Friday 20 December 2013

Happy Christmas and all that from the AGI

It’s been quite a hectic six months since joining the AGI back in July with the deep end of GeoCommunity and FOSS4G followed by the remaining showcase events and business planning for 2014. I’ve enjoyed getting back into the world of geo after five years in marketing and the AGI certainly seems a good place to pick up what is going on in the industry.

This is just a quick entry (I have lots of stuff to finish before Christmas) to say happy Christmas to all our members (and any non members reading the blog). Writing blog entries after several pints of Boxing Day beer doesn’t seem like a very good idea so the blog will be back in January 2014. There will be a lot of exciting announcements in January regarding the events for next year (and the website and maybe some others...). One thing I can tell you is that the first major AGI event of the year will be held in Glasgow on the 18th March and this event may have something to do with the exciting work that Glasgow City Council are currently undertaking...

I’ll still manage to cram some (lots of) opinion in as well although my last attempt to be controversial ended with people agreeing with me, must try harder.

Anyway I hope everyone has a good Christmas and if anyone comes across any good geo/Christmas trivia or tat please let me know!


Ordnance Survey have started it with a list of festive place names, they did pinch one of these (Cold Christmas) from my suggestion for creepy Halloween place names but I guess I’ll forgive them.

Tuesday 17 December 2013

GI: The Private Frontier

I have been promising/threatening an opinion piece (rant) for a while and here it is. This was actually thought up during the discussion and interaction session at AGI Cymru and relates to spreading GI into the private sector (selling services and products to the private sector that is). Traditionally the public sector has always been the main consumer of GI in the UK partly due to the huge range of geocentric tasks the various organisations undertake and partly due to how it is financed and run. Whilst this is likely to continue for the meantime the ongoing cuts to public funding mean that GI producers need new revenue sources if they are to grow.

Obviously this is easier said than done and although some inroads have been made this still remains a very unsaturated market. There seem to be two major reasons for this, firstly the perception around cost of GI systems and services and a lack of understanding of the benefits; in this case it is the second issue that I want to discuss. I am not a GI specialist but I have spent a reasonable amount of time managing and selling some reasonably complex services to a whole range of private sector organisations. Anyway my proposition is that GI is simply not being sold to the private sector in the right way. I have been to all the AGI events since June and a few other geo ones (FOSS, Mapping Showcase etc) and it seems like as an industry we are preaching to the converted.

The focus in our case studies is on how a solution was delivered, what the innovations were and how the technology was used. There is very little focus of what the benefits are and when there is these are described in a way that is technical and abstract from measurable business benefits. I am not saying that the work being done and the products and services available are unimpressive, quite the opposite in fact, simply that they are not being packaged in the correct way.

The fundamental concern of senior managers (who have the buying power) at private companies is profit and expenditure and this is how any service needs to be pitched. They are not concerned with the fine detail of the software solution or how the datasets will be handled (that’s for the due diligence people later in the process). If for example a company is pitching a route optimisation product to a logistics manager their concern is how much it will save them in vehicle costs and hours as this is how the investment will be justified. Again this is not to say that people outside the industry are incapable of understanding how GI products work just that in my experience this is not what is going to excite them.

The approach of the GI industry still seems geared towards large organisations with GIS teams that understand the language we are used to talking in. This needs to change to a strongly benefits and ROI focused approach if inroads are going to be made into the private sector. Obviously one problem is that is often hard to guarantee an efficiency saving based on implementation of GI but at the very least case studies of past work need to focus more on the tangible financial benefits the client received.

This is a major cultural change and a change the AGI needs to make as well. The prize awarded for best project based on business case and ROI is a start but in my opinion these are criteria that should be taken in to account for any award.

Anyway that’s my thoughts over, comments (and evidence proving me wrong) welcome.

Thursday 12 December 2013

Review of AGI Showcase: Cymru

Unfortunately with two events in one week and the awards write up this review has been pushed back a little bit. Still I think the last Showcase event of the year is definitely worthy of the last review of the year.

Setting Up
The latest showcase event saw the AGI team travelling down to the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff (which had very helpful staff and top notch cakes). Arriving bright and early after a very sensible pub dinner the night before we were soon set up alongside the 14 sponsors and ready for the delegates to arrive. The conference was well attended with the majority of delegates coming in a flurry of last minute booking (apparently this is normal for the Cymru event but is rather unnerving when you’re new).

And so it begins...
Anyway the conference soon got underway with opening statements from the AGI Cymru chair and keynotes from Ordnance Survey and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). Vanessa’s talk on building a geographic partnership with Wales was particularly interesting given the relatively recent change in the GI landscape in Wales resulting from the creation of NRW. Dr Roberts from NRW own talk was an interesting look at how evidence is used within an ecosystem approach to natural resource management.

After the break I was forced to flip a coin to choose between the two streams as both contained talks I was really keen to see. Anyway it came up tails and I duly trotted up the stairs to stream two. Stream two started with a presentation on ‘Delivering High Performance Open Source Based Spatial Data Infrastructures’ which was a client case study example. Unusually for a client case study however this was quite frank about the limitations and lessons learnt from the project which helped to make it interesting. Following this was a very speedy and succinct update on INSPIRE in Wales provided by Bill Oates. Finally the stream ended with ‘New Technologies for Visualizing Data in the Coastal Zone’ presented by Nicholas Holden. This presentation consisted of a passionate case for 3D and improved visualisation followed by a comprehensive demonstration of the capabilities of the technology including a seamless 3D dataset of all of SW England.
Sponsor Chat

