A couple of weeks ago the Digital Map Products Team packed their bags and traveled to the beautiful Pacific North West to attend and speak at the WAURISA 2012 GIS conference in Tacoma Washington. This year’s theme was “Communicating Spatial Knowledge”; something we can definitely relate to and are passionate about! The conference attendees included GIS professionals from local and state government, consultants, product vendors, and service providers.

This year’s theme of “Communicating Spatial Knowledge” was kicked off with the Conference Key Note by former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer  “Communication Spatial Knowledge Connecting People, Places and Policy”. A few of the individual presentations we found particularly informative were those by Tim Moore and Nizar Salih “COR Maps – An Interactive GIS Web Portal”, Jared Erickson “Pierce County’s Mobile Development Platform” and Jay Clark “How Multiple Cities Came Together to Build a Citizen Map Browser”. Panel discussions are always a great way to get many different opinions with great discussion and “Panel Discussion: Government’s Role in Sharing Spatial Information – Data, Maps, and Services” did not disappoint.

My Digital Map Products colleague, Benjamin Webb, and I had the opportunity to present on “The Cloud Revolution: How Cloud Computing is Transforming Mapping” which allowed us to share our knowledge of the benefits cloud computing brings to GIS applications, data and services. In our talk we highlighted current Cloud GIS trends, the state of Cloud Computing and a few tips to help with the overall success with a Cloud GIS implementation.

Because one presentation is never enough, Ben and I also presented “Talk to Me: Using Mapping to Communicate with Citizens in the Google Era”. Developing a consumer-facing website that is easy to use and informative is one of those topics that GIS Professionals continue to struggle with. The new map consumer is demanding and is looking for correct data within a responsive web application, with as few widgets as possible. In our presentation we outlined the expectations of these new map-savvy information consumers, explained how to present data in an easy to consume fashion, and displayed some examples using Digital Map Products’ Community View™ mapping solutionx.

The final Digital Map Products team member to present was Annie Schwab, who pointed out common online mapping mistakes in “Mapping Secrets Unveiled: Top Mapping Faux Pas and How to Avoid Them”. Even though this was the last session of the day, the house was full. Annie gave a lively presentation with participation from the audience and her mapping don’ts garnered quite a few chuckles and head nods which just shows how much the GIS community values this type of information.

The WAURISA team welcomed us with open arms and I will have to say that this was one of the smoothest GIS conferences that I have been to in a while. Great job!

Learn more about best practices for publishing city, property and community information to citizens & how cities can get started with online interactive mapping:

• Government Best Practices
• CommunityView™ | Connecting Cities to Their Communities
• About Digital Map Products

A few weeks ago the Digital Map Products Team traveled to Sacramento, CA for the annual CalGIS conference. CalGIS is organized by the fine folks from the California URISA chapter. The conference included GIS professionals from local, state and federal government, consultants, product vendors, and service providers.

This year we were pleased to see that the majority of talks focused on web-based mapping, open source GIS, and improving access to geospatial data through mobile devices – all favorite topics of ours and a testament to the massive evolution GIS has recently undergone. Not long ago this conference was heavily focused on the utilization of desktop GIS tools including new functions and features. You could certainly feel the energy around the new and evolving geospatial tools at the conference that were leveraging the Web, Cloud and Mobile.

One presentation that particularly impressed us was given by Scott Gregory, California Government Information Officer, about the new state-wide portal for geospatial data. Scott’s vision revolves around improving access and generating further awareness about the new datasets. This initiative is especially exciting for us because DMP is providing the state-wide parcel database and tax assessor attributes which form the foundation for the new data portal.

Another highlight of CalGIS for DMP was sharing our knowledge of web mapping through an IGNITE presentation. We discussed how online maps can help local governments improve their communications with citizens and meet Google Era information access and transparency expectations. The biggest challenge of the session was fitting all our tips into a lightning fast 5 minutes! It really forced us to focus on the most critical points which we’re sharing with you below:

• Changing expectations are forcing cities to re-asses their current offerings, citizens want to self-serve 24/7
• Internet & social media are transforming the way city government interacts w/ citizens
• The cloud provides a cost-effective, scalable & easier –to-use resource for cities to increase constituent engagement
• Progressive cities are leveraging interactive maps and web 2.0 technologies to engage citizens & help them self-service their requests

Learn more about best practices for publishing city, property and community information to citizens & how cities can get started with web 2.0 & interactive mapping:

• Government Best Practices
• CommunityView™ | Connecting Cities to Their Communities
• About Digital Map Products

Let’s start off by discussing why mapping is so great. Besides being pretty to look at, maps provide an opportunity for deeper analysis. With maps you can view patterns and trends that might be missed in their tabular form. Maps provide people with context; you can look at a map and immediately understand where you are in relation to everything else. And that’s just scratching the surface; we could easily write another post on why we love maps so much but we’ll save that for next time.

