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GIS Monitor Apr 26, 2001 CONTENTS -Microsoft MapPoint 2002 on its Way -GIS at Autodesk: An Interview with Kim Davis -BeyondGeo.com Goes Live Departments: Letters, Points of Interest, New List, Week in Review, Back Issues, Advertise, Contact, Subscribe/Unsubscribe This issue sponsored by: Autodesk (http://www.autodesk.com/) ***** MapPoint 2002, the third version of Microsoft’s consumer/business mapping program, will be available in May. Versions for the US and in five languages for Europe are on tap. Highlights include updated maps and demographics from GDT, Claritas, Compusearch (now owned by MapInfo) and NavTech. According to SpatialNews, over 65 gigabytes of compressed data is available, including geocoding data for all of Europe. In what may be first for desktop mapping packages, Microsoft throws in terrain data but it is not clear if they mean DEMs, spot elevations and/or contours. The 2002 version supports GPS data for waypoints, territory management and drive time analysis. New custom symbols can be built from bitmaps, icons and cursors. Pie and bar charts can now be located on maps. These are functions customers have wanted and they help MapPoint match functionality with higher-priced packages. Developers will be pleased to find an ActiveX control, allowing the software to be imbedded in custom applications. End-users will be able to put maps into other Microsoft products and use data in those products (Word, Excel, Outlook for example) as a source. FrontPage and Publisher can easily integrate maps for online and hardcopy output. The big question for GIS users however, involves support of standard GIS data formats. According to Directions Magazine, ESRI shape files and MapInfo data can be imported into MapPoint 2002 and overlaid on MapPoint maps. The estimated retail price is $249. Current users of previous versions or Office XP (any suite) will be eligible for a $50 (U.S.) or $75 (Canadian) rebate. European pricing will be aimed at about the same price point but will vary with currency exchanges. The ActiveX component may be licensed separately, with pricing to be released later this year. On the whole, this package continues to impress. The European community will be overjoyed with extensive data in the package. Though data is becoming more widely available in extent and price in Europe, the data situation is still nothing like the feast available in the US. The choice to support the import of “professional GIS” formats is a big step forward in bringing MapPoint out of the “toy” category. ====== a message from our sponsor =============== Using Digital Terrain Models, Polyface Meshes, the Object Viewer, & Microsoft Paint. Learn how all digital terrain models, representing existing conditions or proposed improvements, can easily generate 3D graphics that can be viewed in the AutoCAD Land Development Desktop Object Viewer. ***** After the discussions about CAD-based and desktop GIS in recent weeks, I invited Kim Davis, Director, Marketing and Product Management, GIS Division at Autodesk, to explain that company’s outlook. Q: How successful has CAD-based GIS been at Autodesk? A: I feel we have been very successful with GIS at Autodesk regardless of how you define it. By their own account, 20% of our 4 million AutoCAD users are using the platform for mapping, civil engineering and GIS. In addition, we support over 170,000 people who consider themselves “GIS professionals” and use our GIS software, especially AutoCAD Map and Land Development Desktop. We have attracted these GIS professionals in a very short period since we launched these two products in 1996 and 1998. And we’re still growing. Our GIS products reported 38 percent growth in 2000, higher annual growth than any other product team at Autodesk. I believe CAD-based GIS vs. non-CAD-based GIS is not the issue. Companies who continue to defend or redraw these evaporating borders are missing the point. Customers require that we integrate spatial data with their larger IT systems – such as customer support, finance, marketing, work management, and field force automation. Our customers don’t care if the spatial data arrives from CAD, GIS, SIM or something else. Autodesk combines the appropriate spatial technology to meet the needs of each phase of our customers’ workflow. Q: What is the next technology growth area for GIS? A: A combination of mobile computing and client/server technology. As you know, Autodesk was the first major software company to offer a mobile GIS solution integrated with an enterprise and web server. This allows our customers to derive great additional value from their digital mapping and design data, extending it throughout the workflow process. A major customer segment, the utilities sector, employs as much as one third of their workforce in the field. Mobile computing and scalable, open client/server implementations finally extend GIS beyond the GIS department and to the point of work. We see developers and customers integrating this technology in the workflow process to support on-site inspections, work order management, service installations, and more. Q: What are the new or growing markets for GIS? A: For Autodesk, the target GIS markets are unchanged: communications, utilities and local government. What’s new is the user. Previously, it was typically just the mapping or planning department who used GIS. Today, it is everyone in the company and beyond, including our customers’ customers. With our Web-based product, Autodesk MapGuide, we see customer service reps, marketing, sales, finance, and the public all using maps on the Internet or an intranet without realizing that it is GIS via MapGuide. In addition, we do see growth in inside plant management. Facilities management and asset tracking has long been the territory of specialized tools. Just as the border between spatial technologies like CAD and GIS blurs, the boundary is dissolving between inside and outside plant management. Q: Autodesk now has two different “location” groups: GIS and Location Services. Will Location Services drive development in “traditional GIS” i.e., Map and GIS Design Server and vice-versa? A: No - The GIS Division at Autodesk will continue to drive development and expand the boundaries of ‘traditional’ GIS. The Location Services Division, building on the GIS platform technology, will deliver a specific, targeted service in the form of embedded applications on mobile systems, e.g., in-car navigation. There is definitely some overlap and a need for both groups to work closely together. Q: Autodesk’s GIS Division seems to have a three tiered focus: data creation (Map), data storage (GIS design server) and data publishing (MapGuide, OnSite). With Autodesk World development slowing down, will there ever be a non-AutoCAD Autodesk Desktop