5 predictions Geo for 2010 and 5 things that won’t happen

December 31, 2009 59 Comments

Here are 5 predictions for Twenty Ten.

  1. The shapefile dies: SpatiaLite + ESRI’s File Geodatabase API finally put a dagger in the shapefile.
  2. GIS on iPhone/iSlate (Apple Tablet) and Android/Chrome OS: With Apple and Google owning the mobile space, we’ll see more proprietary and open source projects being ported to these platforms.  Microsoft Tablet PCs and Windows Mobile/CE begin to die off.
  3. 64-bit: There will be some holdouts (*cough* ESRI), but most of us will be running native 64-bit code on our desktops and servers.  Now to just get more RAM in this laptop.
  4. Mobile: If you aren’t running on the iPhone/Android/Blackberry you aren’t relevant.  Web mapping apps become mobile browser aware.   Those that aren’t were probably irrelevant anyway.
  5. Google: Google’s APIs continue to push the envelope and they continue to be the standard for everyone mapping on the interweb.  Google is able to throw so much money and manpower at “problems” and their solutions are coming faster than anyone else can match.

Here are 5 things that won’t happen:

  1. Augmented Reality: Much like the Nintendo Virtual Boy, it sounds great until you try and use it.
  2. OpenStreetMap Dominates: Between Google’s quick improving of their database and continued licensing issues OSM plateaus.  Companies will continue to try and figure out how to monetize OSM, but fail.
  3. ESRI + Microsoft: This was on the top 10 lists for many people in 2009, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing deeper integration.  ESRI will continue to support multiple platforms (Google, OSM, Microsoft, “other”) and not become a Microsoft shop.  As Google continues to erode away at SharePoint and Bing Maps, ESRI will make sure that they don’t get caught in Microsoft’s blind spot.
  4. Geolocation other than Twitter, Apple and Google (TAG): Foursquare, Brightkite, and others will fade as TAG rolls out new APIs and ensure their mobile devices are tagging everything you do.
  5. MySQL falls apart:  Despite the dire predictions of Oracle or Monty destroying the project, too many people have too much invested in the project to let it fail.  MySQL will be fine and LAMP will continue to power Badgers.

Hey, don’t worry…  It’s gonna be a bright, sun-shiny day!

 

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Twitter Acquires GeoAPI; The New GeoLocation Platform of Choice?

December 23, 2009 2 Comments

Given what we’ve witnessed since October, 2009 is sure going out with a bang. Google dumps Tele Atlas for their own mapping dataset and then gives away navigation, Microsoft adds street level imagery, Google adds oblique imagery and then gives away a spatial query server and Mapquest adds street level imagery as well.  But today Twitter did something that just seems to fit perfectly with just about any mobile application.  They went ahead and picked up GeoAPI.

Twitter clearly sees location as important as anything they do (I guess microblogging is something they do as well).  Tagging tweets with location is something fairly new to the Twitter API, but with smartphones probably being the primary method of tweeting, location becomes natural with tweeting.  We’ve been speculating that we could analyze tweets during “events” and see locations of tweets with information about what is being observed (flooding/fire/babes).  Having a richer geo-api will only facilitate this further and could be the real killer crowdsourcing app.

The only pushback I’ve seen on twitter is the location API can be very accurate.  I’d love to see them enable something like Fire Eagle where you can have it return a city level geocode rather than a hyperaccurate one.  I mean I’m glad everyone knows how often I visit the Apple store, but I’d like @pbissett to wonder just a little.

So I’m sitting here just fantasizing what can be done with the data provided by Twitter and GeoAPI.  I feel sort of like Clark Griswold…

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , , , ,

Have ArcMap use Twitter when scripts are finished

December 28, 2008 16 Comments

I remember years ago having ArcInfo Workstation send emails when it was finished processing and I’ve always thought the next logical step was having it send a text message to my cell phone.  Rafa Gutierrez looked at Twitter for alerts and posted instructions as to how to get your ArcMap Model to send you a tweet when it is finished running.  I’d probably set up a separate private Twitter account so that people can’t see what I’m doing or that I’d spam followers with my overlay analysis.

Letting ArcMap send you tweets

Letting ArcMap send you tweets

Filed under GIS Tagged with , , ,