After lunch (which as mentioned above was very tasty) we had the lightening talks. Unfortunately the audience started to thin after lunch; possibly due to travel times, it being December or a perception that the lightening talks were not as valuable. If it was for the third reason then people missed out, limiting people to six minutes really brings out the best in the presenter and we saw six great talks including two very different takes on good cartography tips. This was a really good format for waking people up after lunch and could perhaps be used as a bit of a morning icebreaker in the future. This was followed up by a discussion session on the challenges facing GI which I will not report in detail here as it will form the basis of a rant (ahem) informed observation on next week’s blog, not about the session but about one of the issues raised.
Discussion Time

The event ended with the afternoon plenary on the FishMap Mon project. This is an ambitious project gathering both quantitative environmental data on the seabed ecosystem and qualitative data on the activities of recreational and commercial fishermen around Anglesey. All this data has been overlaid to create a map of fishing type and intensity compared to the vulnerability of the sea bed ecosystem. The resulting data allows for better understanding and management of fishing activity in the region.


This brought the event and indeed the 2013 Showcase series to a close. Fear not we will be back in 2014 with another programme of events (bigger and better). In the meantime keep an eye on the AGI website for SIG events, Geodrinks and more.

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Awarding Innovation in 2013

Congratulations AGI Award 2013 Winners!
Last week’s blog (a review of the AGI Cymru event) has been slightly delayed, largely due to me being too busy working on events to write about them. However the final event of the year took place last Thursday, the AGI awards! Today’s entry will be a quick overview of the awards and what they mean to the community. AGI Cymru will get its turn on Thursday with a full round up of the event.

Anyway the awards... First up, why do we do them? Well apart from being a nice cheerful note to end the year on the awards serve a very real purpose. The AGI exists to further the reach and impact of GI in the UK (for the betterment of wider society and the economy). As well as increasing awareness of GI this also means promoting innovation and excellence within the community and just as importantly, shouting about it when it occurs! As well as providing recognition for the achievements of the winners the awards also showcase their ideas to others in the industry.

The awards followed a slightly different format this year (apparently, I wasn't
Iain's Winning Presentation
here last year) with presentations from the winners of each showcase’s best paper award. Combined with the winners from GeoCommunity this meant that attendees were treated to the best of the conference content from the year in one go. Unfortunately due to some rather inclement weather combined with our Scottish
members’ prolific success at the awards we were short a couple of speakers. Luckily Iain Langlands our best paper winner from GeoCommunity arrived just in time to present his Future Cities Demonstrator paper, albeit after a slightly hairy flight down from Glasgow.

Following on from this was the ceremony itself. The awards are presented for innovation and best practice in a variety of categories and we had some very strong submissions this year as can be seen by the joint winners in one category (too good to choose between). The categories are:
Central Government - States of Guernsey (Sponsored by: Compass Informatics)
Local Public Services - Warwickshire County Council and Central & SW Wales Shared ICT Services (Sponsored by: Ordnance Survey)
Private Sector – Island GIS (Sponsored by GIStandards)
Charitable Status – Canal and River Trust (Sponsored by Scisys)
Business Case and ROI – Thomson Ecology (Sponsored by ConsultingWhere)
Student of the Year - Andy Bell Queen’s University Belfast (Sponsored by 1Spatial)

This year we also had a new award, the INSPIRE for SMEs award. This award is being run as part of the EU funded smeSpire programme. This programme has been created to help SMEs operating in GI take
Our latest award being presented
advantage of the challenges organisations are facing from INSPIRE implementation. This award was won by Linknode.

Post Awards Drinks at RGS
We also ran a number of best paper awards but I am aware that another list might be pushing it a bit, the details of the winners can be found here. There are some really excellent papers on there and most of them can be found under the relevant events page on the website (and will be available in a much more intuitive way on the new website next year).



Finally I just wanted to say congratulations to all the award winners and thank you to all the sponsors who made the awards possible. We might be shaking things up with the awards next year as we've had a few ideas about how we can better engage with an encourage innovation both within and beyond our membership. Watch this space, January is going to be a storm of exciting announcements!

P.S. Congratulations to Abigail and Angharad
our Volunteers of the Year.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Tunnelling into the Mapping Showcase, a brief events roundup

The penultimate month of the year seems to be a popular one for events both in and out of the geo arena. Last week I attended the NCE Tunnelling conference (courting those engineers and surveyors again) and the more traditionally geo Mapping Showcase. I'm going to give a quick roundup of both of these events (with a bit more emphasis on the Mapping Showcase).

My main reason for attending the Tunnelling event was to try and meet potential GI users beyond our usual group (much like Slope Engineering the week before). The tunnelling industry in the UK is both one that is booming and one that is willing to embrace innovation and technology. I hadn't really thought of this until the conference but the majority of major infrastructure projects under way or upcoming in the UK include a tunnelling component. Crossrail, HS2 and the Thames Tideway Tunnel (unsurprisingly) all include major tunnelling work and that amounts to billions of pounds worth of capital spend. This is in addition to the programme of tunnel assessment and maintenance work undertaken by asset owners such as TFL and the Highways Agency.

This represents a significant market and as I have already said one that is willing to accept innovation. BIM or at least systems very similar to BIM and 3D modelling are already being used by the tunnelling industry. Despite this I encountered a perception that GI (GIS specifically) would not be suitable for tunnelling due to the largely underground nature of the work. The perception here is that GI is just surface mapping and not applicable to the complex 3D environment faced by tunnellers. This view seems to be the main barrier to GI provides breaking in to this potentially lucrative market. There is some crossover already however with hardware suppliers like Leica and Topcon (both AGI members) having a presence at this event.

