Kicking Off RELIEF Experiments at Camp Roberts

This week Tony and I are out in California at Camp Roberts, working with a group of folks from all over the country, experimenting with tools and methodologies for disaster recovery scenarios.

The RELIEF event series is intended to provide an environment for civilian agencies, academic researchers, technologists, and military personnel to get together and collaborate, working in concert to improve the processes and tech used when first responders arrive on the scene post-disaster to triage and assist affected communities. During the trip, the objective is to experiment with new technologies for FEMA's "survivor-centric" approach to crisis management and response.

Camp Roberts FEMA Corps data collection

We were invited to participate in the exercises, specifically to field trial the Fulcrum platform as a suite of tools for field data collection capabilities for first responders in assessing the on-the-ground environment, with assistance staff and FEMA Corps volunteers using electronic survey applications to replace older style paper survey methods.

Fulcrum will be a great all-around tool for this sort of field survey work, particularly given its capabilities as a fully disconnected, offline platform, and thanks to its foundation on consumer-grade devices. This means that in the low- or no-connectivity environment post-disaster, volunteers can still get the job done, with resilient ability to get to the network for data upload whenever it's available, rather than being permanently tethered to maintain the data uplink back to the central office. Because Fulcrum runs on iOS and Android consumer hardware, there's no expensive device acquisition process, and coordinators can support truly "bring your own device" models for volunteer participation.

We're excited to be part of this effort to improve response agency processes, but also to have the opportunity to put Fulcrum into the "proving ground" for true field testing scenarios. Stay tuned for more later in the week.

The New Spatialnetworks.com

Everything needs a little maintenance from time to time. We change our oil, clean the gutters, get our eyes checked, and brush our teeth. Sometimes, things that don't even exist in the physical sense need a little TLC. The ones and zeros that make up Spatialnetworks.com were looking a bit weathered towards the end of 2012, and after tending to the rest of our flock, we were finally able to launch a refreshed version. 

Rediscovery

As we began the discovery phase of this new design, we really wanted to slim everything down and focus on the essentials. We didn't want any sliding image galleries, lengthy, self-affirming dissertations, or redundant content on pages that didn't need to exist. Getting back to basics means answering a few simple questions: Who is coming to the site? What do we want them to know? What action do we want them to take once they're ready to move on?  

One of the inherent benefits of doing a redesign, as opposed to starting from scratch, is that we need only look at history to answer question number one. Of course, in life, many times when one question is answered, others quickly arise: Are the visitors meeting our demographic expectations, i.e. are these the people we want coming to the site?  Are there other markets in which we could be making an impact? Once these and other similar questions are pondered, we can make informed decisions about the next steps instead of just reaching in the dark.

Room For Improvement

While making these evaluations, we realized our previous site fell short when it came to addressing how Spatial Networks fit into industry-specific scenarios. In fact, falling short is putting it mildly, as we barely made mention of any specific industries at all, save "geography". We quickly decided to add both "Industries" and "Professional Services" sections and developed a near-term and long-term strategy for each. Since we wanted this redesign to move as rapidly as possible, it made more sense to release a bare version of these sections first. Without all the bells, whistles, and underlying features needed at launch, we could focus on other parts of the site, thus resolving the whole project more quickly.

Everything At Your Fingertips

Another departure from the old site - and from traditional website layouts - was to keep the content all available on one longer page, instead of breaking it up between individually navigated pages. When we dissected our previous design it was clear that our messaging became diffused with the addition & modification of different pages over time. Our solution was to keep it all in front of the reader and provide modals (windows appearing in front of the existing content) for additional content like staff bios and product descriptions. This keeps the reader from straying too far from the core messaging and provides an overall sense of cohesion.

Finding The Right Tone

Coming on the heels of the Fulcrum Redesign, the old Spatialnetworks.com was indeed showing its age. We still felt strongly about the logo itself, but its surrounding design assets needed a new look. Drawing from principles of the Fulcrum redesign like simplicity, texture, and a thoughtful use of negative space, we were able to coalesce a strong visual tone for the overall look of the site. One thing we wanted to avoid, however, was the sterile, boilerplate look of the average corporate site. We incorporated a more organic palette and a less ubiquitous set of fonts to help achieve this, but we actually found the initial font choice to be a bit too...fiddly, so we scaled it back to something more sensible.  

In terms of designing with a purpose, we decided early on the we wanted something unique, informative, easy to use, and even a little fun. When the visitors are finished browsing, we want them to feel as though they've been to the office, had lunch with us, and are leaving with a good sense of who we are and what drives us, both as individuals & as a team.

