Hyderabad, India: With geospatial applications increasingly becoming part of people’s everyday lives, geospatial data is becoming more important than ever. With the increasing importance comes the need for accurate and high quality data. Several issues pertaining to availability of the geospatial data through one strong repository were discussed in the symposium ‘Building National Geospatial Information Repository’ on the second day of India Geospatial Forum 2013, organised by Geospatial Media & Communications. 

National GIS
Dr. R. Siva Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, National Spatial Data Infrastructure, India underlined the need for easy availability of data by observing that the need of the hour is “Maps to apps” - providing applications based on geospatial information rather than maps. Most of the times, people are interested in finding solutions to their problems rather than looking at data per se. With the extensive capability o GIS in many integrated applications, GIS is becoming a critical national infrastructure, demanding effective management. He informed the audience about National GIS, a new information regime offering GIS support decision services for governance, private enterprise and citizens and with a mandate to maintain a nation-wide standardised, seamless and most current GIS asset for the nation. 

Taking further the discussion on National GIS, Maj Gen R C Padhi, Additional Surveyor General, Survey of India, elaborated on the role of Survey of India and the data asset building plan for NGIS. He informed that starting with immediate effect, the NGIS data asset will be built based on 1:50,000 geospatial data of Survey of India, which will be later replaced or upscaled with 1:10,000 data. He then discussed the technical details that this mechanism entails, including establishing data centres and virtual reference systems. 

Benefits and return on investment of g-data
Just how much economic contribution can geospatial data make to national development was highlighted by Dr R Nagaraja, Group Director, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), India. While informing the audience about the vast repository of geospatial data with NRSC and the national mission programmes in which they are finding use, he shared with the audience the potential economic benefits of the use of this data in different ways. For example, in the National Drinking Water Technology Mission, where the benefit is the cost saving due to increase in success rate, the potential benefit to the country in the long run is to the tune of INR 5,000-8,000 crore. Similarly, in the programme “Horticultural Development in Land With and Without Shrub”, the potential benefit is in the range of INR 13,000 – 26,000 crore. 

With governance being one of the key applications of geospatial data, Dr. PK Srivastava, Managing Director, Geospatial Limited, detailed the potential and application of geospatial data in various aspects of governance in Delhi. Some such instances are flood level demarcation, since the city is on the banks of Yamuna river, addressing water logging, property tax assessment where 3D data is playing a crucial role as it gives information on the number of floors in a building, and drainage and sewerage planning by overlaying 3D buildings on classified digital elevation model. This data is also being used to assess land transformation over the years. 

Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse, Executive Consultant & Practice Leader, Spatial Information, Sinclair Knight Merz, Australia, demonstrated how spatial information can be used to build sustainable water resources, with special reference to groundwater management. He presented an integrated spatial data model for managing bore strategraphic and hydrological information and the establishment of National Groundwater Information System and National Aquifer Framework by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The way forward in this direction is 3D GIS for groundwater comprising of 3D geometry, 3D topology, semantics and appearance. 

Industry perspective 
With the evolving dynamics of geospatial data, Rajesh Mathur, Vice Chairman, NIIT GIS, India, discussed the shifting paradigms for the national custodians of this data, the national mapping organisations (NMOs). According to Mathur, the evolving vision for NMOs should be to get data GIS-ready, moving from “mapping” to providing spatial datasets, and embracing new paradigm of structured workflow, geo-spatial production mapping system, and data dissemination. One of the key requirements in moving in that direction is an integrated geographic platform that leverages the new medium of intelligent Web services. 

Mladen Stojic, Vice President – Geospatial, Intergraph, quoting philosopher Senaca, observed that “information has meaning and gives power only when shared and distributed. Information, in and of itself, has no value.” He then shared his views on pre-conditions to success for private sector involvement in national repositories. He observed that a “national repository” needs to become a key component in a ‘dynamic ecosystem’ providing a marketplace to find, use and publish services. He suggested a transactions-based model for selling value added geo-processing services. In other criteria, he said that content updates need to be more frequent and stability and availability of services need to improve. Citing the parallel of Apple, he said that just like Apple is one stop shop for various entertainment needs and services, there geospatial data users should be able to have their various geospatial data requirements met at one place. 

Elaborating on the industry requirements pertaining to GIS data in a national repository, Dr. Aniruddha Roy, Vice President, Navayuga, suggested that the industry wishes for a seamless data as well as integration with third party solutions. Some of the key criteria to consider regarding data in a national repository are the format and standards. Deliberating on whether national geospatial data repository should be centralised or distributed, he advocated for a hybrid approach where all the national data producing agencies sync their data to a central server from where further authentication can be done and data picked up as per requirement. He also urged for a mandate for quality checks before data is loaded in the servers. He also said that the challenge is to use multiple technologies and achieve interoperability without loss of data. 

