Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Location-based Services - An ESRI Perspective with Jonathan Spinney

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2003 00:48:58 -0400

Location-based Services - An ESRI Perspective with Jonathan Spinney

By: Joe Francica
(Jul 30, 2003)

Over the past few years, we have reported on Location-based Services, the hype of
the early days, the transition and subsequent shakeout among companies vying for
the market. There have been companies focused solely on position determination and
those that can process the location of people or objects that are sending their
position from wireless devices. Companies in GIS have been in the category of
processing location and creating mapping software for different mobile device form
factors. In this interview, Editor-in-Chief, Joe Francica speaks with Jonathan
Spinney, Industry Manager for Location-based Services at ESRI. Here is that
interview:

Joe Francica (JF): Where do you believe ESRI is differentiating itself with its
current suite of LBS solutions from competitors like MapInfo and Intergraph for
“end-user” mobile applications in the existing GIS market.
Jonathan Spinney (JS): ESRI offers several products to our users and developers
for mobile solutions development.

1.ESRI offers a hosted web service for building web-based
and mobile applications.  ArcWeb for Developers is an
ESRI-hosted SOAP/XML web service that allows
mass-market, enterprise, or government developers to imbed mapping, routing,
geocoding, geoprocessing, and points of interest into their web and mobile
applications.

2.ESRI also offers the ArcIMS with the Route Server extension.  Together these
products provide the same geoprocessing functionality as ArcWeb for Developers,
but are licensed as commercial software products.  Any application developer can
purchase ArcIMS, RouteServer, the spatial data to power it, and build the
application on top of their own network of computing resources.  This option
allows users to build their own web services hosted on their premises.  ArcWeb for
Developers and ArcIMS are both built on open standards, and both are portable and
extensible to accommodate high-volume transaction traffic and usage growth.
3.ESRI offers ArcPad and the ArcPad Application Builder for CE developers.  Off
the shelf, ArcPad is a lightweight, yet fully robust mobile GIS.  For
location-based applications that simply display retrieved results, ArcPad is
sometimes too powerful.  With the new Application Builder extension, developers
can strip down and customize the functionality of ArcPad.  This allows enterprise
developers to build custom, department specific applications for the field force.
ArcPad operates in standalone mode, or it can easily consume web services hosted
by ESRI, or web services built by an organization with ArcIMS and RouteServer.

JF: Where do you believe ESRI is differentiating itself from middleware providers
such as Telcontar and Kivera?

JS: Several vendors have implemented their GIS engines into commercially available
application servers for performance reasons.  I see the application server as
middleware.  Performance and speed are critical for applications that may
potentially process millions of geo-transactions.  ESRI continually invests R&D in
improving our software to meet the performance requirements and expectations of
our users and developer community.  With the upcoming release of ArcGIS Server
scheduled for 3Q03, ESRI will provide developers with core objects that they can
use to deploy inside .NET or J2EE application servers.

JF: Will ESRI focus on their existing base of customers in government and business
rather than consumer location services? Which has greater potential in the
short-term?

JS: Yes.  ESRI will continue to focus on our existing customers in Business,
Emergency Services, Government, Homeland Security, Transportation, and Utilities.
However, that's not to say our technology can't be used by mass-market developers
as well.  In the short term, the enterprise and government supergroup horizontals
represent the immediate revenue generating potential for ESRI.

JF: 4. Is there a market developing for the integration of dynamic, “real-time”
location data (e.g. weather, traffic) and who are the immediate buyers?
Government? Businesses? Consumers?

JS: Sure.  One of the things that make a location-based application valuable is
the ability to exploit location as a means to communicate dynamic conditions
through a geographical context.  It's all about equipping mobile users with
knowledge so that they can better try to decide and subsequently act on the
unpredictable.  By providing users with access to dynamic information, users are
able to make better decisions faster, and it helps them communicate more
effectively.  I think commodity data like traffic and weather is good for
everyone.  All you have to do is turn on your TV every morning to see how
important traffic and weather are – there are reports every 5 minutes.  I also
think other dynamic event data unique to an organizations’ operations are equally
important for location-based applications.