So how can you leverage the benefits of mapping to show off your market expertise and win more listings? Data! Data is everywhere and when mapped effectively highlights your market knowledge. Some important datasets that you can track and showcase on your map include transactions, property values, distressed assets, and inventory. Collect, map, analyze, repeat. This process establishes credibility and reinforces your market expertise.

But don’t just stop there, you are reading this because you want to be the market EXPERT right? Emphasize your market knowledge by adding your unique perspective to the map. You can do this by combining various datasets that illustrate interesting relationships and might otherwise be hard to capture. In addition, styling your data is an excellent way to provide meaning and take the data to the next level.

Finally, you’ll want to present your map in a way that asserts your market expertise. Clients have different needs; tailor your map to present what is relevant to each one whether it be property values, past sales, hazards, or retail locations. For your short-list why not create a “custom” collateral piece? They’ll appreciate the time and you’ll solidify yourself as the market expert.

By following these tips you’ll be the market expert in no time but in case you want to learn more here are some additional resources for your convenience:

Webinar: The Mapping Advantage
Whitepaper: Leveraging Technology to Better Market Your Listing
Learn More: Digital Map Products Real Estate Solutions

Real Estate Search is an Evolving Art
Real estate search continues to evolve and is keeping the industry on its toes. As consumers grow savvier we need to know how to keep up. Today’s tech savvy consumer wants it all from a streamlined user interface to advanced search options like school zones, lifestyle, neighborhood boundaries, and even traffic information. Your site has to be able to offer all of this and more or the consumer will leave. Yes, it’s cruel but it’s the truth. And we’re not done yet, they also want to access this information on the fly meaning search needs to be mobile. The trajectory of real estate search is clear: more functionality available on any device and easier to use.

The Local Craze Continues
Hyperlocal may be as ubiquitous a buzz word as “the cloud” these days but being hyperlocal can and does pay off. As those tech savvy consumers mentioned above become more familiar with the advancements in real estate search and as mapping technologies and geo-location apps continue to grow it will be vital to offer consumers localized information on your site. Remember, consumers are not just searching for a home; they are searching for a community.

Don’t be Overwhelmed by Data Overload
It’s no secret that big data has permeated the world we live in and the real estate industry is no exception. But big data can be a bit overwhelming and figuring out how to capitalize on all of the information can be just as frustrating because a number without context is meaningless. One way to provide context and make data easy to digest is to display it visually. Data displayed visually is a very basic yet powerful way to share information that might otherwise be overwhelming. In addition, displaying big data visually can help expose trends that might otherwise be obscured. Consumers are already familiar with map-based search so why not integrate all of your great data into your map?

While there were a lot of other notable trends being discussed at the conference the ones mentioned above most resonated with us and seemed like they would be helpful to share with our blog readers.

In addition to the thought-provoking ideas buzzing around the conference we also had a great time in our “Technology Preview” sessions. During these sessions we invited conference attendees to take a sneak peek at some exciting new technology we will be unveiling in 2012. We received invaluable feedback and have lots in the works that we look forward to sharing with you!

For more information on how to keep up with the advances in real estate search, hyperlocal information and displaying big data in an impactful way see the resources below:

Webinar: The Business Case for Search & Display at the Neighborhood Level
Video: Rollups: Making Sense of Large Data Sets
Whitepaper: 7 Tips for Developing a Great Mapping App

A new breed of location technologies powered by cloud services is overtaking the consumer web. These new location apps and geodata are taking mapping into the mainstream through their ease of implementation, maintenance and use. We’re now seeing that users once timid with mapping are now demanding interactive spatial features and further innovation from sites employing mapping and location data.

Cloud computing has permanently transformed the mapping sector and is creating new rules for success, along with tremendous opportunity for those attuned to these changes. By better understanding what lies ahead for cloud-based mapping, organizations and individuals can best capitalize on this technology revolution and make their sites and products stand out with mapping.

• New Users, New Markets: Web mapping has an army of new users, most of whom are nontechnical and have exceedingly high expectations for their user experience. These new users are impatient and have a very low learning curve. They’re interested in mapping so far as it helps them accomplish their immediate task at hand. However, they are not GIS groupies who will wait for a map to load or tolerate inaccurate data because they think GIS is cool. For these new users, location technology will be interwoven into their everyday tasks, many times in ways they don’t even realize. You must understand and design for these new users to succeed in the mapping of tomorrow.