The SNI Roadmap

Now that the initial pieces are in place, the site will continue to improve as each section matures into its long-term features & goals. We'll also upload our slide decks from speaking engagements around the world and keep all the news & company info updated in our blog. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments. We look forward to what the rest of the year has to offer.

Talking to Students About Commercial Applications of GPS

Earlier this week I went over to speak at University of South Florida, to a graduate course on the GPS system. The course’s objective is to teach the systemic details of GPS – its structure, communications architecture, and practical application.

I was invited over by Sean Barbeau (the course instructor) to give insight into how GPS is applied and used in commercial settings, particularly how we use it in our work to build and augment geospatial data all over the world, and how it’s integral to modern geospatial tools like Fulcrum. I covered the basics of our project work, product development efforts, and design process in how we think about geospatial technology. I think it opened some eyes to approaches and technology that are somewhat non-traditional, certainly in the general academic community.

Flipping through a quick demonstration of some modern geo tools – like Fulcrum, TileMill, and QGIS – the students in the course had great questions about process, benefits and drawbacks to GPS on smart devices, and how field data collection can be done on an industrial level. OpenStreetMap figured into the discussion, since Sean has been integrating the collection of GPS traces and data capture into his curriculum as a practical usage of the GPS system and devices. He’s even turned them onto Pushpin as a tool for adding data to OSM in the local area. Several students are now working on their semester project using Fulcrum as a field capture tool - the assignment is to go collect something interesting using GPS, then import some of the useful data into OpenStreetMap. Feels great to introduce students to new alternative technologies.

I always enjoy the opportunity to speak with up-and-coming GIS professionals, as I think the “outside opinion” from someone in industry is refreshing to young people in strictly academic settings. While the theory and research angles on the geographic sciences are critical to the learning process, perspectives from practical application are essential to having the write knowledge set when moving into the commercial space.

FedGeoDay 2013

This week we’ll be at FedGeoDay in Washington, DC, talking with government and industry about modern tools and technologies for doing work with maps and data. The schedule is packed with fantastic speakers talking about things like building beautiful maps with open source, new ways to look at geo analysis, how to tell stories with maps, and the growth of the OpenStreetMap project.

In the afternoon, look for Brian Flood’s session on the awesome additions to Arc2Earth providing syncing services to allow you to work with data collected in Fulcrum. This functionality is huge for users who want to bring data from the field and push it into another platform for analytics or presentation, like MapBox (with TileMill Connect), CartoDB, or Google Fusion Tables. With Fulcrum as a cost-effective alternative for mobile surveying and data collection needs, users no longer need to invest in expensive, proprietary hardware to get valuable information from the field. And with these added capabilities in Arc2Earth, visualization and distribution of data becomes even simpler.

The schedule is packed with great sessions, and it’s exciting to see so much innovation in alternatives to . I’ll be at the conference all day, so track me down if you want to talk about mobile tools for mapping, data collection, and how we use open source geospatial technology in our work.

More SNI Data Added to WeoGeo

We now have even more Spatial Networks gis data for sale on the WeoGeo Market. In addition to our (nearly free) Athens, Greece points of interest dataset and our Afghanistan datasets, we are now selling points of interest data for Kuala Lumpur, Caracas, and Panama City. These POI datasets all have more than 20,000 records. All of them have type and subtype information, as well as business names, address information, websites, and more.

Panama City Data Table Preview

Point types and subtypes include: Infrastructure Health Tourism Transport Utilities Telecom Electricity Historical Sites Hotels Government Offices Education Religion Markets Public Services + much more

If you have any specific questions, or would be interested in purchasing more specific POI types, feel free to email me (andie@spatialnetworks.com).

Our current 1:5,000 scale Afghanistan datasets are at the city level and include Asadabad, Gardez, Ghazni, Herat, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Lashkar Gah, Qalat, Sharan, and Tarin Kowt. These datasets include building footprints, hydrology, streets, land use, landmarks, trees, and much more. Many of the features are named in three languages; English, Pashto, and Dari. We will also soon be publishing 1:25,000 provincial level Afghanistan data for Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, Paktia, Paktika, and Kabul. These datasets all consist of multiple layers. If you are interested in purchasing a more specific set, we can create a custom listing for you. Feel free to contact us with your request!

We have a lot more POI data, as well as many more datasets similar to the current Afghanistan listings, that we hope to put on the market soon. Keep an eye on our twitter, facebook, or google+ pages for updates.

What types of data are you interested in purchasing?

