Big Data and GI similar evolution, similar challenge and similar benefits?

Over the weekend the Sunday Telegraph published an article called ‘Big Data – Not just for geeks’ discussing how big data is moving from being the preserve of companies IT departments to something of interest to the wider organisation. I was struck with the similarities seen with the expansion of GI from the core practitioners to the rapidly widening sphere of users, especially since the introduction of BIM.

Of course this is not entirely surprising as GIS and BIM systems are based on Big Data and Big Data being collected by other industries will often have a spatial component.

There are many different claims for what represents the birth of ‘big data’ with the term first being coined in 1997. Originally it was discussed as a challenge to systems and networks, having too much data to store and transfer in an economical fashion. However with improvements in technology big data became increasingly seen as an opportunity. In the UK one of the first (and now famous) mainstream applications of big data was the inception of supermarket club cards in the mid 1990’s. Under the auspices of rewarding customer loyalty Tesco with Clubcard and Sainsbury with Nectar (I can’t remember what it used to be called, they kept changing it) suddenly had unparalleled access to customer insight.

Initially (in fact until very recently) for most companies Big Data was there preserve of their IT or software engineering departments overseen by a CIO or equivalent. The ownership belonged to this technical ‘elite’ (for want of a less pejorative word) with a focus on the technical challenges of collecting and analysing this data. This is comparable to the GI industry which consisted largely of products produced by GI professionals for GI professionals, a paradigm that has shifted rapidly with the proliferation of web based applications. This is not to say that these traditional roles do not exist and are not still crucial, just that the technology and usage has spread much further.

In the Sunday Times article AGI Chair Anne Kemp (among others) suggest that Big Data is undergoing a similar shift which will present a similar skills and knowledge challenge. Coincidentally one of my old clients was a company that specialised in some very clever real time analytics and I remember their Vice President (US company) saying something very similar about the proliferation of big data to new users and taking a more holistic approach.

At the end of the day Big Data and GI are both just tools for enabling better informed decision making. It stands to reason therefore that the greater number of people who are able to access relevant information the greater the positive impact on decision making. In both Big Data and GI this presents a twofold challenge for producers and users of the data.

The first challenge is at the suppliers’ end whether this be a companies IT department or a GI software and data supplier. The challenge here is to provide the data in a way that is accessible to a wide range of users with differing skill sets that may not be particularly technical. The second challenge is for the organisations themselves in ensuring they have the right skills amongst their staff to interpret the data. This doesn’t mean everybody needs to be able to code just that people have an appreciation as to how to handle data and how it impacts and supports their role.

Meeting these challenges and a general cultural appreciation of data (and GI) as a tool that can enable organisations to make better decisions is a key change that will allow these organisation to save time and money and deploy limited resources in a more effective fashion.

In short Big Data is going through the same maturation process as GI forcing a cultural shift in attitudes to how data is used and who it is used by. Both sectors (if they can truly be called that given their interconnectivity with all other sectors) can learn from each other in how to espouse their benefits and encourage an ever greater uptake.

Mappy Halloween!

Sorry that was a terrible pun, I must have been temporarily possessed by the evil spirit of tabloid journalism. Anyway as this post follows hot on the heels of yesterday's I thought I’d make it a little more light hearted and give you a round up of all the GI related Halloween fun that’s been flying around out there (there is a surprising amount).

Horror: The Spatial Dimension

No this isn’t a sequel to Event Horizon (thankfully they never made one) but Esri’s effort to map the geolocation of the top 200 horror films of all time. They are filtered by decade which adds an interesting insight in to how horror tastes and indeed the strength of cinema has changed globally.  Unsurprisingly given the dominance of Hollywood the vast majority of films are set in North America and Europe although this was less the case pre 1960. Despite the presence of Egypt and related tried and tested trope of Mummys and creepy tombs very few horror films have been shot in Africa. The same goes for South America (surely the rainforest or a ruined Inca city would have been a great backdrop). Apparently communists weren’t too keen on horror either with no films set in the former USSR pre 1990.

As anyone who has seen the Ring (or the much less well known but excellent R-Point) can attest South East Asia has held its own against Europe and North America especially in recent years. Finally points for whoever can name the one film set in Antarctica on the list (without looking).

