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The ENTCHEV GIS Blog
Developers and users: Divided by a common language
Back in February I was invited to keynote the Esri developer meetup in Philadelphia. It was a well-attended event at a very nice venue, hosted by Jim Barry and Amy Niessen. I saw many old friends, made new ones, and learned quite a bit.
Below is my presentation "Developers and users: Divided by a common language". The jokes were much funnier at the time of delivery.
Google Crisis Response Team Hurricane Sandy response
The Google Crisis Response Team gave a presentation on their Hurricane Sandy response for the New York State GIS Association on Feb 19, 2013 at the Google offices in New York City.
Presenter Vanessa Schneider talks about crowdsourcing efforts, including my involvement and contribution (beginning around 23:20), and Dr. Wansoo Im's high school student volunteers.
See below video of full presentation.
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Is there a cat in the room?
UPDATE January 16, 2013 5:24 PM: Yesterday Facebook announced its upcoming Graph Search. While I haven't tried it yet, the Graph Search is clearly targeted at providing near-real-time search results -- something Google and Bing sorely lack. This includes up-to-date local business location information, the subject of my original post.
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"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat." --Confucius (attributed)
"Digitally mapping the world" appears to be the new digital gold rush, and the Internet mapping giants -- Google, Apple, Nokia -- are the new prospectors. But is there gold to be found? Is there a cat in that dark room?
Farhad Manjoo speculates in a curiously disappearing Fast Company article (cached copy) that the answer is unknown. I submit that there is a cat, but it can't be found with the methods these three are using.
Why are these giant companies so obsessed with the pursuit of "the map"? How will they monetize "the map"? By selling advertisements for local merchants, of course. So the local merchant data layer -- accurate and current -- is the gold. The local merchant data layer -- not the highways or parks or stadiums -- is the cat that needs to be found and caught.
Ay, there's the rub! Can Google et al. catch the cat? The answer is no because the shelf life of the most important map data layer is shorter than the duration of the mappers' vetting process. By the time the map data is collected, processed, vetted, and QA/QCd, it is already outdated. This problem is not limited to locations of merchants of consumer goods and services, but is most pronounced there.
The billion dollar question is how to collect and maintain data that is both authoritative and current. Or, to put it differently, how to reduce the vetting time to zero. Foursquare, Gowalla (now incorporated into Facebook), Waze, and Groupon (which just acquired Glassmap) are all working to solve this problem -- by using consumers as mapping sensors.
Will any of them succeed? "He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions."
PS There is no money in gold prospecting, but there is money in making shovels and selling them to prospectors.
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"Mapping is a thankless job"
UPDATE January 15, 2013 5:54 PM: The Fast Company article is back online, dated today (January 15, 2013). Thanks to Adena Schutzberg for the discovery. She thinks the article was published early by accident.
UPDATE January 11, 2013 10:53 AM: "Mapping is a thankless endeavor" is the correct quote. The original Fast Company article is still unavailable, but blog reader and commenter Kevin M pointed me to a cached copy (which was unavailable yesterday). Thank you, Kevin!
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The article discussed the "unknowable promise" of digital mapping -- a concept I can relate to, and upon which I wanted to expound in my blog post. Somewhat ironically, the article itself is now gone.
I hope this is a temporary glitch, and the article will be back online soon. If and when it does I'll be back with more commentary. (related new post January 12, 2013 7:09 PM)
Adena Schutzberg from Directions Media (@adenas) is investigating the article's disappearance.
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* Quoting from memory
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Happy holidays!
We wish you happy holidays and a prosperous 2013!
Hurricane Sandy storm surge data for New Jersey available from FEMA
UPDATE January 2, 2013: Google has added the storm surge data to their Sandy crisis maps (Superstorm Sandy: NYC, Superstorm Sandy). HT Pete Giencke from the Google Crisis Response Team
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Hurricane Sandy storm surge data for New Jersey are now available for download from FEMA, as per note from NJ Office of GIS Director Andy Rowan sent to the New Jersey Geospatial Forum (NJGF) email listserv.
