Brief History of Geo Sense

Airview

Airview is an online collection of NSW,Aust aerial imagery. The archives contain thousand of aerial photo images taken by Airview air crews. User able to browse through Airview web mapping interface, choose area to view and purchase. User buy the images for various reasons such as property study, town or land planning, investment study, marketing kits and etc.

While, Geo Sense is providing the biggest high resolution web archives of Malaysian aerial photography taken by Geo Sense UAV system. Similair to Airview, users browse the web mapping and click to the cell for image close up and eventually online purchase in the softcopy and poster print out purchase.

Next step is to provide platform that overlay images with other spatial information such as street map, zoning, demography and cadastral map. User also can order for new tasking on certain area.

making GIS Rock

Geo Sense is transforming typical geo related services from turnkey project basis to open 24 hours next door store, by providing subscription Geo channels and services. Geo Sense offers a slice of GIS functionality with much deeper emphasized at end user requirements rather than full blown spatial analytical tools. Anyways, typical end user only use about 25-30% of GIS functionalities, while cartography, surveyor and specialize Geo related firms are the real users that appreciate the full functionalities. Thus Geo Sense emphasizes simplicity and collaboration platform rather than shrink wrap software.
..... how to make GIS rocks
variety of geo data and how each are related to each other and make sense for decision making.
How to take user to the next stage of GIS is by providing a platform that encourage volunteering Geo data updating or geo tagging and at some level provide simulation platform for greater understanding.

Iteration from platform services to market place

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Web Services

GODCHA is using basecamp from http://www.37signals.com/ It a fantastic project collaboration web services. Basecamp suites well GODCHA collaboration and simplicity motto.

GODCHA VC Pitch

GODCHA is an idea stage. Idea is like dream, can we dream of an idea or dream our ideas. We might as well keep dreaming.

But GODCHA is not just a dream, since conception in July 2007, GODCHA under Malaysian limited enterprising company Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. have been embarking in the serious prototype development of Web GIS service portal.

The project is progressing since July 2007 until now, we have work in progress snapshot at GODCHA alpha site and project management site at http://geosense.projectpath.com/ you need to be the team member to login.

Geo Sense has officially 5 team members, web open GIS developer, system architec and web designer. Practically we have 2 full time team members and 3 others are supporting part timely. I am GODCHA fulltime evengelist. GODCHA does not have physical office, we meet day and night in our virtual office http://geosense.projectpath.com/. Until Oct 2007, GODCHA has more than 50 physical highly connected offices through out Malaysia and South East Asia our office addresses are link here.

Our current funding enough for GODCHA to stay sober until Feb. 2008. GODCHA alpha site will be ready for human comprehension by Nov 2007 as well as the begining GODCHA road show. The purpose of the road show is to meet as many potential GODCHA users as possible and to impress them on how GODCHA can solve their problems and along the ways finding angle that believe in our project and willing to take us beyond Feb. 2008.

Since early 2006, I have been meeting and discussing GODCHA to many different backgrounds, from the GIS, mapping industries, Government officer, corporate executive, professor, engineer, business owners, students etc. I can group them into two categories, a technical users and non-technical users. Technical users, are mainly GIS, cartographer or mapping experts, professors, officer and researcher from JUPEN (Malaysian Mapping Dept.), MACRES researchers, GIS engineers and programmers. Most of them have cynical opinions about GODCHA and believe that our Malaysian or even Asian organizational users are not ready for open GIS, let alone Geo Wiki and it only happen on Google Maps and virtual earth. Most of the discussion will end up with serious issues on accuracy, standard protocol, reliability and security concerns. The GIS technical users with less or no IT services background are much harder to convince, this is fair. For years, they are responsible in building data silos in our public and private offices and such a way never been presented properly for non technical workers at the top levels to comprehend and making better decisions. Unfortunately Government spents million to such silos but never get enough benefits without the concern of the GIS key keepers.

Now we can see smart non GIS technical users starting to access Google Map from their laptop and visually pin pointing concerned location. There are more data or content layers lock up in the silos and will be much powerful if only it is make available.

GODCHA has a simple vision, to provide the most comprehensive South East Asia location information services online , materially speaking “an hotmail to GIS”.

GODCHA is developing a platform for corporation and Government to make geo related data available online and to collaborate with other decision support system. GODCHA is addressing multi million duplicating investment made in many conventional GIS implementation. GODCHA is providing fresh collaborative geo contents online with all basic tools for typical non-GIS users to benefits. GODCHA is stressing on simplicity, collaboration and intelligence.

Welcome to GIS on Demand Community Holistic Application (GODCHA)

GODCHA is a GIS project under Geo Sense Sdn. Bhd. GODCHA vision is to offer geograhical based data and business analysis tools via web GIS to public.

GIS history can be tracked since mid 19th Century, when Dr John Snow solved the cholera outbreak source by utilizing multiple theme maps to a contaminated wells.

