Geospatial Applications Gain Ground on the Web

depends on GIS information to help meld GPS information and local data.

I think that's an understatement Mary :-) I try to be positive but all the information they all ready have is so great it would take something incredible for them to redact that from their databases when they are chasing $'s !

Chuck

I agree Matthew. Not paranoid but there are plenty of people with legit reasons to not want "intimate" views of where they live...

I think one more area where enterprise needs geographical information and realtime location data is for tracking. There are a number of uses for tracking. It could be divided into asset tracking which would include tracking vehicles and other resources. Another aspect of it would be personnel tracking which would include tracking of salesmen, delivery riders etc. All these application would also make use of GPS Data and combine with any GIS to display location of resources on map. I guess this is going to be a huge area in future.

I see where your coming from robjvargas. Yes, companies directly benefit from GIS information, and they're really using it to its full potential. I would say that the use by the insurance companies could go both ways, if the GIS service can deem that a house is located in a fairly protected location, the deductables may go down. (Emphasis on may)

But there are many uses for the general consumer. Take Google Maps and Mapquest into consideration. These are offering new resources for consumers to understand geospatial information, such as Google Maps' new feature that helps you choose the best bike paths to locations, or Mapquest's new Route planner, giving you the fastest way to make all your destinations.

A majority of the features I mentioned focus more on the business aspects, but their are options directly available to consumers.

Great point KMT568. Though there are many advantages, there's also the idea of privacy. Just because people can easily be located using GIS, that doesn't mean everyone wants to be found.

A while back, the Boring family sued Google because of Google's street view, claiming that posting images of their house online was an invasion of privacy, but the courts ruled in favor of Google, since the idea is that every person has the right to drive by the Boring house and take a picture.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/2008/04/04/20080404biz-GoogleSuit-04.html

But the idea that these companies have a birds-eye view of everything us mere mortals do, is kinda daunting.

Once all those ad affiliates know where I live, what I buy, etc., there is no end to the potential to descend on me virtually with ads galore.

That is, if online advertising remains the model of choice for many sites.

I think legislation will be needed to limit the range of information advertisers can use to invade the customer's personal space, online or off. But I'm not optimistic this will happen until people really start seeing the baleful results. That may take awhile.

I recall conversations on several Web sites when GPS capability was first being tested on cell phones.  There were ideas like sending coupons to customers' phones as they approached a business that subscribed to a certain service, and ads that would get sent.  I think I recall proponents of Near-Field-Communications and of Bluetooth speaking of this same kind of... interaction... with the customer.

Therein lies the question I used as a post title.  Are these applications going to be something FOR the customer, or are they going to be something done TO the customer?  The ideas above sound TERRIBLE to me.  Intrusive.  Jarring.  I might even go one step further to describe them as invasive.

For companies where reliable location data is important, even vital, to operations, this makes a lot of sense.  UPS, FedEx, etc, they will make good use of this, and that's good for all of us.  But the insurance example you cite, that's good for the direct customer of geospatial services: insurance companies.  What does it do to the customer?

Maybe it'll be good.  Maybe not.  But we should be asking this question now, and deciding... now... if this is really about the consumer, or about the business.  The two are not necessarily in conflict.  But sometimes, they are.  We've been lacking in honest answers to that for quite some time.

I find the uses that you discuss in this article interesting, particuarly the use of GIS for insurance companies and as a way to find resources. I hope that GIS will be used for good purposes like these (although the insurance one is a little questionable as premiums will rise for people in potential disaster areas), and not for negative purposes. I can see the many advantages that you point out, but I still wonder if GIS can lead people too far, giving away too much information. It's a good question to ponder as the technology continues to expand and find its grounding in different areas.