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GIS: A Mature Industry Tackles the Disruptive Technology Question By Joe Francica , Editor-in-Chief and Vice Publisher, Directions Magazine July 06, 2005
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champion of open source software development, shared his stage with Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, arguably the leader of the non-free, commercial GIS world. O'Reilly may have surprised Dangermond with this zinger."How does it feel to be the incumbent in an industry that is being disrupted?" It put Dangermond on the spot.But it is not just a question for the man responsible for bringing GIS to worldwide commercial prominence; it's a question for every software provider that has been in the GIS business more than a few
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years.And depending on your perspective, you could argue that it is not even a fair question.ESRI is the market leader and has been for several years precisely because it innovates and is a disruptive influence as well.Still, coming from the person looking to introduce "hacks"
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to the mapping arena, it was one of those awkward moments that sent the audience into silence. Dangermond was cautious in his response; perhaps pensive is the right word.If he answered negatively, he would sound out of touch with the "young guns".If he answered affirmatively, his answer would sound politically correct."I think it's good.You know, I'm going to die soon," he said.It was a crowd-pleasing, tight-rope walking rebuttal. Disruptive Behavior The word "disruption" has been used a lot this spring in conjunction with the location-based information technology sector.The word was used extensively at the Oracle Spatial Special Interest Group Meeting in Denver in March and IDC, the market research company, has used the term in its reports to describe the current situation in this technology sector. In the context of location-based services, the word has been used to describe the "mainstreaming" of location technology to a broader buyer base for information technology that is suddenly more mapping savvy.From the location-aware enterprise to geocaching to pet finders to online traffic maps to The Weather Channel to parking meter management to spatial interaction models, more people understand how to use location-based information. As such, it is not only the mapping technology providers who started this business that seem to be driving the public awareness, but those companies who are addressing a consumer market such as MapQuest, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. Dangermond told me just after his presentation that he was not spending the money in public relations that Google has in promoting the features of Google Maps.I think what is beguiling to Dangermond is that there is so much fuss over this current wave of Internet mapping.His company has been "mainstreaming" the cost cutting advantages of GIS to companies like Sears, Suzuki, and many others for years.And, to ESRI, this current wave of interest looks like a flash in the pan."It reminds me of LBS," he said, referring to the bubble caused by wireless locationbased services that was once touted as the "killer app." Historically, there has been "disruptive behavior" every eight to 12 years or so that challenges the location technology sector.In the mid 80's, mapping software was moving off mainframes and onto mini computers and PC's allowing greater flexibility in deploying workstations for applications in remote sensing, and geophysical data processing, for example.In the early 90's, the introduction of Microsoft Windows precipitated a wave of innovative desktop mapping products whose user interfaces allowed a more intuitive workflow for creating maps and performing spatial analysis.In the later 90's and the early part of this century, developers are
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23.04.2009
GIS: A Mature Industry Tackles the Disruptive Technology Question - Articles
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tapping into databases and the Internet to build solutions that do not rely on monolithic GIS software products. Freedom is not Free The difference with this latest "disruption" this time can best be described as the point on the technology adoption curve where the "hockey stick" takes the 90 degree turn upward.In every successful development of information technology, described in "Crossing the Chasm", there is a mass market adoption phase.Guess what? We are there."There is much more to come," said Dangermond.And he's absolutely right, but whether it is ESRI and its traditional competitors in the GIS sector that drive the market or others like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Sprint/NEXTEL, or Yahoo, is a huge question mark. The disruptive part of this trend that is unsustainable is that the new, "hacked" applications based on Google Maps or Yahoo Maps appear "free" to the users and developers.Whether it is by someone else's advertising dollar or per transaction cost to download maps to your wireless handset, it will not remain "free" to the consumer (See "The End of Free Maps).Eventually someone will determine the appropriate business model to pay for data licensing and other geospatial content such as that provided by NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas.While many are free to explore the possibilities via the APIs offered by Google, Yahoo and others, content is still king and that comes at a price. Missed Opportunity? I think O'Reilly's real question was this.How come the traditional GIS vendors were not driving this latest wave of disruption? Why where they not the technology suppliers for the Google's, Yahoo's etc.? What was it in the mapping tool boxes they offered that didn't pass muster with the hackers? Or maybe this wasn't a missed opportunity after all? Maybe ESRI, et. al.have the "incumbent" expertise to still compete quite effectively.There may still be time to "ice the competition" with this hockey stick.
