Government Technology - August 2007 - (Page 46)

geo info PHOTOS COURTESY OF PICTOMETRY j j Synopsis: A software-driven solution promises to push GIS data out onto BlackBerry mobile devices. Jurisdictions: City and county of San Diego. Technologies: GISto state local federal Laptops and handheld computing devices. Contact: Nader Tirandazi, IT group manager, Office of the Mayor, 858/4925049, . W hat good is a map if you can’t read it when you need it? This is a fundamental question that’s plagued GIS planners in San Diego, who’ve been searching for a convenient way to get geographic data to mobile city and county workers. “The problem is all about accessibility of data,” said Andrew Abouna, executive director of the San Diego Geographic Information Source (SanGIS), whose job it is to maintain and promote the use of a regional geographic data warehouse for the San Diego area. Now Abouna said he found a solution — software that’ll help SanGIS, a GIS partnership created in July 1997 between the city of San Diego and San Diego County, send GIS data to BlackBerry smartphones in the near future. Go New technologies bring GIS data into the hands of mobile workers looking for real-time geographic information. Today that order is e-mailed to a manager’s cell phone who then radios a driver. But there’s no map functionality to show drivers’ locations to assess which driver might be closest to the site. Planners call this functionality a big leap forward, but does a BlackBerry really make more sense than a laptop for this kind or work? Yes and no. Static Maps The issue, as Abouna describes it, is that mobile workers can carry map information on the go, but the information is static. A map on a laptop, for instance, can show the situation on the ground, but any change to that map can only show on the laptop if the device is synchronized at the home office. True mobility would mean the capacity to map evolving situations, such as missed service routes or the changing boundaries of a wildfire. Nader Tirandazi is the IT group manager for the San Diego Office of the Mayor, and oversees IT throughout the city’s public works agencies, including the Environmental Services Department. His office is working with SanGIS to build a prototype for channeling information about refuse collection to BlackBerry devices. “This probably will be the most effective area for us,” Tirandazi said. “Look at a missed trash stop. When a citizen calls for a missed pickup, you could actually send that order to a BlackBerry and a supervisor could look up that address on a map, send out the closest driver and then close out that work order.” Diverse Devices It’s technically feasible, and no less difficult, to push GIS data out to a laptop. All things being equal, Abouna says the BlackBerry format has many advantages. “Size really is the issue,” he said. For workers on the road, especially emergency workers AUG_07 looking for easy access to location information, the handheld device is, well, easier to handle. “You could do it with a laptop, but obviously it is bigger and more cumbersome, which makes it less user-friendly. It also has a longer startup time as compared to a handheld device.” To this extent, handhelds would appear to have a decided advantage for employees needing to access GIS data. The fact that the smaller devices are easier to use is reflected by the fact that many city and county employees already buy the handhelds for their own purposes, despite the fact that government authorities aren’t yet paying for these devices, Abouna said. As prototype applications start to come online, he speculated, supervisors may begin to acquire BlackBerries for their workers. 46 BY ADAM STONE | CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - August 2007

Contents Point of View The Big Picture The Last Mile Letter to the Editor GT Spectrum Up Close Vanishing Act Way Back Machine Fast Track to Nowhere Best of Both Worlds Texting 911? GIS to Go Neighborhood Watch Two Cents Products Signal: Noise Government Solutions

Government Technology - August 2007

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