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The new Northwest Maps website sets a new standard for municipal information services.
Tuesday 11th of October 2011
For the past 15 years, delivery of location-based community information has been fragmented across departments and delivered through archaic and inconsistent user interfaces. In short, user needs and their experience weren't considered so much. Over the past year, we've had a chance to work with the eCityGov alliance to create a new information service that was focused on the end user and how they could efficiently access the information they need.
[caption id="attachment_278" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The new NWMap.net landing page"]
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We are very proud of the new NWMaps.net, launched this past June. It takes the best conventions of web-design and provides an efficient means to access a plethora of community information from property-based information to community demographics, from environmental resource information to commercial property listings. NWMaps.net is a one-stop shop for the citizens living in the central Puget Sound Region.
Based on ESRI’s ArcGIS Server and Javascript API, NWMaps.net starts with a data schema common across the member cities and an aggregation/validation process scripted in python that unites each city's data into a common database.
The application has a true service oriented architecture that not only incorporates web map services, but mashes in several other web services (permits, parks and commercial property listings) from third-party sources. This architecture not only allows for extensibility when other data come online, it also provides a means by which the data and services can be exploited directly via their REST endpoints by other applications.
The real advantage of NWMaps comes from the user experience it provides. Site layout is simple. There is a Home page, a Results page and a Map view Page. The home page provides a single search box that will accept addresses, place names or parcel numbers. As far as we know, this is the first time this kind of custom search has been provided. We think it responds to users' expectations for a Google-like search experience, including type-ahead suggestions and search criteria disambiguation.
[caption id="attachment_281" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Flexible search via a single box"]
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In addition to the flexible parameters, users can pre-select the composition of their results by choosing a "Quick Search" option. If one is selected, related themes are promoted on the results page, putting the specifics they are looking for front and center.
[caption id="attachment_279" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Quick searches allow users to focus their results"]
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While the information accessible to the user is voluminous, we did not want to overwhelm them with pages and pages of results, so each result topic is contained in a results panel, collapsed by default. While the information is initially hidden, feedback on the number of results is given (where relevant) on the results bar.
[caption id="attachment_280" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Results grouped by theme"]
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While the name of the site is NWMaps, the map doesn't dominate the experience... unless the user wants it to. In the normal site flow, the user enters a search on the home page and once taken to the results page is presented with a set of "map snapshots" that give the user map-based visualizations of information within the immediate vicinity of their search result. If the user wants to have a "traditional" web map experience, they can go directly to the map view which incorporates both the unified search and a set of map tools that support a variety of specialized tasks.
[caption id="attachment_282" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Map View page and specialized tools"]
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This post is already getting long, but there is a lot more to share about the NWMaps.net which I'll include in a follow up post. In the meantime, Check out the new NWMaps.net, we think it's pretty cool.
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Open Street Map & Digital Chart of the World in sub-Saharan Africa
Tuesday 13th of September 2011
I've noticed recently that most accessibility models and travel time applications in sub-Saharan Africa use old Digital Chart of the World data as the primary source. This has been frustrating to me because the data itself hasn't been updated since 1992 and the speed assumptions seem to have been completely made up.
[caption id="attachment_254" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Digital Chart of the World Travel Time Assumptions"]
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Its easy to see that the speed limit numbers are completely uniform for country and road type. Anyone who has traveled in sub-Saharan Africa will tell you that 50 miles per hour is rare on major roads.
So whats the big deal? Many of the accessibility studies are used for downstream activities that include creating transportation models that eventually influence national level investment decisions.
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A Web Mapping Solution for Resource-constrained NGOs
Tuesday 12th of July 2011
Non-governmental Organizations are often on the front lines of service and innovation for international development. Operating as not-for-profit entities dependent on the largess of donors, they are natural economizers and that often means they forego investments in tech tools like GIS, mobile and web solutions. The ESRI non-profit program is going to shepherd in a significant expansion in the use of GIS in international development. The cost barrier has been removed but it will be some time before the human capital gets to the point where it can fully exploit the new tools available. SpatialDev recently had the opportunity to collaborate with a project designed to raise awareness of land tenure issues as they relate to people living in extreme poverty. The project wanted a series of maps that helped to tell the story of how natural endowments of the land, climate and land use provide context to the discussion if land rights. Embedded below is a prezi used for a panel discussion, "Facing Reality in Developing Countries: Working with Research Partners with Limited Resources", at the 2011 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego.
