致地理信息软件公司的一封公开信

【内容提要】任何人都可以把地图和网站结合起来，而且每天都会产生新的地图应用。但是这些应用并不是GIS专家想出来的，而是来自于商业需求和革新的灵 感。你需要寻求新的方法，为消费者带来可以将外部数据和内部数据相融合和匹配的技术。而且在某种程度上，你所发布的信息要符合企业的主流架构。你不能再袖 手旁观了，你需要一个更大的IT舞台。　翻译：瓶子    来源：www.3snews.net    合作媒体：gisuser

We’ve followed your work for many years and wanted to share some observations on the market (writ large). We suspect you know much of what we are going to tell you, and have explored the questions we pose. Still we feel obligated to put our thoughts in writing for you, your partners and users.

近几年来，我们一直关注着你们的业务，非常希望能和你们分享我们通过调查所得到的一些大家所关注的话题。也许你们已经猜到我们所要说的内容，或许也已经对我们所要提出的问题有所探究和准备。但我们仍然觉得有责任告诉你们以及你们的合伙人和用户。

1) The geospatial data creation world has changed. Once upon a time you were the only ones with the know-how to create the data for digital maps. You owned and managed virtually all of the tools to make, update and share (or not) that data. Not so anymore. People in basements, in small towns in foreign lands, and even kids with GPSs are creating and updating data. Sometimes it’s with your software, sometimes it’s with CAD programs or even open source solutions. What is your role in the creation/update of data?

空间数据支配世界的局面已经改变：曾经你是唯一知道如何进行地图数字化的人，而且实际上你还拥有和管理着创建、更新和共享（或不共享）数据的所有工具。但 是如今， 在地下室工作的人、或在外国的某个小镇、甚至是那些拥有GPS的孩子都可以建立和更新数据。有时他们会使用你的软件，或者借助于计算机辅助设计程序，又或 是那些开放源码来实现这些工作。那么现在你在创建/更新数据的世界里扮演了什么样的角色呢？

2) Expectations are changing. Once geospatially savvy (and perhaps more importantly geospatially non-savvy) people got a look at Yahoo Maps, MapPoint and Google Maps, their expectations for Web mapping immediately changed. Those quaint, but slow and feature laden offerings from your customers (often towns, counties and states, but also the federal government and businesses) seemed years out of date. Why else would hackers spend so much time with Google Maps? Why else would bosses insist on solutions that look like, or in fact are, based on those solutions? Can you catch up and regain your customers (and your customers’ support)?

预期值的改变：以前，当人们想了解有关地理空间的常识或者是更重要的专业知识时，都会去Yahoo Maps，MapPoint和Google Maps网站察看。但是结果却令人们很失望，因为那些提供给消费者(通常是来自于镇，县和州，也包括联邦政府和商业)的信息看上去冗余而又过时。在这样的 情况下，那些计算机迷们怎么还会在Google Maps浪费这么多的时间？那些老板怎么还会坚信依靠这些信息所得出的决策呢？你们又怎么能跟上用户的需求，重新获得消费者的支持呢？

3) Data is king. It always was, but most of you have moved out of the data business, leaving it to a few, perhaps ever fewer by year’s end, worldwide companies. Certainly they have the staffs and expertise to update and package data in ways that perhaps conflict with your common vision of being tools and services providers. But, perhaps more than you, those companies (NAVTEQ, Tele Atlas and friends) are the “Intel inside” of geospatial applications. There are a few of them, and they hold a key part of the puzzle.

A few players jumped in to try to be the distributor/indexer of that data (the next best thing if you can’t own the data), but so far, no one is winning, really, not even some of the federal governments. What is your role in the data business?

数据是权威：过去，人们一直坚信这个观点。但是渐渐地，你们却淡出了数据交易。数年后，全世界做数据生意的公司越来越少了。这些做数据的公司有人员和技术 进行更新和封装数据，使用的是你们相抵触的工具和服务提供商。但他们却远胜于你们，这些公司(NAVTEQ，电视地图集和助手)就是地理空间数据应用的核 心，虽然只是很小的一部分，但他们却是问题的关键。

有一部分竞技者曾经试图想成为数据的发行人或为数据编写索引（如果你不能拥有数据，那么这就是退而求其次的最好的选择了），但迄今为止，没有人能够获胜，包括一些联邦政府。那么你们在数据行业的角色又是什么呢？

4) Slick, fast and simple wins. We know you all aim to serve the professional marketplace. But more and more you want to serve the executive and the enterprise marketplace, too. (You must, as those terms pop up everywhere in your marketing literature!) Those CXOs and other potential users across the enterprise are professionals from other arenas. They like simple.

Enough already with feature/function battles: Just how much functionality do you think your customers employ with the existing desktop mapping products they bought from you? 20% maybe? Products have become so over laden with features that most of it goes unused. Do you remember the first version of MapPoint? It was a joke, right? So limited in (GIS/geospatial) functionality wasn't it? Today, several hundred thousand copies later it is still fairly simple. It does a few things very well and now with an open API, many more users are customizing it for enterprise applications that you only wish companies were doing with your products.

