Are you wondering what is with the title this time.  Is it to do with the fact that I have two wonderful boys one of whom is only 6 months old?  No, in an attempt to follow the magazines focus on Security I thought I’d write about Aerial Photography and yes, you guessed it, the possible - and I would say unfounded - security concerns that some governments around the world have with us mere mortals being able to view aerial photography over the web.

AGI2006

Whilst at the show in London back in September it was great to see that companies were doing a roaring trade.  One of these was BlueSky with whom I’ve known some of the team for a few years.  It got me thinking that commercial data providers, in a similar way to software providers, can get a good recurring revenue stream from their existing clientele who wish to re fly their patch I would guess every 3-5 years.  As we all know things are always changing.

Whilst talking to a data provider, not mentioned here, they mentioned that with the arrival of the big companies (Google, Microsoft etc) from the states and their mapping capabilities that if you have good coverage you’d best get in with one of them.  Saying that companies such as GetMapping have been supplying the UK’s best, MultiMap, with aerial photography for a number of years.

MASH-UPS

I’ve written about mash-ups before and there is some really exciting things happening at the moment, and yes some of them are here in the UK.  Take the AGI Event that will be held at the Ordnance Survey - UK Geospatial Mash-up - 20 October 2006.  I’ve been wondering whether the Ordnance Survey will be allowing the opportunities for mash-ups to flourish but the cynical side of me is wondering whether there is some ‘Security’ thing happening with the market…  Anyhow we’ve seen traditional ‘point’ mash-ups and there have been hacks to be able to publish polygons but I only found out recently how Virtual Earth now allows boundaries to be colour shaded on top of their maps.  Now to me that starts to open up a world of mash-up opportunities in the business world.

WMS Mash-ups!

The latest release of Google Earth - 4.0.2091 Beta at the time of writing - can now access OGC compliant WMS Servers and apparently the Open Source Earth viewing software, NASA World wind - http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/ , also does this.  Pardon the pun bit I think this starts to change the landscape considerably.  Imagine how easy it is going to be for say, a Local Authority to be able to publish their current planning applications onto Google Earth - now if that isn’t eGovernment at its best I don’t know what is.  Well actually….various US States have started to give their Aerial Photography (obviously they own the copyright here) to Google to publish through Goggle Earth.  That to me is a great win/win for both parties.  It is quite different to some European governments who - here we finally are - are security conscious.

Indians and the French

You probably heard how the French government launched their rival to Google Earth that stayed up for a few minutes before being taken offline http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/26/geoportail_shut/ .  The Indians, who a security conscious bunch, ndian government had convened to see if and how it should try to pressure Google into degrading the resolution of imagery of India in Google Earth – yes think Geospatial version of the fashion industry ‘airbrushing’ - What happened?  It got people really interested so they looked in alternative viewers to see what was there!

I see you…but what do you see?

So where does this leave us?  I remember when GetMapping pioneered in the UK with the Millennium Map.  Back then there were concerns regarding flying over Royal Palaces and MOD sites and the security breach.  I don’t remember any great security threats, other than the guy having a cup of tea with the queen although I’m not sure if he had a GetMapping photo with him or not.

I think that it is the problem of our success that as soon as the technology and data is available that people try to close down the hatches and say things are a security risk.  Let’s be real here.  There are far more benefits of being open, transparent and working together than closing ranks and being in competition.  Maybe there is food for thought some government bodies and the NSAI but hey not even I want to go there – I’ll just look down from a height and see how that pans out!