Paul Wickman | The Future of Maps
GIS uses layers of data
GIS uses vector data (colors or street maps) as well as raster data (arial or satellite photography).
A lot of GIS data can be had. It is sometimes at a scale of 1 pixel=1 square meter.
When thinking about GIS data in terms of Facebook and Foursquare, it is easy to see how those companies have some serious data to sell.
For example, you can now tell when and where teenagers are travelling after school. You can roughly determine the routes that shoppers take to the downtown Target store. You can tell how far people are willing to travel to go to the movies or to a popular restaurant.
If I was downtown Target, I could utilize that data to think about where my parking garage entrance should be.
If I was Chino Latino in Uptown, I could see where my customers are hanging out before they come into the restaurant. I could also see where they go when they leave. Maybe I want to have a coupon for folks that are coming from a certain popular destination.
This stuff is really cool!
arcGIS: The biggest mapping application company
Open Street Maps: A publicly-owned version of Google Maps’ data set. Uses crowd-sourcing.
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