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Getting Spatial Data in to Tableau
Monday 18th of April 2011
If you haven't yet see Tableau Software run over to their web site and check it out now. In a nutshell Tableau software is a desktop tool that allows users to quickly analyze reams of data, from multiple formats extremely fast. You can use it to create some remarkable visualizations from data that is probably already in your database. Of course the first thing we wanted to try is visualizing and analyzing spatial data.
Tableau is not (nor does it pretend to be) a GIS tool. But it does have some basic ability to represent spatial data. Tableau requires you to flatten out the data by essentially pulling out each vertex in to its own row:
The tricky part to this turned out to be the VERTEX_TYPE. Any geospatial veteran will immediately recognize that this column is meant to identify island polygons in the data. However nobody at Tableau could us what the valid range of values were, so we had to guess. FME seemed to be the most logical tool to use to try to flatten out the data.
Using a combination of ListBuilders, Choppers and ListExploders I was able to get 80% of the way towards building a 'Tableau Loader' which could take any vector data and flatten it out to almost any RDBMS.
However this really does not handle the mysterious vertex type. The transformation simply treats everything as interior polygons which results on strange spikes and lots of self-intersecting lines any time it encounters a interior lake or other real world island. The challenge is in trying to determine the point order for interior and exterior polygons. After several hours on the phone with Tableau and working with four different tech people, no body could tell me what the proper ordering for the vertex points should be. Since this work there have been a few more examples posted which should all work with relatively simple data.
We shifted gears back to trying to represent point information. Since a lot of the data we deal with on a regular basis is raster based, its relatively easy to represent as points. Using this approach we were very quickly able to generate some simple dashboards on sub-national level population statistics.
After the visualization is created using the desktop software its a snap to publish out to their hosted, public facing server. You can see our little sample here. It would be great (and probably not hard) to connect Tableau directly to a spatial database such as PostGIS or SQL Spatial. With a little more effort it should be able to connect to FME for more complex data sources or even include some licensed FME components in to the Tableau desktop.
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SERVIR - Himalaya
Sunday 3rd of April 2011
A few weeks back I had the opportunity to visit ICIMOD on behalf of the SERVIR program. ICIMOD is the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development that serves eight member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region.
ICIMOD is the latest institution to join the SERVIR program as a regional node (the other nodes include RCMRD in Kenya and CATHALC in Panama). The week in Kathmandu was spent taking a deep dive in to the technical issues and challenges associated with deploying sophisticated mapping applications and geo-processing services in this part of the world. The joint team dug into geodatabase models, ISO metadata profiles and dataset publishing amongst other topics.
ICIMOD already has a talented group of developers and the MENRIS division already hosts some great applications including the Mountain GeoPortal. Now that the partnership with SERVIR is firmly in place, the plan is to create some specific thematic and regionally focused mapping applications. Several environmentally focused systems are planned that will initially focus on addressing fire mitigation, land use change and the cryosphere.
Of course it wasn't all work. We we're hosted to a traditional, five-course Nepali dinner in one of the nicest hotels in Kathmandu. The local team was also kind enough to show us around the city for some quick visits
to famous Buddhist and Hindu temples. SpatialDev is looking forward to continuing work with the team at ICIMOD and SERVIR.
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SpatialDev is Growing
Wednesday 16th of March 2011
We are looking for some help on some exciting projects.
Spatial Software Developer
Our leading edge spatial software development firm is looking for a smart, energetic developer to create web and mobile applications that incorporate location-based and geospatial technology. Knowledge of web standards and protocols, operating systems, and database systems is required. You must have the ability to both follow detailed direction and work independently to achieve deadlines for work products. You should will be willing to work collaboratively with other developers to design and develop software solutions for a variety of clients around the world. You must be dedicated with a strong desire to learn new technology.
