Good
morning
First, I
would like to thank our hosts for their gratious hospitality and to the UN-GGIM
for including the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy is this important event.
Second, I
want to apologize because my talk is not going to be any way near as
entertaining as last night’s performers.
This
morning I am going to some of my thoughts on the key considerations for the
geospatial community with regards to dealing with the Big Data Revolution. I am
going to specifically discuss four of these considerations and then briefly
explain why I think they will be important.
First, the
geospatial community is going to consider the needs of numerous other
communities that have developed around Big Data. These include Smart Cities,
Smart Grids, Intelligent Transportation Systems, the Internet of Things,
etc. There are many others. Each are forming
their own coalitions, holding their own conferences, creating their own
language. Many are supported by large corporations and at the highest levels of
government. And all are dependent upon geoinformation, although many do not know
it.
Second,
the geospatial community will continue to be required to incorporate new
technologies and new actors. Some of these will be quite disruptive. Others are
still being developed around the world – from the research facilities in
Beijing to garages in Silicon Valley. The geospatial community will need to be
both adaptive and proactive with respect to these technologies and actors – as
they too will speak different languages and have different perspectives.
Third, the
geospatial community will have to share geoinformation with new and different
stakeholders, This is a direct result of the first two considerations. As we
know, there are challenges today in sharing geoinformation with stakeholders
that are in the geospatial community or have worked closely with geoinformation
for years. However, I believe these challenges will become even greater when
organizations are asked to share geoinformation with new stakeholders in
different communities. There will be greater uncertainty as to how the
geoinformation is going to be used, and what are the potential risks and rewards.
The new stakeholders are not going to fully understand geoinformation and are
going to be frustrating to deal with. However, for geoinformation to reach its
full potential, these challenges must be addressed an overcome.
Finally,
the geospatial community will become increasingly subject to
legal/policy/regulatory frameworks. As geospatial information and Big Data
merge, lawyers, policymakers and regulators are going to be taking a harder
look at the geospatial community. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as a
by-product will be increased awareness of the value of geoinformation. However,
it is will require the geospatial community to be more aware of what is taking
place in the legal and policy communities.
So why is
this important? Because I think the geospatial community has the chance to take
a leadership role in the Big Data revolution. Several years ago there was a
popular song in the U.S. in which one of the lines was that the singer sang country music before country music was cool (or popular). I would argue that the
geospatial community was Big Data before Big Data was cool. However, I don’ t
think it can wait for others to ask for assistance. I believe the geospatial
community needs to be proactive in taking a leadership role with regards to the
challenges and opportunities of Big Data. That is why the Centre has supported the efforts of the UN-GGIM to both
convene geospatial stakeholders and to reach out to other communities, such as
the statistical community.
My fear is
that if the geospatial community does not take this leadership role, that some
of the other communities will. And their concerns and priorities will not
necessarily be consistent with the geospatial communities. As a result
geoinformation may not reach its full potential. That is not to say that there
won’t be some successes at the local and regional level due to the leadership
and efforts of key individuals. However, broader of integration of geoinformation
with other types of Big Data will be more difficult and take longer than many
in this community would like.
Thank you.
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