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next-gen mapping[1]Data withoutBorders:The Future of I/RSCraig BachmannNatasha LÉgerITF Advisors, LLCDenver, Colo.www.itfadvisors.comIn this new column, we willbe bringing a different perspective toreaders on what we see as “Next-generationMapping.” Our focus is to explorenew forms of aggregated geo-data andthe uses of imagery and remote sensing(I/RS) and GIS beyond traditional customerchannels. We believe that I/RS is enteringa next generation of mapping applicationsbecause Moore’s Law has hit the geo-datacommunity in full force. Moore’s Law,simply stated as the doubling of computingpower and halving of the price every 18months, is forcing a change in businessmodels and in the cost, functionality, andavailability of geo-data. The evolution of newusers of geo-data and I/RS is most clearlyevidenced by media company Google’sFigure 1 The image shown on the CNN Website, taken byDigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite, identifies a mountainside anomaly,15,300 feet on the northwest corner of Mt. Ararat, in eastern Turkey,that associate professor and veteran national security analyst,Porcher Taylor believes to be the remains of Noah’s Ark.Figure 2 A poster advertising “An InconvenientTruth,” a Paramount Classics movie releasedirected by Davis Guggenheim, which opened in theU.S. on May 24, 2006, features a satellite image.[2]new use of geo-data in its service offeringGoogle Earth, Microsoft’s Virtual Earth, andmany others.New media is still the new buzz with over175 million global broadband users. Newmedia brings a fundamental shift in the waypeople communicate and share informationthat leads to an unprecedented level ofcollaboration-driven innovation. Pre-Internet,communication was constrained by a limitedaudience (think a telephone conversationbetween two people, not a conference call)and the ability of one party to control the informationbeing disseminated to many people(think broadcast TV). As the movement awayfrom the traditional constraints of communicationthat are involved in one-to-one andone-to-many exchanges, new media meansthat content shared or viewed by people isno longer controlled by a single party (thinkglobal R&D collaboration). 1 New media is themany-to-many model whereby almost anyoneoutside the traditional production chain ofa piece of content—be it a book, TV show,movie, video, or I/RS image—can “add value”to that content and create new business anddistribution models. New media creates anew decentralized environment that includesdata without borders.Once solely in the hands of earthscientists, military professionals, and largecorporate resource management organizations,I/RS data was considered thedomain of the highly trained expert. Userswere traditionally restricted by expensiveworkstations. Data sets required significantstorage. As a result, access to data, tools,and distribution was made available only toniche professional users.However, via the Internet, I/RS data hasbecome ubiquitous through news sites,blogs, Google Earth, ArcWeb, and similarportals. Figure 1 illustrates the use of DigitalGlobe imagery in a mass media article byCNN used to support historical researchin identifying the remains of Noah’s Ark.As I/RS increasingly is subsidized by newadvertising revenue models and journalists,consumption by new users will increase.Recently, consumers have seen more I/RSdata than ever before due to images andreports of the 2005 Asian Tsunami andHurricane Katrina, the 20th anniversary ofthe Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the war inIraq, pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,and terrorism. “An Inconvenient Truth,” themovie of the dangers of Global Warmingfeaturing Al Gore, is full of I/RS experts anddata. Promotions, such as the one for “AnInconvenient Truth” in Figure 2 rely on I/RSimages to drive the message. Remotelysensed data in this film demonstrates theintegration of once niche information inmainstream film entertainment. This hasall resulted in a newfound awareness andintegration of imaging and remote sensing.Google Earth has received much attentionfor providing what was once prohibitivelyexpensive satellite imagery for free (see Figure3). Offerings of several other companies,such as ESRI’s ArcWeb, and Terraserver.14 s u m m e r 2 0 0 6 w w w . i m a g i n g n o t e s . c o m