December 17, 2008

Location Intelligence: 2008 Review

We are in the evolution behind the revolution, and the focus shifts from technology to users and relevant implementations.

Directions Magazine ran its summary of the year in GIS this week, and came to a conclusion about a maturity in the science of GIS.

Their key points were that GIS technology has matured, and although there were some new products introduced, that side of the business was a bit more lackluster than a few of the previous, when things like Google Maps, Google Earth, and more technical GIS products grabbed headlines.

Their assessment is that "the diversity of uses and users, from those who mash-up to those creating new spatial algorithms for vector and raster data, reinforces that we are less likely now, perhaps than ever, to point to the same "big events, launches, trends." "

As I posted on their site, while I might agree that "GIS Science" is quite mature, there has been an explosion of new applications in the last 3-4 years.

Can you believe that 4 short years ago there was no such thing as Virtual Earth and Google Maps? What we are in now is the evolution after the revolution.

Here at AWhere, we refer to it as the "shift to the right" in usability. For nearly 40 years, GIS has primarily been relegated to the back office... to the cartographers that pull data and push printed maps. GIS is mature there.

However, Google Maps, VE, Yahoo!Maps and MapQuest have made more approachable applications of mapping available to "the rest of us". MapInfo, AWhere, FortiusOne, among many, many others are seizing the day and bringing more sophisticated applications that can INTERACT with the rest of the corporation and population.

The first level of the evolving revolution is "done". A tremendous number of people now routinely find their next Starbucks Fix, or book thier next hotel at the business conference or spa location while visualizing on an embedded web map. That was the geoWeb explosion 3.5 years ago.

Now we are in the evolutionary groundswell phase. It will take a while for "the rest of us" to all move to the next level of heuristic understanding of what location intelligence can add to the Business Intelligence mix. The myriad of 'heat maps' and data sets that FortiusOne has published are great examples of what will enable the 'push to the right'. IDV and ESRI are assisting corporations with newer server products to dissimenate LI throughout the corporation.

For ourselves at AWhere, we recently introduced an interface into Walmart's Retail Link(r) Point-of-Sales system. We are consistently getting "wows" when category managers 'see' their sales data at the store level of 3600 Walmarts and 600 Sams Clubs for the first time. They've always looked at regional summaries and "Top 10, Bottom 10" analyses. Pretty amazing to see it ALL at once and the inevitable patterns and new questions that arise.

We experienced a geoWeb explosion shortly after 2004. Now we are in the learning curve. I think we'll start seeing some VERY interesting new adoptions in 2009 and 2010.

Happy New Year!!!


	Top Ten of 2008 - Why is this year different from all others? - Articles
	GIS News, Articles, Maps, Data, Tools
	http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2962&trv=1

	Mapping Wal Mart Retail Link Data \| AWhere Blog
	Add a geographical dimension to your WalMart sales analysis and learn how to maximize sales.
	item/210591

Topic Tags: business intelligence, Directions magazine, geo-analytics, geoweb, Google Earth, location intelligence, MapInfo

by Jim Pollock

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