geospatial apps. Once I have the tools, then I’ll build my own solutions customized for the kinds of things I want to do geospat
ially.

While I’m sold on the fact that mobile GIS apps will experience tremendous growth on smartphones over the next few years, I’m not so sure about professional geospatial apps like ArcPad, TDS Solo, Carlson SurvCE, Trimble Terrasync, Topcon Topsurv, CMT Field CE, etc. I’m not convinced for a couple of reasons.

First of all, the market size for those apps is really not very big, which makes it difficult to justify the development cost of moving to an iOS or Android. However, the bright spot would be Windows Phone 7, because that would be a migration of software (Windows Mobile to Windows Phone 7) rather than a rewrite.

Secondly, smartphones aren’t going to eliminate the industrial handheld data-collector market. Data collectors from TDS/Trimble, Juniper Systems, Handheld, Getac, Leica, Topcon, etc., will still have a place in the professional geospatial fields such as forestry, surveying, engineering, GIS, and construction. In those applications, smartphones are not robust enough (physically) to be trusted when a hardware failure can cost thousands of dollars in lost data and/or productivity.

Webinar (January 26, 2011): GPS SBAS, DGPS or Post-processing? Which One Should You Use?

If you are using or plan on using GPS for mobile GIS, you should seriously consider attending this webinar.

Learn the real story behind each of these technologies without a salesperson’s bias.

Tens of thousands of users around the world utilize GPS/GNSS receivers for mapping, surveying and navigating. Since autonomous GPS/GNSS typically does not provide the needed accuracy, users must rely on a source of GPS/GNSS corrections. There are three sources of GPS/GNSS corrections available to users who desire reliable GPS/GNSS accuracy in the sub-meter to three meter range: SBAS, DGPS and post-processing. Dr. Michael Whitehead, VP of Technology at Hemisphere GPS, will join me in presenting a background on the three technologies as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each.

I’ve known Mike for a number of years. He was an early innovator in the development of SBAS technology at Satloc as well as SBAS and DGPS receiver technology at Hemisphere GPS. He is one of the leading GNSS engineers in the world. I’m particularly excited about this event and promise a lively discussion that’s full of useful information, data, and concepts that anyone using or considering using GPS/GNSS for mapping, surveying, or navigating will find useful.

Geospatial Solutions Weekly holiday schedule

We won’t be publishing the Geospatial Solutions Weekly newsletter for the next two weeks. The next issue will be emailed to you the week of January 3, 2011. However, we will continue to post news items on our website and I will continue to “Twitter” when I come across something interesting.

Have a safe and happy holiday season.

Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GPSGIS_Eric