Have you noticed the progression of the music and video industry in the distribution of their media? In the music industry we went from the LP’s to the 8-Track to the Cassette tapes to the CDs to Napster where files where being shared between users to now are heavily intrenched in the iTunes/MP3 world of digital music. Where now I am buying all my music through iTunes. The same progression is in the video media space to where now I am streaming as much of my video experience as I can either through Netflix, YouTube, any broadcasting network who archives their shows online, and even live baseball on MLB.TV. Once college and NFL football is completely streamed online there will be no need for me ever again to have an antenna on my roof. Streaming online is the next generation of media consumption for our world and much the same way GIS is the next generation of data integration for our organizations.
Jack Dangermond, Esri President, wrote a blog post on ESRI Insider in August titled “Geography as a Platform“. The whole premise is that as GIS matures and becomes more integrated with systems as well as technology today the power of maps is growing at an extreme rate. When you add cloud technology into the mix then you really have not only the visual map to look at but also the ability to really distribute the information to a mass audience very effectively at a cost that is very manageable. Hence the Esri’s push with ArcGIS Online especially for those organizations who cannot afford the upfront software and man power costs of the full blown GIS. But even those organizations who can, being able to take the data mobile is a huge advantage and work flow saver. Other services/products such as GIS Cloud also allow for taking advantage of the cloud technology.
For cloud technology to be fully taken advantage of in today’s and future world there must be a paradigm shift in how top level executives down to c-level executives look at GIS. GIS is much more than a map today. GIS as been billed and pushed a way to create powerful maps giving us a visual for issues to solve, growth of demographics, analyze trends, etc. Now GIS is maturing past this idea of being just about maps. I agree with Jack that geography is a huge component of GIS but I take it even a little further to say the “Information” component of GIS is more important than Geography. Without the information being accurate then it really does not matter how great the map looks or even how it is distributed.
Cloud technology is our next frontier for data in distribution but GIS is the structure for all organizations to harness the “Cloud”. GIS is moving at a extreme rate of speed going beyond the map paradigm to a new paradigm. This paradigm is “GIS is a full organizational system in creating a seamless environment in which data silos are no longer silos but working together for common good of the organization.” In essence we are all on the same team now. GIS is the platform which allows us to accomplish this if it is allowed by the executives. There must be a champion in the organization who sees the whole picture but that is whole other post.
I am curious to your thoughts. Please engage in the conversation.
Jason Tuck is the owner/founder of Providence GIS Solutions as well as a GIS evangelist. He can be found on twitter, facebook, and linkedin, you are welcome to follow and connect with him. Jason is always open to dialog about GIS and the impact on an organization. His passion is to educate organizations about the full power of GIS and GIS is “More than A Map”.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Implementation of corporate GIS in the cloud has a compelling proposition from the perspectives of cost and scalability. However, there a a few major hurdles to be addressed for large corporate uptake, including:
1 how do we efficiently get the terabytes of data from the current corporate GIS databases into the cloud?
2 how do we protect our data from the US Patriot Act?
The first is a technology issue and as such will be addressed with a technological solution.
The second is more of a major problem. The recent case of MegaUpload and Kim Dotcom showed the reach and impact of the US government and the Patriot Act, on servers and infrastructure that were owned, located and operated outside of the US. That didnt stop the legitimate users of those systems losing their data. The risk of such an event occurring on a system where servers could be located anywhere will likely totally stop the use of commercially available cloud servers, by those that could benefit the most – the large corporates with mission-critical data – eg GIS.
Jason:
Another great article. The cloud could be a wonderful tool to centralize the existing silos, but a lot of business and government (especially) hang their hats on their data silos and find it inconceivable to integrate data for the common good. Unfortunately, there are too many professionals (GIS included) who still feel that GIS is all about maps and that is all, instead of realizing that every piece of data, whether it be public or private, has a person or place to it.
Aaron, it definitely is a paradigm shift that must occur. This shift must come from inside the organizations not from software vendors. As long as software vendors are pushing the full agenda I am afraid it will always circle back around to making maps.
Jason – Good piece – many thanks. I agree with your analysis but would give more credence to the ‘Geography’ bit of GIS. Its this that makes sense of the ‘information’. Re the cloud, my feeling is that the technology/policy aspects will sort themselves out. What is more of a challenge is getting the GIS industry relating to business in a much wider and savvy way. Other than some involved in engineering, planning, construction, utilities and some marketing/advertising, most CEOs would not have a clue what GIS means. The GI industry therefore has to extract itself from the big company/big government silo in which it has traditionally sat and better stratify, understand and engage with the wide world of business, if it is to become more ubiqituous.