Pumpkin Cartography:

There seem to be a few carto geeks out there with some serious pumpkin carving skills but this one is particularly impressive. From twitter it looks like he might be attempting a London street map this year, looking forward to the results of that.

Mapping Halloween:

On a more practical level ThinkWhere have mapped all of National Trust Scotland’s Halloween events and RGS have got a creepy cemetery walk up for you. (If you’re in London I recommend that one, it’s pretty interesting Halloween aside).

Less practically Esri are at it again with an interesting use of their web mapping application to map locations from Ghostbusters (1&2). Those Americans really do love Halloween, and cheesy (but awesome) films.

The Fear of Place:

Not wanting to be left out OS have compiled a list of the scariest place names in the UK. Apparently there are over 80 places in the UK that ‘belong’ to the devil including the ludicrously named Devil’s Beef Tub which sounds like some kind of super hot curry challenge. Maybe they could produce a heat map to show us where the most devilish places in the UK are...

Calling Students!

Lectures have begun, term time is back in full swing and for those students in their final years the grim spectre of jobs is probably raising its head. This is somewhere that the AGI may be able to help. We have recently made our membership free to all students (including post grads). Joining the AGI opens up a community of GI professionals to you with excellent opportunities for networking with potential employers.

In addition to free membership we also run a series of showcase events around the UK and an annual conference all of which are heavily discounted for students. These events provide the opportunity to attend presentations and workshops on the latest issues affecting the industry. The showcase events are particularly suited to students as we run them regionally around the UK reducing travel time and leaving you less at the mercy of our rail network. We actually have one such event taking place in York on the 14^th of November (details here) which is ideal for students in the Yorkshire area.

Alongside these big regional annual events we also have a variety of other events tied up with our Special Interest Groups and Regional Groups. These range from evening presentations to networking drinks and are a great way to get involved with the industry. SIG events give you the chance to pick events that are heavily focused on your chosen area of study.

Although the days of ‘who you know not what you know’ are over for the vast majority of us (I will refrain from any cynicism here). I can definitely say that knowing something and knowing someone definitely seems to be the best way to get a job. This is both from personal experience (not in my current role) and that of many of my colleagues and friends. In fact I met an AGI member at our last AGI GeoDrinks event, Jack Goodwin (who has kindly given me permission to quote him) who got his current job through a connection he made at a GeoDrinks networking event last year.

Going into 2014 we plan to be doing more to help our student members from more useful content on the website (the shiny new one we are getting next year) to guides and tips on job hunting and CVs and any input on what might be helpful is always welcome.

So in short; join up, it’s free, we’re going to be doing more for students and we want to hear what you would like us to be doing. Also in the meantime keep networking and I don’t me cringey champagne and suits based events it’s all a lot more natural and informal than that! Come along to the next AGI event near you and find out.

And the results are in... Feedback from GeoCommunity ‘13

OK not all the results are in and there is still time to contribute your thoughts here (it comes with a chance to win a free pass to an AGI event next year) but we have had an overwhelming response this year. In the interests of fairness, openness and not being an evil secret society we will be publishing the results of the GeoCommunity feedback after the closing date for replies (31^st October). However I just wanted to share some of the trends we have noticed so far. The survey is of course anonymous so I will not be quoting anyone directly.

Firstly it is worth noting that we expanded the survey beyond just GeoCommunity attendees this year (obviously they got asked different questions). This was to ensure that we were getting a broader view and finding out from those people who didn't attend what we could change to capture their interest. All of this will be used to inform our events programme for 2014 which we want to make the best one yet.

Generally the numbered feedback (on a scale of 1-6 how much did you like... etc) was very positive but it is the typed comments that are most informative. Unsurprisingly it is the programme itself that was the subject of most of the comments. Generally the variety of the programme was praised with conflicting feedback from some people wanting less sponsor/corporate speakers and other people wanting more. Obviously there is going to be a huge range of personal opinion on this but it seems clear that a better labelling system for the speakers is necessary. Beyond the current stream names a lot of the comments suggest that labelling sessions as ‘technical’, ‘commercial’, ‘case study’ etc would be very useful. This would aid people in planning their time and hopefully help with another common (rather positive) complaint that there was too much that delegates wanted to see all on at the same time.

