Articles


15 March 2013
Is GIS being overlooked as a data visualisation tool?

The world creates 5 exabytes of data every day, the equivalent of all the data that was created since the beginning of all civilisation until 2003 (Eric Schmidt, Google CEO).  In March 2012, SAS Research, a sample of 752 senior executives across a range of countries and sectors, had the following findings:  A strong link was found between financial performance and the effective use of Big Data; Social media analytics and web-tracking technologies can transform the way businesses collect data about their customers; and that talent matters as much as technology!

Big Data was defined in the Big Data Journal (Liebert Publishing) as data that exceeds the processing capacity of conventional database systems, and is referred in terms of the 3 V’s.  Volume, Velocity and Variety.  The question has been asked:  Where is The Missing L? (Location!). 

Significant questions remain about how Big Data can be practically integrated into current systems and processes.  Challenges are being experienced by organisations globally for analysis, data mining and visualisation as the technologies for data search exist outside of centralised repositories, as well the required semantics for linking datasets together.  And therein lies the ultimate value of a GIS:  the ability to visualise and trend disparate sources of data due to the ability to link data through geography, the Location Intelligence.

Data Technologies today have brought about the Age of Data, with the development of Data Science (and Scientists), and have led to Data Driven Decision Making (DDD).  No longer can an executive make an intuitive unsubstantiated decision without it having been driven by his own and/or other organisation’s data.  The business applications of DDD are universal; target marketing, CRM management, credit scoring, workforce management, supply chain management..  The ability to view business problems from a data perspective, and methods for visualising data are VITAL.

Spatial analytics provide the platform for organisations to utilise GIS for data visualisation without the cost of non-spatial business analytics softwares that are out there, not to mention the cost of the data scientists, and statisticians.  Which leaves us “Spatial Nerds” with a job to do.  The GIS arena is being increasingly demystified as more business decision makers are exposed to the benefits, and dare I say it, the simplicity of utilising Location Intelligence.  At the end of the day, it all comes down to one criteria:  Accurate Data.

Did you know:
  • Changes in mobile calling patterns can be used to detect flu outbreaks (MIT Research)
  • Calling patterns can be used to identify the socio-economic level of country, therefore infer access to housing, education, healthcare, and basic services (Telefonica Research)
  • Social media chatter is an early indicator in spikes of unemployment (Data from Ireland and US)

The above was presented at the annual GISSA conference in Cape Town in March 2013 by Julia Renouprez, Spatial Insights

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