Spatially Adjusted

Author: James

  • SpatialTau v2.7 — Responsive Mapping and Eye Candy

    SpatialTau is my weekly newsletter that goes out every Wednesday. The archive shows up in my blog a month after the newsletter is published. If you’d like to subscribe, please do so here.

    I have to get some things off my chest but first just know that most people in Arizona drive around with a lasso in their truck for just such an occasion.

    1. Most people are very familiar with responsive web design.  The concept where a website automatically reformats itself to best fit on the size screen or type of device you have.  Awesome stuff right?  Rarely do I have to pinch and zoom on a website anymore.  Yet I’m still seeing tons of (mostly government) mapping applications fail completely on smartphones and tablets.  The mapping libraries are available to handle things, just need to get people to actually use it.
    2. Apple Maps released an update today.  Much of it is just better support to find things but they did go the eye candy route.  I don’t know about you but I find 3D mapping a huge pain in the rear on mobile devices. Heck I can’t even remember the last time I opened up Google Earth (quick check, nope I don’t have it installed on this MacBook).  Sure the idea that Big Ben has the correct time is pretty cool from a technologist perspective but the user in me just wants to have transit mapping and better traffic results.  That’s how you get me to use the map on my iPhone.
    3. Looks like Apple is also ready to release more details on their smart watch.  I’ve seen some really amazing things with the Android Wear products and one can only think that the Apple Watch will push the envelope more.  Personally I like the idea of my watch telling me which way to turn while walking in a city.  I suspect we’ll see lots more this summer with mapping and smart watches.
    4. Middleware is so dated, except in our line of business.  If there is nothing a GIS developer likes more is inserting multiple levels of severs between an application and a database.  Paul Ramsey said on my hangout that he thinks that PostGIS is about feature complete.  That’s why I think the magic moving forward will happen in the direct visualization of databases in the browser.
    5. Pitchers and catchers have reported.  Spring is here and the boys of summer are working hard.  Don’t worry about me though, it’s an odd year and that means the Giants won’t win the World Series.  Next year though be ready!

  • Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Steve Pousty

    Today at 1pm PDT, Steve Pousty joins me to talk about the deCarta acquisition by Uber.

    The backchannel chat occurs on IRC. Follow the instructions here or join in below.

  • Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Peter Batty

    The next episode of Hangouts with James Fee has special Guest Peter Batty, CTO at Ubisense. Peter will talk about this years FOSS4GNA, Leaflet.js, geospatial business trends and what’s he’s been working on at Ubisense.

    We go live next Friday (March 27th) at 1:00pm PDT and you can follow right here on my blog or at the Google+ Hangout event page.

  • Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Glenn Letham

    Glenn Letham joined me to talk about the state of the GIS marketplace, changes he’s seen over the past years and what he thinks GIS professionals need to survive moving forward.

  • SpatialTau v2.6 – When Maps Got Slippy

    SpatialTau is my weekly newsletter that goes out every Wednesday. The archive shows up in my blog a month after the newsletter is published. If you’d like to subscribe, please do so here.

    It seems like just yesterday but 10 years ago Google Maps was born.

    If you hopped in your DeLorean for a trip back to before 2005, you’d remember the days when we were all dependent on paper maps, print-outs, post-its and sometimes even a compass for directions! Getting from point A to B is something we do all day, every day—from finding the fastest way to get to work, to dropping the kids off on a carpool route, to meeting friends for drinks at a new spot—so it should be as easy as possible. That’s why we created Google Maps and why we’ve spent the last 10 years figuring out better ways for you to get around.

    Re/code has a great article on the birth and evolution of Google Maps that I encourage you to read.  For us in the industry, the biggest thing we remember is the disruption of how we visual maps on the Internet.  I didn’t start blogging until May of that year (boy, almost 10 for me) but early on there was much discussion about Google Maps (and Google Earth).  Today, most of our mapping libraries mimic Google Maps either with their API or their tile structure or even the look and feel.  The days of panning and then waiting for a map to redraw or the re-center on a map click are over.  Tiling maps is as common as performing buffers on linear features.

    “Google Maps like” is a phrase we see al the time on RFPs and marketing materials. Google Maps has so profoundly impacted our visualization work-flows that we almost delineate between BGM (Before Google Maps) and AGM (After Google Maps).  We compare all new mapping applications against Google Maps, in accuracy and in function.  Projects like OpenStreetMap are successful because Google Maps changed how we navigate and discover people and places.  Companies such as Mapbox and CartoDB exist because as a society we want to view information on maps quickly and easily.  Legacy GIS companies such as Esri have pivoted and become web-centric because Google Maps became the visualization method of GIS data.  Legacy GIS companies such as MapInfo and Intergraph have been pushed aside because they couldn’t change to work within this new dynamic.

    Before Google Maps we created online maps in VB6, C#, Java and other complicated languages.  Now whole applications are built with nothing but JavaScript (for the best).  Mapping APIs all look and feel like Google Maps.  There are no weird silo methods to create and display mapping data.

    ​map.data.LoadGeoJson

    ​Just look at that.  You know what it means and what it does.  The impact of Google Maps is so complete we seem to forget it is even there.

    Even outside of Spatial IT we see the impact of Google Maps.  How long will it take to get to work?  Where is the nearest bar?  When does the next bus arrive? How do I get to the airport?  What is the best place to get a taco near me?  These are questions we type in to Google and get map showing us information.  Even though our cars may have some proprietary Navteq navigation system, we prefer to use our smartphones to find out where we are going.

    I’ve been thinking about this all week, my professional life has changed so much since 2005 because of one product.  This started as a simple USA centric car navigation application and has become Navteq/Yelp/Yellowpages/Fodor’s/Michelin Guide/Zagat/AAA all in one.  But with the Google Maps API, it becomes a GIS visualization tool that everyone can use.  I can connect it to PostGIS without much effort and display database information that would have take a complex Java/.NET middleware component to handle.

    Google Maps is the most disruptive force on GIS that ended up being exactly what we all needed.  I can’t wait to see what we do in the next decade!

  • Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Lyzi Diamond

    This week Lyzi Diamond (@Lyzi Diamond) of Mapbox joined me to talk about Oregon Football, coding, education, spatial and Mapbox.  You can view the show below or go directly to the Google Hangout page here.

    The backchannel chat occurred on IRC. You can view the chat logs right here.

  • Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Marc Prioleau

    Thanks to Marc Prioleau for joining me this week! As always if you missed the live show you can view at any time below. Next week the mysterious Ian White of Urban Mapping.

  • Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Paul Ramsey

    Episode 2 of Hangouts with James Fee featured special Guest Paul Ramsey. If you missed the live show you can watch it below.

  • Hangouts With James Fee:: Season 3 Premier with Brian Timoney

    Missed the live show? You can watch it all below. Have a great weekend everyone!

  • This Week’s Hangout:: Season 3 Premier with Brian Timoney

    Well as promised, season 3 of Hangouts with James Fee premiers tomorrow at 1pm PST. The last time Brian joined me we talked about portals but this time we’ll catch up on all the new spatial news from the past few months. The new broadcast time is going to be 1pm PST every Friday. As before, all the shows will be archived on YouTube and this blog.  Go to the Google Hangout event page to find out more.