Shivalik Prasad, Executive Director, MapmyIndia presented an overview of the enterprise deployment of geospatial data. He observed that India has not has a strong tradition of business enterprises offering geospatial data-based solutions as is the practice in developed nations. That is changing now though, he observed, with geospatial data becoming more popular through platforms like Google Earth, as well as with business enterprises looking at solutions to optimise their businesses. He then detailed the audience about the enterprise maps platform offered by the company. 

Along with content marketing I don’t think there’s a more ubiquitous phrase right now in the world of marketing and advertising than anything that starts with the word “mobile.” Everyone has their opinion, their idea, their beliefs and so on when it comes to mobile marketing and mobile advertising.

Just this past October yours truly wrote a piece entitled Mobile Marketing – The Elephant In The Room For Marketers. As I wrote then and still believe today “The fact of the matter is that mobile marketing – despite all it’s continued hype and promise has been severely under utilized by marketers of all shapes and sizes.”

It’s as if every marketer and advertiser collectively sees the future is in mobile marketing and advertising but more often than not does not know how to best go about maximizing this increasingly burgeoning space. Earlier this month my fellow Forbes colleague Bruce Rogers wrote a great piece on a mobile audience predictive analytics company called Sense Networks.

For his piece Rogers spoke with Sense Networks CEO David Petersen who said he thinks mobile advertising and marketing is “still broken.” Petersen identified two specific problems for marketers when it comes to mobile: targeting capabilities and eCommerce.

I was fascinated by the article from Bruce and about Sense Networks who – according to Petersen, use “big science to mobile location data for predictive analytics in advertising.”

So I decided to reach out to Mr. Petersen myself to delve a little deeper. I wanted to get his take on mobile marketing in general, if 2013 would indeed be the “year of mobile.” I also asked him to clear up any myths that are out there regarding mobile marketing that may in fact be hindering marketers’ ability to seize the golden opportunity that lies before them.

And I also wanted to ask him why he thinks location based advertising is unlike any other platform and finally what makes Sense  Networks’ proprietary systems different.

SO: For years now marketers and advertisers have been told this is the “Year of Mobile.” Why do you think 2013 will be different?

DP: A number of reasons. First, we are at a tipping point in consumer usage of this “new” mobile medium. Studies are showing that mobile is on the wrong side of a monetization gap. While the average consumer now spends a significant percentage of their time consuming media through mobile, the percent of advertising budgets spent in the category is lagging well behind. You can see it as you look around when you are walking, shopping, etc. and everybody is using their phone. I use my mobile devices more, now, than I use my laptop. Secondly, the mobile ad ecosystem is now sufficiently robust to support what marketers want: legitimate content choices on where to put ads, different formats like tablet vs. phone, banner vs. interstitial, and legitimate targeting via companies like Sense Networks. And lastly, payment mechanisms to support mobile commerce are now a big focus for companies like Google, PayPal, and likely Amazon. This is the year that monetizing mobile won’t just be talked about – it will be achieved, thanks to the ability to harness Big Data and truly understand mobile consumers.

SO: What do you think is the biggest myth or myths when it comes to mobile marketing and advertising?

DP: Two come to mind. The first is the state of ad targeting technology in mobile. When we started in this, we wondered how we could develop a competitive advantage when every ad network website we looked at said they had already completed Nobel-prize winning ad targeting. But as we’ve dug in to the industry over the last year, we found out that almost none of it is true. So the message to advertisers is to make sure you are working with somebody who can put their money where their mouth is on ad targeting.

The second is a bit of a surprising finding in location-based advertising: there is a lot of “geofencing” today in the industry, where brand advertisers wish to advertise to people within a certain location of a store. For most of the campaigns we’ve run, we have not found that “being near a store” drives a lot of action by the consumer. And it’s not just us — we’ve heard the same thing from friends at the most cutting-edge advertising agencies. It makes sense — it’s hard to imagine swaying consumers from their intended plans to immediately take advantage of an offer, especially if it’s not a screaming deal. If you told me “25-cent cupcakes, block away, next 10 minutes only”, I might be motivated to act immediately. As you start to soften the offer, the mere fact that you are nearby doesn’t weigh as much in the consumer’s mind.

SO: What makes location-based advertising different from other advertising mediums?

DP: Mobile location data and the behavioral insights it reveals can deliver mobile audiences based on actual consumer activity. Facebook can infer Fans have interest and positive attitude about a brand, but location-based advertising can deliver actual shoppers using both real-time and historical data, and for example, show us where this user actually shops and eats. This translates into real customer results.

Leading retailers, brands and quick serve restaurants, including Quiznos, use Sense Networks’ location-based advertising to reach highly relevant mobile audiences. Quiznos saw a significant number of mobile coupon redemptions following a campaign with Sense. This increase in response is the results of targeting local, mobile consumers that demonstrate certain behaviors that align with the Quiznos’ customer.

SO: What do advertisers and marketers need to know when it comes to the issue of consumer privacy in relation to using location based advertising?

