Just an Intern at Spatial Networks
There is now Diet Nestea Iced Tea in the refrigerator at Spatial Networks! This alone is enough to make my week, but I’m also learning about different things at work which is fun. I’m learning about web marketing, html, GIS, and mobile technologies which are all very exciting to nerds like me. I’m learning about new things and learning how things I have always known about can be used better. I’ve learned to back up my data whenever possible too…ha. There is a digital war going on out there for marketshare and a continued search for innovation. When companies stop looking at their competitors and stop listening to people they get into trouble like Myspace has. Geodexy, Terkserv, and other Spatial Networks programs have the potential to take on the mobile application market priced at the right price and by providing the right easy to use features to consumers. It’s defiantly important to make sure they are near perfect before being released to the masses, and that leaves time to get a great marketing plan with a timeline ready too. I guess that’s why Spatial Networks needs Software Engineers, Mobile Application Developers, and an International Sales Engineer (careers@spatialnetworks.com). Trust me this software has the potential to make it and I will love learning from you if you come aboard. People here will listen to you and your ideas. It’s a great place to work…even for an intern because hey…there’s free soda, coffee, nerf fights, and sometimes food. We have an intern that should have been a chef! Plus you will get paid and can laugh at me! I only dream about money while biding my time, learning, and finishing my last class for my B.S. Apply for the win!
Have you seen the new Geodexy Tablet release?
The Spatial Networks product team catches CEO in the act of dishing on Geodexy.
More Geodexy videos at: http://www.youtube.com/user/geodexy
The largest Kindle ever... DXXL
Just a little light reading this morning over coffee. I’m about to take this on the road for some ultra-mobile data collection - really looking forward to getting my fists on that QWERTY XL keyboard!
GITA 2009: Map data for free (or fee)?
Back in August of 2008, I thought I’d be a hotshot and volunteer an idea for a talk at the GITA Infrastructure 2009 conference. I didn’t know much about the provision of map data - from the government or elsewhere - but figured nine months would be more than enough time to educate myself and stumble upon the A-HA moment: the catharsis when (Eureka!) everything would become clear and the answer would be obvious.
Nonsense! The question of government-provided map data is more tangled up than that basket of yarn I bought at a yard sale seven years ago when I was considering taking up knitting. (I bought a cat instead.)
It’s a polarizing topic with global policy and socio-economic implications, and I would certainly do it a disservice trying to be remotely thorough within a 45 minute session.
Fast forward to April 22nd, 2009. Sweaty palms, fluttery stomach, and sixteen slides consisting merely of somewhat related, mildly amusing pictures (directive: minimum boredom, maximum retention).
Much to my initial chagrin, the talk was actually well-attended. Yikes. Suffice it to say, everyone in the room knew more about the actual circumstances in play than I did. Than I do. Than I ever will. I’m not a practitioner. At first I was merely suspicious that that was the case; but about 10 minutes prior to mic time, “Dave” came to the podium to ask me about some legal battle in Santa Barbara… Huh? As it turns out, a case had recently been decided that prohibited the county from withholding map data, whether for financial or security reasons. The case set far-reaching legal precedent against both arguments. I managed to work it into my talk at a surprisingly appropriate place [insert horn-tooting here]. [While I’m at it, here’s a toot for Dave too!!]
I think that not-being-a-practitioner thing worked to my advantage, because I was able to work with the pragmatic details and not get embroiled in legitimate daily work-related frustration about where to source data that I know exists but that is - for whatever reason - unavailable, or unusable. (‘I pay my taxes, so what gives?’)
That said, I couldn’t be less concerned at the end of the day with the pricing structure of government-provided map data - or the absence of one - or even if the data is made available at all. What I do find fascinating (and worth celebrating) is Capitalism at work, effectively removing the government from the equation. People are resolving map data sourcing obstacles, because their government has not (cannot, will not, should not… whatever the case may be).
When asked at the end of the talk, what do I think people should do when the government does not provide map data for free (implying astronomical pricing that, for all intents and purposes, shuts small business and independent consultants out of the commercial marketplace for adding value to such data), I simply said: wait and see.
The marketing professional in me realizes that there are business models for deriving revenue streams from the provision of map data that are entirely inappropriate for a government entity in the digital age - but perfectly suitable for a business entity. And, I may not be a geographer, but I did muddle through econ501 in grad school, so I’m pretty confident in saying that demand will ultimately be met by supply, and the price will be dictated by the market. (Not by a ‘cost-recovery’ pricing scheme that, insofar as one measures incremental costs, generates 99% margin, or - as is the case for the OS in the UK - a profitability mandate to justify partial taxpayer funding…). And all of that other chart-and-graph stuff.
It’s only a matter of time.
"Where Data Goes to Die"
A reseller of a competitor’s mobile data collection platform said this to me once about his own product. I appreciate his honesty, and at the same time it’s been haunting me for months. People are paid to go out and collect data, that is once and forever completely useless to anyone. (How’s that for serving up a heaping dose of morale?) [Incidentally, in a not-uncharacteristic stroll down Anthropomorphism Lane, I have this visual of a little tree - sometimes wearing a "College" t-shirt - being fed into the mill like so many turkeys at a Sarah Palin interview, and coming out on the other side as stuffing for some manilla folder in a storage shed, never to be looked at again… It’s sad, what the little tree’s life is reduced to, it makes me want to run into the parking lot and hug the ones that are carefully landscaped into the pavement jungle - but then I think how good they have it, with job security and all, and it’s not the same… More coffee, please.] Just think about decades worth of data about your business, critical assets, even human resources, just sitting in a box somewhere - impervious to pattern review, cost analysis, or any other useful bit of aggregation. If it makes you crazy, you are probably more sane than you realize!
"Green" enterprise management
I recently submitted an abstract about this topic to the Mobile Asia Congress. Yes, I know, I’m actually TRYING to ensnare myself in another inescapably horrifying round of public speaking - in Hong Kong!? I think my next move may be skydiving into shark-infested waters… Anyway, I officially acknowledge that I’m much better with the written word (toot), but I also know that "practice makes perfect" is a universally accepted theory. But this time, at least the concept is not foreign (nor polarizing -> BONUS!). It’s simply about reducing paper waste. (RIP, Woody!) That’s the simply "Green" part anyway. The "enterprise management" part is much more complex, and IMHO, exciting. Therein, we have escaped the paper trap of collecting, storing, and managing (as if) data - KNOWLEDGE!! - in a folder made of ‘manilla’, whatever that is. Folders made of informed, organized, accessible Database goodness - NOW we’re cookin’ with grease!