It seems clear that the GI sector has expertise and products that can help the tunnelling sector where spatial precision is so crucial. However the key to accessing this growing market (both in the UK and internationally, the money being spent on the Doha metro is insane) is going to be overcoming preconceptions of what we do and demonstrating the technologies and skills we have like 3D modelling, remote sensing and subterranean mapping.

Mapping Showcase

On to a more usual geo event next; the Mapping Showcase, finale to this year’s programme of Geo Data events. This year the event was held in a hotel somewhere in the border zone between Fulham and Kensington (very handy for me). This turned out to be a typically lively event, it was hard to get a feel of the numbers (and as a free event a fair amount of no shows can be expected) but the hall felt full and we were certainly busy on the AGI stand particularly during the 11am rush.

Sadly this precluded me getting to as many of the sessions as I would have liked but I shouldn't really complain if people are interested in membership! However I did manage to squeeze a few presentations in. ‘BIM, Big Data and the Little Things’ was a great presentation on how grand ideas like BIM and Big Data can still be applied to and benefit smaller projects. ‘Big ideas for small things’ or some similar phrase was the soundbite of the session.

The National address Gazetteer gave an interesting presentation into what goes into creating and maintaining a National Data Infrastructure. I think the most striking thing watching this presentation was how little I knew about how much effort went into this and therefore that the general population just take having access to this kind of data for granted.

The final presentation I saw was from Gavurin showing discussing how businesses that aren't GIS businesses can use GIS data. This was a great summary on how GIS can be made relevant to decision makers and if presented properly can become part of wider ‘business intelligence’ and conversely how the principles of business intelligence can be applied to GI. This is a topic I am particularly interested in as I believe the GI industry struggles to sell its value to other sectors. (I may rant about this in the next blog post).

Anyway to summarise the showcase was generally a fun and informative event and it was great to see some of our members and meet some hopefully soon to be members. Sadly I wasn't able to make any of the interactive ‘smell mapping’ sessions but would love to hear from anyone who did.


Also don’t forget it is the AGI Awards tomorrow, this is our chance to celebrate excellence in GI and take a look at some of the innovation that is taking place in our industry. There are still a few places left and it’s also a great chance to visit the lovely Royal Geographical Society building that we call home.

Thursday 28 November 2013

What are the Big Issues in Geographic Information?

This is an important update, not my usual ramblings!

The ideas contributed by the AGI Showcase: North
As I have previously mentioned in the blog there are changes a-foot for our event programme for 2014. As we all celebrate 25 years of the AGI, it is a time to take a step back. Yes, we can reflect on all that we have achieved and how our industry has changed in this time – but more importantly it is a time to think about how we want it to move forward in the next 25 years. How can we (the AGI membership) shape the development of our industry?

In 2014, the AGI will host a number of Nationally Significant events around the UK. These will provide a focus for our members to debate the big issues in our industry, how are they impacting on our industry, how do we respond to these and where can AGI play a role to drive forward positive change.

We are looking to you, the AGI Membership, to tell us what you think these industry issues should be. We have had input from our Special Interest Groups, Regional Groups, through our event survey and at the AGI North Showcase event, but we want to make sure everyone has a chance to contribute.

There is a discussion open on the AGI LinkedIn Group, which we would encourage you to participate in. Alternatively, contact your SIG or Regional Group and express your thoughts and ideas.

2014 is a big year for AGI, more than ever this is a fantastic opportunity to have our collective voice heard, please get involved and help us develop our plans. The participation of our members is crucial for success in 2014 and into the future.

Some of the contributors at AGI Showcase: North


Thursday 21 November 2013

GI Beyond the AGI - My Foray into Geotechnics

I have talked before about taking GI beyond the ‘traditional’ user base that the AGI tends to represent. Well yesterday I put my money where my mouth is and went to a conference on ‘Slope Engineering and Geotechnical Asset Management.’ My thinking was that as GI is such a huge part of traditional asset management (utilities etc) that this could possibly transfer to geotechnical assets. Also it is always interesting to see how a different industry goes about solving problems. Anyway this is just a short report on what I found from by brief foray into slope engineering.

The first thing that struck me was that I had no idea how big an industry/issue this is. In the context of geotechnics an asset is effectively actually a risk to an infrastructure asset (slope overlooking a road, railway cutting, canal embankment etc). Now unsurprisingly there are an awful lot of railway cuttings, canal embankments, road tunnels etc so managing the risk across these is quite difficult. Also I did not know that there are actually a significant number of historic landslide complexes in the UK that have been built on but that are still active and moving. (I took the climatology modules instead at uni).

The upshot of all of this is that a number of organisations (infrastructure bodies and local authorities largely) have a massive amount of risk to manage. What I was surprised to find out is that only a few of the organisations use GI to help map and assess assets allowing things like risk based maintenance/inspection scheduling. All of these organisations have data on at least a significant portion of their assets but this is often held in many different areas and has no spatial representation. I think there is a significant opportunity for GI providers and consultants to take advantage of this gap.

Many of the people I spoke to were aware that a solution like this would help with the management of their asset network but they did not know how this could be achieved. In many cases the asset data already exists (eliminating a lot of the hard work) it just needs a spatial component added to it. With the increasing in the field availability of GI data (web and mobile mapping platforms) this could have a real benefit to the engineer. Obviously the issue that needs overcoming here is showing the potential cost reduction value of GI. The organisations managing these assets are facing the same budget constraints as everyone else and if ROI in terms of cost reduction can be shown there is definitely a strong case.

