Does User Generated Content mean Cash?

You bet it does. Look at how you shop online: You heard about a book that will make your job easier. But are you willing to pay full price plus shipping? What would make you 100% confident of your purchase? Feedback. Many times I read 25 comments from owners before I read the store's listing. It's funny that I trust 25 strangers opinions, and also that I trust the comments are not from the author logging in 25 times with different names!

But that is how society has always worked- word of mouth. It can drive sales and it can find that perfect employer. Place word of mouth on the internet and you have communication between users across the country like they are next door neighbors.

Technology companies have created applications for content, feedback, and context, simply known as user generated content (UGC). UGC with the power of search provides specific information and product based solely on feedback. Companies that use this technology for revenue call it social commerce.

The next wave for UGC will be the mash-up of location. How powerful is it to know where feedback is generated? Persuasion is definitely greater if content comes from someone close to home rather than many states away. Or how about the use of location analytics to see what region has the most purchases of your product or leaves the most feedback?

Who uses analytics?

Analytics have been around for many years with a stigma of overwhelming and hard to create. That stigma will be crushed in the future, and mash-up technology is going to make analytics the next technology wave.

Analytics have such a vast amount of purpose, from key metric or performance measurement to predicting future trends. Within business or enterprise organizations, analytics are created within Business Intelligence (BI) software. However for BI software to work effectively, it relies on data warehousing and ETL procedures. Some of the BI software vendors are moving into the mash-up world, but still require expensive software licensing.

Analytics are best viewed within a dashboard as a widget or gauge. These widgets display graphs, charts, maps, or any type of graphic of information about your data. My favorite metric to show performance is simply the 3 category traffic light which simply displays good (green), bad (yellow), and ugly (red). Microsoft Excel provides some of the easiest analytic widgets with its charting wizard.

Well, as you may have guessed, I am searching for the perfect analytic mash-up service. I am looking for a graphing service that allows mash-ups to personal data without programming and for free. I have found websites (I will post them at a later time) that speak of this service, calling it mashboards. The closest free service I have found so far is a company called http://www.swivel.com/. This is a neat sight, mainly as a social community site (which I will discuss later), that allows uploading data to feed automatically into charts. At this time, they do not allow RSS feeds, or mash-ups; but their site includes hints mash-up may be in the future. If you know of any other sites, please leave a comment with an URL. I will create a mash-up for the blog with my Work Request system.

An analytic application I am gaga about is Google Analytics. This is an incredible application. I can't believe how easy it is. I have seen applications such as this cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and here it is free. All the user has to do is add about 7 lines of code to each of their web pages, and instantly this SaaS program tracks:

• who is visiting your site
• where they are coming from (location!)
• how long they where on your site
• what pages are most visited
• which links are most clicked
• how they got to your site - directly, search engine, or link
• the search words used to get to your site
• the search engine, operating system, connection speed, screen resolution

All with a dashboard and widget interface. Just an amazing application. It does allow drill down to gain more facts, however, it does not allow drill down by using the graphics. The user must click the "reports" link underneath each graphic.

I have no complaints considering the price. The perfect analytics application is Google Analytics and the sourced data of your choice. Hence, a mash-up of your data to this service.

Analytics will definitely be the next wave of "must have" features for the online user to the enterprise. People are really catching on to using data to drive decisions (d3), and mash-up technology is only going to make analytics much more prominent.

Mash-up is Disruptive Technology

Mash-ups allow the integration of multiple data feeds or services to interact together. The most popular mash-ups are utilizing mapping technology and databases such as Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth. Many technologist believe mash-ups are hobby or hacker technologies. Didn't they believe Napster was as well? Napster was the reason iTunes today is the number 1 site for downloading music.

The vast popularity of mash-up technology will come with applications that allow users to create their own through drag and drop technology. For example, if Google Maps API will ever entail a graphical user interface (GUI), or create a service over the web with simple user interface (UI), the multitude of map mash-ups will require search to provide the right information to the right user.

