Author: Ed Parsons

As a contrast to a rather depressing AGI conference review of the failure of the UK GI industry to come up with a viable GI Strategy, in which Mike Blakemore compared efforts so far to Little Britain’s’ Vicky Pollard..

“No but, Yeh but, No but, like there is this spatial data – no shutup..”

I am looking forward to next weeks Terra future research event at the Ordnance Survey, at which Tim Berners-Lee is to provide his insight into the place geospatial data has in the web of the future.

There are still a few spaces left, so if you would like to attend email the conference office.

I’m sure a wider industry insight is vital, the UK GI industry needs to accept that the future development of geographic information will not be decided inside the confines of the current inward looking industry of today or for that matter any government generated strategy.

The use of GI is already pervasive… it has become so almost despite the attempts of the last 20 years of industry strategies, instead technological developments like the web developed by Berners-Lee have provided tools to connect users to geospatial data and is now allowing them to become data creators themselves – now that is really exciting !!!

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.

Reflecting on yesterdays plenary presentation at the AGI, and the report of it at ZDNet which completely ignored the presentations from the boring old vendors ESRI and myself!!, you would expect there to be much upset and insecurity as we all wave farewell to the GIS industry of the past replaced by the mainstream vendors…

I do sense a little bit of a wobble, but –

Of course the reality is that all the “new” exciting vendors Google, Microsoft, Yahoo etc are all reliant on the data produced by the primary data providers, who in turn need to use the tools and models created by the boring old vendors. This has become know as the “heavy lifting” part of the industry, it may not be glamourous and may be missed by the mainstream press but it represents the vast majority of activity undertaken using geographic information.

So thank you Google, Yahoo and Microsoft for doing what the GIS industry should have done, in making Geographic Information more accessible with simple, well designed tools – the rockets of the Geographic information, but the “professional” industry needs to now work even harder in providing the fuel !!!

Written and submitted from Starbucks, Upper Street , London, using the t-mobile wifi network.

Less than a week to go the the UK’s main GIS Show and full marks to the AGI, for putting together what I think is one of the most interesting conference agenda’s in years.. If this years range of topics and speakers is not enough to get “bums on seats”, it is hard to see what else the conference organisers could have done to produce a conference to meet the needs of the GI industry in the UK.

But there is the challenge.. the UK industry is mature and dominated by a small number of large vendors, the OS and ESRI(UK) really stand out, and most users are fully aware of what is going on in the industry from the web and personal contacts – yes the industry really is that small in the UK. The AGI also represents a wide range of opinions and interests, so its often difficult to see a clear direction in its activities.

The AGI should be commended for inviting the “new” players this year, in the form of Google and Microsoft, but there is also something of a “organisation gap” as many of innovators who are very active in the UK, the likes of Steve Coast and Mikel Maron, are not traditional GIS people so it is good to see the “non-GIS” approach to using GI represented by Tom Steinberg of mySociety.

For the AGI however success will not come from positive comments, the “Bums of seats” is an important element here, as the conference and exhibition has become the major revenue stream for the AGI.

So.. if you have not decided on attending yet, its not too late – remember if you don’t go this year there might not be a conference or even an AGI next year !!

Written and submitted from the Bruntsfield Hotel, Edinburgh, using my Vodafone 3G network card.