gis in the digital economy chapter 1 slides from james pick, geo-business: gis in the digital...

GIS in the Digital Economy

Chapter 1 Slides from

James Pick, Geo-Business: GIS in the Digital Organization, John Wiley and Sons, 2008.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley and Sons.

DO NOT CIRCULATE WITHOUT

PERMISSION OF JAMES PICK

Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley and Sons

Fundamental Definition of GIS

A GIS consists of the following elements:

• Data-base of attributes

• Spatial information

• Some way to link the two

Source: Clarke, 2003.


GIS as a Toolbox

• GIS can be viewed as a set of tools.• Sometimes this is called a process

definition because the subtasks are sequentially arranged.

• An example of using a set of tools as procedures is – Get addresses from a marketing list– Geocode them (to get X—Y points)– Map them


GIS as an Information System• This dimension of GIS focuses on queries

of data-bases/ • As you know data-bases is a building

block of IS, so this can be an IS definition. • Some definitions can go as far that GIS is

a spatially-enabled data-base. • Data-base mgt. and GIS have paralleled

each other in development for 40 years. • Presently there is some merger between

data-bases and GIS. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley

and Sons

Oracle Spatial 11g as an example of GIS as IS

• For instance, Oracle is the leading commercial large-sized data-base package. Every Oracle database has low-level spatial functions.

• Oracle Spatial 11g is a leading data-base (Oracle) that has been modified with spatial functionality. It is today a “GIS” that is very strong on data-base side and moderate on the spatial side. We’ll talk more about it in the course.


GIS as an Approach to Science

• “GIS has changed the entire approach to spatial data analysis.”

• It’s the convergence of several technologies that has led to the huge growth. This includes GIS, GPS, RFID, sensors, digital photography, and broadband communications, among others.

• The next two slides illustrate this convergence of GIS with other technologies. Sometimes they are referred to as “coupled technologies.”


Technology Importance for GIS in Business Global positioning systems GPS combined with GIS allows

real-time locational information to be applied for business purposes.

RFID Allows portable products of any type to be spatially registered and to carry data that can be accessed and updated remotely. Useful in business because its inventories constitute most of the goods that are moved around and need to be tracked (Richardson, 2003).

Technologies Associated with GIS

Source: Pick, 2005.Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley and Sons

Technologies Associated with GIS (cont.)

Source: Pick, 2005.

Mobile wireless communications Allows field deployment of GIS technologies in mobile commerce. Useful in supporting the real-time field operations of businesses (Mennecke and Strader, 2003). Combines GIS, GPS, and wireless technologies.

Hand-held GIS, such as ArcPad A new type of product that is equivalent to PDAs, cell phones, and other mobile devices. It contains GPS and scaled-down versions of standard GIS software. Gives businesses more field flexibility in inputting, modifying, and utilizing data. Important in business sectors such as retail that have substantial field force (ESRI, 2003).


Why is GIS a Scientific Approach?• Why is GIS a scientific approach. There are

certain research questions that are specific to spatial.

• There is a scientific sub-discipline with curricula, degrees, conferences, and journals.

• A core discipline that is closely aligned to GIS is geography. However, geography for many (human geographers, post-modernist geographers) is not quantitative.

• Nevertheless GIS has revolutionized many parts of geography and given the discipline much more real-world importance (and jobs for students!)


GIS as a Business• This dimension of GIS is crucially important for

this MBA course. GIS as IS is not enough to provide the full relationship with the MBA. GIS in fact is a business (industry sector) and is a business tool and method of growing importance. It relates to many sides of your MBA, including marketing, production, and ethics.

• The size of the GIS software industry is over $2 billion.

• It is growing by 7 or 8 percent a year. • When all components (software, hardware, data,

services) are taken into account, the size of the GIS/spatial industry is approaching $30 billion.


GIS as a Business (cont.)

• However, this side of GIS has not received as much publicity and is less well known. We’ll look at many of the reasons in the course. It can be said at this point that the proprietary aspect of spatial in business is an impediment.

• Another impediment is that the education in GIS emphasizes the geographical side (this course may help to remedy it).

• Decline in cost of computer components is a business driver of GIS


Moore’s Law. Transistor Capacity of Intel Processor Chips, 1971-2000

Moore's Law. Transistor Capacity of Intel Processor Chips, 1971-200.

Year of Introduction Chip

No. of Transistors per

chip MIPS*1971 4004 2,250 0.061972 8008 2,5001974 8080 5,000 0.641978 8086 29,000 0.751982 286 120,000 2.661985 386 275,000 5.001989 486 1,180,000 20.001993 Pentium 3,100,000 66.001997 Pentium II 7,500,000 1,000.001999 Pentium III 24,000,0002000 Pentrium IV 55,000,000 14,000.00

*millions of instructions per second

Source: Intel, 2003.Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley

and Sons

Other Stimuli to GIS in Business

• In the U.S., the GIS industry received the “gift” of massive government spatial data. The data comes from such agencies as the U.S. Geological Service, U.S. Census Bureau, intelligence agencies (restricted), meteorological services, NASA.