GIS? Is the desktop without an AutoCAD seat not a promising arena in 2001? A: Actually, our approach goes well beyond three tiers. Rather than tiers, we look at this as stages within a business’ common workflow: data capture, map editing and storage, facility design, construction, facility management, and planning. Within each stage of this workflow, we offer solutions. In addition to the products you mention above, Autodesk offers GIS tools for surveying and field data capture, image and raster analysis, land development, and civil design. But to answer your question, the web has changed everything. Much of the functionality that we offered in Autodesk World for thematic mapping, queries, and more has moved to our other products like AutoCAD Map and Autodesk MapGuide. We’ve found that our entire GIS product line, especially Map and MapGuide, have expanded to offer most of what Autodesk World did. Q: What is the target market (customer/developer) for GIS Design Server? A: The target markets are utility, communication and government organizations with 10 or more professionals who need fast access to their spatial data, regardless of the application they are using or where they are located – including in the field. These organizations have extensive network facilities that require accurate working models for the traditional AM/FM/GIS tasks. But these organizations also understand the rewards beyond traditional GIS boundaries. To that end, they are looking to integrate the spatial model that serves to manage the pipes, cables and equipment with the entire IT system, serving a true picture of their enterprise to managers, field technicians, and customers. Q: What role will the channel play in sales and services with more demanding products like Design Server? A: The channel will be key to our success going forward. Autodesk will continue to form partnerships with companies that are uniquely suited to these solutions and have specific domain expertise. This means partners that are familiar with technologies like Oracle, Oracle Spatial, CRM [customer relations management], and the integration issues that larger companies face. Q: f you could suggest one area for GIS users to study up on for the future, what would it be? A: Definitely the integration of GIS client/server and mobile technologies into a business's normal workflow process. Our customers are not asking us for "advanced" GIS features. Instead, our customers want to get precision maps and designs, integrated with other enterprise information, to their point of work. Whether it is a customer service rep with a web browser or a field technician with a wireless tablet device, these professionals need access to the central database. They need customer account information, asset tag information, and often times spatial or location information. Autodesk is answering these needs and we believe our growth proves our customers find our approach very compelling. ***** Last week Blue Marble announced its ASP map service, BeyondGeo.com and this week began showing off sites taking advantage of the service. The big selling point is ease of development and cost: there is no server or client software install and low annual pricing. I was disappointed at the loading speed of the BeyondGeo hosted map at Sugarloaf Ski Area’s site. Finding information about a trail was also time consuming; an identify query started up a new window for the tabular data. I’m not a skier, but I found the color choices difficult: open lifts were the same color as selected trails. I could have used a legend for the point symbols, too. The north arrow showed south at the top of the map – I have no problem with that. Unfortunately, however, the letters N, E, S, W were all upside down! The application does not allow “zoom to box” functionality, so it can take a while to “zoom in” to a detailed area. Clicking on the “Powered by BeyondGeo.com” takes you not to the BeyondGeo site, but back to the Sugarloaf map! My quick look illustrates two things. First there is room for improvement in the service’s functionality. Second, the end user is ultimately responsible for making an effective map, not the software or service provider! ***** - A correction on Ian McHarg This is to point out an inaccuracy in your report of Ian McHarg's contributions. You are perpetuating a widely spread misunderstanding by describing Ian McHarg as the inventor of overlays of spatial information. In fact, the overlays technique had been used routinely by planners since at least the 1930's. Homer Hoyt's book published in 1939 included a pocket with transparent map layers of socioeconomic variables for the analysis of income inequality in Baltimore. I was taught in planning school how to use overlays several years before McHarg's book was published. Ian McHarg contributed substantially by disseminating and systematizing the use of overlays but he certainly did not "grow the idea"! Helen Couclelis Department of Geography University of California ***** -Destination Lab, the newfangled GIS seminars put together by the US Space & Rocket Center, is aggressively marketing the May 6-9 session. The brochure notes that you can actually attend the course without buying in to accommodations, meals and activities - which this time includes VIP viewing of Epcots’ IllumiNations. Forgoing those things drops the price $750 to $1,750. -I was stunned to hear an ad on a local rock station here in Boston for one of Massachusetts’ state colleges with a student saying: “I’m majoring in geography and plan on a career in government.” Kudos to Worcester State College! -Dublin Ireland is starting up their bike loan program. Bikes will be accessible with a smart card from racks around the city. To limit theft, the bikes are non-standard, nearly indestructible and are tracked by GPS. Dublin has one of the lowest uses of bikes as transportation in Europe. -Robert Aurand Moon, who helped develop the ZIP code died on April 15, 2001. He believed that the mail handling system in use before WWII could not keep up with the mail volume expected and invented a three-digit code system. That system was later expanded to five digits and put into operation in 1963. ZIP stands for Zoning Improvement Plan. This is another contribution to America’s organizational geography that has changed our country in so many ways. And, it plays a key role in GIS, too - just think of how many points are geocoded to a ZIP code each day! Thanks to reader Milton O. for the heads-up. -The latest reality TV show, called “Lost” is accepting applications until May 9. Pairs of competitors with a bit of cash and a few essentials are challenged to get back to a starting point. One of my geography professors had a similar idea aimed at teaching students about the friction of distance.
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