There also seems to be a demand for more hands on training and workshop style sessions at future events. This is something we are definitely looking to achieve next year as it serves the dual purpose of delivering more value and a better experience to our delegates as well as providing greater justification for delegates getting permission to go to events. Being able to say you will attend x and y training sessions always helps with the business case for going to a conference!

We also received feedback indicating that more speakers from the edges of GI would be a welcome change with the plenary from Sainsbury’s particularly well received. Following on from this is the continuing drive for relevance and we will be looking for plenary speakers from outside the core of GI (probably no will.i.am though I'm afraid). This doesn't mean we’re going to line up some random celebrities but rather we want to see other industries (retail, logistics, insurance etc) take on GI, what they use it for and how it can have a wider effect on commerce.

The other common theme amongst the comments was the location. True to UK regionalism this proved even more partisan than the commercial vs academic divide with comments ranging from ‘anywhere but Nottingham’ (GeoCom ’14 - Minsk it is) to ‘Nottingham till I die’ (OK I'm paraphrasing). Well I can say for certain we are moving from the EMCC but in all likelihood we will be somewhere in the Midlands again next year as it is roughly speaking the middle of the country. ThinkWhere made a very impassioned case for coming to Edinburgh at GeoCom (personally I’d love to it’s a great city) but at the end of the day transport links and central placement win out over pretty buildings and good pubs.

Anyway don’t forget to have your say on next year’s events (even if you didn't come to any this year) and we’ll be putting the survey results up in November.

Geo Information – Beyond the Core

Unfortunately this is not a Jules Verne esque adventure to the centre of the earth (although some molten iron would be welcome in the office today). Instead this is a look at efforts we are taking to expand our membership beyond the traditional core of GI users (suppliers, central and local government etc). We want to engage with people on the ever expanding frontiers of GI like surveyors, engineers and logistics professionals. This is key to fulfilling our mission of furthering increasing understanding of the benefits of GI and ensuring that we are not just preaching to the choir.

Reaching out to and educating new sectors in the value of GI has obvious benefits both in terms of new markets for suppliers and in improved efficiency and governance within the sectors.

Anyway the first step of this plan has been to start building partnerships with conferences and events in these sectors. We are happy to announce that the first of these media partnerships has been agreed with Emap. Emap produce a range of publications and conferences in the construction and infrastructure sector.

This year the AGI are involved with two of these: Tunnelling 2013 and Slope Engineering and Geotechnical Asset Management 2013. The AGI will be represented at both of these events (probably by me) and they represent an excellent opportunity to talk GI with a very different audience.

There is also a clear immediate benefit of this for our members (beyond the higher goal of furthering our mission) and that is that all AGI members are entitled to 25% off the cost of either of these conferences should they wish to attend. For more information on how to claim this discount click here.

 

I hope you find this useful and we are currently looking at media partnerships with other organisations operating on the edges of GI. Also if you happen to be at one of these conferences come and say hello!

Geo Information in 2014 – and the rest of 2013

Next year is the 25^th anniversary of the AGI and we are already putting a lot of effort in to our event programme to ensure it is more diverse and challenging than ever. However we don’t want 2014 to just be a self indulgent celebration of what we’ve done over the last 25 years (or last four months in my case). Instead we want to use it as an opportunity to take stock of GI in the UK and look at what are the major themes facing GI in 2014.

The idea for this partly comes from a conversation I had last night at our networking drinks with the INSPIRE SIG. They are currently looking at broadening the SIG beyond just the INSPIRE policy to look at the wider theme of Location within the Government’s National Information Infrastructure. This followed nicely on from discussions we had been having about running each showcase event around a certain theme in the industry with a view to informing our next Foresight report in 2015 (see here for the last foresight report).

Several themes spring to mind straight away, the already mention ‘location’ along with open data and open source, cloud technology and SMART cities. However we want our members input on what they think these themes should be. Is SMART too specific? Should we be looking at GI and infrastructure and GI and the citizen instead? Should open data and open source be considered separately and is cloud a theme of its own or something that should be lumped in under the wider auspices of technology?