• The New Face of Geodata: One of the benefits cloud computing brings to mapping is the simplification of acquiring, integrating and maintaining data! With the cloud, getting the data’s the easy part which frees up significant time to meet the needs of those demanding new users you have. With the proliferation of mapping APIs, location data has become even cheaper, easier to implement and keep current, and more plentiful. Even better, data quality is improving significantly which should lead to fewer user complaints. One of the most exciting developments on the location data front is with user sourced data. Users are moving from merely being data consumers to data creators. They’re tagging their current locations so friends can find them, correcting attraction locations, pinpointing breaking news and offering their opinions on everything from restaurants to homes for sale.

• Pervasive Mapping: With new users and data come new applications for mapping, and none are more significant than the rise of mapping in the mobile environment. Mobile and mapping are a natural fit and because of this, mapping is becoming pervasive, being integrated into any device, any where, any time. The question you need to continually ask yourself is this: “Is your mapping mobile friendly?” We used to rely on maps to help us understand “where am I?” or “how do I get to my destination?”  With mobile mapping, a whole new world is exposed, one where the dominant question becomes “where am I in relation to everything else?” Pervasive mapping gives us new tools to explore our immediate locations and discover people, attractions, businesses, and new experiences.

• Blending of Real and Virtual Worlds: As spatial technology empowers us to better explore and understand our environments, there’s a critical need to display information; sadly the traditional world of 2D is no longer sufficient. Thankfully, by blending standard maps with augmented reality and 3D images users can instantly get a better sense for their surroundings and more easily locate the information they desire and navigate unknown areas. Augmented reality will be particularly effective in the mobile and hyperlocal spaces.

• Increased Innovation and Speed to Market: One of the things we like best about cloud services is that they free developers from many of the back-end headaches of mapping development and maintenance affording them precious time to focus on innovation and improving the user experience. This free time is much needed to make mapping applications intuitive and easy to use. Companies that recognize this and take advantage of this shift in focus will deliver apps that meet the needs of the new web mapping users.

• The Increased Need for Data Visualization: With more demanding users, increased data, and more sophisticated mapping features, future mapping success is predicated on good data display. The use of correct and innovative data visualization techniques is essential to improving the usability of location-based products. We need to adhere to solid data visualization principles like summarizing large data sets and using geographies that make sense to users, such as neighborhoods not census tracts. Also, we need to push the limits of tools to help users explore data. As data and analysis gets more complex, users will need to quickly drill into and out of maps. And don’t forget the time element – we love playing around with animated maps as a means to easily understand the temporal component of trend data.

There’s no question a new era of mapping has arrived, and it’s unmistakably tied to the cloud. We encourage everyone to embrace these new mapping norms and begin exploring the many facets of spatial cloud computing to take your mapping to the next level. We’ve been thrilled to see the rapid evolution of our favorite technology and are excited to see what the future of mapping holds in store for all of us.

Check out the links below to learn more about where mapping technology is headed in the cloud era:

Webinar Recording: Top Mapping Faux Pas & How to Avoid Them
Video: What’s Next for Real Estate & Mapping Panel Discussion

While the benefits of maps are widely known, developing robust, user-friendly mapping applications is still a challenge. Based on over a decade of experience building spatial solutions, our team at Digital Map Products has identified five of the most common minefields that stymie geo-development projects and cause mapping application “mission impossible”.

By employing the strategies listed below, developers can avoid minefields and bring an intuitive application to market in less time and with far greater ease.

• Have a Plan to go Beyond Points on a Map: Today’s users expect more than just points on a map so your plan should include integrating and linking multiple data sets, building interactive features, and incorporating advanced data visualization tools.  Plus mapping applications can be notoriously difficult to extend, so invest in a flexible back-end and think carefully about desired future capability.

• Be Realistic About Time Estimates – Getting the Data’s the Easy Part: Many developers think once they’ve sourced data for their new mapping application the hard work is done. In reality, the work has just begun. Allocate significant time to processing, linking, displaying, and updating your data.

• Form an Obsession with Performance: In the online world, your application can never be fast enough, so it’s paramount that you exploit every trick in the book to optimize your data and features for rapid display on the map. Users waiting for a map to load is as antiquated a thought as dial-up connections.

• Hide the Spatial Technology and your Users will Thank You: Because most of your users won’t know GIS from XYZ you need to ‘hide’ the spatial technology so it is intuitive for users and available when they need it, but not overwhelming. Styling your data and linking related data sets can go a long way towards enhancing usability.

• You Don’t Need to do it all Yourself: With the explosion of mapping and geodata web services, you don’t have to recreate the wheel when developing your spatial application.  Leveraging the cloud translates to substantial time and cost savings on development, infrastructure, and maintenance, as well as minimal capital outlays and best-in-class reliability. Plus, it means you don’t need to become a GIS expert to leverage location technologies.

