GIS for Beginners

Derek Reeve and Jim Petch

UNIGIS programme

GIS for Beginners

• Why invest in GIS ?

• What is GIS ?

• Learning from others’ experience

• Discussion/Questions

WHY INVEST IN GIS ?

Why invest in GIS?

• GIS market growing very rapidly– software sales expanding at 13% pa.– expected to exceed $1.3 by 1998– ‘commercial GIS’ sales up 60% in a year

– N.B. Software sales only small fraction of total GIS spending

• ‘LOTS’ of money going into GIS

Why invest in GIS?

• Penetrated many sectors– Governments (local and national)– Utilities– Private Sector (banks, building socs,

etc)

• ‘Everyone’s doing it’

Why invest in GIS ?

WHY ?

Why invest in GIS?

• ‘Operational’ GIS

– Quantifiable cost/benefits savings

– Efficiency Savings• staff, floorspace etc

– Effectiveness Benefits• new products, faster response, more accurate

etc

Why invest in GIS ?• Nordic study

– cost benefits of up to 4:1 for basic GIS services

• UK local governments– 50% time savings on map manipulation tasks

• OSI– IR £ 1m saved by release of floorspace– eliminated duplicate masters– scale free, seamless map products

Why Invest in GIS?

Would your organisation still use quill pens to

write letters?

Why Invest in GIS?

• Decision Support GIS– GIS as a Visualisation tool– GIS as data integration tool– turn data into ‘information’– see corporate data in a ‘new light’– ‘Data warehouses’, ‘data mining’, ‘enterprise

data’, ‘OLAP’ etc

GIS as a visualisation tool

Decision Support GIS

– ‘Today, in thousands of industries, you will find ‘GIS’ at the cutting edge of decision making... where to place a new retail site, how best to assess insurance risks, which customers to target, how to allocate sales territories ...

The key is the common geographic component in your data. With it you can correlate data from many sources into a single view’

Decision Support GIS

• N.B. Difficult to Cost Justify– what is the ‘value’ of a piece of

information?– how to prove ‘better’ decision making due

to GIS?

– ‘Soft’ benefits

– GIS as an ‘Act of Faith’ investment ?

Why invest in GIS (now) ?

• Maturing GIS technology– astonishingly cheaper hardware– better/more reliable software

• Better data– OS, geodata brokers, geocoding

systems, conversion agencies

Why invest in GIS (now)?

• External ‘triggers’– BS7666– New Street Works Acts– Council Tax, Care in the Community, etc– Industry regulators

• Competitive effects– demonstration effect of competitors

WHAT IS GIS ?

What is GIS ?

• Very varied – 300 plus systems. £500 to £15,000 plus

• Not what it was– e.g.... now onto version 7 of ArcINFO

• ‘geography’ digitally challenging ! – topology, large data recalls, long

transactions, spatial indexing etc

What is GIS?

• Lots of definitions -

– ‘A system for capturing, storing checking, manipulating, analysing and displaying data which are spatially referenced to the Earth’

(DoE 1987)

What is GIS

• Lots of definitions -

– ‘... a group of procedures that provide data input, storage and retrieval, mapping and spatial analysis for both spatial and attribute data to support the decision-making activities of the organisation’

(Grimshaw 1994)

What is GIS• Some ‘old’ debates :-

– Raster or Vector models

Raster Vector

What is GIS?• Old debates

– Layer or Object representations

What is GIS ?

• Old debates :-– dual or integrated databases

• dual architecture : use conventional DBMS for attribute data and proprietary software for spatial data, e.g.... Arc (spatial)/INFO(attribute)

• integrated architecture : single database to hold both attribute and spatial data, e.g.... SDE, Vision, Smallworld, Mapware

What is GIS?

• Old debates– Relational or Object database models

• Relational model : familiar, stable, understood -

but designed for business data, not spatial data?

• Object model : appropriate for complex geographical objects - but unfamiliar, emerging ?

Whatis GIS

• New Issues :-– Impact of new computer technologies

• Network technologies– The New ‘Moore’s Law.– It WILL be possible!

• World Wide Web– ‘Information at your fingertips’– ‘Raising organisational IQ’– Universal Access

What is GIS?

• New issues :-– Impact of new computer technologies

• Multi-media developments– sound, video, virtual reality

• Object-relational databases (ORDBMS)– ‘Universal Servers’– Enterprise computing– ‘geography’ only one ‘special’ datatype– Oracle 8, Illustra, Informix, DBII– cartridges, ‘datablades’, extenders, etc

What is GIS?

• New issues :-– GIS response

• Inter-operability : allow users to ‘mix and match’ GIS software products. e.g. Geomedia

• OGIS initiative : inter-operability at data level and at software level. ‘Wrappers’ round legacy databases

• Spatial Data extenders : ‘Plug-ins’ for ORDBMS, Oracle SDC, Spatial datablades, etc.

What is GIS?

• New issues :-- GIS response

• Map tools : ‘Put a map in your app’

• Internet and Intranet GIS tools :delivering GIS functionalities via the Net.

• Abandon map metaphor : multi-media GIS

• Mobile GIS ; GPS, hand-held, on-site GIS

Learning from Experiences of Others

Learning from Experience

• The Bad News :-

‘If I define a successful system as one that is developed on time and within budget is reliable and maintainable, meets its goals and satisfies its users, how many of you would say that your organisation builds successful systems. I’ve asked this question hundreds of times and the overwhelming response is silence’ (Block)

Information Systems often fail.

Learning from Experience

• The Still Worse News - GIS has a higher risk of failure than conventional IS projects

•Size Risk•Structure Risk•Technology Risk

• Corporate GIS a high risk project

Learning from Experience

• Reasons for GIS failure– Often Organisational rather than

technical• excessive technological emphasis• neglect of corporate realities/politics• unclear business objectives• lack of user involvement/ poor

development methodologies• unrealistic timescales

Learning from Experience

• The Good News :-

– Risks can be managed

– Regard GIS as a ‘Socio-technical’ project

Learning from Experience• Ensure a clearly defined business case

‘It is my experience that organizations that are interested in GIS ask all the wrong questions - they want to know what’s the best software, what’s the best platform etc. When I ask ‘what is it you want to do?’ the response is usually a lot of head shaking followed by ‘make maps’ or some other vague remarks’

(Freundschuh)

Learning from Experience

• Ensure a clearly defined business case

– GIS must contribute to business objectives

– GIS must be consistent with corporate Information Strategy

– Not ‘Toys for the boys’

Learning from Experience

• Be realistic about your organisation– A ‘pyramid’ or a ‘greek temple’ ?

- Corporate or Federal ?

- GIS funding model ?

Learning from Experience

• Involve End Users – avoid ‘expert imposition’– avoid ‘token participation’– consciously educate the organisation– emphasize usability and training

• Adopt ‘socio-technical’ design methodology

Learning from Experience

• Adopt Realistic Timescales– database creation WILL take longer

than you think– plan for early ‘milestone’ deliverables

• Be Opportunistic– ‘disjointed incrementalism’

Learning from Experience

• Evaluate the Vendors as well as their software

– shake out of GIS firms• the ‘Atlas GIS’ case

– some small GIS companies

– don’t get left holding the baby

Conclusion

Conclusion

• GIS a successful expanding industry• Widely adopted • Delivering major benefits to organizations• Massive improvements in software,

hardware and data

• BUT - watch out for the people problems !