Business driven

spatial thinking

Andrew Zolnai

www.zolnai.ca

What does Business need?

• Track its assets

– Location

– Expense

– Revenue– Revenue

– Audit-trail

• Report on its assets

– Inside: ISO

– Outside: SOX

What does Businesses not need?

• New for Newness’ sake

– Disrupt what works already

– Creates downtime

– Increases recovery time– Increases recovery time

• Immutable attitudes

– Not invented here

– Ad-hoc procedures

– If it ain't broken, don't fix it

What works

• Simple Q&A systems

• Fit to the audience

• Google Search -> My Search

• GPS phones and PDAs

• Keep it under the hood• Keep it under the hood

• Improve work flows

• Add score-cards

From 90% time gathering data

...to 90% time analysing data

(Hurricane Katrina Response Team

www.idw.com, www.microsoft.com)

What works 2

• Automobiles as a past analogue

– Mercedes Benz once thought the car market related to

the number of available chauffeurs

– Today we neither know nor care how an ignition starter

works...works...

What do users want

• Intuitive map interfaces

– Google Earth

• Yet geodetic accuracy• Yet geodetic accuracy

– National Geographic Map

Machine

What do users want 2

• That will speak to audiences

• Public: posters

• DBA: web map services

Natural Resources Canada

http://nrcan.gc.ca

The solution

• Model the work process

– Interview users

– Build a model (1)

– Refine it to fit its use– Refine it to fit its use

– Run it iteratively

– Display the results

– Get user feedback

– Go back to 1...

The solution 2

• Listen to the user

– Absorb their work process

– Be lead by their experience

– Stick to their knitting– Stick to their knitting

• Cooperate

– They needn't learn

geomatics

– You needn't acquire

their expertise

Lessons learned

• Business process first

– Stakeholders / Regulators

– End users / Administrators

• Geospatial technique next• Geospatial technique next

– Model the process

– Find tools that fit...

• Everything has a

location component

Land use classification at continental scales –

LADA Stratification Task Force – www.fao.org