Enabling Mobile Mapping
Dr. Robert F. Austin
President
Austin Communications Education Services
2937 Landmark Way 2119 Egret Drive
Palm Harbor, Florida 34684 USA
Tel: +1 (727) 787-1125
Email: docbo@aol.com
Anthony J. Quartararo III
President
Spatial NetWorks, Inc.
Clearwater, Florida 33764 USA
Tel: 727-538-0545
Email: ajq3@spatialnetworks.com
Abstract
Advances in mapping, telecommunications and computing technology offer solutions for
geospatial technology in the mobile workforce. The products of leading software
vendors support delivery of spatial technology on wireless devices. This paper
discusses these mobile mapping technologies and introduces a delivery model, the
Application Service Provider (ASP). This strategy allows organizations to use spatial
technology without costly investment. The ASP model provides a cost-effective and
efficient strategy to deliver mobile mapping solutions to an organization.
Introduction
When he created the television series “Star Trek,” Gene Roddenberry forbade the use
of pencil and paper on board the USS Enterprise. This decision led directly to the
“invention” of the tricorder and indirectly to the invention of voice-activated, ubiquitous
computer access on board the ship. In the 1970s, the notion of a portable computing
received another boost with the conceptualization of the Dynabook at Xerox PARC by
Alan Kay (a man well known for his statement that "The best way to predict the future is
to invent it.")
By the late 1990s, a combination of technological advances in microchip capacity and
speed, power management tools and screen quality produced an avalanche of newer
and increasingly sophisticated information and communication gadgets. In April 1996,
Palm Computing took the idea of the Newton, reduced its size, added functionality,
improved the handwriting recognition ability and cut the Newton's price in half, to
produce the first modern PDA, the Palm Pilot. The release of the Windows CE
operating system introduced competition and a parallel development trail, resulting in
products with brighter, higher-resolution screens and greater interoperability with
desktop computers.
The simultaneous development of the Application Service Provider (ASP) business
model dovetails neatly with this technological evolution. Ideally suited to a thin-client
computing environment, the ASP provides great application richness for the PDA world.
Driven initially by the usefulness of traditional Personal Information Management (PIM)
products, the diffusion of PDAs is now being driven by the availability of a new
generation of mission-critical applications.
