Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have evolved remarkably over the last 50 years. What began as a desire to perform mapping functions using computers, is now a collection of modules, functional capabilities and software programs all configured toward a system for handling geographic-based information. Recent trends toward software as a service as compared to products means profound change for both GIS professionals and the public who will engage geographic information in the future. What do you think GIS in the Cloud will be like?
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have evolved remarkably over the last 50 years. What began as a desire to perform mapping functions using computers, is now a collection of modules, functional capabilities and software programs all configured toward a system for handling geographic-based information. Recent trends toward software as a service as compared to products means profound change for both GIS professionals and the public who will engage geographic information in the future. What do you think GIS in the Cloud will be like?
Whether or not you use the word Cloud, for the purposes of this column I am writing it with respect to the delivery of all functions of a GIS from distant computing centers. Imagine GIS in the Cloud. The entire, complete functionality and delivery of published geospatial and GIS work flows, and results, through the use of computers operating at distant locations. Data creation, data management, spatial analysis and visual representation – all Cloud propagated.
This past week at the 2011 Esri European User Conference in Madrid I had had the chance to interview Jack Dangermond, President of Esri. He had earlier in the day delivered a Keynote address that laid out a vision for GIS in the Cloud. “GIS is a system, it includes desktop, server and cloud pattern,” he said. As we talked, he made it clear that the cloud part was not fully defined by his company, nor pricing, as yet. But he indicate that GIS in the Cloud is not simply servers doing GIS – it is much more.
In his keynote he referred to that much more as being a being “pretty dramatic” – “accessible by thick and thin clients” – “including Intelligent Maps (multiple services encapsulated)” and usable across platforms. “People would choose where and how to manage their services, ” he said.
In some ways so much of this is hard to get one’s head around at the present time. Simple word processing in the cloud is vastly different than conceptualizing distant geo-processing, graphic analysis, communication strategies, interpretation and representation – common elements of GIS – originating from a distance. Here are some of my thoughts on GIS in the cloud.
Bandwidth, Internet and ISP
Because so much of what a GIS does is visual in nature, this means that issues related to the 2-way dynamic exchange of images and graphics needs to consider telecommunication capabilities. While my current wired work line is a 50 VDSL Mbit/s line, many times I have traveled outside of Berlin only 30 km and had real difficulties accessing cloud services – or other services for that matter.
Ingrid Vanden Berghe, President-elect of Eurogeographics, speaking at the same conference indicated that the European Commission expects to see every citizen in the EU with broadband access by 2013. Most of these will probably include government agencies and services. But it is expected that this will allow the development of more content, simplify access and use and by that time, solve many of the property and intellectual rights issues.
From a GIS perspective, many of us will publish to the web, and most of those maps and other cartographic products will often be personal and contain observations and general mapping activities. However, businesses and agencies engaged in activities requiring greater security and authentication for access to GIS data and services will also be needed. From what I saw that the conference, authentication is largely solved. Security issues, of course, are only partially the responsibility of GIS in the cloud – ISPs and others involved in telecoms also have responsibilities.
I would expect that desktop, server and cloud ‘patterns’ as Dangermond talked about, will indeed remain for a long time to come. And users may actually engage some or all of these patterns in their daily work. Imagery compression and enhanced techniques for shortening delivery time will play a major role here.
Role of Basemaps
While we can expect to see standardisation around OGC and ISO standards, basemaps and standardised templates have a major role to play in GIS delivered through the cloud. They enable standard context, back drops and references for connecting professional and public experiences of geographic information to locality.
Collections of cloud-based basemaps and associated materials might be developed along the lines of libraries and areas of focus – water, air, forest, transport, energy and so on. It certainly makes more sense in the case of Intelligent Maps that standard templates are bundled into configurations that are usable by individual needs and applications, supporting maximum reuse and easy-to-interpret symbology, regionalization and so on.
Art of Discovery
The whole notion of searching for something is about to change with GIS in the cloud. Both text and graphics can lead to rich blends related to place through using GIS in the cloud. Graphics, originating through analysis will add new locational data in an exponential fashion. Once linked to public mobile devices across all platforms, this rapid growth of new graphic material will add superior ability for accessing and understanding context for graphics.
GIS in the cloud could also include the coupling of automation technologies to support search and the delivery of results. Think of image analysis software processing images uploaded by anyone, then assembled together by place and delivered to anyone with access. Suddenly, the data one is working with includes not only their own data, but the data of others, and furthermore, it is already processed.
Because GIS is also radically shifting from 2D to 3D (4D) as technology now evolves, then a two-step process might be envisioned as users will need to adapt to 3D environments and use of 3D data, then the explosion of 3D GIS in the cloud itself. While we can now see some services involving the detection of change and publishing of new results through automation, the detection of change within 3D spaces is not, as yet, fully understood nor do applications exist.
Continuous Data and Sensors
The cloud is ideal for interrogating and accessing changing parameters detected from sensors – if a value is measured and found to be different than the previous value, then an event arises.
It is near impossible to monitor and assess large networks of sensors without computing hardware and performance that is able to assess and calculate changes. While small networks may be possible for local use, GIS in the cloud opens the door to larger regions, and could include sensor data that are wholly new. The difference between local efforts and regional access and applications becomes more prominent.
Top-Down or Bottom-Up or Spatial Metamorphosis?
Many people in the open source community talk about bottom-up approaches. These generally follow the idea of think global-act local. It was interesting to hear at the Madrid event that top-down implementations are actually causing great impacts now. No longer are they barriers to change, but instead, governments and large agencies have now recognised the need to push social media use into the wider population as a means to inact e-government agendas.
The impact of legislation and regulations, that in effect support cloud GIS, is now becoming more prevalent. From Azerbaijan to Indonesia to the UK, we see and hear governments talking about putting geospatial data at the heart of government operations – as a priority. Since governments often have the resources and ability to house huge amounts of geodata and to deliver it, then public-private relationships and projects are likely to arise in greater numbers where geodata is involved.
Enlightened government officials are likely to learn that leveraging their data holdings with what the public produces in terms of geodata, will yield unparalleled results and improved services. In this sense, automated environmental governance is an example of this in action, where sensors continual provide data that is assessed through governance and automatically results in decisions.
Work Flow and Cost
GIS in the cloud is likely to change work flows. Most work flows today will involve data and procedures that the participants are aware of or include knowledge of other participants with the information. In a wider cloud, more geographic information arrives and is shared, and although collaboration can happen, is it reasonable to expect everyone to talk with everyone participating?
New models for charging for the use of geospatial information and GIS services are likely to emerge. These will invariably cross scales, meaning larger projects in the cloud will have more GIS data available, while others have limited amounts. This information will not have to reside in any one place, but will be accessible through many connections. Since administrators of geographic information will have the ability to include or exclude participants or access to certain data, the concept that everyone see’s everything in the cloud is simply wrong.
We might expect to see unique charging forms for GIS in the cloud. However, for most people, even professionals, GIS is largely exploratory in nature and discovery in scope. Thus, clickable charging may need to include leeway for inexperienced users and those most likely to explore and use geographic information in discovery fashions.
In summary, GIS in the cloud is not new, but the development and delivery of a fully functioning GIS that emanates from the cloud is extremely wide in scope because of the width and breadth of geography and it’s application. The implementation of it is likely to be as variable as it’s use, and for that reason, what we know now in terms of the planet is like an iceberg – most unseen and yet to come – soon.
