Category: Thoughts

So the end of 2006, the beginning of a new year, what will the next year of developments in the world of geographic information bring, are we seeing the birth of neogeography ? Rather than discuss this now I thought it would be more fun to go back to the future and look at some predictions I made back in 1999.

Mapping Awareness was the main UK GIS industry magazine throughout the 1990’s and it’s first issue of the year always carried an industry outlook feature, trying to get various predictions of the directions the industry was likely to follow, yes maybe navel gazing, but entertaining and something which continues today in GeoConnexion UK Magazine.

Thanks to the time machine that is Martins filling cabinet, the 1999 Mapping Awareness has fallen into my hands, and well I don’t think I did too badly in my predictions.

BTW Purple was very fashionable then (OK maybe not)

What are the most important trends for GIS and related products and services?

Technology convergence seems to be occurring throughout the GI and wider IT industry, as maturing technologies become integrated in “solution-based” systems. GPS is becoming the new must-have toy, but is a powerful tool when connected to desktop mapping and navigation packages. The boundary between CAD and GIS has finally disappeared; indeed many professionals use GIS technology without knowing it. Of course, perhaps the most important trend is the development of network-centric applications designed to operate across inter/intra/extranets.

OK so the CAD/GIS thing is still a problem… but network centric bit was right !!

What are the most important user/customer trends for GIS and related applications?

The “dumbing down of GIS” means that many of the current users of GIS have little or no geographical training, but are beginning to use GIS technology in the same way they might use Microsoft Excel. You don’t have to be an accountant to use Excel? The challenge for the GIS industry is for us to be able to say that you don’t need to be a geographer to use GIS. Users’ perception of the value of information is also changing. The Internet is an enormous source of low cost or free information. CD ROM databases such as Microsoft Encarta provide high-quality, accurate information, yet geographic data is still expensive and difficult to use.

To me this seems very relevant today, finally the web tools provided by Google, Microsoft etc are making this prediction come true and well the value of geodata is a pretty hot topic!

What segments of the geotechnology market will grow fastest during the next three years in the UK?

The markets that will grow fastest include Web GIS; navigation systems; handheld/palm-based GIS integrated with GPS; embedded GIS. such as the contact locator in Outlook 98; and consumer GIS packages, Low-cost/Low-functionality desktop GIS (e.g. Microsoft Mappoint).

OK a couple of years too soon, and the wrong platform, the web killed the low cost desktop GIS package.

I will not embarrass my fellow contributors my reproducing their predictions, none of us escape without some egg on the face..

Have a great New Years celebration and don’t forget to listen to the New Years Day Today programme on Radio 4 under the editorial control of a bunch of geographers !!

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

The following is an agreed statement that was posted earlier today on the Ordnance Survey Intranet,

“Ed Parsons is leaving his post as Chief Technology Officer of Ordnance Survey to pursue new challenges in the increasingly dynamic Geographic Information (GI) Industry.

Since his arrival in June 2001, Ed has developed Ordnance Survey’s IT strategy and has led OS Research labs. Ed has been instrumental in moving the organisation’s focus from mapping to the creation of geographic information.

Ed is keen at this stage of his career to help develop more innovative areas of the GI industry. His decision comes as Ordnance Survey is focusing on a period of a consolidation in its strategic IT development and direction.

Vanessa Lawrence, Ordnance Survey’s Director General and Chief Executive, says “We wish Ed every success for the next stage of his career and offer him sincere thanks for his contribution to the direction of our IT development and research activities.”

For those of you who want to say goodbye to Ed personally his last working day will be Friday 22 December 2006.”

I am not is a position to add any more to this statement, but of course I am sorry to be leaving a great group of very committed GI professionals, the future for me is not completely clear at this point – but whatever it turns out to be, you will read it here as it happens !!

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

Worldmapper a site devloped by a group of academics led by Danny Dorling is a great example of the power of maps or is this case cartograms to communicate information. With the current interest in global inequalities, a map such as the one above showing air travel delivers a very strong message.

Look at the relative size of the UK, the area represents all those easyJet and Ryanair flights we have grown to love so much…

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

Today I made the keynote presentation to the Jersey GIS User Conference, organised by Digimap (an Ordnance Survey partner) and the States of Jersey Government, who together are really driving forward the use of Geographic Information.

Much like OS Mastermap, Jersey now has a complete intelligent feature based geospatial database, with high levels of currency and consistency. Again like Great Britain, there is an active GPS framework network providing centimetre accuracy positioning.

In contrast to the rest of the UK, Jersey with a single layer of government, has just got on a built a single land and property address database which is widely adopted and has become the standard for government use.

Half of the possible 8000 government employees access the sole corporate geospatial Intranet and on the sister Island of Guernsey the utilities companies are beginning to publish their assets to single password protected website.

None of these things are technically difficult to do, but the contrast with the UK is interesting – this really is the case of the relatively small size of the channel islands and simpler organisational structures making the exploitation of Geographic Information much quicker to deliver benefits.

Written and submitted from the Hotel L’Horizon, Jersey, using the hotels wifi broadband internet connection.