Primary Responsibilities:
• Develop and maintain web and mobile software applications
• Research and gather requirements and assist in designing software solutions
• Work with project managers and senior developers to ensure projects are delivered on time
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues
Required Experience:
• Experience writing code in Python, Javascript, HTML, SQL
• Experience developing using an IDE and shared code repository
• Experience developing with databases (PostgreSQL/ SQL Server)
• Experience developing with mapping platforms and APIs (OpenGeo, ESRI, GeoCommons, Google, Bing, etc.)
• Experience with spatial data formats (ESRI, KML, GeoJSON, GeoRSS)
Desired Experience:
• Experience interfacing with content management systems (Drupal, Sharepoint, Joomla)
• Experience building solutions using Amazon Web Services or other cloud environments
• Experience incorporating social media platforms into solutions
• Experience developing with SQLite, Big Table, Mongo, Couch or Cassandra databases
• Experience working with GIS tools (ESRI, PostGIS, FME, GDAL)
• Experience with messaging protocols (SMS)
• Experience in Java or Objective C programming
• Experience with JQuery, Dojo or similar JavaScript libraries
• Possess a bachelor degree in Computer Science, related degree or equivalent experience
Submit resume to info@spatialdev.com
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Some good tools for the bootstrapped startup
Saturday 27th of November 2010
SpatialDev’s first year was a great learning experience in how to efficiently run (and hopefully grow) a small business. One of things that helped us was a great set of tools to do everything from managing our financials to testing our products. This post gives my review (in random order) of some of the tools we’ve tried and the ones we’re sticking with.
Collaboration and Content Management
We started using BaseCamp back when SpatialDev was still just a pub based conspiracy. It is simple, cheap and worked beautifully when we were starting up. Now that we’ve got larger and more complex projects, we find ourselves wishing for a few things BaseCamp doesn’t have… like document folders. It’s also a hard sell with clients who are invested in SharePoint (a product that makes me want to cry every time I try to use it). BaseCamp is great for “mastering” our key project and product documents, but we’re pragmatic and not religious users. One of the coolest things about BaseCamp is the ecology that has grown up around it. We’ve been using a bunch of cool tools built on Rails that use the BaseCamp API and like BaseCamp, they are cheap and for the most part just plain work.
Timekeeping
Anyone looking for a simple timekeeping system to use with or without BaseCamp integration should seriously consider Tick . It’s a very straightforward timekeeping system that can draw projects and work-breakdown structures (WBS) from BaseCamp and comes with mobile apps to enable you your crew to log time on the go. It is super simple to set up projects, generate billing details to accompany invoices, and keep track of burn.
SourceCode Control and Bug Tracking
We use Springloops which is basically a hosted subversion service that has straightforward Rails UI and basecamp integration. Another Rails web service that we use is 16 Bugs. Its easy to set up and provides a simple interface that testers of all backgrounds can use. It doesn't do anything fancy like manage the testing process, it just does bugs tracking and resolution and does it well.
Virtualization
I’m a Mac guy at heart and one of the things I always wanted to do was have a Mac as my primary computer at work. I use a 27” iMac loaded with RAM running Parallels . I haven’t used a PC emulator in quite some time and am totally blown away with the features and performance of Parallels. With the screen real estate I have on the iMac, I can truly run in parallel with Win 7 and Snow Leopard. This way, I can get access to all of the Windows-only software I need and stay in the Mac world where I belong.
Cloud Storage and Infrastructure
We’ve used Box.net and it works fine, but the business customer pricing is a little high for what you get. The desktop integration with Dropbox is cool and we used that as well. These are great tools and work well, but we can do the same thing with S3, so we’ve started moving to Amazon Web Services for all of our storage and flexible infrastructure needs. Now that Azure is part of the Bizspark program, we may check that out as well.
Dedicated Server Hosting
We still use dedicated servers for production hosting and we’ve been happy with what GoDaddy provides. It is also pretty slick to have your domain registrar and hosting provider one in the same. As ActionMappr continues to grow, we’ll move to provisioning new client sites through AWS.
