Your Global Geospatial Briefing for January 28th: Location Tech; Amy Webb interview; WGIC; Blockchain innovations; Planet

Location technology is at the core of the smart city

The designation of “smart city” is quickly becoming an attainable goal for communities across the world. By using Location Intelligence cities are becoming smarter, stronger, and faster—and more responsive to natural disasters. Harnessing Location Intelligence through platforms like Platforma CDMX, Traffico, ZoLa, and Open Source connectors, city planners can streamline transit to improve architecture, save commuter hours (and lives) and democratize data. With over 50% of the world’s populations now living in cities, Location Intelligence is central to reforming city capacity for the health and safety of citizens.

Future Today’s Amy Webb talks AI

CNET and CBS News Senior Producer Dan Patterson sat down with Future Today Institute founder and quantitative futurist Amy Webb to get the scoop on why artificial intelligence and data have been on everyone’s radar lately. AI is nothing new, but the proliferation of machine learning, natural language processing, and other technologies are currently experiencing renewed buzz. Webb explains the problems with building an AI ecosystem out of optimized data, the danger of losing ground economically and technologically to China, and how the future of AI lies in the hands of a few major companies. Webb has insight not only into data and machine learning, but also how these vectors intersect with politics, geo-economics, everyday life, and privacy.

WGIC and buildingSmart sign MOU

The World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) and buildingSmart International have signed an MOU that agrees to work towards the enhanced usage of BIM standards in civil infrastructure. Integrating GIS and BIM standards into best practices will help spread awareness of the technologies to improve understanding and application. Richard Petrie, Chief Executive Officer of bSI says: “It is our aim that the community will benefit from sharing valuable data that resides in multiple systems. The benefits for BIM deliverables will be realized by converging geo-coordinated data to improve digital workflows. This MoU is our commitment to open digital ways of working to help the industry deliver higher standards and projects through this collaborative process alongside the WGIC.”

Blockchain innovations in UK land registry

HM Land Registry director of Digital, Data and Technology John Abbott has announced that blockchain businesses are working with the government of the United Kingdom to lessen the time homeowners must wait to register new property and land. Blockchain innovations are forming part of the government’s Digital Street initiative, which intends to make the UK a world leader in land development registration. The government is additionally investigating how small contracts can improve transparency accuracy and trust when home ownership is transferred. Other achievements from Digital Street include building a digital register for select properties in the UK that will eventually include all 25 million properties—86% of the land in England and Wales.

Planet still a leader in earth imagery

Planet’s numerous satellite fleets are still driving the collection of geospatial intelligence after 8 years. Planet has been on the scene since 2010, when a group of scientists from NASA began the startup that would become the company with a valuation of over $1.1 billion. Planet’s Dove satellites comprise the core of their constellations, alongside the five-satellite RapidEye constellation, Google’s SkySat constellation, and numerous other acquisitions. Earth imagery collected by Planet includes everything from agriculture to forestry, insurance, emergency management, energy, and infrastructure. Planet recently rolled out Planet Analytics, which will make it possible to observe and understand the changes in data gleaned from earth observation imagery—and even predict them.