September 6

Contents

Editor's Introduction

This week, I discuss Skyhook Wireless' new SDK with Ted Morgan and developments in the GIS industry with Nancy von Meyer. Plus, a note about the cabbie strike in New York and 23 press releases.

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Skyhook Wireless Releases New SDK

On Monday, Skyhook Wireless, provider of a system that uses wireless Internet routers to determine a user's position (the company calls it the Wi-Fi Positioning System, or WPS), will announce a major upgrade to its Software Development Kit (SDK). The upgrade, it says, will broaden platform support to the majority of Wi-Fi-enabled devices (including Windows Vista, Mac OSX, Symbian, and Linux platforms, in addition to the original Windows XP, Windows Mobile, and Windows CE platforms); add compatibility with devices that require a GPS data stream in the NMEA 2.1 format; and add a confidence estimator that developers can use to define how location information is displayed in their applications.

According to a press release, the company has improved the system's velocity estimation, which is a key to accurate navigation, by almost 50 percent and has enabled WPS to be deployed in autonomous mode, with little or no network connectivity. WPS coverage, it says, now includes 19 million access points and 70 percent of the United States, Canadian, and Australian populations. European coverage includes London, Amsterdam, and Barcelona.

I discussed these announcements with Ted Morgan, Skyhook Wireless' Founder and CEO.

1. How does the autonomous mode work? I thought your system was very network-centric.

   You don't need to have a network connection. What we are trying to do is give flexibility to makers of other types of devices — such as personal navigation devices, music players, and digital cameras — that infrequently have a network connection. We are trying to appeal to different kinds of use cases and device makers. This autonomous mode has always been in our core product. This is just the first time that we've exposed it as part of the public SDK that third parties can use.

2. I thought that each WiFi signature collected had to go to the server to be compared with the database (as well as to update the database).

   It doesn't matter where that happens and where the data is stored. [The network model allows users to have a very thin client and most of the processing to happen on the server.] In the case of a browser or a toolbar, for example, you don't want to have to download a lot. You have a network connection all the time anyway, so it is more efficient to store the data centrally. In the autonomous mode, you still scan for access points, compare them against the database, and do the calculation, but it all happens locally rather than at the server. The feedback model works in both the network mode and in the autonomous mode. We are constantly collecting user feedback data to tune the system.

3. When it is operating in autonomous mode, a device is still collecting data and it gives you a data dump the next time it is on line?

   Exactly.

4. Do users cache the data for their region of interest?

   Well, our data is much smaller than map data. So, you can store data for the whole country, which is only about 100 MB, and that is what most people are doing. That is not unreasonable for a music player or a personal navigation device that has gigabytes and gigabytes of storage.

5. What are the advantages of autonomous mode?

   One, you don't need the network connection. Two, you can more rapidly determine location, every second or half second. That allows you to do some really great things around navigation — where you calculate your velocity and direction. You can apply some really advanced algorithms, so that the accuracy is better.

6. Why didn't you expose this capability earlier?

   With the first SDK, we were just trying to get comfortable with exposing the technology to the public. Developers have some pretty high standards for how they want to use things. We were working on how to allow them to get access to the data that is stored locally on devices. It is a little bit different when you allow third parties to do that, in terms of protecting our data and user privacy. (We have a core technology that we license to device makers and service providers, like AOL. Then there is this SDK that any third party developer — from individual developers to large companies — can download from our Web site.)

7. Was the NMEA data stream also already embedded in your product or is that something new? How do you envision that being used?

   We've had that in the core product for some time. The reason we've exposed it is that there are many application developers that have built products to use with GPS. Things like Google Maps Mobile or Windows Live Local are looking for a GPS receiver. By putting this NMEA interface in place, developers can enable them to call WPS without having to make a single change to a single line of code.

8. Let's say that I have a map on my laptop and I want to use your system to show my position on it, in real time. Can I download your product and use it that way or do I have to wait for a developer to put the two things together?

   Right now our release is targeted at developers, because we are trying to get them to build out some of these deployments. You're right, however, that the obvious next step, what we are working on next, is to allow end-users to download this and attach it to a DeLorme map or Google Maps Mobile or whatever their favorite program is and use it for mapping and navigation.