Software Design
Our Interactive Art Director uses the heavy duty tools to design and create UIs, but from time to time, we need to draw up a workflow, a context diagram, system block diagram, a crude wireframe, what have you. Visio is good, but I have found OmniGraffle to be way better, despite the weird name. The shapes behave like I expect them to, the guides for placing things are more helpful in getting things straight, and the ability to apply styling is easier. The best thing about this software though is the availability of stencils that are directly relevant to what we do. There are a ton of free stencils developed by the user community and available at “Graffletopia” . You can find stencils for iPad, Android, Napkin UML and tons of other stuff that relates well to agile development.
Business Productivity
One of the biggest boosts to our start-up business has been access to all of Microsoft’s products through their BizSpark program. Microsoft gets its share of criticism for many of the things it does, but this is a very generous program that really makes bootstrapping possible. Other software companies create high barriers to entry for using their products and miss out on the good will and loyalty to be had by helping a small company get off the ground. Kudos to Microsoft for BizSpark!
Being a bootstrapped startup is always an exercise in resourcefulness and endurance. We found some great tools that alleviated some of the pain of building from scratch. For others considering a start up or searching for tools to relieve pain, I hope this helps.
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African Ecosystems:Clip, Zip & Ship
Thursday 11th of November 2010
When we first started work on the Ecosystems application we had just a few goals in mind
a) Highlight the new Ecosystems data recently made available from the USGS.
b) Make the data as simple as possible to download.
c) Kick the tires of ArcGIS Server for serving very large raster data sets from the central office in Kenya.
The biggest challenge during the development process was probably physically moving the data, in the form of file geodatabases, to Africa. The ten hour time difference between Seattle and Nairobi didn't help either. Another on-going problem is the frequent power outages in Nairobi which routinely break the connection between the application server and database server. A new uninterruptible power supply should be on-line soon.
In the near future we hope to support additional non-ESRI download formats. We will also be increasing the number of data sources from RCMRDs vast catalog of African spatial data. A huge thanks to the data providers including as the USGS, Open Street Map, Google for all the content. And a huge thanks the local team at RCMRD and the SERVIR program for making this all come together.
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FME User Group Meeting
Wednesday 29th of September 2010
Jubal Harpster from SpatialDev will be speaking at the upcoming FME user meeting in Seattle. The meeting is not just a sales pitch by Safe Software but a great chance to see what others in and around Seattle are doing with FME. Jubal will be talking about some ongoing work trying to orchestrate and audit multiple FME work flows using a combination of FME and Python. If time allows we may even get a chance to look at recent work building XFMaps to create geography from the Foursquare API.
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SpatialDev & ECityGov.Net
Wednesday 15th of September 2010
We are pleased to announce that SpatialDev has been selected to parter with the eCityGov Alliance to develop the next generation NWMaps.net GIS Internet Mapping Platform and Portal. The current site - in service to 10 communities now for over eight years - needs some repairs, data updates and a technology overhaul. The primary goal of the project is to create citizen-facing information services and assembling a new and improved base map.
The SpatialDev team is doubly excited because this announcement comes as we mark one year as a company.
In the coming months we will be working closely with the eCityGov Alliance to define new and innovative approaches to serving location-based municipal information. The new NWMaps.net will also integrate more seamlessly with other eCityGov services such as property and permit information. Ultimately, the project will provide an intuitive and user-friendly website for all seeking information about their community to make decisions affecting their families and business.
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More about ActionMappr and a request...
Tuesday 17th of August 2010
We keep making progress on ActionMappr and look forward to launching soon. Part of our process of getting to launch is customer discovery, trying to find some really good use cases and pain points where ActionMappr can really create value. Our experience with ActionMappr is that these aren't too hard to find... they're too hard to filter down to just a few. So we've decided to try and cast our net a bit wider and get more feedback to focus ActionMappr where it can have the most impact. We'll also be putting a survey up on the ActionMappr site to solicit some specific feedback for our effort. Attached to this post is a one page profile sheet (hi-res) for ActionMappr that we hope will get around to explain what we are trying to do and get the attention of some more folks. Please cross post and tweet this.
