More LI, More Possibilities

Welcome to both the year 2006, and the first bi-monthly issue of the Location Intelligence magazine.

We have moved to publishing twice monthly so LI can do several things: be more flexible in the topics we cover, respond faster to news and the evolution of location intelligence (LI), business intelligence (BI) and competitive intelligence (CI), and finally explore adjacent technologies and insights.It appears to me that moving forward is best accomplished by following more of a zig-zag - not necessarily in a straight line.

As an example, time now is becoming an accepted part of data structures.This is because knowing "when" is as important as knowing "where" and "how." Not so long ago, discussing time as part of LI and BI generated glassy stares and fascination in patterns on the ceiling. Now that time is mainstream, we can move forward with a four dimensional perspective.

In the 'time' dimension, one of the things that happens is that artificial lines get drawn to denote 'before' and 'after.' A good example is the New Year "" things either happened before it or after it. Upon reaching each of these lines, a thoughtful person is supposed to predict what is going to happen in the future "" on the other side of the arbitrary line.So what are my predictions for 2006?

I believe that Google has set the expectation for seeing maps in apps that will brings maps into places we haven't yet imagined.For example, this issue of LI includes an overview of a product that allows you to map your contacts in Outlook.Could there be a new phrase underlining this raised expectation? How about, "if there isn't a map, it must be a DOS app."

We will expect easy access to adjacencies, not just in information retrieval and visualization.Now that data storage has become homogenized, we will expect to see it presented in adjacent manners that allow us to understand it, in all four dimensions.By the end of this year, this will be as much of an expected part of things as a cell phone or broadband.

We may be called upon to develop a new construct for expressing temporal data.Everybody has had the grammar drills of past, present and future.Possibly now we will need a tense that is all three. Fortunately, for the entire four dimensions of data we already have a term, location intelligence.

Our hope here at LI Magazine is that all of us become more "location intelligent" this year.The rate of change is now even faster and that is why you need to see us twice as often.

Enjoy 2006 and the new frequency of the LI magazine.