These are the questions we hope to answer going in to 2014 and we want our members’ thoughts and opinions on these questions. We will be framing the questions more clearly as the programme for next year unfolds but in the meantime we want to hear from you on twitter and LinkedIn, through the blog, the SIGs and regions and any smaller event we hold throughout the year.

Not to forget the rest of 2013...

We still have plenty left to do in 2013 with Showcase events in York (14/11) and Cardiff (3/12) (a perfect opportunity to share your thoughts with us). Rounding this all off is the AGI Annual Awards on the 6^th December. As well as announcing our programme and plans for 2014 the Annual Awards are the opportunity for you to be recognised for any innovative work you have undertaken this year. Winning an award gives you the plaudits of your peers in the community and is a great addition to both your professional profile and that of the organisation you belong to. You can view the list of awards, past winner and nominate someone (or yourself) for an award here.

As always we look forward to hearing your ideas around the industry in 2014 and also any more nominations for the awards!  

AGI Northern Ireland Showcase Round Up

Last Thursday marked both the AGI NI Showcase and my first ever trip to Belfast (well technically we arrived on Wednesday). I’m happy to report that, a rather hairy landing at Belfast International aside both these events passed of very smoothly.

The NI Showcase was the fourth event in our AGI Showcase series. For those that don’t know the Showcase series of events are a programme of events that are new for 2013. They are one day events located around the UK, broadly in line with the AGI’s various regional groups (Northern Ireland, SW England, Cymru, Scotland etc). The idea behind these events is to make the AGI programme more accessible to our members around the UK. We understand that in the current economic climate not everyone can justify the time and travel costs to come to a residential multi day event like GeoCommunity. Not wanting anyone to miss out we decided to run a supplementary set of events bringing GI to the whole UK.

Much like the other Showcase events this year the Northern Ireland event was very well attended, held at the bright and airy (but thankfully warm) Riddle Hall in Belfast we had around 100 delegates and a group of sponsors including one for whom this was their first AGI event.

The event itself had two sessions running simultaneously following an opening presentation from Justin Gleason and the All Ireland Research observatory (AIRO). One of the two sessions/streams consisted of a variety of presentations and talks and the second consisted of technical sessions. The first three talks of the presentation stream contained a very humanitarian focus with presentations on using Openstreetmap for humanitarian mapping, GIS volunteer projects in Lesotho and Global Map Aid. These sessions really showed the potential benefits of GI for the citizen all around the world and there seemed to be a general interest amongst the delegates about getting involved.

Not being able to split myself in two (yet) I missed the technical sessions but was given a sneak preview of John Hewitt’s Demystifying Open Source GIS presentation whilst waiting for the delegates to arrive. This included some software which allowed users to view edits to Openstreetmap in real time. David McIlhatton from Ulster University had an equally impressive toy to display. This was a 3D model of Belfast built using a gaming engine which allowed the user to simulate things like traffic conditions, crowds and parades enabling the police to develop responses and tactics for things like crowd control. (OK it’s a serious bit of software not a toy but it does require an Xbox controller to use).

The main sessions were followed up with a presentation on crowd sourcing data in Dublin and a Q&A about the future of the AGI with Anne Kemp. The event then wound up with the inevitable (essential) geodrinks at a nearby bar. Talking to the delegates over lunch (in between eating as many honey mustard sausages as possible) the feedback for the event was very positive with the range of speakers grabbing interest. We had a number of new members sign up just to attend the event and there was a general enthusiasm for a GI event in Northern Ireland to complement those held by IRLOGI south of the border.

Sponsor feedback was also very positive with one sponsor telling me that the nature of the showcase programme (specifically the ability to buy a package for all the events) allowed them to present in regions that they would not normally be able to attend. In doing so they had generated interest from a whole new set of leads. This was good to hear as the whole point of the Showcase events has been to spread the reach of the AGI and the community and to connect people who would otherwise never meet.

On another note Belfast seems like a great city which I must visit as a tourist, if you happen to be going I can recommend a great B&B to stay in!