We have always believed that spatial technology should be easy to use and implement.  Armed with an awareness of common mapping application development minefields and the strategies needed to avoid them, you can be successful in leveraging all the exciting new mapping technologies.

 
Visit the links below for more information about developing a successful mapping application:

• 7 Tips for Developing a Great Mapping Application
• SpatialStream | Revolutionizing Spatial Application Development

Adding a map to your real estate site is now easier than ever, so easy in fact that it is rare to come across a site without one. But a common Faux Pas that many fall into is adding a location, showing the street view, and calling it a day. Here at Digital Map Products we love maps (as you can probably tell) and are always elated to see a map on any site but when a website stops at the property location and treats their map as a store locator we are always a little crestfallen.

A map is a perfect medium to tell the local story of a location. There is so much information around a location that can be presented on the map that it is a shame to ignore it. And it’s not just the map savvy that want more, the lion share of your users now expect a rich mapping experience and limiting them to the store locator style map is the fastest way to lose a user that was so difficult to capture in the first place. Take a look at your competitors, if they are presenting a simple point on the map then here’s your chance to one-up them. If they have gone beyond that simple point then they are the one-upper and you need to do something to catch up. Keep in mind that your competitors are just a click away, so dive in head first and take your map to the next level.

There is a whole host of cloud-based companies out there, including Digital Map Products, to help you create a map that stands out and gives your consumers what they are looking.

Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Add data that helps tell your spatial story, examples of this data include points of interest, parks, public transportation, schools, and churches
• Add demographic data to help create a mental picture of the people that live in and around the property of interest
• Display boundaries that make sense to your end user such as neighborhood and city boundaries. Don’t add information that you don’t know yourself, for example, do you know where your postal code ends? If you don’t know neither will your users.
• If you are adding thematic maps to display trends in the areas, make sure to display the data in the familiar boundaries your users know.
• Add local reviews to your site to give your end user an idea of what people are saying about the local establishments.
• Only add data to the map that helps the user. Adding data and features just to add them can detract from your application and cause confusion for the end user.

With so many options in the market it can be difficult to attract users to your site but once you do you want to keep them coming back. Don’t fall into the Store Locator Faux Pas; go beyond the simple point on the map. Elevate your map by adding data and functionality that WOWs your end user and keeps them engaged with your application. Your end users will thank you!

If you like this post have a look at the entire series.
Mapping Faux Pas #5: Bad Data Visualization
Mapping Faux Pas #4: Loading Map Syndrome
Mapping Faux Pas #3: Dumb Maps
Mapping Faux Pas #2: Street Level Geocoding
Mapping Faux Pas #1: Where’s the Map?

As the real estate market recovers and the inventory of desirable available lots evaporates, there’s renewed interest in land acquisition from builders, developers and brokers. In the post-crash real estate environment, the need for quality land remains paramount, but the strategies and methods for attaining land have changed. Today’s land acquisition process is considerably more complex as a result of more stringent municipal development requirements, evolving consumer demands focused on lifestyle and constrained financial and staff resources from the builders themselves.

Making the right land choices is more critical than ever while simultaneously more difficult than ever. Amidst all these challenges are new technologies and opportunities that are key to not only keeping up but getting ahead in land. This all begs the question-given the new “normal” what does it take to succeed in land acquisition today?

How and Why Land Acquisition has Changed
There are three main drivers that have morphed land acquisition in recent years: municipal development requirements, consumer demand and builder constraints.

Many municipalities were burned by haphazard development of the recent past and they have a strong desire for sustainable communities exhibiting new urbanism and new suburbanism traits. Similarly, there have been changes in consumer preferences including the shift to lifestyle-based purchase decisions, rising price sensitivity, and increasing interest in public transit proximity. Further, builders and developers have impacted the land acquisition success equation with margin pressure, stringent profit requirements, and resource constraints.

Market Analysis is more Important than Ever
With an increasingly complex land acquisition process and more numerous requirements from consumers and municipalities, market intelligence and land analytics are now required for land acquisition success. Some of the key market metrics to track and know are: median price, absorption rate, and price/sqft. You also need to consider alternative markets in your analysis such as resales and foreclosures and it’s always best to take all analysis to a sub-market level to identify, understand and exploit unique hyperlocal market factors.

Good Technology and Data Lay the Foundation for Success
Both technology and data are key pieces to the new land acquisition equation. For one, data enhances land decisions and there’s a plethora of proprietary, third-party, and publicly available data to use in your market and land analyses. Taking it one step further, in this era of doing more with less, and seemingly overwhelming amounts of data and decision variables, technology is a critical enabler to rapid, sound land strategies. Mapping systems are rapidly becoming requisite tools for builders and developers as they provide an intuitive means to combine many disparate data sets and quickly identify trends and patterns in data.

