I was recently interviewed by the magazine ‘Geospatial Today’. An number of topic questions were asked. I thought that it maybe worthwhile sharing my thoughts out.
Q. The world seems to move into an uncertain economic climate. What kind of impact do you think this will have on geospatial industry?
A. I disagree with some statements that the geospatial industry would do well in this rough economic environment. As a matter of fact, we, like any other information technology sectors, will not be immune to the effects of the economy. Consumers, businesses and government agencies have reined in spending and new purchases. A good news is that the geospatial industry services a wide array of applications across many industry segments. Some are facing cutbacks and some will continue do well. Some will play to be safe and cut new expenses, and some will innovate their own paths to become more competitive. For geospatial technology companies, only those whose deliver true values and ROIs to users likely get benefits from this long recovery process. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves whether our offers are ‘broad’ enough so we are not risked in one segment or are ‘good’ enough to be considered as a profit center, rather than a cost center.
Q. Which are the key areas that need further development?
A. Though the geospatial services are broad, we have not been innovative enough to make us stand out. It is primarily due to the fact that the geospatial industry was traditionally driven by the government spending. There are many technology innovations in the general ICT areas, from cloud computing to P2P, from social computing (or Web 2.0) to social networking. Our adoption and integration of these new components in our geospatial offerings has been slow. I personally believe that we, as geospatial practitioners, must change our mindshare and innovate ourselves. This is perhaps the most important area for us to improve.
Technically, we need to further improve our integration with the existing mainstream systems and architectures. Except for some niche applications, enterprise users want a general (not geospatial) information system that is seamlessly integrated with their existing IT infrastructure. The geospatial components (or solutions) must be scalable, and maintainable compared to other IT counterparts. Quality, freshness and cost of the geospatial data are still considered as an entry barrier for many organizations to adopt geospatial solutions. We need to continue investing in data automation tools and processes. Lastly, we need to shift our gear a bit towards the development of consumer-oriented products and solutions. There are incredible ‘blue-ocean’ opportunities that will benefit those first-to-market innovators.
Q. For you, what were the major milestones in 2008?
A. There were a number of cheerful news in the geospatial industry: the successful launch of GeoEye-1, the constellation of RapidEye satellites in orbit, the release of SQL 2008 with spatial support, as well as many new products released and technologies developed. However, to me, the most influential milestones appeared in consumer applications, Internet mapping, mobile location based services as well as automotive navigation. User base for internet mapping sites has grown exponentially, reaching a few hundred millions of on-line users. With a healthy competition in this space, both technological development and user experiences are largely improved, resulting in better and strong user attraction and stickiness. Mobile location based services are made into the mainstream mobile phone applications, thanks to the market penetration of iPhones, and other smart phones. LBS becomes a norm in mobile services. Despite the decline of holiday shopping market, sales of in-car navigation devices (PNDs) still made an impressive number at the growth rate of 70~100% in US.
Q. What is the future promise that this technology holds for all of us?
A. I have been advocating the notion of that the geospatial industry is moving from ‘organizing spatial data’ to ‘organizing data spatially’. The point that I am making here is to reinforce the importance of the relationship of location and other business, social or economic data. ‘Location’ is essentially an index that can be used to organize any data and information including documents, websites, media, voices, emails, etc. The power of location can only be unleashed when the multiple sources of data are analyzed with location.
The geospatial industry has come a long way. It is now a multi-billion dollar industry with location based services (LBS) are leading the way. Personal navigation devices have reached the status of an established mobile device category similar to digital cameras and MP3 players. With the increasing investment by major ICT players, Microsoft, Google and Nokia, and with the increasing adoption by mobile carriers, mobile location based services including in-car services will experience a rapid growth in the next 2~5years. Among many geospatial applications, this is perhaps the most fast growing sector in terms of the revenue base.
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