JF: Please give an example of how your ArcLocation Solutions (Spatial Server,
Connector, etc.) combine to create a mobile solution for a typical customer (cite
existing customer if possible)

JS: ArcLocation Solutions is one of ESRI’s solutions positioned for the LBS
market.  It consists of multi-lingual J2ME applications that run on Java enabled
phones, Palm OS devices, RIM, Symbian, and any other handheld device that has a
Java Virtual Machine (JVM) installed in it.  There is also a Mobile Toolkit
available to build custom J2ME applications that consume our SOAP/XML web services
through service chaining proxies.  The Connector is the servlet that handles the
service chaining, and it translates our SOAP services to OpenLS. Mass-market,
Enterprise, or Government mobile application developers can use the Mobile Toolkit
to build terminal resident J2ME applications that directly consume ESRI-hosted web
services.  The application can be downloaded over-the-air, or hot synched at the
desktop.

JF:  How is Spatial Server licensed? Will this be per transaction or do you offer
a block transaction fee?

JS: Both.  ESRI licenses web services on a per transaction basis for high volume,
and block transactions for low volume.  For instance, 100K transactions equal one
transaction block.  One block costs $1,250 USD.  We also add high volume discounts
to the pricing scheme as usage increases.  The higher the volume, the less
expensive it becomes.  Our pricing is competitive, and our licensing scheme is set
up to accommodate revenue share models.

JF: What market catalysts are needed for real-time, dynamic location information
to become a viable product that either government, business or consumers will
purchase?  Broadband? Ubiquitous Wi-Fi?  Handset devices that are location-aware?
Government FCC mandates for 911 compliance?  511 Traveler assistance?

JS: The main issue thwarting LBS’ growth is that most carriers have not opened up
their networks for the average GIS application developer.  Access to location is
still the major issue hurting development and thus adoption.  Few carriers have
collaborated with enterprises and governments to offer location as a commodity.
Instead, many carriers have launched their own generic applications in an attempt
to get mass-market, enterprise, and government users to subscribe.  This approach
ensures that carriers have complete control over who uses their network, but it is
a closed system.  It does not encourage uptake and usage unless marketed
accordingly.  To date, I have seen very little marketing of LBS on behalf of
carriers.  I think that carriers are better off leasing or wholesaling location to
anyone.  Nextel, for example, is the only U.S. carrier to offer an open GPS API to
J2ME developers.  This offering builds on the open source philosophy and it does
not require the application developer to strike a special deal with the carrier
for location.  The GPS API allows developers to turn their device into a GPS
receiver, and from there, the developer can do whatever they want with J2ME. In
the UK, Orange and mm02 sell location on a per transaction basis to any GIS
developer that has permission to obtain a subscribers location. I do not think we
will see LBS meet its self-imposed expectations, unless all carriers make location
readily available through lease or wholesale pricing schemes to all GIS
developers.

JF: Has the LBS market shaken off the problems associated with the overhype it
experienced in 2001-2002 and have wireless carriers started looking at which
location services products will be most marketable?

JS: Yes on both accounts.  The proverbial hype is over.  I think one of the
problems we had early on was that some in the wireless world had little previous
exposure to location and GIS concepts.  The GIS community has learned over years
what applications work, and what industries have use for spatial technologies.  I
think this was difficult for some in the wireless world to learn.  Also, in the
beginning, nearly everyone concentrated on applications closer to Telecom, which
they understood well.  Applications like e911, location-based 411, location-based
messaging or friend finding, etc., were deployed in the hopes that everyone would
come running.  These apps cannot do it all, do not encompass everything, and do
not meet the requirements of individual enterprises or governments.  I think the
LBS community realizes this in retrospect, and most have broadened their horizons
to offer enabling technologies to developers and end users who have unique
business mobility problems that location can help solve.

JF: Where will we be in 2005 in the LBS market?

JS: I will just say that I hope we are better off than we are now.  Enterprises
and governments are poised to make great things happen if we can solve the
location availability problem, as well as the carrier business model issues.

http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=388

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