The market and technical distinctions between consumer and professional GIS products and services are rapidly disappearing. Consider this:
- Geospatial professionals can now embed their GIS products into the widely used PDF format. Map2PDF, by TerraGo Technologies, enables users to export maps they’ve created in a GIS to GeoPDF files that can be viewed using Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader, installed on tens of millions of computers and widely available, and the GeoPDF Toolbar, a small, free plug-in. GeoDataEmbed, an ESRI ArcMap extension recently launched by Global Map Systems, goes one step further, by embedding into a PDF map file the map data that went into producing an ArcMap layout — including geometry, spatial references, and database field definitions. By allowing users to access the underlying map geometry, it enables both spatial analysis and data export. Recipients of the PDF files can use GeoDataVu, a free plug-in to Adobe Acrobat, to access all of the native GIS functionality. (Unfortunately, while GeoDataVu’s code is compatible with Adobe Reader, Adobe has denied Global Map Systems’ application to distribute GeoDataVu on it.) ESRI has been working closely with Adobe and its recently released ArcGIS 9.3 has new and improved functionality for exporting maps to Adobe PDF, including map layers and location information for end users with Adobe Acrobat 9 or Reader 9 software. These enhancements are available as a freely downloadable patch for ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Server, and ArcGIS Engine.
- Most smart phones and personal navigation devices (PNDs) are priced for the general consumer market (more than half cost less than $200), but are loaded with features needed by mobile professionals. Rather than targeting these two segments separately, handset manufacturers and software developers are creating devices that serve both markets. For years, I thought that the most advanced applications in location-based services (LBS) would first emerge in costly, specialized devices for business applications — such as automatic vehicle location (AVL), workforce management, sales, and marketing — and then trickle down to the consumer market. Instead, the opposite seems to be true: now that the consumer market for location-enabled devices has finally reached a critical mass (even though LBS penetration rates are still very low), they are being adopted by individual mobile professionals and entire enterprises. The price of these devices and their monthly service fees are low enough that many companies can afford to distribute them to their mobile employees — making them more productive and easier to contact and locate. In turn, employees are more willing to be “always in touch” with their office if they get a free phone out of the deal and don’t have to carry two separate devices. On the technical side, one factor that has made PNDs more reliable is the development of several different ways to determine handset location: in addition to GPS (the most accurate system, but unavailable indoors and unreliable in urban canyons) and cell ID, handset can increasingly also use such beacons of opportunity as radio and television broadcast antennas and WiFi hotspots. The result is that location determination on the handset is now taken for granted.
- Social networking sites are increasingly being used for both personal and professional purposes. Following the Facebook and MySpace applications for Apple’s iPhone, two weeks ago MySpace announced a global partnership with Research in Motion (RIM), makers of Blackberry smartphones, to create a new version of the MySpace Mobile application designed specifically for Blackberry devices. MySpace Mobile, which launched in March, allows users to view and respond to messages, comments, and friend requests from any Web-enabled handset by visiting m.myspace.com. The Blackberry version of MySpace Mobile will be a downloadable application that provides push-based messaging to users. MySpace has a younger and less professional demographic than Blackberry. However, RIM was probably concerned about losing market share to the iPhone, which now integrates with Microsoft Exchange, an email system widely used by businesses, thereby enabling corporate I.T. departments to support iPhones.
- As the amount and quality of space imagery is rapidly increasing, it is entering the mainstream. At the beginning of August, at the ESRI International User Conference, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, announced that the 35 years of archived Landsat data will be made available over the Web free to the public by the end of the year. On August 29, the German company RapidEye launched a constellation of five Earth observation satellites, with five spectral bands and a very high repeat rate. On September 6, GeoEye launched and deployed GeoEye-1, the world’s highest resolution, commercial Earth-imaging satellite, financed largely by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. It will simultaneously collect 0.41-meter ground resolution black-and-white (panchromatic) images and 1.65-meter color (multispectral) images. GeoEye has signed exclusive an agreement for the imagery with Google, which last year entered into an agreement with the French company Spot Image for imagery taken by its SPOT 5 satellite. By the middle of next year, Digital Globe is expected to launch its WorldView-2 satellite, which will have a resolution similar to that of GeoEye-1 and eight spectral bands. The availability for free of all of this satellite imagery is rapidly erasing the gap between consumer, business, and science applications. Conversely, satellite companies are changing their business model: if they are going to make the huge investments to launch these birds, they want to make the data usable by as many people as possible.
By: Matteo Luccio, President, Pale Blue Dot Research, Writing, and Editing, LLC
Only one BIG problem with your article above. That map you are showing in this article is NOT a GeoPDF – that is a LOGIQ PDF created by Global Map Systems (www.globalmapsystems.com)
With LOGIQ PDF, actual map feature geometry is encoded and written into logical content, as is the feature class schema. This allows additional functionality in Acrobat, such as spatial analysis and GIS data export, which is not possible with GeoPDF. Also, because multiple layers can reference a single feature class, the potential for data redundancy is reduced.
• GeoPDF associates feature attributes with graphic elements in page content. Actual map feature geometry is not present in the PDF.
• LOGIQ PDF stores actual map feature geometry in logical content. Spatial queries are made against the stored geometry rather than against the graphic elements in page content.
• GeoPDF, lacking feature geometry and feature class schema, cannot reconstitute the original GIS data behind the map for analysis or export.
• LOGIQ PDF contains the data necessary to allow spatial analysis and GIS data export within Acrobat. This is the single most powerful distinction.
• GeoPDF does not have a mechanism for reducing data redundancy; this may produce larger files than necessary.
• LOGIQ PDF has a mechanism for reducing data redundancy.
In short, LOGIQ PDF is a superior technology.
To download the LOGIQ PDF map with embedded business intelligence for spatial analysis (the image at the top of this page), please visit http://www.globalmapsystems.com and click on Products, then GeoMarket Reports. At the bottom of the page you can download the same PDF and view the spatial analysis and business reporting functionality.