Peter Batty reports on a "Foresight Study" the UK-ased AGI is currently carrying out: a look at where the geospatial industry will be in five years' time.
Here's some arbitrary pieces:
anticipated changes: Location tracking will be pervasive in 2014 – all mobile phones will have location tracking. (...) as a baseline, consider that the proportion of phones with cameras exceeded 70% globally in 2008, with 75% anticipated in 2009.
Arguably, the report anticipates data will be available in abundance - and mostly free:
Crowdsourcing and widespread use of sensors means that a wide variety of good quality and extremely current geospatial will be available for free, including:
- Road data, with relevant information for routing, including real time traffic information
- Footpaths and cycle paths, with relevant information for routing
- Points of interest such as restaurants, shops, petrol stations, ATMs, etc, plus relevant real time information such as gas prices
There is no lack of data and this has never been the case.
There's lack of professionally crafted information, reliable geometries and comprehensive attribution.
And there's no free lunch - or did I miss something?
