How do you connect “Islands of Information”?

The worldwide spatial information management industry has been estimated at ~$50 billion. While large, the industry is dominated by specialization and niche practices that have reduced the flow of spatial information between location-aware enterprises. This reduction in information flow decreases efficiency and productivity within enterprises, and between industries.

Let us examine the different vertical markets that make up the spatial information industry, including urban planning, emergency response, real estate, natural resource management, environmental protection, agriculture, asset management, construction, advertising, etc. They all use slightly different tactics to acquire their spatial awareness or geospatial intelligence (Figure 1; this figure and the next are from a 2007 Where 2.0 presentation. If you are interested in the full presentation let me know.). However, all of these industries have very similar needs in that they require high quality maps to make fundamental (insert your favorite term here, e.g. business, asset, resource, targeting, etc.) decisions.

Figure 1. Vertical silos in the spatial information business keep the markets small and separated.

If we can break down these vertical silos, such that the maps in one niche were used as raw material into the next niche, we can re-order our geospatial markets to look like Figure 2. Here, the silos become building blocks for higher valued information products, which in turn are used as base products for higher valued geo-enabled processes. These building blocks now increase business process efficiency and productivity for the spatially-aware enterprise. As any process manager will tell you, increasing efficiency and productivity is good, really good, because it means you can do more for less.

Figure 2. Silos are changed into building blocks for higher valued industries, increasing efficiency of productivity and resource management.

A recent article from Geoff Zeiss (who was building upon a 2004 article by Paul Teicholz) used the construction industry as an example of the impact of information silos. He first points out the size of the construction industry, worldwide = $2.3 trillion, US = $1.2 trillion. That’s trillion with a T.

Paul’s article examines a decline in construction productivity, during a period when all other industries were looking at increases in productivity (Figure 3). Paul points to a lack of IT integration and R&D by the building industry as a reason for this real fall in productivity, while all other non-farm industries appear to have used IT to become more productive. Geoff goes farther (and I tend to agree with him) that part of the problem relates to the ‘Islands of Information’ that are created, and not shared, by the various disciplines involved with the construction industry:

Disciplines such as architecture, structural engineering, construction, civil engineering, and GIS are classic information silos. Each maintains its own information island comprised of design applications and data. This has created a nightmare for operations and maintenance, emergency planners and responders, urban planners, and others who require seamless access to urban terrain including building interiors and exteriors, roads and highways, and above ground and underground utilities. The biggest challenge is not typically data, because the data that would help these folks already exists because much of (sic) it is created when buildings and infrastructure were designed. The biggest challenge is that islands of information and technology make it difficult to integrate existing data in a seamless view.

Figure 3. Labor productivity declines 1964-2003. (from ACEbytes Viewpoint #4)

WeoGeo was started to specifically address the creating, sharing, and marketing of geospatial content that will help increase the productivity of spatially-aware industries. We have built an easy to use interface and system to rapidly list, host, discover, customize, and deliver value added geo-intelligence in a way that generates revenue for content providers, which will be affordable for content users. We are using a classic exchange mechanism to create a neomarket to “remake” the silos into “connections” between the islands of geospatial information (I know I am mixing metaphors, but I couldn’t help it. Sorry.)

Does it matter? Are there enough inefficiencies to be found that will translate into dollars to make a difference? Here is another quote from Geoff’s piece:

Several years ago the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) commissioned a study on Interoperability to attempt to quantify the efficiency losses in the U.S. capital facilities industry… NIST estimated that in 2002 poor interoperability cost the US capital facilities industry $15.8 billion.

That leaves some room for improvement in efficiency. And this is just one spatially-aware industry. An increase in productivity in these industries will create a more efficient use of (natural) resources, which over time creates a positive feedback into the quality of operations (and life) for all those using planetary resources.