Since than, several factors the caused the change cartographic history.
1. computer technology - improvements in hardware, esp. graphics
2. development of theories of spatial processes in economic and social geography, anthropology, regional science.
3. increasing social awareness, education levels and mobility, awareness of environmental problems.
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/gis.notes/ncgia/u23.html#SEC23.1

This blog will address issues such as
1. The CSF of implementing Web GIS
2. GIS as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) - GIS on Demand business model
3. Location intelligence business - local support to win local
4. User Interface Design (UID) and Data representation in web GIS - why Google win

Before we come to issues that concerning GODCHA, let revisit on how GIS come about and general existing implementing issues.

Following is overview of GIS elements:

http://www.edc.uri.edu/nrs/classes/NRS409/Lectures/3GISdefined/5%20Points%20of%20GIS.jpg

GIS Software has evolved from humble simple computer display that enable inputting point, line and polygon to database to today much complex, business intelligence capability. Now GIS software are available in commercial and open source packages. Following link give list of current available GIS software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GIS_software.

Handling Complexity

GIS has always been a technical analysis tools in the hand of technician. Most organizations that deployed GIS have special unit or dedicated staff that handling GIS technicality. eg. town council will have planning unit personnel, GIS personnel in utility companies or Government setup, etc. A visit to Johor Bahru Tengah Local Council (MPJBT) eg. found that a standalone MapInfo is managed by a technician who is part of engineering team and even the IT dept. has little knowledge about it existance. Often time, GIS data is highly sensitive and confidential to organization, thus GIS unit is perceived as secret unit and is rarely connected to the rest of the organization network. Making GIS an isolated and standalone unit. Key management rely on GIS to make better decision but most of the time only for ad hoc analysis reporting, such as in crisis or disaster. Decision makers do not have direct access to the system and are not technical enough to handle the GIS complexity. Fallacy of having GIS as just a glorifying unit in organization will not help organization, GIS has to be shared and integrate to organization mainstream application. Making GIS accessible while addressing data sensitivity will help.

Nevertheless GIS has greatly improved decision making process of many organization worldwide. eg, GIS is being linked to the executive information system (EIS), realizing the strategic value of location data to organization.

In most organization, GIS unit is treated as secondary functional supporting element and push back to lower priority level in budget or investment. In worse situation GIS unit is neglected and some big organization making double investment in GIS because they did not realized that other units already invested in the same system. The true potential of GIS is not fully realized because it was not reaching everybody and making impact to the organization.

GODCHA is addressing the issue of "does GIS suppose to be that complex and technical".

Not until Internet advancement of 21st century, GIS comes into center stage in form of online virtual earth representation such as Google earth, virtual earth, NASA WorldWind and they touch everybody. Net and media companies like Google, Microsoft, yahoo provide API and SDK for public to develop services that can be linked with their mapping platform. In less than 2 years, more than 50k geo mashup web services are available on the net like http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/, and the list continue growing . Location awareness is coming into the mainstream. Prominent enterprise GIS software companies like ESRI and MapInfo are also quickly jump into the web by offering GIS as web services. MapInfo with location intelligence and ESRI with ArcWeb Service.

Companies like ESRI, MapInfo, Manifold etc overtime spend billion on developing great GIS functionalities. Selling GIS software and services to thousand of enterprises worldwide. Google earth offers in a way everybody can GIS. Now geo information sharing has becoming part of web life style. Geo or location information effect everybody and with Internet, gathering and collaborating geo information has becoming much more easier than before, in the footstep of Wikimapia.

GIS just a platform, Data is still the King.

Having a three lanes toll highway without traffic is the like of investing in sosphicated GIS infra with not enough data to crunch (analogy that we use in multi million eGovernment infra without enough application to drive). Most of GIS companies like ESRI and MapInfo are providing superior GIS software and expertise and overtime drive enough application. MapInfo Location Intelligence Seminar in Marina Mandarin Raffles Hotel, Singapore 12 June 2007, showcase interesting the important of location information to businesses and Government. There are a bundle of applications that are deployed on MapInfo platform for enterprise, from analysing customer information, geo marketing to health sensitive information. Most of the applications are driven by based data availability. Politically, geo information is very much liberalized in United States than in Asian countries. In Malaysia case eg. geo data, such as cadastral map, demographic data etc are overtime gathered by different organizations within Government, land surveying firms and utility companies but are restricted to public due to legal constrain etc. Nevertheless most of demograhic information eg. town or economic zoning area etc. are public domain and need effort to present in GIS format. Thus location intelligence needs local representation to massage local data. Collecting data can be prohibitively expensive and most of the time legally constrained to many organization. Often time similar concerned data are repetitively invested by many organizations and to some worse senario by different unit in the same organization. Most of this organization are end user and should never be burden with owning data.

How to make data available is part of GIS services and often time are not part of the package. This is where companies like Geo Sense, R7 and MapChart come with much realistic business solutions such as gis on demand, geo marketing, georoom etc.

Geo Sense is a hotmail to GIS, Geo Sense is inspired by R7 and MapChart.