From a New Language to a Common Approach - Dangermond's Message for ESRI UC 2007

By Joe Francica , Editor-in-Chief and Vice Publisher, Directions Magazine
June 21, 2007

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As I approached the ESRI UC this year I wondered, what would Jack focus on in 2007? After nearly 40 years in the business, Dangermond still shapes the discussion, not only for his customers but also for a broader community of geospatial professionals. In 2007, he seems to have moved the theme he emphasizes often, "GIS as an emerging language," to "GIS as rich data model" with "modeling" being the operative term. This year he is emphasizing the results of GIS, the work of GIS, the technology advantage of GIS. His main point: GIS is the essential tool in business process improvements and best practices. "To classic geographers, (GIS) is just this mechanical thing. No, I don't think so. GIS is to geography what the telescope was to astronomy," said Dangermond.

There was a greater emphasis on obtaining "results" in his remarks offered as part of the Senior Executive Summit (SES), a day-long seminar of high-level invited attendees. This was an audience that wanted substance and Dangermond delivered with examples from ESRI customers who implemented GIS solutions:

Cook County Housing - increased the number of inspections by 33% to 25,000 inspections per year
Nashville Electric - with 100 calls per day, demonstrated a 23% increase in service calls
San Diego Paratransit - provided 20% more trips per hour
Monarch Beverage - with 300,000 deliveries per year, recognized large savings in operations that were mission critical to the business

"GIS at the macro level, and the many organizations that are using it, is starting to guide human action and the evolution of the planet itself," said Dangermond. "GIS is becoming more real-time. It is giving a common operational picture. Where are my field workers when I need them?"

An operative phrase: "common operational picture." Once reserved for military parlance, it is now taking hold within many types of organizations, as they begin to see the spatial relationships their data reveal and comprehend their own dependencies on geospatial information. There are as many instances of the "geographic war room" in business settings as there are in military situations. "Getting the geographic advantageï¿½I want that ...it makes my business better," said Dangermond.

So, what Dangermond is attempting to do is shift the discussion from just using geospatial information in the context of visualization tools (think Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth) to viewing it as an essential enterprise information technology. Even though he understands the advantage that "consumer GIS" is bringing in terms of technology awareness, he refuses to offer it up as just eye candy. Hence, he intends to inform as many high level executives as possible with the notion that if you are not managing your business processes with at least an eye on the geographic phenomenon taking shape within those processes, you are not seeing the entire picture ï¿½ the entire common operational picture.

In simpler terms, Dangermond called for "The 'geographic approach' a new way to plan a new way to behave a new approach to action considering the stack of things that need to be thought about to understand the future." This geographic approach centers on doing more modeling of geographic phenomenon because the opportunity for data collection is here and the time to use those data more effectively for even minor decisions is now. The tools are easier to use and therefore more people should be using them for essential business planning and decision support. "If I am the world's expert in flood modeling," said Dangermond, "I can build a model and give it to you, to share my models. These knowledge bits are important." The essential message: sharing models, not just data, to build a knowledge base, not just a database.

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GIS 1.0 adjusting to the great advancements brought by GIS 2.0 end user experience (#1) by Dave, GIS Data Partners
Date: June 22, 2007 13:45 PM

I think Jack did a good job reminding people that even though Google, Microsoft and others are getting a lot of attention for improving the end user experience for the everyday user, it is GIS 1.0 software that is used to create the data for those systems and to do more advanced analysis. Google is an advertising company. They want to attract eyeballs to advertisements. They will give away their front end mapping software and invest a fortune collecting a basemap of data, in the hope that you will incorporate their map on your web page. And, oh, by the way, if you will include their advertisements then they will share the revenue with you. It is an enticing proposition. Free geocoding, directions, traffic reports, etc. The API is super simple. The end user experience is well known and super simple.

It is unlikely that Google or Microsoft will pursue the vertical GIS markets because those solutions do not offer as much potential to bring a lot of eyeballs to advertisements. GIS 1.0 (ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo, Autodesk...) will still be around to create the more advanced data sets (water drainage models, climate models, utility networks, latest earthquakes, housing for sale or rent, etc.) being displayed by the new end user apps. It is good to see some competition heating up in this market sector again... good for technological advances and good to keep pricing in check!

Who would have ever predicted that the GIS industry would undergo such a major transformation driven by an advertising company?

Good Article (#2) by Narayanan Lakshmanan, Hybrid infotech, ESRI
Date: June 22, 2007 21:56 PM

Good way of putting GIS 1.0 and GIS 2.0 and correct positioning of Google and Microsoft in GIS world.

Sharing in a Business Environment (#3) by Paul Bissett, WeoGeo
Date: July 3, 2007 13:48 PM

While I believe that sharing may be an appropriate model for the "consumer GIS" market, a validated flood model takes resources to develop, refine, and deploy. Thus, it may be hard to build a geospatial business model around sharing.

I am tremendously excited by the recognition of importance of the "common operational picture" by people outside our traditional field. Google, Microsoft and others should be commended for raising this awareness. However, I would like to see an alternative ecommerce model develop that directly pays for the talent, skills, and content in our markets?

A fully functioning digital marketplace could provide direct support to the talent, skills, and content in our field outside the traditional RFP or consulting contract process. By directly supporting these valuable assets, we create an environment that facilitates the development of our future geospatial models and modelers, creating a positive feedback mechanism for the support and growth of our field outside of the reliance on advertising revenues.

	I use it the same way as before.
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	I use it more.
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