Mike, thank you for your comment. What I am finding in organizations is they consider GIS as strictly a mapping task/tool. By putting GIS in this box they completely miss out on the full range of benefits of GIS. These organizations are not solely to blame for this mind set. GIS vendors really push the Geography output of GIS and in so doing feed into the current GIS paradigm. I personally believe Geography is critical to GIS but without accurate information from the whole organization GIS is limited. Information is the foundation here and Geography is the output.
GIS can be a full organizational data integration system where efficiency is found. The output of GIS can be mapping for field workers, operations, etc. But the output could also be a complete history of a customer for the CSR or a report generated in minutes to reflect an outage event after a major storm. There is also the workflows which become automated because of GIS as well. My point here is GIS has matured passed the point of only producing fancy maps for the organizations but the benefits extend to very processes of what makes an organization tick.
Great discussion!
Hi Jason,
My point exactly. The GI sector has been pretty poor at explaining the benefits and the possibilities to the average business. The discussion, certainly in the UK is all too often dominated by data formats, interoperability etc at one end and web mapping at the other, all within the context of big companies and government applications. The cloud will help, because the user will not be interested in what is going on under the hood, but how it can use the technology for a price it can afford.
One the point about terminology – I agree with Aaron Lankford. Everything has a spatial dimension whether you map it or not – although I still thinks maps have a big part to play. So it all depends on how you wish to analyse the data. It could just be customer satisfaction information – which is useful, but add the geography and it is enhanced, like adding other attributes. In a context where the geography is crucial for analysis and insight…the geography is crucial for analysis and insight. Where it isnt…it isnt.
Pretty Neat Discussion Jason,
Lets shift the vision away from Geo, Spatial, GIS etc because as stated above there is a perception that it is all about mapping. Here’s the shift, it is almost revoltionary and that is, why do we have a GIS in the first place? If it is to take data and make pretty maps then that’s what you going to have.
A lot of us, me included stem from a cartographic back ground and as human nature dictates we tend to fall back on what we are most comfortable with. So lets do the opposite. Hmm, GIS = visual means of obtaining analysing data to provide “information” as an output in a geographic way to allow a user / customer to do or make a decison about something. If you wanted a document produced in the past you would go and see a word processing guru……….. how many people NOW (The shift) write there own?
So by integrating the back end with various data sources and a configuirable front end “Note not customise” this will empower the user customer to move into helping themselves. With the advent of navigational GPS and online mapping service people are more adventurous and are ready to try intuative user friendly alternatives.
So in the end is not about producing something for a consumer it about provding the means for them to produce for themselves that is repeatable.
We have taken baby steps in this direction check out the link. The NCMT is a collaborative effort that allows customers understand the environment and what is in it to help plan future development.
All the best
Ian.
ESRI’s fear of Google has much more to do with ArcGIS online and the tone of Mr Dangermond’s blog post than anything else. Perhaps you could elaborate on little on how ESRI intends to leverage ArcGIS online to compete with Google Earth?
John, thank you for the suggestion and I will do some research make it post.
I would highly urge you to go back to my earlier conversation on this website concerning the very prevalent lack of recognition of what GIS is by an increasing number of people, and even further that now ESRI is in bed with Google.
Your points may be relevant to the business world, but outside of that, you should also take a look at the fact that if we are supposed to be trained on Cloud software, where in the world are we supposed to find an affordable way to do this? You care to recognize as well the fact that there are numerous states’ educational systems being reduced to reading by a campfire? How are GIS professionals who only know Clouds as being in the sky supposed to be able to know what this is without losing their jobs based on working with supervisors who have zero patience for not knowing what button to hit?
ESRI and Jack should take off their Raybans now or else ESRI will be occupied.
The fact of the matter we are all using the cloud through applications on our phones. It is just a matter of translating this over to our business practices. This is bigger than a ESRI vs Google or Esri vs. GIS Cloud. This is a “How we do business” discussion in the business world. This is also a “How we relate to our customers” discussion as well.
The definition of GIS must have a paradigm shift regardless of what people think it is. If we just except ESRI is GIS and/or Google Maps is GIS then we are missing the boat on the value of GIS. The “Cloud” is here and it should be utilized as a piece of the GIS architecture. Ultimately regardless of who the end users are for the GIS there is a business somewhere who desires to harness the cloud to deliver to those end users.