One thing that became clear at the conference is that this is not a sector afraid to innovate (which should bode well for pushing GI). There was an excellent presentation by Somerset County Council on the remedial work done following the collapse of the waterfront at Bridgwater in a landslip event. The collapse had led to the closure of a road, massive disruption to businesses and also a threat to utilities infrastructure if any further collapse occurred. The initial plan of action was expensive and time consuming however through innovative engineering, novel technical work-arounds and a willingness to accept a certain degree of risk (weighed against the benefits of course) they managed to stabilise and then restore the waterfront for £1.8 million and months ahead of the initial plan. This project was almost like a return to Victorian ‘improvise and get it done’ engineering combined with modern project management with one contractor improvising a concrete spraying nozzle from tyre inner tubes when the specialised version was not available (saving about £4000 a nozzle).

The scale of the challenges faced in geotechnical asset management combined with a willingness to innovate and adopt new practices combine to mean that this is a sector that is ripe to benefit from increasing its use of GI. I’m off to the http://www.ncetunnelling.co.uk/ event next week to see if this is another sector that can benefit, I’m expecting that they may already be using BIM...


As a final note slope engineers REALLY do not like the rain!

Monday 18 November 2013

AGI Showcase: North Review

The Calm...
Yesterday saw the penultimate event in this year’s showcase event series. I believe I've already explained the purpose behind the showcase events in the Northern Ireland summary so I won’t repeat myself here.

The event was held at the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) labs just outside York (well it was in the conference room not the actual labs). The sprawling landscaped FERA complex provided a bright and airy venue (although slightly sinister if you've ever seen a Resident Evil film) for the showcase event.

The event ran two concurrent streams, one of presentations and one of technical sessions. The overall themes of the conference were around Asset Management and Risk with an undertone of 3D and BIM particularly in the Asset Management presentations.
The conference opened with talks on Implementing BIM to realise benefits and Master Planning of cities. Both talks contained a message of progress in integrating BIM and GI and the danger of missed opportunities for both if this does not continue. There was also a suggestion (which was picked up later in the day) that BIM should be incorporated within the broader label of SMART cities.

After the break I attended the presentations stream (not wanting my ignorance to be exposed in a technical session). This consisted of a presentation from STAR-APIC/1Spatial on 3D data, Peter Mingins looking at integration benefits of GIS and Asset Management and Rollo Home making the case for integration of BIM and GIS in managing the nation’s infrastructure. A couple of particularly interesting points came out of these presentations (in my humble opinion). Firstly Peter Mingins raised the Government’s smart metering scheme as the second biggest infrastructure project of the coming years (after HS2) and an excellent example on
integration between BIM (smart metering itself) and GIS in managing the roll out and then management of these assets. All of which come together to help inform a smarter city... holistic. Rollo Home followed up on the case for a joined up approach to infrastructure and raised the issue that maybe the ‘Building’ in BIM pigeonholes what is an extremely versatile concept/tool. Maybe it’s time to lump all the various tools for infrastructure management under SMART cities (or SMART countries...)?

After lunch we had three different case studies on risk management (two on flood risk and the other a little less specific). One of the flood risk presentations was an overview of an interesting project to asses all risk structures in Manchester. This actually tied in well with the asset management theme of the earlier talks as each hazard (culvert, reservoir etc) was effectively being treated like an asset to be catalogued and monitored leading to a better schedule of maintenance.

If something goes wrong you don't
want to live within these circles
This was followed up by an interesting presentation from Kirsty Forder of the Health and Safety Laboratory. This showed how they use the National Population Database to look at populations near hazard sites (COMAH sites, Nuclear Power Stations, dodgy night clubs). The ability to produce demographic modelling that can display vulnerable populations with different projections for night and day was quite impressive. However it would have been interesting to have a presentation on how this information is communicated to and used by the relevant parties.

The final session had a great presentation from the BGS on how they are using mobile and web apps to make their extensive geological mapping data available (and a claim that geologists were the first to be making 3D maps, a matter of some dispute I believe). This was followed up by some fiery rhetoric from Bob Barr on ‘the great data robbery’; the privatisation of PAF data under the sale of Royal Mail. This well supported rabble rousing presentation provided an excellent finale to the event.
The Storm!

Overall the event had a good deal of variety amongst the speakers whilst managing to hold on to a key theme. Highlights of the event were the ongoing conversation around BIM, GIS and SMART cities and how we can leverage all the tools at hand to manage our infrastructure and environment in increasingly more efficient ways. The challenges and opportunities provided by the smart metering of energy was also an interesting point and it seemed that the scale of the project was not perhaps previously apparent to many of the delegates.


Next up the final showcase of the year AGI Cymru in Cardiff on December 3rd.

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Business Planning – 2014 and Beyond

Last weekend I was at the AGI business planning session down in Southampton (thanks to Ordnance Survey for the office space, I'm jealous of their building). It seemed the logical thing to blog about today would be some of the highlights of the weekend. Yes that’s right weekend, that’s how dedicated we are (OK it was a Friday and Saturday but still).

Heated Debate
Obviously I’m not going to go into the fine detail of the discussions and many of the agreed actions are work in progress with details being added all the time. Future council minutes will provide the real detail on what is going on however I suspect no one ever reads them (must add Google analytics to that page) so here is a bit of an overview of what you might see in the coming months.

The overall plan and sentiment of the planning meeting was one of investing for the future. Like most organisations we suffered from the financial crisis and then the cuts of 2010. However we've stabilised and are now ready to grow again with a focus on how we can better serve our members and the wider interests of GI. 