9. How does the error estimation work?

   A fair amount of that is a proprietary secret sauce. We can use a variety of things, including historical values and the number of access points. We've also spent a lot of time on quality metrics on each access point. So, we don't just record what we think the location of an access point is, we have a whole series of confidence factors that tell us how good we feel about a particular access point at any given time. We take all those inputs that we have at any given second to determine the confidence estimate. Our performance paper shows how accurate that confidence level is. It is not like GPS, where half the time it tells you what the confidence level is and the other half it is way off. This is within two sigma of the actual error estimates. We've done a lot of testing on this.

10. What capabilities does error estimation add?

    It is a foundational piece of most positioning systems. GPS and other technologies have always had a way of saying, at this particular point, I think that you are at this location, plus or minus, say, ten to twenty meters. We wanted to provide that to developers, so that they know our level of confidence at any given second for a particular reading. You can also change the user experience based on the error calculations. When you are doing a local search, you are asking, "Where am I right now?" You can have that position displayed as a very small dot if you think your accuracy is within five meters, or as a wider dot if you think it is within twenty meters. So, you are within the circle at all times. That gives both the developer and the user more confidence that, if they are within the circle, they can trust the system and know it is always correct. The other way in which this comes into play is if you are doing hybrid positioning. If you are integrating our technology with cell tower positioning or GPS, you can compare confidence estimates and use whichever system is giving you the best reading. That's why those things are fairly important for developers.

11. Have any independent third parties tested this?

    Yes, but they've been prospects or customers that don't allow us to expose that. Our performance paper is a compilation of all the tests we've done with all the parties. So, it is not just us driving around ourselves. There is always a third party involved and we just kind of aggregated all the data.

12. How is your partnership with SiRF going?

    SiRF is a great partner. We are active in a number of accounts with them, but we have nothing yet to announce publicly. We are selling a hybrid positioning system that uses both GPS and WiFi. The two teams spent a lot of time integrating the two technologies. Hopefully we'll have something to announce, in terms of customer success, in the near term.

13. What else would you like to emphasize?

    A big part of this is the platform coverage. Many devices are coming out on the handset side that are WiFi-enabled, particularly in the Symbian platform. Nokkia has more than 20 models with WiFi, but only one with GPS. So, this now allows developers to chase after a huge range of devices — including Nokkia, Windows Mobile, and embedded Linux.

Interview with Nancy von Meyer

At its 45th Annual Conference in Washington, DC, a few weeks ago, the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) bestowed its highest honor, the Horwood Distinguished Service Award, to Nancy von Meyer, PhD, PE, RLS, GISP. The award is named after Edgar Horwood, a pioneer in the field of information systems for local government who was one of the organization's founding members and its first president. Past recipients of the award include Jack Dangermond, in 1988, and Don Cooke, in 2004.

Von Meyer has a long record of leadership and contributions to URISA, the GIS community, and the geospatial industry. She has been vice president of Fairview Industries since 1983 and works with counties, states, and federal agencies across the United States, finding efficient ways to build, sustain, and publish land records information. She earned a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1989 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she also studied GIS. She has researched new approaches to parcel issues for nearly 20 years, has been involved in many URISA committees and activities, has served on several National Academy of Sciences panels, and has authored numerous articles.

I asked von Meyer a few questions about her work and about geospatial technology.

1. On what are you working mostly these days and what is your most interesting project?

   We're working on implementing the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) by working with the states to host parcel and public lands survey system and other cadastral reference data. In the western United States this year we found that, by pre-deploying parcel information with 10 to 15 attributes and combining the data from multiple counties into a state representation, we could use the parcel data to support emergency response and planning. That's been a very interesting project.

2. With regards to state use of cadastral data, what has changed the most in the past 20 years?

   First, the recognition — by federal, tribal, and state agencies — of how parcel data, combined with other data sets, can be useful to support business applications. In the early days of the NSDI, parcel information was viewed as too granular and too big a data set. The second change is the availability of the information. When we started out, maybe 10 or 20 percent of the counties even had digital parcel data. As we inventoried the West this year, it was startling how many counties actually had the data and could share it under some circumstances. Also surprising is the difference in attitude about data sharing that you see across the United States. In states like Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina, and Montana, you see a very open data sharing attitude, where the counties and the states want to make the parcel data available, so that it can be used in decision support. In other states, you see that there is a lot of parcel data, but the counties and the states will release it only on condition that it not be made publicly available. Finally, it seems almost on a weekly basis you hear of yet another private firm that has assembled a portal for parcel-level data. There are so many of them now. It is quite astounding. I think that some of the counties are afraid of all the different sources of parcel information available to citizens and that that accounts for some of the reluctance to share data.

