High Resolution Imagery to Support Events

This is a carry over from several tweets coming out of Understanding Risk Conference (#ur2010) at the World Bank.

So the brief conversation on twitter was in regards to imagery resolution used when responding to an event (hurricane, flood, tornado, earthquake, fire, oil spill/pour). I agree 3 inch resolution gives more detail and may lead to better decisions. I also agree satellite or airborne sensors may be more appropriate depending on various elements (resolution, area of coverage, orbit, licensing, privacy, general specifications).

My real question comes down to the ROI for higher resolution in terms of bandwidth and general IT infrastructure. Given that this data is usually needed in various platforms and passed around via networks and hard-drives; What is the resolution that allows for good decision support and balances that with file size?

This may seem like an easy question. May be the answer is get the best you can, but I am curious as to if any thought has been given to this question.

I would also add larger companies likely have the infrastructure to support any file size, but I am thinking from a local prospective.

AGIO Decal in 50 States

First, BIG THANK YOU to all those who submitted pictures, and asked others to do the same. We could not have done this without YOU!!!

The #AGIOdecal game began on 3/5/2010 with a blog post. A second post was made on 3/22/201 as decal pictures began arriving.

We never could have imangined what would transpire. So now for some lessons learned, and considerations should someone else attempt something like this.

1. It's not about you, it's about the game: 90% of the pictures we recieved were via Twitter friends. What was intresting was the game spread beyond those that knew of the AGIO prior to the game begining.

2. Make it easy: This seems obvious, but it was essintal to us recieving the maxiumum number of photos possible. We just said "please send photos" and did not specify how we would like to recieve them. This resulted in photos being sent via email, txt, twitter, flickr, and various other means.

Actual breakdown

70 folks played along and submitted 210 pictures

99 pictures were emailed

69 pictures were tweeted

30 mailed via snail mail (one person's trip)

12 pictures were texted

3. Not everyone geoenables their pictures: We assumed this was the case, but we didn't realize it was such a small precentage. One thing we did not do well was take advantage of the photos that were geoenabled when we recieved them. - Big lesson learned

4. Logistics: I think there are a few things you have to get right in order for the effort to work. First, you have to have a reason, and that maybe just because. Second, you have to be responsive. That means responding when folks who participate, posting photos recieved quickly and communicating the posting back out. Third, there is no wrong answer (in this case picture). I think you have to always remember it is a team effort. It is not 'your' project, it is everyone's. BTW- thanks to all who played

5. Cost: The cost was minimal cosidering the return. Decals were $500, staff time around 5% (debatable), stamps were $20, travel $0 (we just carried decals everywhere we were already going).

Also worth noting: We leveraged a number of platforms online for no fee.

Photo gallery- Picasa / Flickr

Map- GeoCommons / GoogleMap / YahooMap

Twitter Activity: http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/AGIOdecal

Success is measured a number of ways. @cageyjames Tweeted "Arkansas hasn't got this much play since Clinton was president!" we believe that is succcess. It is intresting that a five person shop managed to get pictures of its decal in so many places, with the help of a lot of friends. We consider the effort a huge success.

#AGIOdecal Part 2

It all started with What's the Deal with the #AGIOdecal. The response has been great. Big thanks to all those who have helped make this possible. This blog post is only intended to provide quick links to several items related to this effort.

Photo gallery- Picasa / Flickr

Map- GeoCommons / GoogleMap / YahooMap

Twitter Activity: http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/AGIOdecal

We welcome anyone who wants to play.

Print, cut, shoot a photo and send to me. We would really appreciate your help.

What's the deal with #AGIOdecal?

Google Map - Flickr Map - GeoCommons Map

It all started harmless enough and has now turned into a friendly competition. Actually a friendly wager. The Arkansas Geographic Information Office had the logo developed in 2002. The logo includes the tag line "Putting Arkansas On the Map!". (You can make up your own jokes.)

We recently had decals made and began taking pictures with them as we travel the state. While gathered for lunch I said "Wonder if we could get AR mapped in 50 states?" Discussion ensued which resulted in my firm stance AGIO could get pictures of the logo taken in all 50 states using various social media outlets and personal connections. I am also hoping to get a few from the territories.

I'm pretty sure a map will be created shortly after the pictures are collected for all 50 states.

So I'd appreciate anyone who wants to play along just:

• Take a picture with the decal
• Upload to your online photo browser of choice (send link to me)
• Or email the pic to me

Should our paths cross, don't be surprised if I hand you a decal in return for your business card.

UPDATE

The #AGIOdecal continues to make its rounds. Photos can be viewed here and related Tweets can be viewed here. Thanks to all those who are playing. Please keep the photos coming.

I hope some of you smart folks have been thinking about this for a while. I really hope you have some suggestions on how to make this a reality.

So I started thinking a bit which is always dangerous. How does a government agency integrate all of the rich data into a single location?

My simple definitions
Single location= a location that a user can go to get the data. Ideally, numerous locations would be feed data from an integrated source

Rich Data= data from city, county, state integrated with crowd-sourced data of various forms

The idea is data would flow from multiple sources to a library from which a single rich data set could be completed. The beauty of the system is that all of the data ‘feeders’ would not even have to know about one another. For example, the county official responsible for roads would not have to know about OSM but could leverage the data that is inserted into OSM and vice-versa. The illustration above is focused on roads, but if such a system existed; points of interest, hydro, pick a ‘layer’ could be easily created and shared.

I realize the idea above is a dream. Things like licensing, lawyers, bureaucracy and a host of other things immediately point to “This cannot be done.” What if those issues didn’t exist; what might we have? This is what I am interested in seeing happen. Arkansas is ready to give it a try. Anyone else out there done this?