Two weeks back I was in Washington, DC at the GEOINT Symposium, the major industry event for the geospatial intelligence market, put on by the excellent USGIF. Each year there’s a growing number of companies with a primarily commercial focus, showcasing their tech for government users, which shows that the focus of the government community is more and more shifting toward off-the-shelf and consumer tech each year.
2015 GEOINT theme
This year’s theme was “opening the aperture,” a term which can be interpreted in a couple of ways. USGIF CEO Keith Masback’s comments on the theme are that the use of geospatial intelligence is expanding outside of the national and homeland security spaces. It now sits “alongside business intelligence, location-based technologies, remote sensing, and analytics” in the business world, as well.
Another way to interpret the theme is that “opening the aperture” reflects how GEOINT consumers are broadening their focus. They are now embracing, processing, and understanding information from new sources such as microsatellites, commercial spatial data, and the Internet. By widening the scope of data and tools used to address GEOINT challenges, users gain access to fresh methodologies and datasets for uncovering insights.
This includes big-picture innovations like near real-time satellite feeds covering entire countries, Twitter streams with billions of data points, and sensor feeds generating petabytes of data daily. These resources are invaluable but require the cutting-edge tools showcased at GEOINT to extract meaningful insights from these massive streams of content. It’s this intersection of innovative technology and data deluge that enables the transformation of raw inputs into actionable intelligence.
The industry must remain cautious about over-relying on easily accessible data and so-called black magic analytical engines. There’s a tendency to trivialize the challenges of effectively using data, particularly spatial data, which can lead to flawed assumptions. This often results in misplaced confidence about which technologies can solve specific problems. Buzzwords like “big data,” “Hadoop clusters,” and “dataviz” sometimes create the illusion that these tools are magic solutions. These technologies offer immense value when applied to the right problems and used with a clear understanding of their capabilities. Proper application and comprehension are critical to unlocking their full potential.
Fulcrum’s role
I’m particularly interested in how Fulcrum can enhance the data collection and analysis process. With new streams like Internet-based sources—think tweets or Foursquare check-ins—we can achieve better geographic targeting. Fulcrum’s strength lies in high-fidelity, ground-observed information collected through active rather than passive methods. To maximize the toolset, focus data collection activities on areas of highest importance, informed by social media trends. For example, which neighborhoods are most mentioned on Twitter? What venues and events draw the most visitors in those areas?
Fulcrum also functions as a tool for work dispatch, connecting analysts to field resources in real time. Analysts can act on insights from new data streams by dispatching resources to gather targeted, actionable information. This applies broadly, whether it’s a soldier gathering intelligence for government use or a sales rep analyzing competitors’ distribution strategies. Quick access to the right resources at the right moment saves significant time and resources, improving ROI for all involved.
Bryan recently posted another piece that’s relevant here, highlighting a few of the thousands of Fulcrum users and how they’re using Fulcrum to drive value to their organizations while actually saving money and getting better answers. One of the most relevant things on my mind as I browsed the latest capabilities being showcased at GEOINT was how powerful new resources for back-office data analysis and visualization can help steer field resources in the right direction.