Recently, a Washington State ferry service employee was searching for a new home for one of their ferries.  The employee utilized Google earth to zoom in on some potential sites and stumbled across a nuclear submarine with its propeller showing.  This is prohibited in military intelligence and sparked a wave of sensitivity over the use of mapping showing military bases.  However, there is a bigger story from this.

Digital maps are emerging as one of the most valuable technology tools for sifting out information that would not ordinarily be known.  For a network professional, bringing such a tool into your network is not difficult; however, there are things to be aware of. 

If you have not received the call from your business units asking about how to incorporate, not just mapping, but the applications to be used with the technology, you soon will.

The popularity of "geodata" or data with a geographic reference is finding its ways into a myriad of industries.  According to the National Academy of Sciences, nearly 85 % of all information has some geographic link.  Streets names, addresses and other information such as a person's occupation, environmental permit applications, and the population of a rare species of birds all have a geographic link.  Geographic coordinates give more meaning to such information when viewed collectively.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) uses search technology and employs natural language processing on data to sort and tag it according to its geographic coordinates.  It then indexes all of its findings such that a user can intelligently search this index and find data that is accurate, meaningful and non-ambiguous.

Searching for information through conventional search engines is something we do everyday. However, research shows that only 30% of information found using common search technology is actually useful to us.  Nearly 70% of what we are looking for is not found in an ordinary search.

This data is often referred to as "unstructured" data, and is found in communications less accessible:  e-mails, messages, internal correspondence, reports, analysis papers, web pages, and news feeds.  The trend in information storage seems to be going the way of unstructured data.  The National Academy of Sciences also estimates that the amount of unstructured data is growing by over 60% per year.  Relying only on structured data as opposed to the combination of structured and unstructured data can be unproductive.

We spend about 30% of our time searching for data that just does not exist from readily available sources.  When we populate a database with unstructured as well as structured information, we are able to use it in conjunction with geography to make better decisions and be better informed.

From searching for environmental permits in a specific region, to finding better ways for a newspaper to advertise in their local community, geospatial intelligence is finding its way onto the to-do lists of IT managers and their colleagues. 

GIS software enables information and data to be visually displayed on a map.  How that information is applied and used is where a network technology professional may step onto the scene.

However, with standard GIS technology alone, there is not the richness that comes into play once layers of data are introduced.  When other technology is added to the GIS, software, there is a new richness that the GIS technology yields.  When structured data and unstructured data is layered on a GIS map, one is able to see the relationships between these layers of data and turn these layers of data on and off.   

"I don't think GIS is as interesting as the idea of geospatial applications, which may or may not be GIS related," says Bob Warren, Vice President of Products for the MetaCarta Corporation based in Cambridge Massachusetts.  MetaCarta is a provider of geographic intelligence solutions, offers users map-driven geographic search, geographic referencing, and data visualization capabilities.

How can mapping technology become sophisticated when combined with other technologies to search, tag and layer data?

With ordered data layered on a digital map, GIS technology provides a view of what crime rates are in a particular neighborhood and what the trend is for that neighborhood.  What the murder rate has been in a particular area and what neighborhoods might be a red flag for more policing and patrolling.  Not only can law enforcement measure and track it geographically, others may provide a clearer visual picture of it as well.   

You might be able to tell where environmental problems have originated or see which bridges are more than 30 years in age.  Ordinary problems in our daily world are more visible and subsequently more controllable with different technologies working together to provide geographic intelligence.

"What I see happening, especially over the last 3-6 years, is a growing and perhaps explosive awareness of the importance of geography to everyday business, and as a consequence, a growing number of applications which utilize maps for the display of information and as an interactive component of the user interface," says Warren. 

"These applications cover an increasingly broad range of solutions, including: advertising, retail siting and stocking, advertising sales and planning, business continuity, risk analysis, warranty analysis, oil and gas exploration, energy trading, newspaper event listings, emergency response, law enforcement, [and] business intelligence." 

These applications may be applied with network help, but the actual GIS software does not have to be located within the network. 

"Many of these applications rely on GIS systems to create and deliver the maps, and these GIS systems may be within the corporate firewall," says Warren.  "But they may also be outside the firewall-delivered as Software as a Service or, interestingly, as a Google (or Yahoo or MSN) mash up."

Data may be applied in a way where it may be viewed using the mapping software.  Applying that data is where firms like MetaCarta come in.  They have unique algorithms and technology to apply against huge amounts of data and make it valuable and useful.  The methods and various ways that such data may be manipulated and presented is an ongoing work-in-progress.

"The number of applications utilizing geospatial information will continue to grow significantly over the next several years, both in the public and private sectors," says Bob Warren.  "Right now, I think we're in the stage where a few pioneers are demonstrating what's possible.  Eyes are opening, and as they do, the growth will accelerate."

Data is everywhere.  In the context of GIS, data is "layered" or stacked on top of other data, so that a relationship may be established.  It often has more meaning when it is viewed relative to other data.  This is the beauty of layering data on a digital map as relational data provides a powerful management tool.

Because data is quantifiable, it may quantify attributes and variables. Examples include facts about people, places, and things: how much, how old, how tall, where, when, what and how.   For example, layered data may measure crime, water, terrorists, health, transportation, military intelligence, fire, natural resources, energy, and just about anything.

Geographic data or geodata may be stored elsewhere and extracted or loaded from this outside source.  It is then used to populate a database to be used by an application in conjunction with mapping software.  It is not very difficult to do this.

"Geodata may not be within a firm's infrastructure, and in these cases, the effort is almost nil-just use web services to reach outside to SaaS or SOA solution," says Warren.  "Inside the firewall, it is becoming increasingly easy to incorporate spatial data using, for example, Oracle's spatial database, PostGIS (an extension to Postgres)."

Because using map and data is a visual experience, it can be a bit taxing on the network as imagery is storage- and bandwidth-intensive says Bob Warren.  "If you're not using a tiled approach it can require significant CPU horsepower.  Caching and compression strategies can reduce network and system loads."

A definite advantage of using mapping is that one need not be a map expert to reap the benefits that mapping software and applications in combination with geodata provide.  With a short learning curve, most network folks can understand how to employ other technology solutions to be used in conjunction with mapping tools.    

"Understand Google's application program interface," advises Warren.  "Although I think that's really an understatement, it is a good place to start. I believe what's more important is experience in determining what applications benefit from a geospatial perspective."

Bob Warren of MetaCarta has outlined some two important points that network professionals and administrators should know about digital maps and their incorporation of intelligent data.  They are as follows: 

1. Understand what applications may benefit from a geospatial perspective.

2. Most of an organization's information is probably not geocoded - in other words, applicable data has not been transformed into latitude and longitude coordinates, and therefore cannot be represented geospatially. 

There are numerous ways that data can be geocoded and used as intelligence within an application, be it on your network or otherwise.  The key thing to remember is the technology is emerging fast and catching on even faster.  Knowing what the technology is all about and how it can be of business benefit is important for IT workers to know.  

The value of technology is important and in the case of geographic-based intelligence as a tool for today's enterprise, it can alleviate labor and help overall business strategy.

"In the past, making information geospatially relevant has meant a lot of manual labor," explains Warren.  "Today, however, there are tools that can automate the process, for example, MetaCarta products."

For more information, contact Bob Warren, VP of Products, MetaCarta Corporation, bwarren [at] metacarta [dot] com.

 

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