Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/99375
Spatial Analysis includes concepts such as profit maximization, new market-penetration objectives, cash conservation and inventory targets. Focus on the Ends In a similar fashion, consumers have preferences and react to context, thereby altering personal and group behavior. Annapolis, Md., may be a great town, and it may be inside the rudimentary geofence that current location-based advertising applications use as D.C.-based consumers move around the Washington area, but relentless notifications and coupons pushed to a smartphone to visit a sports bar near the Naval Academy may force users to uninstall the various applications out of lack of interest. A basic knowledge of context, user preferences and life patterns would enable a better technology to realize that users��� normal movements don���t take them near Annapolis on Fridays, weekends or anytime temperatures are below 50 degrees. And he or she certainly never drives there in a snowstorm. GIS and all the industry jargon used as derivative monikers must be focused on the ends and not the means. Showing someone pretty maps, layers of additional static infrastructure and a few points of interest near a static geofence are nice and sometimes cool, but, as a collective, technology must focus on future decisions and behaviors. The collective challenge is to deliver value where it���s needed most���a decision prior to when it���s needed. For example, GeoVigilance drives such a decisionmaking process through analysis of geospatial, context and temporal data (e.g., weather, airplane, signals intelligence, maritime, GPS, street, vehicle and preference datasets), employing iterative techniques to refine patterns of life definitions for real-time event detection and notification���sent to decision makers via text or e-mail. Losing or Building Trust An example of related technology losing focus can be pulled from global supply chain evolution. As the story goes, someone thought it would be great if companies and governments could use technology to track global supply. An entire industry sprung up around active and passive RFID tags and global in-transit visibility. Early investors rushed in for a piece of the action, and senior politicians were persuaded to mandate heavy use in the defense industry. Eventually, large and slow-moving companies bought up the early technology leaders, squashing the innovation required to take the basic visibility data to the business and mission-value ���promised land.��� Until recently, the in-transit visibility value proposition forgot the most important question: ���What good is all these data if I can���t first make and then implement decisions to quickly modify supply chain behavior before I even see the problem on a map or picture?��� Does a factory manager need pretty maps and reports if the exact parts needed to meet the exact customer demand show up at the exact start of the production line every time the parts are needed? After the production manager gains trust through repeated supply chain performance, he or she doesn���t need the global in-transit visibility data as the end result. Instead, the visibility is simply a means to an end. The ends are the multitude of real-time decisions taking place automatically or through machine-triggered human intervention to modify supply chain behavior so the parts show up on time, every time. Technology to Aid the Mind ���An oil refinery uses live data feeds of earthquake activity for risk identification and mitigation to recalibrate equipment when seismic events occur. 28 G E O W O R L D / D E C E M B E R 2 O 1 2 With a bit of imagination, this supply chain example can be modified to demonstrate the addition of real value to defense and security, consumer-demand generation, insurance and re-insurance, agriculture, energy, and myriad other human needs around the globe. For years, the primary recipient of basic sensor data was the human mind, which processed them over various time periods, made decisions, and modified individual or attempted to modify collective behavior.