The First 3 Months of Pushpin and OpenStreetMap

Since we released Pushpin back in October, our mobile editor for OpenStreetMap, we’ve seen fantastic adoption and usage of the app in these first three months. We want Pushpin to not only be compelling and useful to current OpenStreetMap users (which it has already proven to be), but also to drive interest and participation from completely new mappers – those who have signed up, but never understood how to make edits, or those wholly new to OSM that find it interesting.

Let’s take the time to look back at the first few months in terms of Pushpin users, edits, and a few other interesting stats.

The app and its user base

Since October, we’ve had over 4,200 downloads from the App Store, from 83 countries around the world. Of these total downloads, 431 unique users have made at least one edit using Pushpin. Zac put together a stats page that shows a stream of editing activity, updated every 10 minutes or so, so you can follow live changes happening from Pushpin. It’s great to see numbers like this, but the cool numbers showcase how many people have made (and continue to make) significant edits on an ongoing basis:

• 25+ edits: 86 users
• 50+ edits: 50 users
• 100+ edits: 20 users

These are great numbers to see, but the stats I find super gratifying are how many users made their first ever edit on OpenStreetMap using Pushpin, which is up to several dozen so far. There are also a few users who have many edits now that have only ever used Pushpin for mapping. This seems like small potatoes, but it could be momentous for the project at-large. Its been shown before that getting a newly registered user to learn and understand enough to make their first edit is a huge climb, though improving every day with the tireless work of the OSM developer community. We’re excited to be advancing this cause to get new users interested and making edits!

Edits

In total there have been 11,123 edits with Pushpin (as of this writing), including completely new data, and edits to existing data. Pushpin has been used to edit data in 64 countries, including places as varied as Réunion, Estonia, Afghanistan, Ghana, East Timor, and Sri Lanka. Here’s is a map I put together showing a snapshot of the edits to-date worldwide, to get a sense for the spread of its user base:

We released a significant update back in early December that makes Pushpin a far more powerful editor. With the added functionality to sign up for OSM from within the app, we’re hoping to drive even further awareness and knowledge of OSM, and more importantly, get new users to make edits and improvements to data in their neighborhoods. Thanks to all of the OSM users who have used Pushpin so far and made feature requests! You’re the reason that Pushpin and the OpenStreetMap data keep getting better and better.

Make sure to follow @pushpinapp on Twitter for announcements and info about future updates!

Big changes for OpenStreetMap editing in Pushpin 1.1

Pushpin building editing

Since we released the initial version of Pushpin back in October, we’ve seen dozens and dozens of feature requests and a lot of input from the awesome OpenStreetMap community. It’s clear that there’s a need for simplicity and user-friendliness in the OSM editor space, and users from all over the globe have downloaded the app and made edits.

So in spare time over the last couple of months, Zac has cranked out a pretty substantial update to Pushpin, our OpenStreetMap editor for iPhone and iPad.

The biggest new feature in the update is the ability to edit tags on polygon features, things like buildings, parks, lakes, and others (even relations). Traced but untagged building outlines can be downloaded to Pushpin, edited, and saved back to OSM. Along with this capability, we’ve added quick selection lists for building and landuse types. Area and relation editing makes for a great workflow of tracing and adding basic tags back in the fulleditor at home, then taking Pushpin out in the field to add full attribution.

Zac also added a fantastic set of over 100 icons to represent different points of interest and make it easier to tell features apart. Makes it really satisfying to add everything in your neighborhood just to download and view all those POIs! Go grab the updated version and check it out. Hit us on Twitter with any questions, comments, or feedback.

And for the geeks in the audience, Pushpin was built with Fulcrum’s APIs, so it’s a great example of what could be built using our mobile data collection platform. Check out our demo app for iOS to see examples of using the Fulcrum API in an iOS app.

Other small (but useful) changes:

• Create a new OpenStreetMap account from within the app
• OAuth support
• Landscape support on iPad
• Fix for source tagging & other changeset tags
• Tons of stability improvements

We’re excited to get a more complete (yet still simple) editor out there to drive contribution by more casual mappers. Keeping the tool fast and easy has allowed us to grow our community locally, and we hope it can do the same for other mapping communities around the world. Lowering the bar to contribution from novice mappers by reducing complexity is important for the longevity and continued growth of the project, and we think apps like Pushpin can drive more edits from casual users. Along with MapBox’s work with iD and other design improvements, it’s an exciting time for OpenStreetMap. There are nearly a million registered OSM users, and we want them all to be active contributors.