I am trying to synthesize my thoughts on the GeoWeb 2008 conference, as well as things that have been coming at us since the Safe Software press release. One of the thoughts that continues to rise to the surface is that the GeoWeb is not an independent section of the internet, but rather a niche location in the web; a niche section that perhaps is being rolled into its core.

I think I heard a similar statement from Ron Lake at the GeoWeb conference (“The GeoWeb is the Internet”). James Fee has picked up the theme in a recent post. The comments to that post seem to have echoes of the neogeography vs. GIS clashes. Yet, there does not appear to be any of the vitriol associated with this thread compared to past debates. Maybe we are moving past the divisions and into the realm of synergy between the different focuses of the groups.

And then bang, you see an announcement by ESRI and Microsoft Virtual Earth offering Virtual Earth products inside ArcGIS Server. Talk about a fusion of GIS and neogeography. You will have to purchase a Virtual Earth license, so it fits within Microsoft’s tradition licensing revenue model, but still, Virtual Earth is more about the future of yellow pages advertising than about GIS or GeoWeb services. At least according to Microsoft’s Vincent Tao at the Location Intelligence 2008 conference.

So where do we go from here? The internet is “evolving”. It started out as a robust means of communicating and sharing supercomputer resources (see ARPANET). It has become a ubiquitous communication, processing, and storage array that touches nearly every aspect of our daily lives. In its evolution to date, it has rolled through many businesses (e.g. telecommunication, financial, advertising, etc.), upending their business models, to create new services, products, and business opportunities. I think the spatial industry is just the next industry to overwhelmed (shaken? stirred? smashed?) by the evolution of this omnipresent technology in our lives.

Location awareness is just the next information stream to be absorbed by the massive data ingestion services that reside within the internet. If you own a mobile phone, your position on the planet is already trackable to within meters (see Enhanced 911). New business models are started daily on using these feeds as new Location-Based Services (LBS). As a consumer, geo-spam is a concern, but you can always turn-off the buzzer. But new models built on real-time crowd dynamics or “mobbing” offer a whole new approach to targeted marketing and advertising (see Peter Batty’s presentation at GeoWeb as an example).

Would you have seen this coming 10 years ago? It’s clear Microsoft did not see Google coming, and they had some very smart people trying to predict the future. I think we in the spatial data industry are facing the fertile grounds that lead to similar revolutionary technologies. Such environments lead to the classic innovator’s dilemma for business organizations – how do we maintain our current revenue stream, while creating new, faster growing opportunities so that we do not end up as the last maker of horse drawn carriages?