2018 ISSUE 3 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE UNITED STATES GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE FOUNDATION Connected For the United States andCrisis its territories, 2017 was a landmark year for natural disasters—and a data-driven turning point for domestic crisis mapping > GEOINT Law and Policy > Special Report: AI at SXSW > Q&A with former DigitalGlobe CEO Jeff Tarr > GEOINT 2018 Symposium Highlights USGIF.ORG TRAJECTORY 1 contents 2018 ISSUE 3 12 CONNECTED CRISIS For the U.S. and its territories, 2017 was a landmark year for natural disasters—and a data-driven turning point for domestic crisis mapping By Matt Alderton During the Montecito Mudslide in January, organizations used Esri mapping technology to monitor potentially affected structures in hazard zones. IMAGE COURTESY OF ESRI COURTESY IMAGE FEATURES 02 | VANTAGE POINT USGIF announces plans for trajectoryXyzt, a new, 20 GEOINT LAW commercial-facing AND POLICY GEOINT event As technology advances, 04 | INTSIDER legislatures and courts GEOINT 2018 Symposium 34 | HORIZONS highlights; USGIF and Lifetime Reading List, Peer lag behind Achievement awards; first Intel, USGIF Events by Rob Pegoraro K. Stuart Shea Endowed Calendar Scholarship awarded 36 | PERSPECTIVE 30 | MEMBERSHIP PULSE Q&A with Jeff SPECIAL REPORT: AI at SXSW AGI, ManTech, USGIF Tarr, USGIF Board 26 THE STATE OF AI Individual Member Member and former 30 John Desmarais DigitalGlobe CEO Experts at SXSW 2018 discuss upcoming hurdles ON THE COVER: TRAJECTORYMAGAZINE.COM These satellite images, for AI as well as the looming captured before and GOT GEOINT? COMMUNITY NEWS after Hurricane Irma, singularity, machine ethics, Regular blog posts on geography, Visit us online every Monday reveal damage at Long Beach, research & development, GEOINT for our weekly round-up of and the future of work Key West, Florida. in mainstream media, and more all things GEOINT Image courtesy of by Kristin Quinn DigitalGlobe TRJ-055 vantagepoint Geospatial Intelligence: The Totally Made-Up Term That’s Changing the World USGIF to host inaugural, commercial-facing trajectoryXyzt event in September Around 2003, we in the intelligence something new, as well as a new has grown from this initial event to an and defense communities had a moniker: the National Geospatial- annual GEOINT Symposium with as problem. Years earlier, we’d forced Intelligence Agency (NGA). many as 5,500 attendees and hundreds together remote sensing and imagery Congress added the required of exhibitors. Additionally, USGIF has analysis with mapping and chart- language into the fiscal year 2004 eclipsed 250 member organizations, ing—two distinct disciplines and National Defense Authorization Act awarded more than $1.1 million in cultures—to create the imaginatively and President Bush signed it into law, scholarships, presented GEOINT named National Imagery and Mapping but no one in government, industry, or Certificates to 800+ students from our Agency (NIMA). Though we realized academia (U.S. or abroad) knew what 14 accredited academic programs, and the potential advantage this integrated GEOINT actually was. We’d created developed the standards for a profes- operational approach would provide an internal strategic communications sional GEOINT certification program. us over our adversaries, and despite campaign to bring the workforce GEOINT is now a commonly used NIMA performing admirably in the along—but what about getting the rest term globally in the defense and wake of 9/11, it simply didn’t work as of the world excited about this new intelligence context, and the engage- envisioned. Myriad obstacles, primarily term and new operational construct? ment among government, industry, related to history and culture, and to a And so, in the fall of 2003, Geo-Intel and academia has been remarkably lesser extent immature technologies, 2003 was hastily conceived and successful and fruitful. Adoption of complicated our quest. executed in New Orleans. This highly the term continues to grow. Taking a few pages from the collaborative effort, led by a group of As time passed, it became clear books of successful change agents, government and industry executives that technological advances were we decided to rally NIMA’s workforce who recognized the need to foster combining to create something we around a new vision for a collective discussion around GEOINT, exceeded termed “The GEOINT Revolution.” future—without disregarding any of everyone’s expectations. This growing This included the commoditization of the respective heritage organizations nucleus of a public-private partner- commercial remote sensing, powerful and tradecraft. The agency needed ship led to the creation of a nonprofit analytic software, ubiquitous precision a new name and a new operating educational foundation—USGIF—to