Below is an excerpt from the original announcement made by the FEMA Region II Geospatial Coordinator. The URL points to a 990 MB zip file (which unzips to 13.9 GB ).
If you need only the data for New Jersey, then use this file:
If you need the other states, look in the MOTF FTP link for similar file names with different state abbreviations. Contained in that zip file are a vector shapefile of the estimated storm surge extent based on field observation data collected through November 11, and there is a depth grid (ESRI raster) at 3-meter resolution as well. These files were created by interpolating the high water marks (collected by USGS under FEMA mission assignment) into a water surface elevation grid, and then subtracting the ground elevation (3-meter DEM) from the water surface elevations in order to provide estimated water depth over land (inundation).
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IMPORTANT New Jersey Geospatial Forum (NJGF) 2012 winter meeting announcement
The New Jersey Geospatial Forum (NJGF) 2012 winter meeting has been RESCHEDULED. See below announcement from the New Jersey Office of Information Technology (NJOIT):
The next meeting of the NJ Geospatial Forum will be Friday, December 14th, NOT December 7th. The Forum will be held at 10 a.m. in the ITC Room, 300 Riverview Plaza, Trenton, NJ 08611. All are welcome to attend.
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New Brunswick land assessment map
I have been itching to map something local. After briefly considering The New Brunswick Homicide Map, I was talked out of it by someone more sensible than me. So I present to you this New Brunswick Land Assessment Map in Google Maps.
The map uses data from the New Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN). The parcel polygons are rendered based on a "Score" I derived from assessed land value normalized by parcel area. All 7,807 parcels were classified in six classes using the quantile method. The darker the shading, the higher the score.
The map uses data from the New Jersey Geographic Information Network (NJGIN). The parcel polygons are rendered based on a "Score" I derived from assessed land value normalized by parcel area. All 7,807 parcels were classified in six classes using the quantile method. The darker the shading, the higher the score.
The map is far from perfect, and so is probably my method. One thing that surprises me is how big the variance is among properties within a single block, particularly in the downtown area.
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Map of operational New Jersey gas stations after hurricane Sandy -- November 1, 2012
[UPDATE Monday, November 5, 2012, 5:25 PM] We keep adding open gas station locations as they are being submitted to us (except when we sleep (we do sleep)). The map is maintained continuously otherwise.
[UPDATE Sunday, November 4, 2012, 11:27 AM] I am updating the map with user-submitted information. Green markers are user-submitted operational locations. I am removing red markers for gas stations that are reported to be closed. Send your feedback to info@entchev.com. More info below the map. Data source is here (Google Fusion Table).
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[UPDATE Saturday, November 3, 2012, 2:02 PM] I created a few more GIS data layers from the NJOEM lists, in addition to the gas stations -- open hotels, pharmacies, and fast food places. Instead of just publishing the maps on my blog, I decided to contribute the layers to the official Google Crisis Map. I intend to continue to work with Google and NJOEM to keep the data up-to-date.
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[UPDATE Friday, November 2, 2012, 11:14 AM] The interest in this map has been overwhelming. Thank you all for the kind words and feedback.
I know that the map is not perfect, and have been thinking of ways to keep it current. It's not that simple. I have decided to keep the map as is, with map data sourced exclusively from the NJ Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM). The NJOEM is updating their database constantly from information sent to them by email. I encourage you to send your updates to the NJOEM; I will update this map when the NJOEM publishes an updated list.
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New Jersey Geospatial Forum (NJGF) 2012 fall meeting summary
I could not attend today’s New Jersey Geospatial Forum (NJGF) 2012 fall meeting in Atlantic City, but here is a summary of the major announcements, as tweeted by NJGF Executive Committee member John Reiser (@johnjreiser on Twitter):
- Processing of the 2012 NJ orthos is underway. Should be available in Feb/Mar 2013.
- NJ Road Centerline data is moving towards a maintenance phase; will be supported with a web map editor interface.
- Today's NJGF talk is by Bill Dollins on FOSS software focusing on PostGIS, GDAL/OGR, and MapBox TileMill.
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