I have been searching for these applications for quite awhile; I refuse to deal with programming.
The other day, I found my "almost" perfect map mash-up. I say almost because it still requires extra steps and programming understanding, but is very simple to use. It is through the utilization of Yahoo Pipes (http://pipes.yahoo.com) to create a continuous really simple syndication (RSS) feed of data to a map. Simply put, RSS is a continuous stream of information from any data or user generated source, such as news. I was able to use my Zoho Creator table, run it through Yahoo Pipes, and create a link that is copied and pasted into Google. I just can't believe how simple this is. I love it! Now my HOA can actually view which building has a work request, and its free!

Mash-ups only work with data that has an open application programming interface (API). An API allows other applications access to data or services by connections. The future for mash-ups is a simple search for the data you want, then drag and drop on top of the services required. Vendors that create their software systems without an API are writing themselves out of business. In fact, if they are not moving their code into SaaS systems, they are really falling behind. Users no longer want to have systems that are disparate or just stored information silos.

So who is going to be the iTunes of mash-up?

The Power of SEO

Search engine optimization, or simply "search," has more power over our future than we realize. Think about the power Google has over our entrance onto the internet. What is usually the first page you use to access another site? What is your homepage URL? That little search bar has so much power, users are able to type any subject or reference they choose, and instantly return related information. No programming, no understanding SQL!

Why is this important? Think about the database your search is queried upon, the network the search is using, and the number of records returned. The speed is incredible. Now, try to create the same type of query for data within your organization's databases. How long does it take you to generate the code? How long does it take to return thousands of records?

In the future, Search will be the best entry to gain access to all data within your organization. The days of expensive, complicated, and exclusive data warehousing, extract-transform-load (ETL) procedures will fade. A simple search will not only access all databases in your organizations, it will also cross multiple databases with mash-up technology.

Why is SaaS important to me?

Software as a service, also referred to as cloud computing, will be the most important manner to purchase software in the future. Gone will be the days when enterprise solutions require teams of technologists to implement and maintain software for their organization.

To understand where this technology is already affecting our lives, it is as simple as understanding how you utilize Google's or Yahoo's email. Google has even gone forward with their Docs software which allows a user to never need to purchase office software again.

One mind-blowing trend of ease and functionality is http://www.zoho.com/. They have a SaaS application called Creator that is a simple drag and drop developer application to provide input and storage on your website. And its free! It allows you to view the data in spreadsheet format and also edit. I am particularly interested because the technology of the past required servers, server software, deep programming, domain name, etc ... hours to create one input box. Now, you can have it in less than one minute. I used this service to create a web Work Request System for my HOA.

Future Technologies

I have decided to add more technology speak to this blog. As I account for more research in understanding today's trends, I notice more and more the future of technology. I have in particular noticed the importance of these technologies in our future:

• user generated content (UGC)
• software as a service (SaaS)
• mash-up
• social networking or social communities
• virtual world
• search engine optimization (SEO)
• analytics (BI)
• location (GIS)

These technologies are inherently disparate, but because of mash-ups they are becoming more integrated and the demand to put their functionality together is great. In the future I will blog about the importance of each one. It is inherently important for companies to make money to include these technologies in their products.

GIS is not…

Perhaps a simplistic method to create an explanation of GIS is to first understand what it is not. For instance:

GIS is NOT a map. A map is a 2D or 3D representation of an area on paper or computer. It is a visual report. Calling GIS a map would be equivalent to calling a pie graph “statistics.” A map is a report that displays information that is produced by any graphic editor, be it some type of technology, cartography, or simply hand-drawn on a bar napkin. I don’t know how many times I have heard the term “GIS map.” I know what the person is referring to (a map that comes from a GIS technology), but that term is being used incorrectly.

GIS is NOT data. Data is facts that can provide descriptive attributes. Those descriptors can be text, images, or again, information written on a bar napkin. Data is usually stored digitally on a computer within a database. A GIS uses data to create analysis. Graphic editors or a cartographer can use data to create a map. I have heard the term “GIS data” often as well. Again, what the person is generally referring to is graphic or pictorial data that is compiled with graphic software to create a map or some type of visual display. However, GIS relies on text data as much as pictorial data.

GIS is NOT GPS (global positioning system). GPS is a device that receives satellite information to use as a location identifier on the earth. This information is best displayed to the common user on a map.