geolocation data, far-reaching broad- framework. foster the idea of GEOINT, to produce band, rapidly advancing processing After much whiteboarding and future events, and to germinate the power, affordable cloud storage, and brainstorming, we settled on the education, training, and professional advanced analytics and visualization. term “Geospatial Intelligence,” which development to underpin the nascent However, the government and mil- allowed us to acknowledge the GEOINT tradecraft. itary aren’t the only ones affected by mapping and imagery collection and With a very small staff and a strong the GEOINT Revolution. The features analysis legacies while providing cadre of volunteers, the Foundation in this issue—a chronicle of crisis 2 TRAJECTORYMAGAZINE.COM 2018 ISSUE 3 “ Those who apply it will have a decided USGIF CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD advantage. Those who fail to apply it will The Honorable Jeffrey K. Harris ignore the power of GEOINT at their own peril.” USGIF CEO AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR Keith J. Masback MANAGING EDITOR mapping successes during natural differentiator. Those who apply it will Kristin Quinn disasters that affected the U.S. in 2017, have a decided advantage. Those who [email protected] an examination of GEOINT law and fail to apply it will ignore the power of EDITOR policy in the commercial realm, and a GEOINT at their own peril. Brad Causey special report from SXSW on the state Drawing from the Foundation’s [email protected] of artificial intelligence—are a strong successful history and internationally testament to this. established position as a thought leader ART DIRECTOR The expanding application of GIS, and convening authority, USGIF will Gretchen Kirchner Rund [email protected] the ongoing maturation of location now lead the intellectual charge with intelligence, and burgeoning business respect to the use of the term GEOINT ASSISTANT EDITOR use cases across a number of verti- and the establishment of its commer- Lindsay Mitchell cals are sparking further imaginative cial applied framework. [email protected] approaches. GEOINT technology has We’ll launch trajectoryXyzt at the EDITORIAL INTERN gone viral, though the term “GEOINT” Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif., Andrew Foerch has not. Some are trying to stretch the on September 19-20. This first-of- [email protected] definition of GIS, or cram more into its-kind event will lay the building the concept of location intelligence blocks for commercial efforts at the than logically fits. convergence of geospatial intelligence. Ironically, the community is at an The immersive experience will blend PUBLISHER inflection point where we’re experienc- visionary keynotes, lightning talks, Jordan Fuhr ing the inverse of the problem we faced interviews, technology releases, and [email protected] in 2003. We have the near-explosive deep connections made through AD SALES emergence of a powerful synergy in engaging networking opportunities. Jeff Ley the commercial world at the nexus of trajectoryXyzt won’t be just a [email protected] remote sensing from phones to drones GEOINT Symposium on the West to space, geospatial and location infor- Coast. While we anticipate many of mation of all types and layers, data the companies and attendees at this analytics, and data visualization…but event will be organizations without no term to describe it. any presence in the defense/intelli- Trajectory is the official magazine So, USGIF proposes that geospa- gence communities, we know some of the United States Geospatial tial intelligence is ready to take its of our USGIF members will join us or Intelligence Foundation (USGIF). place alongside business intelligence, showcase their commercial offerings. artificial intelligence, and competitive Attendance at this inaugural event will LETTERS AND COMMENTS Email [email protected]. intelligence in the business world. be limited to approximately 500 partic- The GEOINT framework has been in ipants and about two dozen exhibitors. SUBSCRIPTIONS dynamic, iterative development for Taking GEOINT to the commercial Sign up for free at 15 years. sector is an ambitious undertaking, trajectorymagazine.com. It’s time to talk about GEOINT and I hope you are as excited about the USGIF MEMBERSHIP in the commercial and consumer possibilities of this event as we are… For information on becoming a marketplace. It’s time to share lessons trajectoryXyzt will be unlike anything member, email [email protected]. learned and to crosswalk best prac- USGIF has ever presented. TWITTER tices. It’s time to develop GEOINT @trajectorymag practitioners native to the commer- cial sector. It’s time for GEOINT to be taught in business programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. From precision agriculture,