With all the upheaval in land acquisition, the new formula for success clearly hinges on possessing quality data, robust mapping technology, and resources capable of performing local level market analysis.

To learn more about land acquisition best practices and the latest in real estate mapping technology visit the links below:

• Mapping Advantage Webinar Recording
• Submarket Analysis Whitepaper
• LandVision | Mapping Software for Real Estate

This week brings us to #5 in our Real Estate Mapping Faux Pas series: Bad Data Visualization. This is one of my favorites and a mistake I see so many people committing without even knowing it. As a disclaimer, I will admit I’m a bit of a data visualization zealot so bear with me, but I can’t emphasize enough how far good data display goes towards enhancing the usability and comprehension of information, particularly with complex data sets. That being said, let’s talk mapping data visualization, why it’s important, and some of the ways people get it so wrong.

First and foremost, maps are an extremely intuitive way for people to access and analyze data, particularly large data sets and/or multiple data sets simultaneously. As humans, our brains are hard-wired to understand maps, and location is a universally understood characteristic. So if maps are theoretically so great for working with information, why do they have such a bad rap for being hard to use? In short, Bad Data Visualization Techniques! Poor data display tactics can render even the best conceived mapping application useless; it’s time we stop blaming the map for its usability shortcomings, and start blaming the people making the maps.

Avoid Information Overload	Avoid Pie Charts on Maps

Now that we’ve isolated the root cause for many of the confusing maps out there, what are some of the most common mistakes? The first, seen above and to the left, is putting too much data and too little legend information in one map view. This leads to information overload and makes it virtually impossible for your users to make sense of any of the data sets displayed on the map. The well-known real estate website pictured is attempting to show population density with 11 classes of data, school locations, featured properties, and properties for rent. Not only is there way too much data, but it’s not clear what each symbol / color represents. And 11 classes of data? That’s way too many for the average consumer website.

While the map on the left is clearly difficult to understand, and ugly, the map on the right may initially seem appealing, however it is nearly as bad as the map on the left. First, in the data visualization world, pie charts are a big no-no, so putting pie charts on maps, is a bigger no-no. The pie charts obscure one another and it’s virtually impossible to distinguish what the colors and size of the pie chart represent, not to mention what the actual values being measured are. This is a perfect example of just because something looks cool, doesn’t mean it’s the optimal means to display data. In fact, often the best map visualizations, and the most difficult ones to create, are the simple ones.

To keep you from creating “mapping don’ts” due to bad data visualization, I’ve summarized some helpful tips to keep in mind as you’re organizing, styling, and displaying data:

• We’ve mentioned this before, but it applies here as well – before you throw data up on a map start with the end in mind. Think about who will be using this data, and what conclusions you want to help them draw from it.
• Before everything else, make sure your data is clean and you understand its nuances – does your data set have outliers? How is it distributed? Where does your data have holes? Exploring and getting to know your data will help you select your display scheme.
• When classifying your data, or summarizing it, use a limited number of classes and intuitive color schemes.
• Resist the urge to show all your data on the map at once – in lieu of 30,000 points on a map, summarize your data to easily understood geographies to make it less overwhelming for users. When you select your geographies, select ones that mean something to your users.
• Give users creative options to explore your map data such as animations, drill downs, etc.

The most important takeaway is that even if you have the slickest, fastest, easiest to use mapping application, and have avoided all our other Faux Pas up to this point, you must invest the time and thought into proper data display to prevent your site from becoming a major Mapping Don’t! Now that you understand some of the most important tips for good map display, you too can banish ugly maps and put good data visualization principles to work for you to enhance your user experience and make your real estate site stand out from the pack. And be sure to check back next week for a discussion with Skip on how to take your map beyond just the property location.

How patient are you when browsing the web? How long will you wait for a website to load before you abort your mission? The average consumer won’t wait long so it’s critical to make sure your website and mapping app load quickly and accurately so you don’t lose the consumer’s interst. This brings us to our Mapping Faux Pas #4: Loading Map Syndrome.

Consumers of today are demanding and are accustomed to instant gratification. And, due to developments in mobile, they are getting more comfortable with stripped down versions of websites that offer just the necessities of what they are looking for. This new tech savvy breed wants easy to use software and they want to be able to self-navigate. They expect the data on your site to be current and free of bugs. Above all else the new consumer does not want to wait for your site to load! Demanding little buggers, aren’t they?

So how do we keep them happy while integrating web-based mapping into our site? Well, first off we need to recognize that mapping over the web is an entirely different beast than mapping on the desktop computer. The desktop computer has a great deal of computing power and resources but a web browser is very limited on these features. Porting desktop mapping techniques to the web does not translate very well and in most cases the first item to suffer is performance.