ActionMappr Overview
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WhereCampAfrica and BarCamp Nairobi
Wednesday 30th of June 2010
I'm a bit late on giving my final thoughts to the WhereCampAfrica event that happened in the middle of June. Anyone who has ever put on an event like this knows what a thankless job it can be, but it was simply amazing to see over 600 people getting together to talk about technology and mapping in Africa. I was working triple duty updating the barcampnairobi web site, running the twitter feed and resolving last minute issues.
Over the two days I met dozens of great local developers ,several potential business connections, watched two World Cup games, drank plenty of Tusker and had a great time. I would encourage everyone to visit the Barcamp Nairobi web site which has an updated list of bloggers and pictures.
I'm already looking forward to 2011 in Nairobi. We are thinking about ways to get more managers and decision makers out to BarCamp. Maybe a Friday night social might draw out folks who normally would not come out over the weekend. Please comment and add suggestions either here or at the event web site. Looking forward to seeing everyone next year.
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Our work with AGCommons.org
Wednesday 30th of June 2010
Today SpatialDev wrapped up its work with the AGCommons program. For those who aren't familiar with the program it is an initiative to accelerate farmer productivity in sub-Saharan Africa by delivering more locationally relevant, accurate and timely information to small holder farmers. Essentially delivering location based agricultural information to some of the hardest to reach people on the planet.
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Several members of our team has been working on this in conjunction with the CGIAR for over two years. From helping to forming the original concept with the Gates Foundation and ITC to delivering GIS and mapping technology to sub-Saharan Africa. The program direction ended as something completely different from what we started with but our team was still able to deliver a hybrid GeoServer & ArcGIS Server both sitting on PostGIS and hosted in the Amazon cloud. Along the way used Maps-On-A-Stick from the DevelopmentSeed, a GeoNetwork portal and DotGo & FrontlineSMS to build SMS interfaces to the spatial data. We we're also able to directly meet hundreds of stakeholders including farmers, agricultural extension agents, NGOs and researchers across both East and West Africa. We hosted the first ever WhereCamp outside of the United States and had a great time.
The team decided mid way through the project that hosting and running everything from the United States and Europe made little sense and was ultimately not sustainable. Eventually we decided to set up a Kenyan based company to maintain the technology and build the program going forward. I'm happy to say that company is now in place and open for business in Africa as AGCommons.org.
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Random Hacks of Kindness
Monday 24th of May 2010
Hackers Save the World
Sound interesting? Here's how you can become a part of it: Attend the Random Hacks of Kindness (www.rhok.org) Hackathon in Nairobi and develop open source software that saves lives, alleviates suffering and helps communities to recover after natural disasters strike. This event is the weekend just before WhereCampAfrica.
The Back Story
Random Hacks of Kindness is a joint effort founded by Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, NASA and The World Bank, dedicated to bringing software developers together to respond to challenges facing humanity in the area of natural disaster risk. We start with problem definitions, created in collaboration with the Crisis Commons through consultations with NGOs, governments and experts in the field from around the world, then we invite hackers to a come together to organize and go to work putting their skills to use to solve those problems with open source software solutions that make a difference on the ground. At a RHoK hackathon, new technologies are born, existing platforms are built upon, and innovative new ideas attract attention and support. At the close of the hackathon, teams present the technologies they have developed and prizes are awarded.
The Details
The next Random Hacks of Kindness Hackathon is happening in five locations around the world on June 5th and 6th, including in Nairobi at the iHub on the 4th floor of the Bishop Magua Centre Ngong Road (directly opposite the Uchumi Hyper) (http://www.ihub.co.ke). Join in two days of intensive hacking with hackers from Washington D.C., Sao Paolo, Jakarta and Sydney. Check out the full agenda for Nairobi or learn more about the global RHoK hackathon locations at http://www.rhok.org/events/rhok-1-0/nairobi-kenya/.
Why Do This?
- Save the world: You have the skills to make a difference. Hacks developed at the last RHoK hackathon were used on the ground in Haiti and Chile following the devastating earthquakes there in early 2010. The world needs these solutions.
- Exposure: Got a new product, idea or technology to share with the hacker community? Put it to work at the hackathon.
- Assistance: Extend the function and applicability of your existing products or software through global crowdsourced development.
- Input: Get real-time feedback from Subject Matter Experts in software and disaster risk.