One thing I can definitely tell you is that we will be getting a brand new website in 2014 (around the end of Q1). This is not going to be a re-skin or facelift but a whole new toy bringing benefits to our members. A dedicated member’s area will be central to the site and we will be working to fill this with useful content, a geo news hub if you will. We often talk about how the AGI is its members but recognise that many people can’t afford the time commitments that volunteering or standing for council require. This site will provide a
Coloured Post-Its, the key to strategy
new way for members to get involved with the chance to generate content (who doesn't like showing of their work?), and online community for our geographically disparate membership. Also we’re going to have some maps on there so you’ll get to laugh at my forays into cartography. At least until I give up and get one of my colleagues to do it...

The other big piece of news is the events programme. Although here I have to be careful not to go into too much detail as names of events aren't settled yet and I’ll get myself in trouble. However the sneak preview is that 2014 is going to have a stronger events offering than ever and unlike previous years there will be a joined up theme running throughout the year and culminating in the annual conference. The details will be announced at the AGI Awards Ceremony on 5th December so there isn't too long to wait.
Refuelling on the Friday Night

Anyway after much heated debate (always good to see that people care) a consensus was reached that 2014 was the time to invest and ensure we are tackling the big issues around GI. The goal is to be the model of a modern membership organisation and in a position to drive the community forwards. Suggestions are welcome and we will be reaching out to you all to participate in our new website.



Don’t forget we’ve got the AGI Showcase: North and Cymru still to come this year as well as Geodrinks next Wednesday so plenty of opportunity to have your thoughts included in AGI 2014 (as I am now calling our plan).


Oh and on the way back from the weekend myself and Angharad (one of our council members if you don’t know her) made a stop in Wimborne Minster where Angharad’s unfailing nose for map paraphernalia detected a collection of map mugs. Within five minutes of getting out of the car...
Map Cups!

Spitfire in Wimborne

Finally.. the next blog may be delayed until Friday as I actually want to see some of the presentations at the event. Come and say hello if you are there!

Thursday 7 November 2013

Big Data and GI similar evolution, similar challenge and similar benefits?

Over the weekend the Sunday Telegraph published an article called ‘Big Data – Not just for geeks’ discussing how big data is moving from being the preserve of companies IT departments to something of interest to the wider organisation. I was struck with the similarities seen with the expansion of GI from the core practitioners to the rapidly widening sphere of users, especially since the introduction of BIM.

Of course this is not entirely surprising as GIS and BIM systems are based on Big Data and Big Data being collected by other industries will often have a spatial component.

There are many different claims for what represents the birth of ‘big data’ with the term first being coined in 1997. Originally it was discussed as a challenge to systems and networks, having too much data to store and transfer in an economical fashion. However with improvements in technology big data became increasingly seen as an opportunity. In the UK one of the first (and now famous) mainstream applications of big data was the inception of supermarket club cards in the mid 1990’s. Under the auspices of rewarding customer loyalty Tesco with Clubcard and Sainsbury with Nectar (I can’t remember what it used to be called, they kept changing it) suddenly had unparalleled access to customer insight.

Initially (in fact until very recently) for most companies Big Data was there preserve of their IT or software engineering departments overseen by a CIO or equivalent. The ownership belonged to this technical ‘elite’ (for want of a less pejorative word) with a focus on the technical challenges of collecting and analysing this data. This is comparable to the GI industry which consisted largely of products produced by GI professionals for GI professionals, a paradigm that has shifted rapidly with the proliferation of web based applications. This is not to say that these traditional roles do not exist and are not still crucial, just that the technology and usage has spread much further.

In the Sunday Times article AGI Chair Anne Kemp (among others) suggest that Big Data is undergoing a similar shift which will present a similar skills and knowledge challenge. Coincidentally one of my old clients was a company that specialised in some very clever real time analytics and I remember their Vice President (US company) saying something very similar about the proliferation of big data to new users and taking a more holistic approach.

At the end of the day Big Data and GI are both just tools for enabling better informed decision making. It stands to reason therefore that the greater number of people who are able to access relevant information the greater the positive impact on decision making. In both Big Data and GI this presents a twofold challenge for producers and users of the data.

The first challenge is at the suppliers’ end whether this be a companies IT department or a GI software and data supplier. The challenge here is to provide the data in a way that is accessible to a wide range of users with differing skill sets that may not be particularly technical. The second challenge is for the organisations themselves in ensuring they have the right skills amongst their staff to interpret the data. This doesn’t mean everybody needs to be able to code just that people have an appreciation as to how to handle data and how it impacts and supports their role.

Meeting these challenges and a general cultural appreciation of data (and GI) as a tool that can enable organisations to make better decisions is a key change that will allow these organisation to save time and money and deploy limited resources in a more effective fashion.


In short Big Data is going through the same maturation process as GI forcing a cultural shift in attitudes to how data is used and who it is used by. Both sectors (if they can truly be called that given their interconnectivity with all other sectors) can learn from each other in how to espouse their benefits and encourage an ever greater uptake.

Thursday 31 October 2013

Mappy Halloween!

Embedded image permalinkSorry that was a terrible pun, I must have been temporarily possessed by the evil spirit of tabloid journalism. Anyway as this post follows hot on the heels of yesterday's I thought I’d make it a little more light hearted and give you a round up of all the GI related Halloween fun that’s been flying around out there (there is a surprising amount).