When developing a web-based mapping application, put performance first and obsess over it. Use all the tricks in the book to shave off every millisecond possible. Use server side rendering, pre rendered tiling, proper spatial indexing and standard web application techniques to get the best performance possible. It’s a given that resources may be limited and compromise can occur, that’s OK as long as you revisit each compromise and tackle those slow points every chance you get. I can’t reiterate enough how important it is to obsess over the performance of your mapping application. Don’t expect consumers to wait for your map to load, because they won’t.

With these tips in mind you should be well on your way to creating a great mapping application for the web that will keep your consumer engaged, happy and coming back! Happy mapping!

Last week the Digital Map Products team attended the National Association of Realtors Expo in Anaheim, Ca. We found the show to be very informative and a great way to learn about the latest technological innovations for real estate, something close to our hearts. The trend we found most exciting is how mobile, cloud computing and social media are changing the way the real estate industry does business.

In a session entitled “The One Thing Power Brokers Can’t Live Without” it was impressive to learn how far mobile has come and how integral it is to real estate search, in particular to Gen Yers. Younger generations do everything on the go and having a user friendly real estate website, designed specifically for mobile devices is key. Users need to be able to perform map-based searches on the fly and obtain information quickly and easily from their mobile device.

In addition, the buzz word we’re all very familiar with “Cloud Computing”, is especially relevant to the real estate industry as a means to increase collaboration and efficiency while cutting costs. The cloud also offers real estate professional easy access to critical information, such as property and transaction data, instantly. If there’s one industry out there that can really benefit from cloud computing it’s real estate.

Finally, the transformation social media is having on the real estate industry continuous to be a presence you can’t ignore. NAR did a great of keeping everyone in the loop at the conference via social media. Attendees and those who could not attend were able to follow along via Twitter, Facebook, live video feeds, and blogs. In addition, we enjoyed the great interaction we had with live speakers and other conference attendees via Twitter. Thanks to the thriving Twitter feed we were able to keep up with all the fantastic sessions at NAR even though we couldn’t attend them all. It just goes to show what an incredible tool social media is for staying connected with customers and on top of trending topics.

If you’d like to learn more about real estate technology trends and best practices check out the links below:

• What’s Next for Online Real Estate & Mapping
• Tips To Creating a Real Estate Website that Stands Out
• Making the Most of Online Real Estate Data

Now that the real estate mapping genie’s out of the bottle we’re facing some pretty hefty spatial expectations from consumers. In our first few Faux Pas, we touched on the relatively basic concepts of having a map and making it easy to find, and then making sure you’re using an accurate location for the data displayed on your maps. This week’s Faux Pas elevates our mapping savvy and addresses how to avoid Dumb Maps.

What are dumb maps and why are they so bad for your site? Simply put, today’s users expect their maps to be more than just pretty pictures. When you include a map but it doesn’t do anything, it’s a tease at best, and at worst is a reason for visitors to leave your site. Consumers expect the maps they encounter online to be interactive. Now that they’re familiar with maps, they want to use them to explore an area, drill into deeper data, and dynamically answer their real estate questions. Maps that don’t allow users to interact with them are dead-ends, and will ultimately impede your efforts to fully engage your site visitors.

So what’s the secret to avoiding dead-end maps? It’s really fairly easy. If you go to the trouble to plot something on a map, make sure you include features that let users get more information about it. Some of the most basic ways to do this are with standard mouse-overs, on-click balloons, and links to detail pages and additional data and features. Taking this approach will keep you from overwhelming your users with too much data, and yet will quench their thirst for additional details when they find something of interest. You can see an example of this below on the left. Shown is a residential home price trend map. The data is nicely summarized to neighborhoods so you can quickly tell which neighborhoods have had large price drops (red) and which have held their prices (green). When a user clicks on a neighborhood, they can see additional stats for that neighborhood and even access related data sets.

Home Price Trend Map	Map with Results List

Similarly, just as you want to incorporate interactivity to your maps, you also want to tie your maps to the more traditional world of data display, otherwise known as the tabular world. Above, on the right we show a map with a results list beneath it. It’s important to link these two features so that when a user clicks or hovers over a house on the map, it highlights in the list below and vice versa. Taking this a step further, we love to tie our map data to graphs so we can easily switch among data visualization methods and quickly explore our data.

Below are a few tips and techniques for including interactivity in your maps that will delight even the most demanding of consumers:

• If you have a map with data, even a point, let users get more information by clicking on it
• Give users map-search options using selectable areas, custom drawn boundaries and to map extent check boxes
• Bridge the spatial and tabular worlds by making sure your maps are interactive with your search results lists and charts and graphs
• Let users drill into maps for additional views and layers of information
• Achieve mapping guru-status when you embed animated maps to show trends over time!

