August 16

Contents

Editor's Introduction

This week, I report on current trends in wireless GIS. Plus, a letter to the editor about public participation GIS, a note about a New York Times article on GIS, and 18 press releases.

— Matteo Luccio

Wireless GIS

Wireless GIS has been maturing quickly over the past few years, as the wireless telecommunications industry has grown, hardware manufacturers have increasingly integrated wireless technologies — such as WiFi and Bluetooth — into handheld devices, and software vendors have improved data compression tools and released development platforms intended specifically for this market. In 2003, in his Primer on Wireless GIS, published by the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) in its Quick Study series, Paul Braun noted that "Although the promise of wireless GIS remains somewhat elusive, the benefits are visible." Four years later, the ability to capture data in the field and stream it back to the office has become a necessity for many organizations, but it is still challenging to implement wireless capabilities seamlessly throughout any large area.

This week I discussed wireless GIS with several geospatial professionals, and a few key trends emerged:

1. In urban areas, the explosion in the number of WiFi hot spots has dramatically diminished the need for organizations to set up their own wireless networks. Many, however, are adding hot spots, in such places as vehicle depots.
2. The use of WiFi hot spots requires handheld devices to switch frequently between operating on-line and off-line — storing data locally and accessing the network whenever they are in range of a hot spot — so they are being designed to operate in this "store and forward" mode.
3. For applications that require continuous coverage, such as automatic vehicle location (AVL), cell phone connections are the means of choice, especially now that many handsets incorporate a GPS receiver, thus obviating the need to connect a separate device.
4. During major disasters — such as the 9/11 attacks or Hurricane Katrina — many cell phone towers are destroyed and the remaining ones are overwhelmed due to the spike in cell phone calls from a panicked public. Ensuring that emergency personnel still have access to wireless applications during disasters is one reason that a growing number of cities — most notably San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tempe, Arizona, and Corpus Christi, Texas — are installing broadband municipal mesh networks. They give local communities "a sense of control" in an emergency, says Chris Stern, Director, SPACIENT Utilities Field Solutions, Mapping and GIS Division at Trimble Navigation Ltd..
5. In remote areas, businesses that can benefit greatly from field data transmission — most notably, oil and gas companies — are steadily developing their own wide area networks, often in partnership with other companies operating in the same area.
6. Public and private wireless GPS reference networks are enabling field technicians with handheld devices to collect data and features with engineering-grade accuracy.

The fact that in urban areas the need to build private networks has dramatically diminished over the past few years is "a monumental change," according to Bill Galten, GIS Project Manager at GeoDecisions, because "it brings wireless GIS to agencies that could not afford their own network." According to Ron Bisio, Director of Marketing for Trimble's Mapping & GIS Division, the company has built WiFi into its GPS receivers to facilitate sending data to and from the field for data collection and maintenance.

However, reliance on WiFi hotspots often requires planning, to make sure that there are enough access points in a given area, points out Catherine Bohn, Project Manager at Dewberry. In emergency situations, such as Hurricane Katrina, she adds, setting up WiFi hotspots takes a lot of time and money.

The integration of cell phones and GPS receivers is "the most exciting part" of wireless GIS right now, says Galten, because it has made AVL affordable even for operators of very small fleets — whereas before it was the exclusive purview of large companies that could afford to set up their own networks. He predicts that the number of applications will grow rapidly in the next three years.

According to Emmett Walsh, Chief Technical Officer at OneGIS, the biggest obstacle to more widespread adoption of wireless GIS is the perception that the cost of providing wireless cards "to all the guys in the trucks" would be prohibitive. However, the productivity gains that can be achieved would actually be well worth the extra $90/month, he argues. Another option is to connect handheld devices to cell phones using Bluetooth and then take advantage of the cell phone's 2.5G or 3G network.

Linda Gerull, GIS Manager for Pierce County, Washington, says that the county has been using wireless GIS "every day, for years," mostly for emergency response, road operation, permitting, and code compliance. They use Sprint wireless cards on tablets and laptops and will soon be using them on Blackberries, which they also use for GPS data collection. County field crews use GIS on handheld devices mainly "as a viewing tool," she says, for maps downloaded from an ArcIMS server via a browser.

In remote areas not served by a wireless infrastructure, some large companies are willing to make the investment to build their own network — for the sake of voice communication, safety, and data management. This is partly because the costs have come down and partly because companies have realized the value of having their own infrastructure, according to Glenn Vlass, President of Spatial Data Technologies, who works with companies in such places as Wyoming and West Texas. "When we talk about wireless GIS," says Vlass, "our customers laugh. They'd be thrilled if they had cell phone coverage!" However, it is increasingly common, he says, to see the bars on your cell phone skyrocket when you enter an oil and gas area, because of the networks set up by the extraction companies.

Craig Beimgraben, ITS Senior Network Administrator for the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, who has also worked on field wireless projects in very remote regions, echoes Vlass: "In those areas," he says, "you don't have the option of a T1. You are lucky if you get electricity!" With thousands of oil wells dispersed over a very wide area, Anadarko a few years ago began setting up its own wireless network, to allow its staff to access its corporate network from the field, often avoiding the need for them to drive a couple of hours to the nearest company office to upload or download data. Now, he says, they can access the network from the field at speeds comparable to those they would have at the office.