3. How do you see the shifting boundary, no pun intended, between surveying and GIS and the tension it generates?

   It is a question of education on everyone's side as to what the land surveyor actually does. The land surveyor is actually on the ground, evaluating evidence and establishing legal boundaries. The GIS specialist combines that information with public records and with additional information to integrate a representation of land ownership with rivers, roads, hydrography, census data, and political boundaries. If everyone understands the fitness of use for each of their representations and acknowledges the trusted source for that fitness of use, then it doesn't need to be nearly as contentious as it has been made to be in some circles. In states like Wisconsin and Michigan, all geospatial professionals exist quite happily by this mutual professional respect. So, I am not so sure that software has really blurred the boundary. I think that software tools make it easier for surveyors to do their jobs and to take the production data from one discipline and integrate it into the tools of another discipline. It does not mean that a GIS person with no surveying and evidence training can do a least squares analysis of survey observations.

4. The fact that survey-grade GPS receivers are becoming cheaper and easier to use plays a role, too.

   Consumerization of the geospatial industry is a good thing. It is an exciting time to be in GIS. I don't see this as the end of GIS — but as a growth point. It is wonderful when people on the street want spatial positioning and understand it, because then they value it. That drives the need for higher accuracy and more trusted sources. It is a very positive thing.

5. Professionals other than surveyors can now do things that once only surveyors could do, but there are pitfalls…

   Greater data availability actually helps reduce the misuse of geospatial positioning. The actual establishment of a coordinate value on a property corner is the last and least significant step of what a land surveyor does. Understanding the record, the rights and interest in land, and the evidence over time is the most important thing that they do.

6. What improvement in hardware, software, or data would most help you in your work?

   I never make a wish list with technology because it advances more quickly than you can even imagine. Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth are becoming part of the daily lexicon. School children use Google Earth and are making mash-up maps. When GIS becomes so readily available that it is on your cell phone and you take it for granted, how wonderful is that? How wonderful is it that we can understand the geography and space of our existence so easily and that geography is now becoming an integrated part of our language? When I was growing up, things beyond my neighborhood were unknown to me. Now the kids in my neighborhood have a much better sense of space and geography. FaceBook even has a geography component. That is wonderful for geography, for the geospatial industry, and for those of us who work in and with the public sector, because the trusted data sources that we produce are now going to become something that the next generation relies on and demands. We are not going to have battles in the future over the importance of parcel mapping. Everyone now uses it. We can start having discussions about how we make what we have better. How do we integrate very granular geography with other data and protect privacy? How do we take very large, highly segmented geographic data sets and optimize their display and presentation, so that I can use them on a cell phone? It is a very exciting time, I think, for us as an industry.

7. What's happening in GIS education?

   I think that GIS education in universities, just like GIS education in the communities, is penetrating more disciplines. When I was in graduate school, the GIS was in a box and we were an isolated group. Now, when I go on campuses, I see that GIS is used in the health department, for campus planning, in the social sciences — it has permeated many disciplines. That is kind of neat. The kids graduating now don't just know how to push the buttons and run the command lines, they understand GIS in context, they accept the Web as a normal part of their life and work. It is great that they have taken this technology and made it their own. We need to make room for them to do that.

8. Any final thoughts?

   I want to take the opportunity to recognize that the very special thing about GIS that perhaps is different from other disciplines is that it is all about teamwork, collaboration, and partnerships. I have benefited greatly from people who have collaborated with me and have let me be part of the teams. It is not about any one person and that is always what made us a special industry.

Briefly Noted

Real-time, GPS-based tracking is among the issues in this week's strike by New York City cab drivers. According to today's New York Times, "Hossain Khan, a driver who took part in the strike, complained about the mapping aspect of the equipment [that the city is requiring cab owners to install], the part many drivers call simply G.P.S. It would let the taxi commission monitor where taxis went during the day — information the commission says it could use to direct taxis to places where they are needed. But Mr. Khan worried that the city would instead use that information to send speeding tickets to drivers who drove to the airport in less time than the trip should take."

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