Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/29869
Mobile GIS/GPS Now Available to Everyone POSITION R BY TODD DANIELSON ight off the bat, I’m going to admit that this headline isn’t completely true. Mobile GIS/ GPS is only available to everyone with a smartphone. That’s an important distinction, but smartphones are nearly universal in the “techie” groups that would be trying to perform GIS functions, and adding “with a Smartphone” to the headline would have made it too long. Good Ol’ Days? It’s a bit hard to believe that I’ve been around long enough to remember when mobile GIS meant specialized and trained workers carrying laptop PCs or tablet computers loaded with (relatively) expensive software. And a mobile GPS crew would be lugging around large poles or a backpack (if they were lucky) with bulky GPS receivers attached to them. Stand in place for a minute; get a GPS reading; repeat. Take the data back to the office, and then synch it with the computers hold- ing the GIS software. I’m getting teary from the nostalgia. There are still many applications where a similar, but modernized, setup is required. If you have very precise location requirements, you don’t want to be relying on the same device used to enter your Facebook updates. And there are many GIS applications where you need full GIS functionality and/or a large screen to see what’s going on. I wouldn’t want scientists logging crucial climate data on their iPhones in between games of Angry Birds. Todd Danielson is editor of GeoWorld magazine, PO Box 773498, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477; e-mail: tdanielson@geoplace.com. 4 G E O W O R L D / A P R I L 2 O 1 1 Can You Map Me Now? But now many simpler types of mobile GIS/GPS are being recorded using noth- ing more than a smartphone. If you use Twitter, Flickr or Facebook with certain location functionalities turned on, you may be unknowingly contributing to a GIS at this very moment. Esri, for example, has a long history of helping communities or regions suf- fering from disasters, donating soft- ware and other resources to those hit by wildfires, hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding and the like. But lately it has been creating “social-media maps” of everything from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to the political unrest in the Middle East to the catastrophic events in Japan. Unlike previous maps, which relied on volunteers or other traditional sources to provide data, these maps take locational information freely posted by users of social-media sites. For example, if someone from Japan tweets about a certain aspect of the disaster, and they have a smartphone set to add the GPS coordinates of the tweet, Esri takes that information and adds it to a map of related data. It’s not scientific, but such information can be very valuable in certain situations. This is especially true in the Middle East, where it’s difficult to get accurate information that isn’t filtered. Rhiza Labs is another organization that’s been using smartphone-based information to create useful maps. Josh Knauer, the company’s CEO, delivered the keynote address at our GeoTec Event (www.geotecevent.com) in Toronto in 2010. I learned about how they used social media to pinpoint outbreaks of “swine flu” as well as how indigenous tribes in the Amazon were equipped with smartphones to map their own lands. And I’ve seen a preview of Nigel Waters’ upcoming “Edge Nodes” column for our May 2011 issue, and he wonderfully describes the powerful benefits of Ushahidi, an African-born mashup that’s been using volunteered geographic information to help control humanitarian crises. GIS and smartphones are helping bring real “power to the people” in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Think of that the next time you play Angry Birds. Mobility/GPS Special Issue