GIS is NOT a single software company. GIS technology has been created by various companies worldwide. They each have a specialization in certain types of analysis. If a company proclaims they have a specialization in maps, then they are a graphic editing company, or should call themselves cartographic (from cartography – the production of maps - http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cartography ).

GIS is NOT a satellite image. A view of the world from above, sometimes referred as “birds eye view” can be created by satellite or airplane snapshots and processed into images. These are also referred as “aerial images” or “orthophotography.” This is just another form of data that displays “real life” (not drawn) pictures on a map.

GIS is missing its true meaning

Explaining GIS is tough. The reason is, depending on your level of use with GIS from beginner, developer, or professional, each has a varied definition. What I have noticed when trying to sell GIS to “C” level executives, or to 99.9% of the world who does not claim GIS as their profession, you can not give a standard answer, and no there is no such thing as “the answer.” In fact I have not quite figured out the perfect answer yet, but that is another reason for this blog – try to figure out the best manner to deliver the GIS message.

This blog should be able to provide “the answer” that GIS professionals will use from now on, and the rest of the population as well. The answer should be just as easy as saying “I am a doctor.” Everyone knows what that means, and also the next question, “what do you practice?” To find the true meaning of GIS (I will try not to compare that statement to Christmas!) it will take several posts to explain the background terminology I use, spreading over several dimensions. I will bold words that deserve a future post.

GIS is very often confused with mapping, or map feature drawing. Though these are two of the 4 principles of GIS, it should not be considered the primary purpose. Both these principles create a visual aspect. The visual is actually being separated from GIS, the future holds mapping as service based. In fact, the visual does have a definition that seems to be lost in the human language, cartography. I am not sure why this term and profession has gone away, but it should be brought back. It seems as soon as drawing maps went digital, the term cartography went out as well…can you say "the baby with the bath water?" The loss of cartography as a profession is confusing, because as soon as a graphic artists went digital, their title did not change to “PhotoShop Analyst.”

Mapping is most synonymous with GIS because it is what makes the most sense. It is easy to describe because of pictures…remember "a picture is worth a thousand words." The visual is so much easier to sell- its “the sizzle.” However, the sizzle is not going to sell a true analytical system. The sizzle is now a commodity due to Google.

The analytics, the 3rd of 4 principles of GIS, is the transparency for integration into other technology systems. GIS analytics are rarely known except by GIS professionals. You may even find that daily GIS users don’t even know of the analytics. Again, this is where the perception of map creation and data become more apparent to GIS. Analytics will play a huge part for the future of GIS. So what everyone should know, and “the answer” should present, is that GIS provides analytics.

How do you provide the perfect description? Well that is one of the reasons why I choose to call this blog “What’s Ur 20”. GIS professionals need to think in current technology terms that influence the majority of the population. Guess what, everyone knows what the title of this blog means from playing with walkie talkies as a kid. We should be able to describe GIS as easy as the blog’s question. In fact I once read that USA Today is such a popular newspaper because it is written at a 6th grade reading level. Another thing I have heard, and I can’t remember where, but the statement was “if you can’t describe what you do in one sentence, you need to find another profession.” We need to consider these two statements when creating “the answer.” As you can see this post has created “a can of worms” for many more posts to come.

Why a blog about GIS?

As technology is moving forward, GIS is becoming more functional and more of a necessity. However, there is a disconnect between those who consider themselves GIS professionals and developers who are making this technology easier to use and more mainstream. This blog is an attempt to place a "human" description to what GIS is...meaning give it a definition that everyone who is not a GIS professional can understand its purpose, and to assist those who are the "professionals" to understand how technology is making GIS more and more transparent. This blog should be a good read for those who have never heard of GIS as well as those who can claim GIS as their profession of choice. It will be interesting to see if I can blog and define GIS without having to post a visual display....Is this possible?....We'll see....

Blog Introduction

I will be periodically adding thoughts to this post to introduce GIS concepts and to generate discussions of how GIS can and is changing technology. My thoughts come from background experience, perceived future, and research. If my thoughts do change, I will keep the original blog so that the evolution and migration of ideas can be displayed.