• Business community GIS support groups and GIS industry organizations, and standard-setting nonprofits have grown up.


Other Stimuli (cont.)

• Parallel technological advances have helped, e.g. GUI interfaces, map servers, wizards, help screens, mobile devices, and broadband communications.

• GIS and spatial are becoming consumer standards that are increasingly taken for granted. Just like microprocessors are now not even identified, so consumer essentials like OnStar and NavStar in cars, MapQuest, and E911 location tracing will be taken for granted.


GIS in Society• GIS is altering how people interact in

organizations and society. • GIS can be used in public meetings and in

community electronic collaboration. Sometimes the latter is called PPGIS, i.e. Public Participation GIS.

• An example is the City of Sacramento Police Department, which has made many of the crime information available to the general public for their use and interactive discussion and feedback.


GIS-Intensive Organizations

• GIS developed earlier and much more fully in the public sector, while business uses are more recent.

• In many city, county, and state agencies in the U.S., such as country planning agencies, GIS permeates the way people think and interact with each other.

• In the business world, this can be seen in spatially-advanced organizations such as ESRI, which you’ll be visiting, and Rand McNally.


Impact of GIS on Organizations

• GIS changes job roles, alters teamwork, shifts cross-functional information exchange, and changes hierarchies.

• For example, companies that were map-intensive tended to have map rooms with skilled personnel to produce, print, store, and revise maps.

• If modern GIS becomes pervasive, the preponderance of these functions are done electronically, and those remaining are done by the end users.


GIS applied differently depending on the organizational type

• GIS can be used differently in different organizations. An example from the public sector is GIS in growth-oriented vs. environmentally-oriented communities.

• Growth-oriented community. GIS might help on community growth, new buildings, and planning expanded services.

• Environmentally-oriented community. GIS is used as an interactive mechanism for forum about environmental issues, awareness of pollution threats and restrictions, and for debating sound planning.


Brief History of GIS

• The history of GIS and spatial technologies go back to non-computerized map overlays in the early twentieth century.

• An overlay is the exact superimposing of several map layers such as terrain, hydrology, geology, and agriculture. The layers can be viewed together, and the relationships of their features analyzed.

• Using exact scales to match up layers, Jacqueline Tyrwhitt did this in her Town and County Planning textbook in 1950 (Clarke, 2003).

• Waldo Tobler’s article in 1959 conceptually foresaw using a computer to accomplish cartography from inputting data to producing maps (Tobler, 1959).


Overlay of Characteristics in Land Use Planning. Its early uses in 50s and 60s

Jacqueline Tyrwhitt in 1950 started the use of overlays – map layers that could be exactly registered on top; of each other – for land-use planning and architecture.

This was carried much further by Ian McHarg in his famous book in 1969, Design with Nature. He had plastic overlay sheets that demonstrated how overlays could shed new light on environmental design

Class Question – What is the advantage of such an overlay versus just having one layer.

Source: T. Turner, 2000.Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley

and Sons

Early GIS Software, Role of Canadian Government

• In the 1960s early computer programs such as SYMAP and CALFORM could overlay layers and produce maps using mainframe computers and on bulky, crude printers.

• The Canadian government was an early adopter in 1964 of primitive GIS and continued in subsequent decades to be a lead user.

• In the mid to late 1960s, substantial progress was achieved on computer algorithms for GIS at the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, include the use of arcs and nodes to build up boundary files (Clarke, 2003).


ESRI’s Historical Role

In the late 1960s, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) was formed as a company and headed since its founding by Jack Dangermond. Its mainframe product ArcInfo, based on Harvard algorithms, became the leading commercial GIS software package. Although ESRI’s early markets were predominantly in government, this also marked the beginning of GIS and spatial applications for businesses.

Source: ESRI inc.


Role of the U.S. Military during Cold War

• During the Cold War, there were parallel and often secret developments in mapping and satellite technology by U.S. military planners were reacted to the threat of nuclear war (Cloud, 2002; Charles, 2005).

• This stream of military R&D eventually led to the first development and deployment of satellite systems for GPS in the 1980s.

• The military history is less well known and was largely detached from the academic developments of those decades.


Summary• GIS has a basic definition for the course involving

attribute and spatial information and their overlap.

• GIS has many dimensions that brings it out its roles as toolkit, science, and in business and society.

• GIS’s history is only 60 years old. From early paper overlays, it has developed hugely in government and business.

• There are extensive and varied sources of information on GIS. Being located in Redlands gives an advantage to MBA students to access this information.


gis in the digital economy chapter 1 slides from james pick, geo-business: gis in the digital...

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