NEWS
Geographic information: opportunities in a changing world
V
irtually no piece of business or public sector information exists without a
position locating it to a place on the world’s surface be it a house, a telegraph pole, a manhole cover, a path, a parliamentary constituency, a railway line, the position of an ambulance or whatever.
We may not think of ourselves as ‘geographers’ but the question ‘where?’ is ubiquitous in managing and interacting with most of our operational data. Over recent decades, as information has become digitally stored, its ‘geographic’ or ‘location’ importance compounded with the need for better integrated management processes has powered the growth in use of geographic information systems and geographic information / geo- data.
AGI -the Association for Geographic Information - exists to represent the interests of the UK’s geographic information industry; a wide-ranging group of over 2,000 public and private sector members drawn from the public sector and from commercial organisations including software and hardware vendors, data and infrastructure service providers, consultants, academics and interested individuals.
Since its inception in 1989, the Association has built up a significant membership base and is now the recognised cross- sector authority on location and mapping related data, policies and issues.
In conjunction with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the
12 pse
Association recently published the results of the Opportunities in a changing world survey on trends and attitudes to the use of geographic (‘geo’) data and the attitude of respondents to the economic downturn. 96% of the 100 respondents saw geographic information as a business enabler.
Of the 100 survey respondents, 56 were drawn from the public sector with 44 working in the commercial sector. 90% of those surveyed indicated that they were the recognised “geo” expert with over 60% of all those surveyed having over 10 years’ experience in handling location related data or geographic information systems.
The vast majority of those surveyed (73%) see geographic information as a critical part of their own business with a slightly higher figure (75%) seeing location data as “mission critical” to their customers.
The Opportunities in a changing world survey found that 73 per cent of those asked believe better use of data in the next 12 months is imperative – in an environment where they have to do more with less.
The top three data types identified as the most useful were national or pan-European mapping agency data (27%), national public sector data holdings (22%) or from an organisation’s own data holdings (20%).
Geo-data is used in digital mapping systems and geographic information systems, plus location based information or global positioning systems which are used extensively to support
public sector service delivery as well as for commercial activities.
Typical public sector uses of geo-data include command and control centres for emergency services, environmental protection, planning systems and risk management systems. In the private sector, geo-data is used to underpin insurance claims and policies, land and property searches and utility management as well as for marketing and demographic analysis. Geo-data enables public services such as refuse collection to function as well as informing store planning for large supermarkets and retailers.
Despite the fact geo-data is deemed business critical, nearly two thirds of respondents in the survey stated their organisation did not have a data strategy. With the increase in interest in cloud computing and distributed services, this may result in significant innovation around data and software use being stifled.
The rest of the survey can be found at
www.agi.org.uk.
The challenges and opportunities identified in the poll will form the core of a strong and compelling programme of content at the AGI GeoCommunity ’10 conference – Opportunities in a changing world. The event will be held in Stratford-upon-Avon in September, 2010.
The AGI GeoCommunity ‘10 conference will offer two full
FOR MORE INFORMATION
The conference programme plus further information and booking details can be found at
www.agigeocommunity.com.
Jul/Aug 10
days of thought leadership, practical education, knowledge transfer and real world best practice and case studies. A pre- conference ‘Icebreaker’ evening event will be hosted by popular demand on 28th September 2010.
The AGI GeoCommunity series has a proven reputation as a must-attend event for a range of service delivery managers and information management and technology professionals.
Previous delegates and speakers have been drawn from central and local government, utilities, health, emergency services, infrastructure, insurance, marketing, business intelligence, finance and technology sectors.
Keynote and plenary speakers for 2010 include Professor Nigel Shadbolt of the Public Sector Transparency Board; Lai Wah Co, the CBI head of economic analysis; Robert MacFarlane of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office; Andrew Hudson-Smith of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analaysis (CASA) and editor-in- chief of Future Internet Journal; Vanessa Lawrence, director general of Ordnance Survey and Richard Waite, managing director of ESRI (UK).
Attendance at AGI
GeoCommunity ‘09 increased 5% against 2008, attracting 625 people. The residential format, introduced in 2007, is now well established and the event has proven its growth and sustainability.
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