Remember, avoid dead-end maps and the inevitable user disappointment that ensues by building in interactivity to your maps and linking your map experience with the non-map data world. And with that mapping faux pas safely checked off your list, you’re ready to address our fourth common mapping mistake: “Loading Map Syndrome.”  Check back next week for a spirited discussion with Skip around online mapping performance and how it can go so wrong!

This week we’re covering Mapping Faux Pas #2: Bad Geocoding. We all know, Real Estate is all about three things: location, location, location, and nothing is more important to location than a precise geocode. Geocoding has always been a critical aspect of Real Estate web maps but now, with the rise of aerial imagery map layers it is more critical the ever to get a proper geocode location.

Before the wide spread use of aerial imagery a street level geocode was good enough (sometimes…well, we never really liked it but it was enough for some!). Previously, maps were used to give you an idea of the general area and a street level geocode was adequate as there was little additional context as to where the true location should be. That all changed as soon as aerial imagery was added to the mix. Having aerial images offered far greater context and consumers started to ask “well, which house is it?”. With aerial maps they have the ability to actually see the houses, what they look like, what the neighbor’s houses look like, what’s in the backyards and the general health of the neighborhood. Suddenly, consumers have a burning desire to know whether the house for sale is the charming Cape Cod with the big backyard, or the run-down fixer that backs to a busy road.

Street Level Geocode	Parcel Level Geocode

Naturally, the consumer has come to love aerial maps and with that love, is demanding proper geocoding to pinpoint the properties of interest to them. Providing this parcel level accuracy is key to keeping consumers on your site. It’s difficult enough to keep them engaged, so don’t give them a reason to leave with poor geocoding.

Parcel or Rooftop geocoding is now the standard for property web sites and you must rise to that level to play in this competitive market.

A few tips

• Invest in products that deliver accurate geocodes
• Use multiple sources/services if necessary to get that all-critical property location
• If you have an agent workforce entering listings have them place the geocode in the best location
• If you can’t get a rooftop or parcel level geocode present the road map to the end user first

Keep this Faux Pas in mind because although the idea is simple enough we find that many sites have not given this critical piece of information enough attention.

Last week our Digital Map Products team traveled to Houston, TX to participate in GITA’s Annual GIS for Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference. While this was our first time attending the show, we found it very informative and it gave us the chance to introduce ourselves to the Oil & Gas industry and understand their needs for GIS technology and geospatial data. Hands down, the highlight of the show for us was the opportunity to present a Technical Session about a subject we’re very passionate about: Cloud GIS.

One of our favorite presentations we attended was the mini session on Google in the Oil & Gas Industry. The room was packed and Ron Hathaway did a great job explaining the critical role data plays in the adoption and further evolution of GIS. We agree that amazing software is nothing without good, current data that is relevant to end-users’ objectives. Thankfully, with the proliferation of cloud computing, getting geospatial data for your mapping and GIS applications has exponentially easier. Further, all of us in the development community are thankful to Google for providing us with an intuitive mapping platform on which we can develop our customized applications. Can you believe that over 350,000 developers are leveraging Google’s APIs?! That helps to explain the tremendous innovation we’ve seen in mapping applications in recent years.

In our technical session, The Cloud Revolution: Leveraging Cloud Computing for GIS Success, we were thrilled to not only have a great turn-out but an extremely engaged audience. Since we’ve been delivering GIS over the web for more than a decade we love it that everyone’s become so interested in cloud-based mapping of late. Our CEO, Jim Skurzynski and Product Manager, Skip Cody did a great job of bringing everyone up to speed with the latest developments in Cloud GIS and explaining why cloud computing is having such a huge impact on GIS technology. But they didn’t stop there – Jim and Skip harnessed their years of knowledge of developing web GIS applications and offered session participants several tips on how the Oil & Gas Industry can best capitalize on Cloud GIS technologies and get started today. Listed below is a summary of their Cloud GIS success tips:

• Tip #1: New GIS users are a different breed – understand what they are trying to do
• Tip #2: Invest your development time making the technology work for your users, not making the technology work. With the cloud you can find solutions that take care of making the technology work!
• Tip #3: Choose the right cloud provider and beware of impostors
• Tip #4: Build a solid foundation for your Cloud GIS application with data that’s current and relevant
• Tip #5: Be Obsessed with Performance – don’t let your app fall prey to “loading map syndrome”
• Tip #6: Don’t wait for perfection. Cloud GIS is evolving. It’s best to get started and add on data, functionality and users as you go. Remember, a big benefit of the cloud is scalability!

A big thanks to GITA for organizing the conference and it was a pleasure interacting with technology thought leads in the Oil & Gas field!

