Visions of the Information Industry - Dreams or Nightmares? Tina Cary, PhD ASPRS Past President "The new source of cessing yields informa- funded, and built. The just 20 ground stations? power is not money in tion; the accumulation number of Earth observa- The trend toward per- the hands of a few but and processing of infor- tion satellites being sonal computers for information in the hands mation leads to knowl- planned for launch in ground station use is in of many," John Naisbitt edge. And, we hope, the the next five to seven its infancy. So one pos- (Megatrends, 1984). In accumulation of knowl- years is more than five sibility is that we each 1985, Rutherford Rogers edge leads to the appli- dozen. Some of the sat- have our own antenna said in the New York cation of knowledge for ellites have several pay- and ground receiving Times "We're drowning the benefit of all. We loads, others focus spe- station. The increase in in information and starv- can envision this as a cifically on oceans or number of countries and ing for knowledge." pyramid, with Lots of agriculture. And, while companies launching Where are we today? data forming the base, some of the satellites are Earth observation satel- Where might we be in then information, mov- research oriented, a lites raises the possibil- the first half of the 21st ing up to a smaller number of them are be- ity that open architec- century? amount of knowledge, ing developed for opera- ture may be coming to This leads to other, with benefits at the pin- tional applications. the satellite control ten- even more interesting nacle. I see this progres- When data are plenti- ter market. questions: "What busi- sion as another way of ful, they will move Or perhaps in the 21st ness opportunities does stating the ASPRS Mis- through the economy century it will not be that suggest?" and sion, which is "to ad- like a commodity. Just data that are transmitted "Where do we WANT to vance knowledge and as people consume at all. be ten or 20 years from improve understanding wheat by buying bread At present, computer now?" and "What can I of mapping sciences to or flour, but seldom by processing of remote contribute?" And, be- promote the responsible buying raw wheat, so too sensing data uses the ra- cause of my role in application of photo- will people consume diometric domain, and ASPRS, I am also inter- grammetry, remote sens- data by buying informa- to some extent the spec- ested in the question ing, geographic informa- tion, not raw data. tral and temporal do- "What will people want tion systems and from their professional supporting technolo- associations?" gies." After reviewing The number of Earfh observation I selected the follow- some technology trends, ing developments be- I will present some ideas satellites being planned for cause I think they have a about what professional launch in the next five to seven bearing on the informa- societies such as ASPRS tion industry, and par- can do to help our pro- years is more th~nfive dozen. ticularly on the industry fession advance toward that we are building the peak of the pyramid. around spatial informa- What about the 21st mains, with less use of tion. Set your imagina- Remote Sensing century? Will there be the spatial domain. We tion to envision all sorts constellations of satel- can expect that advances of possibilities for the Trends lites, so that every kind in expert systems, neural 21st century; let your From the point of of data -panchromatic, nets, and fuzzy logic mind roam uncoi- view of remote sensing, multispec~ral(and will enable us to have strained. we are still in very early hyperspectral), thermal, computers extracting To look at where we stages; in fact, we do not radar - can be collected much more information are today and where we have nearly enough data. every day over any place from the data. The pros- might be in the 21st cen- That will soon be chang- on Earth? And will the pect of repeat observa- tury consider this model ing, because more and data be transmitted to tions at anv desired tem- - take data as a basic el- more satellites are being hundreds or thousands poral frequency means ement; data plus pro- planned, licensed, of antennas, instead of Continued on page 769 July 1997 PE&RS that we will be able to means of artificial intel- columns in GIS World telephone number con- analyze spatial patterns ligence generate knowl- and Geo-Info Systems on figured so that the com- over time, which will edge to be transmitted to new products report sev- puter will route the call help us better under- Earth instead of data or eral new data products to a series of.numbers, stand processes, so that even information. every month. What will e.g., office, then car, remote sensing data will happen in the 21st cen- then home. You can lead not just to informa- Trends in GIs tury? I can easily imag- change the order of the routing according to the tion but also to knowl- From a GIS perspec- ine that all maps are time of day, and can en- edge. tive, we are further along digital, and paper maps ter new numbers re- We can also envision the continuum from data are rarely used. With 3- motely when you travel. computers on future sat- to information, knowl- D visualization, I expect The Internet had more ellites processing data edge, and benefits, be- the kinds of information than 50 million users in into information; per- cause a GIS helps us cre- traditionally conveyed 1996. In the last year or haps in the 21st century ate information from by maps will be much two, as the Internet has on-board computers will data. While getting data easier to understand. moved from being a gov- not only process data into a GIs has been a Here are some other ernment-financed tool into information, but bottleneck, the world is interesting develop- for academics, to a compare new data to old on its way to becoming ments: AT&T has intro- source of entertainment and new information to more and more data- duced "500" area codes, old information, and by rich. For example, the a "follow-me anywhere" Continued on page 771 July 1997 PE&RS 769 and information, the use of the ing and spread-sheets are today. Internet is growing faster than the ERDAS is introducing a package number of subscribers: traffic that is totally compatible with through one of the main connec- Microsoft Office so that you can SEAMLESS, tion points has been doubling ev- take a map from the ERDAS appli- ery six months, while the number cation into a Word document, FULL COLOR, of subscribers is doubling only ev- work with tabular information in GEO-REFERENCED ery year. Excel, and return to your ERDAS Because it has become the application. MAPS ON CD "World Wide Wait," more and In an airline catalog last year, more users are bypassing the pub- Timex and Microsoft joined to of- 1 USGS maps, the de-facto fer a Databank Watch which will USA map standard, are lic Internet. Companies are setting now available on CD-ROM. do wireless transfers of phone up private "intranets" within Think of the convenience 06 single locations and "extranets" numbers, appointments, and re- importing RASTER TIF with branches and partners. A minders from a PC to a wrist- images directly into your 1 group of American research uni- watch. Nokia now sells a device I software applications. versities plan to build "Internet that is a combination personal 11", dedicated to academic traffic digital assistant and mobile tele- NEW RELEASE 2.0 of and free of commercial users, phone. The handset opens to pro- Sure!MAPS RASTER much as the Internet itself was just vide computer access to the Web a few years ago. and e-mail. And, if you've flown includes integrated may In California, a company named recently, you know that now you projection software. Savi has used low-cost commer- can not only make, but also re- cia1 cellular-telephone technology ceive, telephone calls at your seat. USGS 1:250K, 1:100K, 1:24K to develop a family of radio tags All these products and services Over 200 maps on each CD that comprise an ultra-low-power are available today. FREE WITH EVERY CD transceiver, a memory chip and a Surely in the 21st century geo- World & U.S. Maps five-year battery. In combination graphic understanding will be Viewing, reprojection & with global positioning satellites, more sophisticated than it is now. extraction software containers with these tags can Young adults who grew up playing know where they are. Using com- SimTown and then SimCity will munication satellites in low orbits, feel at home using virtual reality the tags can tell people the posi- to explore the interconnections of "SureMAPS RASTER is a super1 tion of the containers. This has systems and the impacts of deci- base map fbr our 3 meter $tree great value to trucking companies, sions. centerline data sets. -Michael I, which estimate that normally 20- In the United States, nearly 40 KnopC PLl.S, Knopf Engineering, I 30 percent of containers are mis- percent of homes already have a I placed at any one time. UPS is PC. Outside the United States, the Exclusive provider !Map- testing these tags in Houston and PC market is growing more than 1-of USGS raster Data Partner maps and scanning 20 ESRI"' San Francisco.