Friday, November 6. 2009

ESRI Keywords: Authoritative Data, Generic Services

Wyatt Kash, editor in chief at Government Computer News was on the questioning side of the latest interviewwith ESRI's Jack Dangermond.

Dangermond highlights the differences between Google Earth-based Virtual Alabama and ESRI-based Virginia Interoperability Picture for Emergency Response, VIPER. The former copies data to central repository for visualization while the latter is built on a services framework that pulls live data and analyzes it. He recounts the history of online mapping (it started wtih MapQuest). He evaluates how Vivek Kundra is doing and lays out his vision for Web GIS.

A few things stand out in this interview:

- many repeated uses of the terms "authoritative data" and "generic services"
- discussion of a hosting option for ArcGIS online which provides "users additional options to extend their systems"
- a reference to the recent integration of data.gov and geodata.gov (I don't think I was aware of that)

- Government Computer News

Monday, November 2. 2009

Maryland #1 in ARRA GIS Sites, But...

A Computerworld article lauds Maryland's use of GIS in reporting on the state of stimulus funding, but also notes some warts.

The article notes:

StateStat has the potential to show citizens the return on investment they get from get from government programs, and it could be used to hold agency chiefs accountable, O'Malley says.

During biweekly meetings with department heads, the governor uses GIS maps to track projects and the performance of departments. O'Malley says he uses GIS maps to quickly assess which divisions are performing well and which need new leadership. "That ability to recognize who the leaders are is what gets your entire organization to lean forward. That's what makes it go," he says.

The article does not explain how that potential to show ROI would be met, nor how GIS shows which divisions are performing well and which need new leadership. I hope Maryland staffers or the publication can detail those processes and share them with other states.

The daily challenges of the StateStat effort are detailed by Beth Blauer, director of the program. On her list are:

Data:
Says Blauer: "Those issues include data ownership, accuracy, age, how often data is refreshed and whether it will be meaningful to decision-makers."

Interoperability:
"Because the state agencies use many different GIS servers and databases, they export data in Excel format and give it to Blauer's staff, who must import it manually. It has been particularly difficult to maintain data integrity and get updates automated, she says."

Deeper Analysis:
"Another goal is to add performance data that could, for example, illustrate the impact of a program by showing the effect of spending on the unemployment rate.

Blauer says that eventually, StateStat will be used at all levels of government and available to the public. "You'll be able to see where we are spending money in education and whether the test scores are getting better.""
And of course, that means showing causation, not just correlation.

(Future) Public Participation:
"They will be able to engage in a dialogue with government using the data," she says."

Also on the Governors list: an app to show how state funds are allocated and downloadable data.

Hat tip to Computerworld for going beyond the shiny maps.

Thursday, October 29. 2009

Dangermond on Data Sharing at NASCIO

An article at CRN highlights what some industry leaders consider the most disruptive technologies today, during the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) conference in Austin, Texas. Among them: virtualization (if you don't know what that is, this is a good time to look it up!) and social networking. And, geodata and its use.

Jack Dangermond, president and CEO of ESRI, a Redlands, Calif.-based geographic information systems (GIS) developer, said the IT industry has only scratched the surface in leveraging GPS and imagery data.

"It's all about seeing the world as a map. It's so powerful from a visualization perspective, but also from an analytic perspective, with special relationships and how things are related. GIS is becoming embedded within the fabric of government. It's being used for planning, monitoring and communicating with citizens," he said.

"People say the sharing of government data on the Web is the next step for democracy, Web 2.0 for government," he added. "The concept of data sharing is not new. But all of these efforts haven't resulted in a platform to build applications in a consistent way. That's beginning to change. "

There are some key ideas hidden in there:

"data sharing is not new"

Indeed. ESRI and others have worked to offer the technology to make sharing easier (The Geography Network, ArcGIS Explorer, the new ArcGIS Online, GOS to name just a few ESRI efforts). The issue is not tech so much (though that is a factor) but people and policies. (NB Santa Clara County, California for one.)

"But all of these efforts haven't resulted in a platform to build applications in a consistent way."

Is our goal a platform to build apps in a consistent way? I feel sure OGC would say we should aim to build them in an interoperable way. I would argue the core technologies that make up the Web are the closest thing we have to a consistent way at this point.

"That's beginning to change."

I'm not sure to which point this statement is addressed, but there is no question that change is in the air. My sense is the biggest change is simply citizen expectation. Citizen's expect to be able to access geodata and ask and answer questions. Google and others have set that expectation very, very high. Its up to ESRI and other companies (Google, Microsoft and other included) that serve government to insure their expectations are met.

Wednesday, October 28. 2009

HuffPost on Bill Davenhall's TED MED Presentation

Alana B. Elias Kornfeld was at TED MED which started yesterday in San Diego. She gave ESRI's Health and Human Services Solutions Manager Bill Davenhall high praise for his presentation on the importance of geography in preventing, managing and understanding disease.

But the most compelling and immediately applicable information came from Bill Davenhall, .... Davenhall spoke about the missing piece to understanding personal health: the environment. He said the basic formula for good health is:
Genetics + lifestyle + environment = risks

Huffington Post

Monday, October 26. 2009

Lynchburg Web GIS with All the Bells and Whistles; Another Signal of Desktop GIS' Demise?

Lynchburg, VA just updated its online GIS website. Among the new additions: the ability to document your markups, save measured lines, jump to Google StreetView or Bing's Bird's Eye views, and tools to better see the relationship between records and parcels. (See What's New for details and screen shots.)

The app seems to be ADF-based ArcGIS Server apps and does not use Flex. WorldView Solutions did the consulting work.

The updates make sense when you learn that most common users of the site are "real estate agents, builders and others in development-related fields." One agent who uses the site daily is still finding new features.

Costs: $228,500 for the changeover from the old system, $50,000/year maintenance (the same as the previous system, interestingly).

The more apps like this I see, the more I wonder about how quickly desktop GIS use will drop inside local governments. Apps like this are as easily used inside as well as outside local government. The question is when, not if, most gov employees will move off the desktop. The related question, then, is how this new business model will change revenues for software developers.

- News and Advance

Bentley Positions PowerMap as Alternative to ESRI/ArcGIS

While doing some research on a previous post I did a Google search on "lynchburg va esri." One ad that popped up in the results:

Alternative to ESRI
Powerful Standalone Mapping With Bentley PowerMap
www.bentley.com/powermap

The link to the top text brought me here. While there's quite a bit of text about Bentley PowerMap's features and benefits, and the promise of a free trial, I didn't see anything about it being an alternative to ESRI.

Bentley is getting aggressive with its marketing of PowerMap and subtly positioning it as an alternative to ArcGIS. (Google that phrase and look at the sponsored links!)