GIS Development Report : Geospatial World 2004

Dear Readers,

The second day’s prime attraction was undoubtedly the starting keynote by Daniel A Burrus, President and CEO of Burrus Research Associates. “We all underutilize many of the tools we have access to…” - was the start of Daniel’s thought-provoking speech. The speech delivered for over an hour received a massive applause. It traversed technical areas, philosophical issues of organizational growth and touched aspects of mindset change for the spread and reach of geospatial sciences. The second day at the Geospatial World 2004 (13th May 2003) had much more to promise than one could have expected through its numerous technical sessions and workshops.

The gamut of papers presented and discussed covered topics, application areas and techniques that are not only important to understand, but also contextually exemplifying of many of the theories we talk of. The exhibition area with over 1000 sq m of space saw impressive surges of visitors estimated at over 900 per hour in the afternoon peak. ‘Ask the experts’ sessions saw debates, immediate solution seekers and demonstrations spanning topics from ‘image rectification’ to ‘basic SQL formation’.

The day ended with an exotic evening programme at the Miami beach, arranged by Geosapatial World, setting music, rhythm, fragrance and hues to the upbeat technical mood with a mix of latin and hawai in the air. GIS Development also got a good chance to interact with Intergraph people and others in the field and carry out some interesting interviews that might be developed and delivered to our readers soon.

We bring you the main points of Day 2.

Regards,
Ayon Tarafdar, Assistant Editor,
GIS Development
ayon@gisdevelopment.net

Keynote Address – Daniel A Burrus

The day started with Daniel A Burrus, President and CEO of Burrus Research Associates Inc. presenting a coherent and thought provoking speech at the Main Ballroom. His theme was motivating and filled with questions. Questions that make us wonder about the geospatial technology and its relevance, about the actual effectiveness and purpose of embarking upon the g-Revolution.

Unlocking Technology’s Promise

Daniel had the theme of his speech as above and started off by asking the packed hall that how many had used the tool of ‘auto-summarize’ in the Microsoft Word package. Getting expected minimal response he went on to express his concern that most of the tools are already there within our access but underutilized. And that is typically the case for GIS and related technologies. He further went on to state that for people and groups yet to be initiated into the geospatial domain, one needs to talk to them in their language and for their problems rather than talking about GIS at the start. He covered important issues and gave a succinct description of the state of affairs with information age. His emphasis was on –

“It is not about the technology… its about how we use it.”

Daniel emphasized that the use and application of the technology as a direct function of the problem statement of any area is the correct measure of geospatial technology penetration. Often we are too busy to get the technology or get a hold of its operations and once through with it we are often involved in minute applications or application in areas where it’s potential is minimum utilized.

“We cannot always depend on questioning on what do you need”

Even though ‘need’ should drive the tool and the solution, there are cases where asking what do you need may not help in the advancing of technologies like geospatial sciences. That shall not only reduce the potential development of any technical product but also its utilization. He reminded us by saying that multiple speed windshield wipers in cars were not invented because people asked for it or needed it.

The Technical Sessions

The technical sessions commenced from 10:30 am simultaneously in 14 halls of the hotel. The sessions covered the areas of – Foundation, Utilities, Education, Transport, Local Governance, Military and many more. Many papers were discussed in all in the pre-lunch session spanning cases from over 12 different countries.

Various aspects were touched upon which leads an organization to be data centric. Aspects of Data integrity, Data reuse, View generation, Process flexibility, Scalability, etc were elaborated upon. Interoperability had a heavy presence through the day’s talks. Various local government cases and regional departments did put in their views. Utilities, transportation projects and technology updates took up a large amount of discussions and papers.

Communicating and Geospatial Technology

There was a small yet significant session where the role of media in the geospatial domain got emphasized. Adena from GIS Monitor gave a brief presentation that subtly talked about appropriate ‘communication’ and the importance of it in spreading the right word to the right people. She touched the manner in which the providers themselves can improve writing and communicating about geospatial products and services and in the process eliminate repetition and redundancy of information available to common man to read and learn about this industry.