No this isn’t a sequel to Event Horizon (thankfully they never made one) but Esri’s effort to map the geolocation of the top 200 horror films of all time. They are filtered by decade which adds an interesting insight in to how horror tastes and indeed the strength of cinema has changed globally.  Unsurprisingly given the dominance of Hollywood the vast majority of films are set in North America and Europe although this was less the case pre 1960. Despite the presence of Egypt and related tried and tested trope of Mummys and creepy tombs very few horror films have been shot in Africa. The same goes for South America (surely the rainforest or a ruined Inca city would have been a great backdrop). Apparently communists weren’t too keen on horror either with no films set in the former USSR pre 1990.
As anyone who has seen the Ring (or the much less well known but excellent R-Point) can attest South East Asia has held its own against Europe and North America especially in recent years. Finally points for whoever can name the one film set in Antarctica on the list (without looking).

Pumpkin Cartography:
There seem to be a few carto geeks out there with some serious pumpkin carving skills but this one is particularly impressive. From twitter it looks like he might be attempting a London street map this year, looking forward to the results of that.

Mapping Halloween:
On a more practical level ThinkWhere have mapped all of National Trust Scotland’s Halloween events and RGS have got a creepy cemetery walk up for you. (If you’re in London I recommend that one, it’s pretty interesting Halloween aside).
Less practically Esri are at it again with an interesting use of their web mapping application to map locations from Ghostbusters (1&2). Those Americans really do love Halloween, and cheesy (but awesome) films.

The Fear of Place:

Not wanting to be left out OS have compiled a list of the scariest place names in the UK. Apparently there are over 80 places in the UK that ‘belong’ to the devil including the ludicrously named Devil’s Beef Tub which sounds like some kind of super hot curry challenge. Maybe they could produce a heat map to show us where the most devilish places in the UK are...

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Calling Students!

Lectures have begun, term time is back in full swing and for those students in their final years the grim spectre of jobs is probably raising its head. This is somewhere that the AGI may be able to help. We have recently made our membership free to all students (including post grads). Joining the AGI opens up a community of GI professionals to you with excellent opportunities for networking with potential employers.

In addition to free membership we also run a series of showcase events around the UK and an annual conference all of which are heavily discounted for students. These events provide the opportunity to attend presentations and workshops on the latest issues affecting the industry. The showcase events are particularly suited to students as we run them regionally around the UK reducing travel time and leaving you less at the mercy of our rail network. We actually have one such event taking place in York on the 14th of November (details here) which is ideal for students in the Yorkshire area.

Alongside these big regional annual events we also have a variety of other events tied up with our Special Interest Groups and Regional Groups. These range from evening presentations to networking drinks and are a great way to get involved with the industry. SIG events give you the chance to pick events that are heavily focused on your chosen area of study.

Although the days of ‘who you know not what you know’ are over for the vast majority of us (I will refrain from any cynicism here). I can definitely say that knowing something and knowing someone definitely seems to be the best way to get a job. This is both from personal experience (not in my current role) and that of many of my colleagues and friends. In fact I met an AGI member at our last AGI GeoDrinks event, Jack Goodwin (who has kindly given me permission to quote him) who got his current job through a connection he made at a GeoDrinks networking event last year.

Going into 2014 we plan to be doing more to help our student members from more useful content on the website (the shiny new one we are getting next year) to guides and tips on job hunting and CVs and any input on what might be helpful is always welcome.


So in short; join up, it’s free, we’re going to be doing more for students and we want to hear what you would like us to be doing. Also in the meantime keep networking and I don’t me cringey champagne and suits based events it’s all a lot more natural and informal than that! Come along to the next AGI event near you and find out.

Thursday 24 October 2013

And the results are in... Feedback from GeoCommunity ‘13

OK not all the results are in and there is still time to contribute your thoughts here (it comes with a chance to win a free pass to an AGI event next year) but we have had an overwhelming response this year. In the interests of fairness, openness and not being an evil secret society we will be publishing the results of the GeoCommunity feedback after the closing date for replies (31st October). However I just wanted to share some of the trends we have noticed so far. The survey is of course anonymous so I will not be quoting anyone directly.

Firstly it is worth noting that we expanded the survey beyond just GeoCommunity attendees this year (obviously they got asked different questions). This was to ensure that we were getting a broader view and finding out from those people who didn't attend what we could change to capture their interest. All of this will be used to inform our events programme for 2014 which we want to make the best one yet.

Generally the numbered feedback (on a scale of 1-6 how much did you like... etc) was very positive but it is the typed comments that are most informative. Unsurprisingly it is the programme itself that was the subject of most of the comments. Generally the variety of the programme was praised with conflicting feedback from some people wanting less sponsor/corporate speakers and other people wanting more. Obviously there is going to be a huge range of personal opinion on this but it seems clear that a better labelling system for the speakers is necessary. Beyond the current stream names a lot of the comments suggest that labelling sessions as ‘technical’, ‘commercial’, ‘case study’ etc would be very useful. This would aid people in planning their time and hopefully help with another common (rather positive) complaint that there was too much that delegates wanted to see all on at the same time.

There also seems to be a demand for more hands on training and workshop style sessions at future events. This is something we are definitely looking to achieve next year as it serves the dual purpose of delivering more value and a better experience to our delegates as well as providing greater justification for delegates getting permission to go to events. Being able to say you will attend x and y training sessions always helps with the business case for going to a conference!

We also received feedback indicating that more speakers from the edges of GI would be a welcome change with the plenary from Sainsbury’s particularly well received. Following on from this is the continuing drive for relevance and we will be looking for plenary speakers from outside the core of GI (probably no will.i.am though I'm afraid). This doesn't mean we’re going to line up some random celebrities but rather we want to see other industries (retail, logistics, insurance etc) take on GI, what they use it for and how it can have a wider effect on commerce.

