Is Mobile the Future of
GIS?
Matt Sheehan
WebMapSolutions
About Matt Sheehan
 Principal & developer WebMapSolutions
 Company formed in 2006
 Location focused Web and Mobile
Application Developers
Agenda
Background
- Internet to Web 2.0 to mobile
- Geospatial history
Mobile
- Mobile Demystified
- Geo-Mobile applications
Background
History - Internet to Web 2.0 to
Mobile
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Lynx, Mosaic & HTML
Javascript
2004 Web 2.0 “Web as Platform”
Flash (2004)
AJAX (2005)
Flex (2006) and Silverlight (2008)
Mobile Flex, HTML5, Objective-C, Java
GeoSpatial History
 1960-75 - Harvard Laboratory For Computer Graphics And Spatial
Analysis
 1969 - Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) - built on
Harvard Graphics developments
 1970 - Intergraph Corporation – IBM spin off
 1996 – MapQuest launched
 1997 – ESRI launch MapObjects IMS
 2000 – ESRI launch ArcIMS
 2000 – 2006 MapServer and GeoServer are released
 2002 – ESRI launch ArcIMS
 2005 – Google maps is released
 2005 – OpenStreetMap founded
 2007 – Yahoo, Microsoft offer mapping sites and API’s
 2008 - First GPS enabled smart phone
 2012 – Mobile Maps, GIS & LBS
Mobile
Mobile Demystified
 Mobile is confusing!
- Hardware - Smartphones & Tablets
- Platforms – iOS, Android, Windows ..
- Software – Web v native v hybrid
- Languages – Mobile Flex, HTML 5,
Objective-C, Java …
Hardware
 Smartphones
- Screen size 2.1 – 4”
- Good for routing, check-in apps etc
 Tablets
– Screen size 7” – 10.1”
- Offers the possibility of richer more
complex apps
Mobile Apps
 Web
- Javascript/HTML 5 = most mobile browsers
- Flash, Flex & Silverlight– not Apple iOS
 Native – Installed apps eg. Objective-C (iOS)
advantages – performance?
disadvantage – built for one platform
 Hybrid - Installed apps eg. Adobe Mobile Flex
advantages – runs on most platforms
disadvantage – performance?
Applications of Mobile
Technology
Location Focused API’s
 Maps and more Google, MapQuest
 GIS – ESRI
 Other location service
– Foursquare, Facebook, GeoLoqi
- GeoMarketing, GeoFencing, GeoSocial
Available Mobile GIS Apps
 ESRI – Free app iOS & Android.
ArcGIS.com
 ESRI – ArcGIS Online templates
 WebMapSolutions – GeoMobile for ArcGIS
Free app iOS, Android, Blackberry
Sharing your GIS Data
 ArcGIS Server – dynamic, tiled, feature lyrs
 ArcGIS Online – web maps
 Shapefiles
 Other – GeoServer, Mapserver
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Visualization
 View your data as layers over basemaps – fields, soil type etc
 Both static and dynamic data
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Management and Coordination
 Tracking and coordinating field workers
 Live data updates from the field
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Query & Search
 View feature attributes. Query for features with specific attributes
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Tools
 Geospatial tools for specific work flows – buffering, measure, routing
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Data Collection
 The end of pen and paper
 Adding & updating features – field fertilization
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Updates, Editing, Annotation
 Feature and Attribute Editing.
 Updates done in the field sent to central server
Mobile GeoSpatial Applications
Online/Offline
 No Wi-Fi …. no problem!
 Caching data on the mobile device
Is Mobile the Future of GIS?
 Mobile = Opportunity
 Context
 New users
 New tools
 New markets
Questions
 Should we re-label ourselves - location
based solution providers?
 Is this the end for Trimble?
 Will be start also looking to Google etc
for (GIS) solutions?
Thank You - Questions?
 Website and Blog:
www.webmapsolutions.com
 Twitter:
www.twitter.com/flexmappers
 YouTube:
www.youtube.com/webmapsolutions
matt@webmapsolutions.com