灵活的、快捷而简单的获胜：我们知道你全部的目标就是服务于专业市场。但是渐渐的，你又想为主管人员和企业市场提供服务。在你的系统库里，你要考虑到所有 在任何情形下可能突发的事件。要知道，那些CXOs和其他潜在用户是来自其他领域的专业人士，他们更喜欢简单快捷的方式。

你是否已经作好充分的功能特征战役准备了？那你们认为，当用户从你那里购买了桌面制图产品后，又有多少功能会被真正使用？也许是20%吧？产品装载了如此 多累赘的功能，好多功能已经被用户们所不再使用。你们还记得MapPoint的第一个版本吗？是不是觉得有一点点可笑？GIS/geospatial的功 能非常的少，不是吗？今天，在发行了几十万份的版本之后，它似乎还是那么的简单。不过，还是有一些方面做得相当不错，即更多的用户使用API自定义适合公 司使用的应用程序。难道你希望那些企业只是在处理和利用你的产品吗？

5) Communication is key. You’ve all done a fine job communicating with your users. But, remember, they have, over the years, learned your language. The rest of the planet has not. Look at the new names in this space: MapPoint, Google Earth, Virtual Earth, Where 2.0, location technology… no GIS, no geospatial, no jargon. Why are you afraid of simpler, accessible terms?

沟通是关键：看上去你们似乎做了很多与用户的联系工作，但是他们学习你的语言，那已经是多年以前的事情了。看看行业中出现的新秀：MapPoint, Google Earth, Virtual Earth, Where 2.0, location technology…他们没有什么复杂的语言要学，没有GIS，没有什么地理空间，也没有什么专业术语。为什么你不开发一些更易被用户接受、操作简单的 项目呢？

6) Open is the future. Nearly every company is on the “open” band wagon. That’s great. Still, open means something different to every vendor and every user, and that likely will not change. How do you measure your openness? Do you? Is it the number of interfaces you implement? The number of tools that are open source? Or, should it be something more difficult to measure, like the number of solutions that tap into yours, without your explicit aid? Are people (especially non-GIS people) hacking your software?

开放是将来：几乎所有的公司都热衷于“开放”。这当然很好，毕竟开放就意味着产品可以适用于每一个不同的卖主和用户，而且有可能不需要作太多的改动。那么 你们怎么来衡量你们的开放程度呢？是实现接口的数量，还是那些开放源的工具？或者是一些更复杂的衡量标准？譬如你们产品中所装载不需要外在帮助的解决方案 的数目？人们（特别是那些非GIS专业的人）会接受你的软件吗？

7) The Web won! Yes, you got that right in the early excitement of the Web. And then you let it go. Maps on the Web were the sole purview of the GIS companies in the late 90's. Only Map Quest and Map Blast were on the radar screen. So, where were you? Were you the engine behind these companies or the ones that came later? No, the opportunity slipped through your fingers. Data...did you have the data? Yes, you did, and then you let them go, too. Did you have the APIs? Yes, you did and then you let them go.

网络制胜：虽然早期，你们尝到了网络的甜头，但是却没有抓住这个机会。90年代末，网络地图是GIS公司的出路，但是只有Map Quest和Map Blast出现在了雷达屏幕上。而你们在哪呢？你们是要等这些公司发展起来以后再出击吗？机会就在指尖溜走了。数据，你们的确拥有数据，但是也没有把握住 它们。同样，你们拥有API，却也让它们流失了。

8) Nothing personal, it's just business. The business drivers that led to Google Maps, Map Quest and others were not those of GIS companies, or so it seems. You looked at yourself as software companies; not technology providers. You were out to sell boxes and licenses, not per click transactions. It was a different model and you were not prepared to deal with it. You tried your hand at wireless location-based services and the market bubble burst. Now, "search" is here and few are prepared to deal with this new business model. So other companies with different business models than yours stepped into the void: Telcontar and GlobeXplorer and NAVTEQ dealt with the opportunity differently.

生意不是个人的事: 那些引导Google Maps，Map Quest走向成功的案例并不是GIS公司创造的。你们把自己定位于软件公司，而并非技术提供者；你要出售的是那些打包的软件和序列号，而不是网络上那种 靠鼠标点击来赚钱的交易。的确这是一个不同的运行模式，而且你也没有做好迎接和处理它的准备。你只是把自己限制在一个无网络的服务。现在，“搜索”盛行， 很多公司对此也没有太多的准备，但是在机遇面前，那些和你的商业运行模式不一样的公司（Telcontar、GlobeXplorer和NAVTEQ）却 大胆地进军这片空白的商业之地。

9) Stop and smell the opportunities: Anyone can put together a website that uses maps. New mapping applications appear daily. Each one is driven not by GIS specialists, but by business necessity and innovation. You need to be mixing and matching your own solutions and finding ways to bring your customers technology that aggregates location-based data and other location solutions, and distributes the information in a way that conforms to mainstream enterprise architecture. You can not stand alone anymore. You need to play in a bigger IT arena.

This is not to say that you will go away anytime soon. There will always be a market for some basic data capture and integration solutions. But, when it comes to applications in enterprise computing, you are behind. For applications in the consumer market, you are behind. For applications in pervasive location intelligence, you are behind. The market is shifting beneath your feet and the foundation is cracking. We hope we’ve revealed these cracks in a valuable way.

把握商机：任何人都可以把地图和网站结合起来，而且每天都会产生新的地图应用。但是这些应用并不是GIS专家想出来的，而是来自于商业需求和革新的灵感。 你需要寻求新的方法，为消费者带来可以将外部数据和内部数据相融合和匹配的技术。而且在某种程度上，你所发布的信息要符合企业的主流架构。你不能再袖手旁 观了，你需要一个更大的IT舞台。

这并不是说你们将会被淘汰，收集基础数据和寻求解决方案总是有市场可循的。但是，当它涉及到企业应用时，你就显得有点滞后了。因为对于消费者的市场定位，你还是经验不足。市场是不断变化的，生存的基础也在不断的改变。我们希望你能找到发展的契机。