The other common theme amongst the comments was the location. True to UK regionalism this proved even more partisan than the commercial vs academic divide with comments ranging from ‘anywhere but Nottingham’ (GeoCom ’14 - Minsk it is) to ‘Nottingham till I die’ (OK I'm paraphrasing). Well I can say for certain we are moving from the EMCC but in all likelihood we will be somewhere in the Midlands again next year as it is roughly speaking the middle of the country. ThinkWhere made a very impassioned case for coming to Edinburgh at GeoCom (personally I’d love to it’s a great city) but at the end of the day transport links and central placement win out over pretty buildings and good pubs.


Anyway don’t forget to have your say on next year’s events (even if you didn't come to any this year) and we’ll be putting the survey results up in November.

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Geo Information – Beyond the Core

Unfortunately this is not a Jules Verne esque adventure to the centre of the earth (although some molten iron would be welcome in the office today). Instead this is a look at efforts we are taking to expand our membership beyond the traditional core of GI users (suppliers, central and local government etc). We want to engage with people on the ever expanding frontiers of GI like surveyors, engineers and logistics professionals. This is key to fulfilling our mission of furthering increasing understanding of the benefits of GI and ensuring that we are not just preaching to the choir.

Reaching out to and educating new sectors in the value of GI has obvious benefits both in terms of new markets for suppliers and in improved efficiency and governance within the sectors.

Anyway the first step of this plan has been to start building partnerships with conferences and events in these sectors. We are happy to announce that the first of these media partnerships has been agreed with Emap. Emap produce a range of publications and conferences in the construction and infrastructure sector.

This year the AGI are involved with two of these: Tunnelling 2013 and Slope Engineering and Geotechnical Asset Management 2013. The AGI will be represented at both of these events (probably by me) and they represent an excellent opportunity to talk GI with a very different audience.


There is also a clear immediate benefit of this for our members (beyond the higher goal of furthering our mission) and that is that all AGI members are entitled to 25% off the cost of either of these conferences should they wish to attend. For more information on how to claim this discount click here.

 

I hope you find this useful and we are currently looking at media partnerships with other organisations operating on the edges of GI. Also if you happen to be at one of these conferences come and say hello!

Friday 18 October 2013

Geo Information in 2014 – and the rest of 2013

Next year is the 25th anniversary of the AGI and we are already putting a lot of effort in to our event programme to ensure it is more diverse and challenging than ever. However we don’t want 2014 to just be a self indulgent celebration of what we’ve done over the last 25 years (or last four months in my case). Instead we want to use it as an opportunity to take stock of GI in the UK and look at what are the major themes facing GI in 2014.

The idea for this partly comes from a conversation I had last night at our networking drinks with the INSPIRE SIG. They are currently looking at broadening the SIG beyond just the INSPIRE policy to look at the wider theme of Location within the Government’s National Information Infrastructure. This followed nicely on from discussions we had been having about running each showcase event around a certain theme in the industry with a view to informing our next Foresight report in 2015 (see here for the last foresight report).

Several themes spring to mind straight away, the already mention ‘location’ along with open data and open source, cloud technology and SMART cities. However we want our members input on what they think these themes should be. Is SMART too specific? Should we be looking at GI and infrastructure and GI and the citizen instead? Should open data and open source be considered separately and is cloud a theme of its own or something that should be lumped in under the wider auspices of technology?

These are the questions we hope to answer going in to 2014 and we want our members’ thoughts and opinions on these questions. We will be framing the questions more clearly as the programme for next year unfolds but in the meantime we want to hear from you on twitter and LinkedIn, through the blog, the SIGs and regions and any smaller event we hold throughout the year.

Not to forget the rest of 2013...

We still have plenty left to do in 2013 with Showcase events in York (14/11) and Cardiff (3/12) (a perfect opportunity to share your thoughts with us). Rounding this all off is the AGI Annual Awards on the 6th December. As well as announcing our programme and plans for 2014 the Annual Awards are the opportunity for you to be recognised for any innovative work you have undertaken this year. Winning an award gives you the plaudits of your peers in the community and is a great addition to both your professional profile and that of the organisation you belong to. You can view the list of awards, past winner and nominate someone (or yourself) for an award here.


As always we look forward to hearing your ideas around the industry in 2014 and also any more nominations for the awards!  

Tuesday 15 October 2013

AGI Northern Ireland Showcase Round Up

Last Thursday marked both the AGI NI Showcase and my first ever trip to Belfast (well technically we arrived on Wednesday). I’m happy to report that, a rather hairy landing at Belfast International aside both these events passed of very smoothly.

The NI Showcase was the fourth event in our AGI Showcase series. For those that don’t know the Showcase series of events are a programme of events that are new for 2013. They are one day events located around the UK, broadly in line with the AGI’s various regional groups (Northern Ireland, SW England, Cymru, Scotland etc). The idea behind these events is to make the AGI programme more accessible to our members around the UK. We understand that in the current economic climate not everyone can justify the time and travel costs to come to a residential multi day event like GeoCommunity. Not wanting anyone to miss out we decided to run a supplementary set of events bringing GI to the whole UK.

Much like the other Showcase events this year the Northern Ireland event was very well attended, held at the bright and airy (but thankfully warm) Riddle Hall in Belfast we had around 100 delegates and a group of sponsors including one for whom this was their first AGI event.

The event itself had two sessions running simultaneously following an opening presentation from Justin Gleason and the All Ireland Research observatory (AIRO). One of the two sessions/streams consisted of a variety of presentations and talks and the second consisted of technical sessions. The first three talks of the presentation stream contained a very humanitarian focus with presentations on using Openstreetmap for humanitarian mapping, GIS volunteer projects in Lesotho and Global Map Aid. These sessions really showed the potential benefits of GI for the citizen all around the world and there seemed to be a general interest amongst the delegates about getting involved.

