What we do

Popular web mapping platforms, such as Google Maps, Bing Maps and MapQuest have sparked public interest in mapping and spatial visualization.

We believe these mapping platforms can do even more.

We are extending the reach of these platforms into areas of real-time visualization of large volumes of spatial data, business intelligence, and other domains that need high-performance mapping.

How do we do it?

Our pursuit relies on the careful combination of these technologies and services:

  • Spatial Databox: A scalable, low-latency web service that delivers location-based content to map-based client applications.
  • Google Maps API for Flash: It's like the usual Google Maps that we all know and love, but is built on a different, turbocharged platform.
  • ActionScript 3: An advanced browser-side programming language that simplifies the development of correct, resilient applications.
  • ActionScript Virtual Machine 2: Accelerates web application execution to deliver near native-level performance. (Also known as AVM2.)
  • Amazon EC2: An economical way to serve large spatial data sets to a large number of client applications.
  • Google App Engine / Java: The easiest and most economical way to serve smaller spatial data sets to a continually varying number of client applications. (Especially capable of handling unexpected surges in traffic.)

Users quickly abandon slow or erratic websites. So, as we apply these technologies, we obsessively pinpoint and eliminate overhead and inefficiencies, wherever they may occur:

  • We deploy on the appropriate cloud infrastructure, to balance cost and mitigate demand surges. (For us, the equation is not Amazon or Google, but Amazon and Google.)
  • We write web services in Java and steer clear of unnecessary synchronization, buffer copying and heap utilization.
  • We minimize application latency by crafting tight, bespoke application frameworks that load quickly and render content progressively. (Progress indicators and hourglasses are a no-no!)
  • We tie web service and application together, through proprietary binary protocols. Our binary protocols also reduces network bandwidth and server overhead (XML and JSON are used sparingly.)

The following sections touch on the need for high-performance mapping, and related events in industry.

BI Workspaces, and the Need for Speed

Imagine a data exploration environment where a power user can analyze data with near complete freedom without much dependency on IT and production environment restrictions. As discussed in this article, such an environment can push the back-end database beyond the capacity of conventional solutions. This is particularly so when exploring location-based information on a map, where each click or drag selects millions of records which much be sorted, clustered and displayed -- every second.

Traditional solutions cannot deliver on the promise of BI Workspaces. As demonstrated by our Million Marker Mapand Heat Map, Spatial Databox and the Adobe Flash platform together can deliver on this promise.

Spatial Databox adds real-time query responsiveness coupled with an extensible data model that relies on unlimited tagging to capture all facets of your data set. Adobe Flash provides unparalleled web-based visualization capabilities and is compatible with and behaves identically across all browsers, from Internet Explorer 6 up to the latest releases of Firefox and Chrome.

Bashup = Business Intelligence + Map Mashup

This article discusses a new trend in business intelligence (BI) where web-based mapping tools offer timely insight to a larger group of users, who are not statisticians or data analysts. It's kind of like crowd-sourcing, but in reverse:

Before, only 12 superusers had access to geographical tools. Now, all 300 of the agency's workers can access and manipulate BI data in geographical form

With this ease of use and increased accessibility come challenges:

  • how do we keep the map responsive (and thus the users engaged)?
  • how do we service hundreds of new users (a useful service will soon become a popular service)
  • how do we manage managing increasing volumes of information?

Flexible SDB Query Tool (you're using it right now!)

Spatial DataBox receives a query request through a REST-based interface, and can return a response in a variety of formats such as XML, JSON, Little JSON, KML, GPX, binary -- and HTML.

REST for input and HTML for output is a powerful combination that lets your browser serve as a handy on-line query tool.

To start you off, we've assembled a list of queries that you can click on, modify and otherwise experiment with first-hand.

A query can include many parameters and options, and are all documented in the User's Guide.

Ten-ology in Government

Looks like the concept of ten-ology, which is fundamental to Spatial Databox, is catching on in Government. Slide 22 from this presentation includes a quote from Vivek Kundra, who was the CTO of the District of Columbia, and now serves as Obama's Federal CIO: "Why should I spend millions on enterprise apps when I can do it at one-tenth cost and ten times the speed? It's a win-win for me."

Let's hope that Vivek's enthusiasm for ten-ology catches on with others in government and across corporate America

TorontoFlex User Group

The Toronto Flex User Group kindly allowed me to present on the topic of Google Maps for Flash & Map Mashups at yesterday evening's Shindig. (Click here for a copy of the presentation).

It was a great opportunity to meet with other members from the local Flash / Flex community, and I learned a lot from what others had to share.

» Google Flash Map Demos & Code Samples ...

Flash Wins at AJAX World

Like Spatial Databox, Flash is a ten-ology: 10 times faster than a browser and at no extra cost to the user. Because Flash is the ideal platform on which to display content from Spatial Databox, I was pleasantly surprised when I read that Flash and its associated development tool, Flex Builder, won three awards at last month's AJAX World Conference & Expo.

I think these awards raise the bar very high, so I'm very curious what the vendors behind IE8, Firefox, Chrome and Opera will have to do to claim the award at next year's AJAXworld.

Browser JavaScript Race

Web browser vendors have tried very hard over the past few years to evolve the humble web browser into a platform for Rich Internet Applications (RIA).

They began, with Adobe, to create a new JavaScript that could better support the development and maintenance of larger code bases, which would emerge from the AJAX revolution. Alas, in the summer of 2008, they had a change of heart and cancelled this initiative.

Instead, each vendor pursued aggressive JavaScript execution optimization, which didn't address the code size and complexity side of the issue.

So Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE8 will remain, for some time, stuck with a version of JavaScript that can barely climb to the second story of a doll house.

Fortunately, an even better foundation technology lives on in Adobe Flash 9+, which since 2006 has powered a new class of rich internet apps that eclipse even the dreams and plans held by the browser vendors. And, unlike JavaScript and that messy HTML DOM, Adobe Flash enjoys full cross-browser support.

To support the web community, Adobe released their development toolkit as Open Source. This toolkit includes an ActionScript 3 compiler, document compiler, debugger and optional Flex libraries. Have Fun!


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