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Disruptive technologies and GIS (#1)
by Grady Meehan, Location Intelligence Consultant Date: July 6, 2005 13:19 PM Having recently received two O'Reilly books, "Mapping Hacks" and "Web Mapping" I believe the disruptive technologies have finally arrived in the Internet mapping environment. The ideas expressed in these books aren't just idle thinking, but are serious and thoughtful explorations (with examples)of mapping applications in the public arena. Looking inside the science and technology of cartography and GIS exposes both the big picture (of cartography) and details to a wider audience than has been the case in the past. What follows will lead to a revolution in geographic awareness that should hasten the diffusion of geographic knowledge inside organizations. In my opinion, geospatial applications in business are impeded more by the lack of widespread management awareness of the potential value to the bottom line rather than the availability of specialized software and data. Improved awareness of all things geospatial across the IT community and beyond will be supported by these new books. People who make, use and share their personal maps will have a positive effect on society and encourage further innovation.
Disruptive Technology Article (#2)
by Mark Hunt, Stilson Enterprises Date: July 6, 2005 14:04 PM While I found this article somewhat interesting, I do believe that the creedos given ESRI and Dangermond were a bit overblown. To say Dangermond and ESRI have been the innovators in GIS is hard to take. Several of the last releases of ARC whatever have simply adopted GIS tecnologies that already exist in such products as Maptitude, Manifold, etc., which are sold at a much, much lower price and offer a greater ease of use, all while opening an expanding a greater user base in GIS. Would we also call Microsoft an "innovater" because of Excel or Word? I think not. I believe the real news behind Google, Yahoo and Microsofts mapping applications is that it will open up high level managers eyes to the fact that thousands of dollars don't need to be spent on propietary software such as Arc blah blah in order to successfully reach company goals.
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GIS: A Mature Industry Tackles the Disruptive Technology Question - Articles Disruptive (#3)
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by Simon Greener, Private Date: July 9, 2005 06:20 AM Sure, some interesting things are happening and these will "disrupt" existing vendors. With Google Earth, World Wind etc ArcGlobe's price has to drop to compete. Google has the financial structure to buy the high cost data AND to do client-centric, commodity software and services. Manifold are showing how to build client-centric functionality at a low, low price. Arc* has to drop in price: it also has to be ported off COM and into .NET - a non-trivial cost. Also, as I have pointed out before, the first and foremost thing is the move of spatial data management into the corporate database. An "enterprise geo database" is not a product but a management philosophy based on horizontal market generic databases like Oracle Spatial, Postres/GIS, IBM: the space to watch here is Microsoft with its potential move into kernel-level spatial in SQLServer (Longhorn's WinFS?). ArcSDE has to be re-engineered in order to survive. Disruption in the internet mapping is not so much about IMS but about the future of n-tier computing. Remember CORBA, DCOM/MTS, Transaction Processing Monitors etc? IMS is, in one sense, a stopgap technology while convergence is achieved in this space. Microsoft nearly missed the internet explosion but with .NET it has the architecture - abiit in its infancy - to do n-tier properly (Longhorn's Indigo?). Google, IBM etc are all positioning for the WebServices revolution. I don't think ArcWeb type "products" and OpenGIS WFS/WCS/WMS "standards" are the solutions that are needed in the commodity market space. Finally, Longhorn's Avalon will show everyone how to build GIS viewers and other applications without the need for high cost GIS development kits. Is the GIS sector ready for this? Can ESRI match all that is going on and still dominate the sector? ESRI's financials seem to be now its Achilles heel given its private ownership, high pricing structure and dependence on high price maintenance/support. The future is not particularly "open source", and I think Tim knows this. I think the distruption is on too many fronts for ESRI to remain dominant: I don't back Jack on this one, this time. We live in interesting times! Just so that my bosses don't get more emails trying to shut me up, this is my own personal 2c worth not written on company time. The opinions are not those of my employer! S.
More Disruption (#4)
by Roger Bedell, Sylvan Ascent Inc. Date: July 12, 2005 22:23 PM The Where 2.0 conference was simply amazing. Almost everyone I talked to was doing something interesting. The "Blue vs Red" cell phone app was the best (as you walk along, it tells you if you are in a Blue or Red area based on campaign contributions!) Everyone talked about Google, but I thought Yahoo Local was better - all about community, people communicating with people like themselves. Microsoft was as usual playing "fast follower", but this may not work this time, as Google and Yahoo start speeding up. Yahoo is hiring so they said. As far as ESRI goes, I wouldn't worry about their future, it is so entrenched in so many places, it will be the dominant GIS for many years in the US. Outside the US, I believe that Free and Open Source Software FOSS like PostGIS, MapServer, GeoServer etc, will dominate in a few short years. The lamest part was the panel on privacy. LBS will make privacy a thing of the past, and nothing anyone said on the panel dispelled this disquieting notion. Intel's FOSS PlaceLab was absent, although a private firm (probably with all the patents) spoke about using TV signals for mobile positioning. All the "Mashing" was interesting, apparently Web 2.0 is all about this, combining and re-using web pieces in different ways. Sounds like a plan, I wonder who will make the big money (Google and Yahoo most likely). Everybody else starves? FYI Google only has about 3000 employees and is valued at how many billions?
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