Not being able to split myself in two (yet) I missed the technical sessions but was given a sneak preview of John Hewitt’s Demystifying Open Source GIS presentation whilst waiting for the delegates to arrive. This included some software which allowed users to view edits to Openstreetmap in real time. David McIlhatton from Ulster University had an equally impressive toy to display. This was a 3D model of Belfast built using a gaming engine which allowed the user to simulate things like traffic conditions, crowds and parades enabling the police to develop responses and tactics for things like crowd control. (OK it’s a serious bit of software not a toy but it does require an Xbox controller to use).

The main sessions were followed up with a presentation on crowd sourcing data in Dublin and a Q&A about the future of the AGI with Anne Kemp. The event then wound up with the inevitable (essential) geodrinks at a nearby bar. Talking to the delegates over lunch (in between eating as many honey mustard sausages as possible) the feedback for the event was very positive with the range of speakers grabbing interest. We had a number of new members sign up just to attend the event and there was a general enthusiasm for a GI event in Northern Ireland to complement those held by IRLOGI south of the border.

Sponsor feedback was also very positive with one sponsor telling me that the nature of the showcase programme (specifically the ability to buy a package for all the events) allowed them to present in regions that they would not normally be able to attend. In doing so they had generated interest from a whole new set of leads. This was good to hear as the whole point of the Showcase events has been to spread the reach of the AGI and the community and to connect people who would otherwise never meet.


On another note Belfast seems like a great city which I must visit as a tourist, if you happen to be going I can recommend a great B&B to stay in!

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Life as an AGI Council Member

Abigail Page, AGI Council member
With the call for nominations to AGI Council for 2014 open, Chris has asked me to write a guest blog this week about being a member of AGI Council – so here it goes!

Standing for Election

I have been involved with AGI for a number of years, firstly as a regular member and delegate at AGI GeoCommunity conferences, then with the AGI Environment SIG and the AGI Scotland Committee.

At the AGI GeoCommunity 2012, Andy Coote suggested gently that I should consider standing for Council. I spent a long time thinking about this (probably a bit too long since I then had to rush to get my form in on time!) and speaking to some other council members, the AGI team and my employer about the level of commitment required before putting myself forward. The process is very straightforward and there is more information on the AGI website.

Council Meetings & Key Tasks

Council meet a minimum of 5 times a year at AGI HQ in London. It can be a long day (particularly including a round trip from Edinburgh!) but it is a great opportunity to catch up with  other Council members and really important that we all have this time to consider AGI business away from our day jobs.

In addition to directing the strategy of the AGI, there is a requirement for Council members to support regional groups and SIGs and to provide an additional resource and operational support to the AGI team. During 2013 I have been involved in the organisation of Showcase Events and the Council Marketing group. Our marketing and communication activities have taken a big step forward this year, including the successful appointment of Chris, and I am confident that you will start to notice positive changes in the coming months if you haven't already.

Being a Representative

Of course being a Council member isn't just about attending meetings and providing operational support – it is also about being available to members and the wider community as a representative of both AGI and AGI Council.

The AGI team are small and do an excellent job with the limited resource they have – but this is not enough to grow AGI and maintain a strong membership and voice in UK GI.  With being elected to council comes an expectation to perform the role of an AGI  and UK GI Ambassador. From my own perspective, this has included being visible and present at UK events, speaking actively about the role of the AGI and looking to engage and collaborate with other organisations that share our views on the role of geospatial and geography in the UK.

However, I would like to add a note that this is a role that all AGI members can play, whatever your role in the industry. We need you to be ambassadors for the AGI and GI – AGI members play a vital role in the UK GI industry and together we can have immense reach and drive forwards our collective desires and ambitions.
Spot me at State of the Map 2013 – the Disadvantages of being Vertically Challenged (Image: Chris Fleming)

Time Juggling & The Benefits

Where do I find time volunteer as an AGI Council member? Jo Cook mentioned the term “task-management ninja” in her blog post summing up experiences of organising FOSS4G and I can really relate to this as I suspect can most of my Council colleagues.

I am lucky to have a patient husband and family in addition to a supportive employer that recognise the value of my AGI input to my own professional development and the benefits to Central Scotland Forest Trust (CSFT) as an organisation. Without this support and flexible working arrangements, it would be difficult to keep my Council commitments and this is why I would really recommend having these discussions openly before you stand for Council.

Yes, it is a lot of hard work, but I am not a selfless person. Of course, I believe in a strong UK GeoCommunity and the AGI, but if I were not getting something back from my involvement then I wouldn't be doing it. It is incredibly personally satisfying to have direct input into shaping the AGI.

Post- Council Team Networking
During the last nine months on Council I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some of the most influential and inspiring members in our GeoCommunity. I have developed a wide range of skills and experience as a Council Member and Director that have been incredibly useful elsewhere. It has raised my own professional profile and influenced the way that I work in addition to bringing forward new ideas and opportunities for CSFT as we develop and realise the Central Scotland Green Network. Finally, being involved in AGI Council and working as part of a great team with shared ambition is immense fun!

So, that's it (I hope this is what you wanted Chris!). If I haven't put you off please consider standing for election either this year or some point in the future. Get in touch with any of us on Council or the AGI Team if you need any further information. Remember that there are many other ways to support the AGI and get involved – SIGs & Regional Groups always welcome able and enthusiastic volunteers, and it is up to all of us to be AGI and industry Ambassadors and develop our strong GeoCommunity.