FANTOM PLANET

To quote a line from Jack Ryan:

[imitating the Admiral] “The average Rooskie, son, don’t take a dump without a plan.” Wait a minute. We don’t have to figure out how to get the crew off the sub. He’s already done that, he would have had to. All we gotta do is figure out what he’s gonna do. So how’s he gonna get the crew of the sub. They have to want to get off. How do you get a crew to want to get off a submarine? How do you get a crew to want to get off a nuclear sub…
[eureka!]

Someone doesn’t have a plan, or they’re friggin’ geniuses. Think about this. There’s going to be Google data going to ESRI users and ESRI user data will be visible to the Google indexers. That leaves us with some unanswered questions:

• What is going to be the EULA going to look like on both sides?
• Will data made w/ gData be the user’s data, or Google or ESRI’s data if it’s exposed to Google’s web?
• Will the analysis layers be indexed by Google and will they own a copy?
• Will “Big Iron GIS” users even want to expose their data to Google and the web?
• Where’s Microsoft in this? ESRI + Microsoft makes for quick and easy GIS. Does (ESRI + Microsoft) * Google = Cloud Geoprocessing? Or, Google using Microsoft server and database platforms?

Getting back to ESRI users exposing data. Some of those users don’t let that stuff out of their command line. A friend was telling me today that cities in his region are ultra resistant to sharing data with other cities. So, how does Jack get his users to expose their data?

That’s what I really want to know.

The typical ESRI user “is an expert.” Or, at least in their own mind; and they typically don’t want to be usurped in anyway. Their Matrix gets turned off like that doll house by SAP. You may get a county to do something, but local sites are going to be a pain in the butt to turn onto the web by ESRI. Unless it’s ESRI’s responsibility in the pre-nup to bring in the “trusted interlocutors” to Google.

Something is askew.

On a side note: I spoke with Lisa Parks, who spoke yesterday about slippy map makers framing spatial media context, today. She has a grad student tracking the changes to the Google license agreement almost daily. That is because it changes almost daily.

After thinking about what to get my wife for Mother’s Day, the SQL Server 2008 spatial capability announcement really got me thinking this afternoon. And it comes down to a blog post a few weeks ago from Tim O’Reilly who posted, “What We Really Sell Is Control.”

Tim noted in two separate meetings, two CEOs told him control is what they sell. I guess Microsoft can say the same thing when it comes to the Microsoft Photogrammetery (MP) monster that is sticking its head out of the water. They have planes, satellites, vans, servers you hire/buy—and you can control it all from Xbox Live. Almost the whole dang package is built for the Government or Enterprise. Throw in SharePoint, and you have an IT department that’s very capable—if the configuration management mafia allows it.

Plus, I bet you can make some seriously better PowerPoint presentations with it too!

Interesting announcements, reporting, and commentary this past week about Microsoft building spatial capabilities natively into SQL Server 2008.

Ok—great! Since my office uses SQL Server in certain instances, this is a good thing. But, my office also owns Oracle and IBM database servers. We all know they have gone “spatial” too.

So, what happens to our world when all of your databases “go spatial”?

I have this sneaking sensation—at least in my hole in the wall—that it’s going to be like the typical Microsoft Office user. Type, change font, save, and that’s it.