Chief scientist, David Maguire, gave a presentation on the current state of geospatial technology at today’s Surveying and GIS Summit, beginning with a slide that showcased the Gartner hype cycle, and using it to place current geospatial technologies at points along the time line. On the inflated expectations side he placed Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, and all other geographic exploration systems. Coming off the peak of inflated expectations are both spatial data infrastructure and the GeoWeb. He placed location-based services in the trough of disillusionment, noting that the technology is there, but that large profits from it are likely to be elusive. And he crowded the plateau of productivity with online mapping, GPS, machine control, digital photogrammetry and GIS.
Maguire outlined four technologies that are driving the industry:
Server GIS - Improved hardware and software architecture are allowing GIS to be served as a service to users. The massive investment in bandwidth provides the capability for real-time connection to data and services. Server architecture improves data management, allowing data repositories to become an information library for users. The combination of hardware and network speed mean that much of the data processing can be done on the server side, freeing up our individual machines for other tasks.
Desktop - While capabilities online spread the reach of GIS, the desktop is still a key platform for ad hoc or custom tasks. The desktop becomes the place for data compilation and editing, spatial analysis, modeling and cartography
Web - Maguire summarized the impact of the Web in light of three books that he’s found particularly prescient.1997 – Death of Distance – geography has changed due to our access to information2005 The World is Flat – globalization changes the cost of services (digitizing in India and then China has made base mapping very cheap)2007 Wikinomics – there’s a profound change to the economy based on access to large numbers of users
Data - There’s an increasing explosion of data in volume, resolution and types. The data providers are moving from a focus on collection technology to data services and solutions. A direct connection to sensors is an emerging technology, with web-based applications able to digitally reference imagery on the fly.
Maguire then outlined five technology trends that will have deep impacts on geospatial technology.
Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing - Ubiquitous computing is expanding, with the majority of people now carrying mobile phones that are gaining in computer power and functionality. The devices are proliferating along with wearable sensors and RFID chips to track assets.
GPS - The global positioning system is becoming increasingly as we rely on it more and more for navigation and positioning.Enterprise Information Systems - Server oriented computing is driving a change from project-oriented work to database-centric workflows. Maguire repeatedly emphasized the importance of the shared database as the foundation for all future survey work.
Shared Tools - Survey, cadastre and mapping are different mind sets, but with the shared toolset we can combine approaches for greater insight.combining the two approaches is very important
Spatial Analysis and Modeling - As data availability and quality increases, analysis and modeling become more important. ESRI recently added geographically-weighted regression to their analysis toolset. There is an increasing research into dynamic space-time GIS, with some interesting case studies for water resources and weather systems. Data modeling work will need to increase to capture syntactic and semantic relationships.
Maguire concluded by saying that technology change is a driver for our industry, and that we’re likely to see integration of more technologies that will make the toolset richer for surveying, CAD, cadastre, data management, mapping and analysis.
Source: http://vector1media.com/spatialsustain/?p=931
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