I had the pleasure of attending the GISSA meeting in Johannesburg on Friday 20 August and I thought I would share with you the advances in GIS and mapping communities because it was pretty shocking. If you are thinking about getting a GPS read this.
Danny Grobben (TeleAtlas) began the seminar with a talk about using the navigation community to build and maintain digital maps.
TeleAtlas creates the maps that we see on a
TomTom (GPS) but what fascinated me was how we, the TomTom users, contribute to the updating of these maps simply by connecting your GPS to the network and loading our comments. Such as “N1 now only has one lane” or “This road is now a one way road,” all these comments get verified and if correct all the other tomtom maps get updated. Our routes also get monitored so the head office actually knows if roads are active just by how many routes travel on that road. Who would have thought that we could actually help with the accuracy of the GPS maps just by driving to our regular destinations?
Our community contributions don’t end there, we also contribute to the Traffic updates that are loaded every 3 minutes on all the TomTom’s (the ones that have traffic alert layer). HOW? Well TeleAtlas is actually working with TRACKER and traffic alert companies to collect the most up-to-date traffic information. So on your GPS you will now know where the actual traffic back logs are happening and how long it will take to reach your destination. Your GPS will then provide you with another route which would be quicker. The data they have collected for the re-routing was obtained from TAXI drivers who travelled with GPS’s. So your GPS is as smart and as quick as a TAXI driver when it comes to re-routing. I don’t know about you guys but this makes me want a GPS. This would mean I wouldn’t have to call Ronaldo to find out how traffic is….or wait till the radio tells me there is a back log on the N1. You will also get crime alerts on the GPS, so now when I drive by Deipsloot I will be reminded to lock my doors. So are you thinking of getting a GPS? Read on.
The next presentation was by Geoff Green form
Precinct Web. I was very impressed with Geoffs presentation on how you can set up a community base mapping project in support of disaster and crime management in Johannesburg. This could be done simply by mapping crime using an open source mapping system and Google maps. Crime clusters, plotted on a map, lead the police to find exactly how the criminals where getting into certain enclosed communities. In one case a storm water channel that went underground for several kilometres lead the police to where the actual problem was – poor communities in Alexandra. After this presentation I got inspired to set up my own community crime mapping site.
The following presentation brought us back to the GPS and the future use of this device. Etienne Louw from
MapIT talked about Digital mapping, entering into a new phase. He was talking 3D GPS’s with real life views of where you are going and what the buildings look like. Further more he discussed use of GPS’s for advertising, where companies put in there locations and their specials on the GPS’s. So you could be driving to work (SEF) and “Knowledge Commons, Restaurant” will show up on your GPS as having a “Breakfast special for R29.” Now how MapIt makes money would be by the amount of people they bring to Knowledge Commons doorstep …..coz remember YOU ARE BEING TRACKED, so MapIt will know exactly where you are driving to and will get a certain amount of money for all those who drive to Knowledge Commons. Still want a GPS?
I thought the advertising was petty innovative but it really got me thinking about my level of privacy. Etienne did address this issue and said you are actually asked before you by your GPS unit whether you want to be tracked…..but I am sure they would put it in a more friendly way like “Would you want to contribute to the community mapping project? Yes/No” and knowing some of us we wouldn’t even think about saying no…. We would be so excited about the new GPS unit with Traffic and crime alerts, with a bonus advertising layer for your special restaurants and shops, ……such that we would tick all YES, YES, YES. But by doing so we are giving our Privacy away. Did you know that with the new I-phone you are actually asked if you want to share your photos with i-phone?????? To me that is just crazy no wonder famous people all of a sudden have scandalous pictures show up out of no where. For all you know they could have been taking photos of themselves on their new i-phone but ticked YES for sharing photos.
There was talk also on mapping social networks so instead of going on facebook you will have a social map which would show where all your friends are in the world – in real time. That would for sure encourage us to keep updating our facebook location….or else you would have someone writing on your facebook wall….”Yoooo are you still in India?” But that brings me back to the issue of Privacy. Maybe I would want to be in India but with only my close friends knowing and not my 578 facebook friends. What if I had a stalker on facebook? What about those undercover rapists that have been using facebook to locate victims? This social network map would be like Candy to a kid for them.
The whole conference really got me thinking about the life we are living in and the life we are going to be living in. I loved that GIS was advancing so much and I was in the “know how” of it but I really did get concerned about the future privacy levels. I was baffled when Etienne said at the end of his presentation something along the lines of “It is already written in the book of Revelations so you might as well buy into it now!” Brrrrrr I started to re-think my purchase of a GPS unit.
I found a very interesting crime site through my friend Erica Marks. It is a cime alert site where you can get emails notifying you of any crime that has been happening in your community. You just need to include your email address and address. As much as my last blog was being about people watching you..... you also need to watch people :). 
The following presentation brought us back to the GPS and the future use of this device. Etienne Louw from MapIT talked about Digital mapping, entering into a new phase. He was talking 3D GPS’s with real life views of where you are going and what the buildings look like. Further more he discussed use of GPS’s for advertising, where companies put in there locations and their specials on the GPS’s. So you could be driving to work (SEF) and “Knowledge Commons, Restaurant” will show up on your GPS as having a “Breakfast special for R29.” Now how MapIt makes money would be by the amount of people they bring to Knowledge Commons doorstep …..coz remember YOU ARE BEING TRACKED, so MapIt will know exactly where you are driving to and will get a certain amount of money for all those who drive to Knowledge Commons. Still want a GPS?
I thought the advertising was petty innovative but it really got me thinking about my level of privacy. Etienne did address this issue and said you are actually asked before you by your GPS unit whether you want to be tracked…..but I am sure they would put it in a more friendly way like “Would you want to contribute to the community mapping project? Yes/No” and knowing some of us we wouldn’t even think about saying no…. We would be so excited about the new GPS unit with Traffic and crime alerts, with a bonus advertising layer for your special restaurants and shops, ……such that we would tick all YES, YES, YES. But by doing so we are giving our Privacy away. Did you know that with the new I-phone you are actually asked if you want to share your photos with i-phone?????? To me that is just crazy no wonder famous people all of a sudden have scandalous pictures show up out of no where. For all you know they could have been taking photos of themselves on their new i-phone but ticked YES for sharing photos.
There was talk also on mapping social networks so instead of going on facebook you will have a social map which would show where all your friends are in the world – in real time. That would for sure encourage us to keep updating our facebook location….or else you would have someone writing on your facebook wall….”Yoooo are you still in India?” But that brings me back to the issue of Privacy. Maybe I would want to be in India but with only my close friends knowing and not my 578 facebook friends. What if I had a stalker on facebook? What about those undercover rapists that have been using facebook to locate victims? This social network map would be like Candy to a kid for them.