- Insight: Learn about what other companies and developers are doing in the same space.
Sounds great! How do I sign up?
Sign up on our Nairobi registration page at http://rhoknairobi.eventbrite.com/. We'll see you there!
If you are interested in assisting with the organization at one of the global hackathon locations, please contact thea.clay@secondmuse.com
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Mapping Actions
Tuesday 18th of May 2010
The whole SpatialDev team is going to be presenting the ActionMappr at the Seattle Startup Showcase. We will be in very good company with some of the best Seattle start-ups. The ActionMappr is the culmination of work we have done in the past mapping where things are happening in the field but in this case we've taken some popular social media platforms and SMS to let the field tell us what is happening and where.
The ActionMappr lets organizations engage with their user community, whether that community is a city transportation department, NGOs working in the field or an entrepreneur who needs to manage a distributed team. Users map actions by getting field updates from popular social media platforms and integrating those updates with other mapping data. We leverage existing social location platforms by using geo-enabled tweets and Foursquare, and by using simple SMS we can make this work anywhere in the world. We are mapping where we're doing. Stay tuned for more news.
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FrontlineSMS Geo -Part 1
Friday 16th of April 2010
Over the past few weeks the team has been experimenting with extending the popular FrontlineSMS platform with location intelligence. For those who are not familiar with FrontlineSMS it is a platform that enables users to send and receive text messages to groups of people through mobile phones. While it is heavily used by NGOs working in developing countries, it works just as well in Seattle as it does in Kampala. The goal of adding location smarts to SMS messages is to match the location of user requests with other layers of geographic information. This might include market prices at the closest market, local soil types, weather or other nearby projects.
To do this we are need to overcome several challenges
a) we want something that works completely off-line
b) the solution has to be lightweight, simple, and work on multiple operating systems
c) no license costs for re-distribution
Also, right now FrontlineSMS has no notion of user sessions. That is, each message is sent independently in what amounts to a stateless environment. We want to locate someone first and then tell them something about their local environment in 160 characters or less.
The technical components for this include the FrontlineSMS External Command capability, php and the spatial extensions to SQLite known as spatialite. For our location database we are using geonames. We configured the external commands to launch our own php script based on an incoming keyword. In this case when the user texts the keyword FIND followed by a place name, FrontlineSMS is able to launch our custom script. If we are able to locate the person the script echos back several options.
The achiellies heel of this approach is the accuracy and completeness of the geonames database. Geonames does not get the location right in every single case, but its right alot. There is not a lot we can do about this in the short term but in the long term it is possible to include additional points of interest (POI) data from both Open Street Map and Google Map Maker. Also, anyone does have the ability to update the geonames database, either locally or on the server and we are tracking unsuccessful geocodes attempts along with the successful ones so at some point it may be possible to go back and update the missing locations.
For Part 2 I will be describing the technical detail along with steps to create the database locally and enable the FrontlineSMS access. For Part 3 I will be detailing how do actually do the spatial queries with spatialite return something meaningful to the users. We will also be releasing the php code once we have everything working properly land have removed any embarrassing flaws.
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Welcome to SpatialDev
Saturday 13th of March 2010
Welcome to the SpatialDev blog site. First a little bit about SpatialDev, who we are and why we are here. SpatialDev is a technology company with an emphasis on mapping and mobile location. SpatialDev is also a group of social entrepreneurs who believe that we can make a living by having a positive impact on the world using maps and location based technology to drive that impact. And have fun doing it. We believe that we can apply spatial technology to the challenges of the developing world.
We are a small company, we have no outside investors and no debt. We we're formed as a small break-away from the former CH2M HILL Enterprise Spatial Solutions Group. For us, it was the perfect time to start a new company. The poor economy, the need to balance our personal interests against corporate goals, the development of new forms of location technology, and the rise of Africa and the developing world has made this the perfect time.
We balance the needs for our clients by implementing a range of geospatial technologies including Open Source tools, mobile platforms, ESRI, and everything in between and do so anywhere in the world. We worry more about our clients requirements than one particular stack or solution. So stay tuned for more news about our partnerships, our projects and our staff as we move forward.
-Jubal Harpster
Principal and co-founder
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