IT and Geo Mapping Small Business Success

  

IT and Geo Mapping

Helping a Small Business Succeed

Geographic mapping is not new, and in fact, has been around for approximately 2000 years.  We have proof of this, when we examine the first world map of Anaximander (died ca. 546 BCE), who is credited with having created one of the first maps of the world, which was circular in form and showed the known lands of the world, grouped around the Aegean Sea at its center. The concepts for use of geographic mapping have changed, and remarkably, have managed to integrate so fully in our technology advances relating to data mining and mapping, that it is very difficult to imagine any Information System or Technology Infrastructure without some form of mapping quality.  A good question would be what does any of this have to do with business — well a lot!  Consider examples of business mapping by zip codes, (est. 1960), and then consider the American Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (EuroNext), now look up earnings for two businesses, UPS and FedEx.  These are prime examples of Information Technology at its finest; we may even state, “perfection.”   Who would have thought, or, could have imagined, a simple thing, such as a zip code, would and did produce, billions of dollars, not to mention jobs. . .worldwide.  In response to that statement, Information Technology did!  Referencing all this history to the case of a business, which needs to know where the supply chain falls for their goods or services, mapping geographically becomes a critical part of the business plan, and the strategy behind that plan.  There may be a down side to all of this mapping glory however, when Info Space becomes too competitive, where will all of these services go?  One author seems to have a finger on the pulse of Web Space, that author being, Richard Rogers.  In Roger’s peer reviewed article, Web Space, Theory, Culture, Society, Mapping and the Politics of Web Space, Rogers states that ‘virtual’ topologies in cyberspace have been grounded . . . due to mobile networks.  His research on regulatory trends raises questions regarding, “What if the web were to decide who should sit at the roundtable,” (Rogers, Richard, 2012) this statement adds profound insight and seems eerily exacting, much like Information Technology.  Roger’s article treats the shift in focus away from the ‘metaphysics’ of software-enabled space-- online (the “virtual” topologies), to critiques of a new revolution of trace routing.  This is truly something to think about!  So, when you sit down to do some long-range business planning, and even perhaps, set up your perpetual business for the lucky lineage(s) in line, you may want to read Mr. Roger’s article.  A web link has been provided to direct you to Richard Roger’s article, and invitations for comments extended to the virtual world out there!

http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/29/4-5/193

References

Rogers, Richard, 2012, Mapping and the Politics of Web Space, Theory, Culture, Society, 29: 193, DOI: 10.1177/0263276412450926, SAGE Publications

ISP Servers What Neutrality Means to You & New Challenges to Consumers

  ISP Servers - What Net Neutrality Means to You!

New Challenges to Consumers

Business is Business, at least, that is what the old adage says. In reality though, how comfortable are you with the array of services your Internet Service Provider, (ISP) delivers?  You are probably, very comfortable!  Think about what you are getting for your hard-earned money, Internet Service, Cable Television, Sports Channels . . . and the list goes on.  What if, though, you receive a letter from your cable provider, which states, your services are being cut off, not because you are not current on your bill, but, because they cannot afford to support those services in their entirety?  This is not, an unusual situation, and perhaps, this could happen in the very near future. The bottom-line . . . money and monopoly, simply stated; business is not business, as usual, as some would state!  What is the question here, and what solution are we seeking.  The answer is simple, can regulators avoid the insatiable quest by ISP supplier’s competitive zeal for money---we shall see.  Considerable thought and research has been profoundly published on this subject matter, one good example would be;  Yochai Benkler, in an article titled: From Consumer to Users: Shifting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Toward Sustainable Commons and User Access, (2000), published by Benkler while attending the George Washington University Law School.  In this article, Benkler offers an opinion regarding the new fashion of digital layering, designed specifically to capture a fee for service, (much like the HMO), or stated alternatively, “no more bundles,”  however, from a regulatory perspective, Benkler offers this insight,

As the digitally networked environment matures, regulatory choices abound that implicate whether the network will be one of peer users or one of active producers who serve a menu of prepackaged information goods to consumers whose role is limited to selecting from this menu. These choices occur at all levels of the information environment: the physical infrastructure layer--wires, cable, radio frequency spectrum--the logical infrastructure layer--software--and the content layer. At the physical infrastructure level, we are seeing it in such decisions as the digital TV orders (DTV Orders), or the question of open access to cable broadband services, and the stunted availability of license-free spectrum. At the logical layer, we see laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) (2) and the technology control litigation that has followed hard upon its heels, as owners of copyrighted works attempt to lock up the software layer to permit them to control all valuable uses of their works. (3) At the content layer, we have seen an enclosure movement aimed at enabling information vendors to capture all the downstream value of their information. This enclosure raises the costs of becoming a user--rather than a consumer--of information and undermines the possibility of becoming a producer/user of information for reasons other than profit, by means other than sales.

At all these levels, the fundamental commitment of our democracy to secure "the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources"(4) which has traditionally animated structural media regulation, should be on securing a significant component of the information environment for creative use by users. To implement such an agenda would require a focus on identifying resources necessary for the production and exchange of information and fashioning regulatory policies that make access to and use of these resources equally and ubiquitously available to all users of the network. Developing a series of commons in such resources is an important mode of implementation of this commitment. Other modes could include access and carriage requirements aimed specifically at making possible the development of a network of peer users. Identifying and sustaining commons and securing access to communicative resources are more important focuses for information policy concerned with democracy than assuring that there are eight rather than three broadcast networks or that no two networks are under common ownership.

Please feel free to comment, and the link to Yochai Benkler’s article has been provided.  Html link: http://www.law.gwu.edu/

  

References

Benkler, Y. (2000, May). From Consumers to Users: Shifting the Deeper Structures of Regulation Toward Sustainable Commons and User Access. Federal Communications Law Journal, 52(3), 561. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.db24.linccweb.org/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA62357171&v=2.1&u=lincclin_spjc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=7f25962495d2bfe04bd9994c9761cb85