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Question from an outsider: Who is paying for tools like this? The examples shown on the website (e.g. all streets in Nevada) look nice, but what are those analy

by thosch0 2mo ago

Question from an outsider: Who is paying for tools like this? The examples shown on the website (e.g. all streets in Nevada) look nice, but what are those analyses actually used for? I am pretty sure it is not only about having pretty maps but their has to be a business value I don’t see right now.

lodovic 2mo ago
This can be very useful for urban planning. you could have an agent investigate the optimal spot for a new datacenter, examine solar power installations, and so on.
willtemperley 2mo ago
20 year GIS dev here. Looks pretty useful for data exploration. I'd say one of the more compelling GeoAI things I've seen. The problem is there's really a lot of data out there and it's a lot of work to move it around, e.g. between S3 buckets. There's also a ton of GIS SAAS vendors who are pure rent-seekers: I'm looking at a newer offering charging $23 per month for 10GB storage. This has more utility than their offering in my opinion. The good thing here is that it could keep data provenance because it's SQL over known datasets.
- sylveapp 2mo ago
  Unrelated, but as someone who is on the verge of also creating another GIS offering do you think there is any value to creating a low cost hosting platform centered around data portability? This came out of frustration with the existing landscape of offerings and I put together something that I wish existed.
  - willtemperley 2mo ago
    Hard to say without hearing what the product is, but personally I'll avoid anything that wants to lock up my data and charge me for it.
    - delfrrr 2mo ago
      Plus one. (I’m the author of GeoSQL.) This is why I personally store data in local PostGIS. The whole map harness is running locally, except for Claude. I did not write SQL since April. I am making 1-2 analytics projects per week. Here is a video explaining roughly how I work now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCOhkE0rPWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCOhkE0rPWA
pogue 2mo ago
I wonder if this would be useful in OSINT stuff.
- _joel 2mo ago
  Possibly, it'd be interesting to see this against a human OSINT expert (they are pretty damn good). See where they fit on the "Rainbolt" scale.
forshaper 2mo ago
I work with maps everyday. I'm cheap and my employer is cheap with me, but we've got to produce a lot of maps for compliance & business intelligence. The work is is mostly cleaning & standardization, with some user experience toward a particular audit purpose. There are some much more lucrative niches, that have to do with chain-of-title, rights of way, resource rights, and so on, and I can imagine why anyone would pay to save, say, 20 hours a week. Power interconnects for datacenter siting would be a hot example.

by thosch0 2mo ago

lodovic 2mo ago

This can be very useful for urban planning. you could have an agent investigate the optimal spot for a new datacenter, examine solar power installations, and so on.

willtemperley 2mo ago

20 year GIS dev here. Looks pretty useful for data exploration. I'd say one of the more compelling GeoAI things I've seen. The problem is there's really a lot of data out there and it's a lot of work to move it around, e.g. between S3 buckets. There's also a ton of GIS SAAS vendors who are pure rent-seekers: I'm looking at a newer offering charging $23 per month for 10GB storage. This has more utility than their offering in my opinion. The good thing here is that it could keep data provenance because it's SQL over known datasets.

sylveapp 2mo ago
Unrelated, but as someone who is on the verge of also creating another GIS offering do you think there is any value to creating a low cost hosting platform centered around data portability? This came out of frustration with the existing landscape of offerings and I put together something that I wish existed.
- willtemperley 2mo ago
  Hard to say without hearing what the product is, but personally I'll avoid anything that wants to lock up my data and charge me for it.
  - delfrrr 2mo ago
    Plus one. (I’m the author of GeoSQL.) This is why I personally store data in local PostGIS. The whole map harness is running locally, except for Claude. I did not write SQL since April. I am making 1-2 analytics projects per week. Here is a video explaining roughly how I work now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCOhkE0rPWA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCOhkE0rPWA

pogue 2mo ago

I wonder if this would be useful in OSINT stuff.

_joel 2mo ago
Possibly, it'd be interesting to see this against a human OSINT expert (they are pretty damn good). See where they fit on the "Rainbolt" scale.

forshaper 2mo ago

I work with maps everyday. I'm cheap and my employer is cheap with me, but we've got to produce a lot of maps for compliance & business intelligence. The work is is mostly cleaning & standardization, with some user experience toward a particular audit purpose. There are some much more lucrative niches, that have to do with chain-of-title, rights of way, resource rights, and so on, and I can imagine why anyone would pay to save, say, 20 hours a week. Power interconnects for datacenter siting would be a hot example.