Because communication with the towers requires line-of-sight, Beimgraben uses GIS to generate predictive viewsheds and help decide where to place the towers. While cell phone companies want to blanket an area, he explains, his company is only interested in the most efficient way to cover its installations. Additionally, wells are now equipped with automated sensors — such as pressure gauges — that transmit data to the towers. This way, instead of visiting every single well every few days, maintenance workers can prioritize the few that have problems.

For data, Anadarko uses 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz transmissions, as opposed to the 900MHz or 1,800MHz used by cell phones; the automated sensors transmit at 450MHz or 800MHz. The higher frequencies provide much greater bandwidth, but much shorter range (about 5 miles for 2.4GHz vs. about 30 miles for the 900MHz).

One of the most exciting developments for wireless GIS is the establishment of real-time networks of GPS reference stations by state departments of transportation and private vendors, says Bill Henning, of the National Geodetic Survey (NGS). There are now more than 50 of these networks in the United States and, he points out, they all have the capability of giving centimeter-level, mapping-grade solutions, without the need to purchase survey-grade GPS receivers to use as base stations. Now, for half the cost you can have ten times the accuracy obtainable just a few years ago. In California, these stations have been around for about five years and the rest of the country is beginning to catch up.

The implication for GIS, Henning explains, is that data collected by a technician in the field, using simple drop-down menus, can now be used in engineering applications. Of course, he points out, technicians must be aware of things that can trip them up, such as standing next to a building or under a thick tree canopy. Another problem is that, because voice communications usually take priority over data communications, in some areas where there is cell phone service it is hard or impossible to send data over those networks.

Since few wireless networks have the bandwidth and speed to efficiently transmit large image files, background images for use in the field are typically compressed, optimized, and stored on flash memory cards. Alternatively, in response to queries from the field, maps are created on servers and optimized for mobile users to download. According to Bohn, Blackberry is developing a compression for enterprise solutions to stream GIS data to Blackberrys, a handheld favored by many first responders. "They know how to compress data tremendously," she says.

Finally, the added bonuses of access to a wireless network — such as the ability to read e-mail and send images from digital cameras — all contribute to productivity gains.

What does the future hold? Walsh points out that, ideally, handheld devices would have only thin clients, which is possible today only in a few dense urban areas and progressive communities covered by wide area networks. "We do have some customers who are launching full-featured, read-only, ArcGIS websites that are 100-percent client-based. They have or are rolling out ubiquitous Internet access." He thinks that we are "at the cusp" of a great expansion in wireless GIS and credits "the big effort that ESRI has made on ArcGIS server" as a major contributing factor.

According to Bisio, WiFi solutions are temporary, while waiting for the expansion of 2.5G and 3G networks. "We all want to have a big enough pipe," he says.

Letter to the Editor

Larry Orman, the Executive Director of GreenInfo Network, sent me the following:

Matteo,

Interesting comment about public GIS centers in the July 26 issue of GIS Monitor.

I run a non-profit that helps public interest groups do GIS. Over the last decade, I've been involved in and watched many efforts to do some of what you talk about — probably the best has been the lab at Portland State University's Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies.

While the idea is quite interesting from a value point of view (look at all the good things we could do if…), the key issue in these matters is the business proposition: how would a center last for longer than the term of the first enthusiastic grant? So often in technology efforts in the public arena, there's a burst of energy, start-up funding and then within a year or two, now-outdated technology, constantly changing staff (and few to begin with), and funder disinterest ("we don't support ongoing operations… What are you doing that's new?"). The result is a lot of wasted capital and not much learning (the private sector seems to get the latter part a bit better).

All of this stems from not judging properly the business requirement to keep something going. GreenInfo's been doing its work for ten years now, with a staff of nine and helping more than 100 groups a year — all on a fee-for-service basis, as we judged at the beginning that there would be no ongoing public funding for what we were doing (if there were, it would almost be so categorical — read "trendy" — as to force us to constantly dance to the money's tune).

In the last five years, the other two major non-profit GIS centers (NYPIRG's CMAP and CommEn Space in Seattle) have both closed down, leaving us and a smattering of very small groups elsewhere. Some universities try to do public support, but student cycles and their inability to generally do production work limit their usefulness (although they're often good at research).

Rather than start with the "wouldn't it be great…" thinking, it might be useful to ask, what does it take to maintain a group of three or more GIS people who might provide public support (less than three means they simply can't cover all that has to be covered and handle when one of them goes, which will inevitably happen). After all, it's really not about good ideas (which are all around) or technology (which is easy) — it's about having specific, good people who can make such an effort successful over time. Start with that element, then see what kind of business can succeed.

Just some thoughts.

Briefly Noted

Barbara Whitaker's "Fresh Starts" column in the "Jobs" section of the August 12 New York Times, titled "Technology Reveals New Worlds To Map," discusses GIS jobs and mentions that the Bureau of Labor Statistics "lists GIS-related jobs as among the fastest-growing new or emerging fields." The article cites, among others, Scott Grams, executive director of the GIS Certification Institute, and Shoreh Elhami, a co-founder of the GIS Corps.

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