Presentation given at SIGLibre 2013 in Girona by Javier de la Torre

1. GIS is dead, long live
to GIS!
Javier de la Torre - @jatorre
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My name is Javier de la Torre, Co-founded Vizzuality, a data analysis and visualization
company working lot on environment and maps. We started teveloping CartoDB, and Open
Source Geospatial database 2 years ago and now is our main business.

3. _the GEO world is changing
Possibly best time in history to work on the market.
Friday, March 8, 13
the Geospatial market is changing. It is probably the most interesting moment in history to
work on this market. Wanna show you why.

4. _the 4th revolution
John Snow
ArcGIS
Google Maps
Data visualization and real time
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My own invention, we are on the 4th revolution :D

5. _John Snow
The power of maps for analysis
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1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak

6. _ArcGIS
The invention of a sector
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Jack created an entire new industry.

7. _Mashups
Google Maps define how maps should be created on
Internet
http://www.axismaps.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/
2012/09/ugly.jpg
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Amazing we found those mashups beautiful...

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Love the volcano marker!

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Not good, not good

10. _Data visualization
Google Maps is getting old....
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New tools are allowing for much better cartography. We call it more data visualization, as it
connects with other fields...

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some examples...

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15. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/03/01/world/americas/border-graphic.html?_r=0
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23. _A few companies doing web
maps right
Stamen
Mapbox
CartoDB
Axismaps
New York Times
Azavea
Periscopic
http://www.quora.com/Data-Visualization/Who-are-todays-leading-data-visualization-companies
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This is by no means comprehensive, but a quick list of organizations I think are getting it
right.

24. _Possibly best moment in
history to work doing geo
...cartographers, geographers, developers...
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There is a new world to be invented! Prossibly best moment in history to work on the field

25. _but what is going on?
Mass consumption
Geo is no longer a niche market
Design/cartography
Interaction
Speed and Scalability
Infrastructure
Big Data
Open Data
Open Source
Mobile and new markets
....
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But why now? What is going on?

26. _Mass comsumption
Everybody wants to do maps and tell stories with data
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Maps had never been so popular... there are maps everywhere and people are starting to
understand them. Google Maps concepts are now mainstream.

27. _the_geom is just
another column
GIS is not the centre of the world, sorry.
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Geo is getting everywhere. Lot of developers are doing geo without realizing. Geo is no
longer its own little niche, we are now a technology on everything. We are not the centre of
the world, we are just one more column on the database.

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29. _design and usability is the only
way
Let say NO to ugly and ususable GeoPortals that do
not satisfy neither end users or professionals.
It is not about taking Desktop GIS to the web, wake up!
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Sergio, my partner at CartoDB and Vizzuality once told me that a legend is the most clear
example that the map has been wrongly designed. Of course it is not like we should avoid
legends, but simplification is definetly one of the strongest concepts to catch up.

33. http://mapbox.com/blog/trouble-with-geoportals/
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Great overview of problems with official geoportals... not focus on real users

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35. _New interaction concepts on
maps
This is not in the books!! NEW NEW
Think on the map experience, not just how it looks
like.
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The realization of the interactive map as an experience, not just a map design.

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We dont design 1 map anymore, we design 21, one per each zoom level!

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Visualizing 34,000 points the same way when you are looking at the entire world than when
you zoom in IS AN ERROR.

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You might want to show, tell, a different thing when looking at the entire world, like what is
the density of the data worldwide....

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and when zoomed in make easier to click on individual markets to get more data...

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And what about animated maps? How do people percieve them? What we should do in terms
of colors? NEW NEW research areas!

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Like on this analysis of MWC impact in Barcelona... how does the user persieve the
information when animated on top of maps?? So much to research!

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Or real time maps! What happens if the map changes automatically while you are viewing,
what are the rules? What to do, what not? NEW NEW!

43. _A fast map is way
more valuable
Maps need to scale: caching
Maps need to work globally
Maps need to perform in any device/browser
Speed is a fundamental part of the user experience.
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44. _Cloud services
Is not just Hype!
The democratization of Computing capacity
Everybody can now compete with Google! Welll, kind
of.
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You need to know EC2, and you need to know it is expensive and hard. Use it as an example,
start maybe easier.

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If you dont know CloudFront is the first thing you should checkout tomorrow. It feels like
created for Maps!!

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48. _Big Data technology
MapReduce
Horizontal scalability
Soon there will be HUGE daily datasets coming
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Keep an eye there, we are not gonna be able to process the HUGE amount of data coming. So
know what is your strategy for BIG DATA

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Imagine an image of the same place on earth every 24hours from satellite. What could you do
with it?? I dont know, but processing it will have to be with some sort of Big data technology.

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We are doing it for Deforestation with CartoDB

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Using Hadoop.

52. _We have never had so much
data available
OpenData
OpenStreetMaps
Wikipedia...
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We created this very simple visualization about the history of the Rolling Stones by
downloading the data about their concerts from Wikipedia.

57. _Open Source and business
models
The best technology is Open Source or it is not available
for license.
From a license model to a service model. Amazing
oportunity for Open Source.
Mapnik, D3, Leaflet, PostGIS...
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61. _OGC has stopped innovation
OGC standards had paralyzed the Open Source
community limiting its most powerful strength: innovation
FOSS4G can not keep looking at OGC for what to do, it
has to innovate
Upcoming non OGC open formats that are right:
GeoJSON, TopJSON, MBTiles...
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62. _Expanding markets
There has never been so much GEO market
Everything happens somewhere
The Mobile World Congress was a great example
USA, Brasil, etc are way better than Europe
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63. _How to do GEO on the web
today
http://www.axismaps.com/blog/2012/09/advice-to-the-
aspiring-interactive-cartographer/
1) Be able to search for data and transform them.
2) Web Design/Development: HTML,JS, CSS
3) JS, lot of JS: CartoDB, MapBox, D3...
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65. _How to NOT do GEO on the
web today
Installing your own servers
Administering your own database
Programming/Designing in XML
Cartographers should not be devops
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66. Javier de la Torre - jatorre@cartodb.com
Friday, March 8, 13