Lightning talk given at 2010 ESRI Developer Meetup in Fort Collins, CO. Discusses disruptive technology in the age of Google and possible GIS developer responses to disruption
30. “On a top-of-the-line desktop computer,
it can take days or weeks to analyze
deforestation over the Amazon. Using
our cloud-based computing power, we
can reduce that time to seconds.
39. Do you continually work with the “new” new thing?
Do you have side projects outside of work?
40. Do you play well with Google or “Google-esque” tech?
Do you always pursue the simplest solution?
41. Is there a niche you can explore/exploit?
Is it profitable and sustainable?
42. Are you agile/nimble enough to adjust when
Google comes knocking again?
Do you have a mix in your business that
provides stable work?
Notes de l'éditeur
Just to start off I wanted to let everyone know that Dave and I usually try to use clever character themes in our talks and we drew straws and dave got the kewl Japanese character set and in the spirit of the evening I got the beer geek character set so bear with me.
On the 8th, Google Maps was released
On the 18th,Jesse James Garrett coined the term “Ajax”…
Tim O’Reilley coined the phrase a little less than a year earlier, but this was really the first sighting of Web 2.0…
Now I don’t know what anyone else thinks of Google’s disruptive effect on our industry…but over the last couple of years a lot of new developments have been coming out of google that could make one begin to wonder…
We should all know google maps by now… 5 years since it came out…
it overtook MapQuest as the most visited map site.
And the site it looking good, but something went missing
And there’s more…
They not only have their own streets… but they have added a little something more… hard to see in the tiles, but
If we tweak the image a bit… we see parcels. Nationwide parcels. Hmmmm…
Google also released a little gem of an add on – the Google Maps Data API
This allows you to store data in their cloud and dynamically attach that data to locations – by address, point, or KML geometry.
And maybe you heard about Android? The phone OS?
Suppose you made these for a living…
And upon hearing the news, the street spoke pretty loudly.
And in December, another soft-launch occurred… Google Earth Engine…
Basically it’s distributed raster analysis / image processing
We are not in those businesses, so how does this impact us?
Well, google certainly has the potential to send a lot of companies home in body bags…
or at minimum take their lunch money in various ways…but it’s not evil.
It’s just that Google is turning into the Wal Mart of the digital world. If you can’t provide the product they want at the price they want, in the volume they want, they’ll just build what they need.
Expectations all across the board have changed again!