DP: Marketers rightly want to be assured that digital ad solutions are privacy-safe, both because it’s the moral thing to do and they want to prevent negative blowback on their advertiser customers. This is especially important in mobile because it has the potential to illuminate a lot of your real-world behavior. So you want to work with parties who are committed to being on the “up and up” when it comes to privacy. Now, as an industry expert I can tell you that there is a sea of mobile information out there in the digital ad ecosystem, and the question is how to you shape it and regulate it to make it privacy-safe.

SO: What is AdMatch™ and Retail Retargeting™ and how do they differ from other platforms out there?

DP: AdMatch extracts user attributes from location data using machine-learned models. We can look at user location data over time and ascertain behavioral traits about a consumer, such as if they are a business traveler, outdoor enthusiast or they frequent fast food restaurants. We apply predictive analytics to over 1,000 behavioral attributes and build audiences through individually matching users with ads.

Retail Retargeting applies these machine-learned algorithms to identify mobile users who are customers at businesses with retail locations. We can identify and re-target mobile consumers when they are no longer at the store. Since 80 percent of purchases are planned as opposed to impulse-purchases, we are helping retailers build loyalty by reaching their audiences while they are in the planning stage for future purchases. Some of the early failures in mobile advertising are due to poor timing and sending irrelevant offers to consumers because they aren’t based on behavior and location data. Interestingly, we also find retailers often want to identify shoppers at competitive stores as well.

Ok, so what do you think?

Is location based advertising the future of mobile marketing and mobile advertising?

What ways are you using mobile marketing and advertising in your overall strategies?

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions. 

The Levin College of Urban Affairs hosted a presentation and workshop event on Jan. 7 titled “Community Participatory Mapping.” The event was free and open to all CSU faculty, staff and students.

Dr. Wansoo Im, assistant professor at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. and a teacher of Geographic Information Systems in Health and Planning at Rutgers University, presented to the group gathered. Im was invited by professor. Mark Salling, a senior fellow in the Levin College and the director of Levin’s Northern Ohio Data and Information Services.

Im presented on his technology, the Mappler application (found at mappler.com), which can be used on any iPhone or Android technology. The technology puts the power of GIS mapping in the hands of smartphone users, potentially allowing for new comprehension and application of data in never before seen ways.

Im's presentation identified seven major advances by the technology: the ability to record and archive community information, improvement of data quality, encouragement of community engagement and collaboration, raising awareness of community issues, promotion of a sense of connection and identity, empowerment of communities to advocate for change, and helping local governments be more effective.

With a few clicks, the user can take a picture of the area to be mapped, plot as many variables as he or she likes, upload the information to a Google map and then update this information dynamically. The user simply sets the parameters with the app, and the rest can be done with the phone.

For example, students attending the workshop decided to attempt to measure and map the walkability of Euclid and Prospect Avenues from East 17th Street to East 22nd Street. The group decided to measure if the sidewalk was passable, how many could fit comfortably on the sidewalk and iciness. Pictures were taken at points in which conditions changed. This data was uploaded to a Google map and spreadsheet as soon as it was entered.

Im stressed that the technology allowed for “empowerment through effective visualization.” What had taken experts and expensive technology to do previously can now involve communities and build social bonds that would have not existed previously. Additionally, it “crowdsources” research that governments and other agencies may have had difficulty conducting in the past. Dr. Salling was enthralled with the potential benefits that Mappler can offer, describing it as “an exciting technology that opens opportunity for community action like nothing else I’ve ever seen.” The event was organized because Salling believes Cleveland needs to do more in using participatory mapping/GIS because it integrates information in a visual and community-oriented way that is relatable to many.

Students were equally impressed. Gregory Soltis, vice president of the Cleveland State American Planning Association, stated, “Fifteen new ideas already popped into my head on top of all of the projects I was already working on.”

James Aspery, a junior Urban Studies major, added that Mappler “is an invaluable asset for the 21st century that allows us to move from paper and pencil to digital, making mapping far more efficient and effective.”

Finally, senior Biology major Steven Zimmerman noted that the technology will make the surveys he does far more accessible and easier to update and execute. He summarized things well when he said, “Mappler democratizes GIS and makes it accessible to those without advanced training, something previously unspeakable.”

The technology is free for students and all those not looking to make a profit. Im has already used the technology in highly innovative ways: mapping restrooms in New York City and giving real time updates during Hurricane Sandy on gas station availability. The latter was used by the White House and FEMA, and was done using inner-city youth who were looking to do positive community work.

Im said that he decided to do the workshop in Cleveland, the first time he has done the workshop in the United States, because he is good friends with Salling and wanted to share his story. The technology was developed in 2006 and went mobile in 2010, after years of experience in GIS led Im to see the potential for community engagement.

Im believes the most important aspect of his work is the ability to educate, engage and empower youth and the immediate impact it can have on community action. In a video shown to the group, one youth that Im had worked with stressed that he may have been lost to gang life if not for the ability to participate in mapping.

Previously, much technology could inform but not induce action, but Im has found a way to do both.