In case you missed the show or our presentation, you can learn more about Cloud GIS with the resources below:

• Cloud GIS Webinar: The New Rules for GIS Success
• Web Mapping Whitepaper: 7 Tips for Developing a Great Mapping Application
• Parcel Data Solutions from Digital Map Products

In this 7-part series Annie and I will be discussing some of the most common Mapping Faux Pas found on Real Estate websites. Even though we’re focusing on Real Estate sites, these mistakes crop up across industries and applications and our tips for how to avoid them are equally applicable to any application using maps to convey information.

And that brings us to our first Mapping Faux Pas: the Missing or Hidden Map! We all know, Real Estate about three things: location, location, location, and nothing screams location more than a map. Therefore, we feel no real estate site is complete without a map, and if you do include a map, please don’t hide it!

A map is the perfect medium to to show search results, a single property, real estate trends and information that surrounds that property. While there was a time where consumers were somewhat timid with maps not understanding their full usefulness in exploring data this is no longer the case. Today’s information consumers have come to expect maps, and are on the look-out for them. They are comfortable using the common Bing and Google maps and understand how to navigate and interact with them. Should these new map-savvy users stumble across a site lacking a map, they will very likely go elsewhere for their information. Further, maps are a requisite part of the mobile experience, where everything revolves around location.

Almost as bad as omitting the map from your site is hiding the map or making your users undertake the great map hunt. Too many times I’ve encountered sites that have teeny-tiny map links or bury their maps several pages deep into their user experience. Maps are an incredible resource and if you are going to put the time in to add a map to your site, then put the time in and put the map front and center and integrated into the many user workflows on your site.

Real Estate sites need mapping – enough said!

Here are a few tips to keep in mind as you are developing your site so you can avoid our first Mapping Faux Pas.

• Make your maps easy to find – present users map options and present them early and often
• Put map links at the top of the page or make them easily discoverable
• Offer maps at each step of the user experience: Search, Display, on the Detail View etc.
• Use your maps to present more than just property location. Consider using maps to communicate sales information, market analysis and in reports
• Don’t relegate your maps to an after-thought. Design your site around the map and make the map count
• When you do present a map go beyond a single point on a map and put up data that tells the story around that location

What are all the different ways you can use maps on your Real Estate site?

• Use the map to locate the user to an area and let them begin their property search there using the map
• Display search results on the map. This allows the end user to instantly see the big picture and eliminate properties that don’t meet the most important criteria of real estate: location.
• Include a map on the property detail page and add points of interest such as schools, restaurants, churches, coffee houses, grocery stores, and more…
• Use the map to display sales trends by area (Neighborhood, Postal code, City, County). Trend information is something most sites have already and unearthing that data on a map will help set your site apart.

Following these tips can elevate your web site, keep your end user engaged and will improve your overall site experience, which in the end, is what we’re all after. Stay tuned for more Mapping Faux Pas and tips on how to avoid them in upcoming weeks.

There’s no getting around it – we at Digital Map Products love parcel boundary data! Even better, we love using parcel boundaries in creative ways in mapping applications! For several years now we’ve offered web services that make it easy for our customers to add parcel boundaries to their mapping & GIS applications.

One of the most commonly requested features to our Parcel Data web services is the ability to show parcel dimensions for a selected property on a map. The SpatialStream™ Engineering team recently took on this challenge and has developed a great solution that is available for you to add to your application with only a few lines of code.

With our new Parcel Dimensions API you have the option to show the area and perimeter, the length of each side of the property or both at the same time. You can even customize your parcel dimensions by setting the size, color, font and units (Metric or US) of the display.

All of this is really cool, but our Engineering team didn’t stop there – you can display dimensions for any shape layer available through SpatialStream™, including your own custom data loaded through one of our data loaders. The dimension layer supports both polygon and line features and can be used to measure project areas, drawn geometries, road segments, pipelines and countless other data sets.

We’re excited to see the many different ways our user community will integrate this highly requested new feature. And of course, we’d love to hear your ideas on how you could integrate this new spatial feature.

To see the Parcel Dimensions in action click on the map below or view the full code example at: Parcel Dimensions API

To learn more about Digital Map Products’ Mapping Development Platform visit the links below:

Longview’s city staff works hard to foster a strong sense of community engagement. For years, citizens had been asking for city and community data to be available in an interactive format online. Many cities feel this same demand: in the Google era, citizens want to be able to find their own answers to questions 24 hours a day. But, like many cities of its size, Longview didn’t have the budget, manpower, or time to build a custom interactive GIS interface. They turned to Digital Map Products’ CityGIS™ and CommunityView™ for a software-as-a-service solution that was both faster and less expensive than building it themselves.

Now residents of Longview can go to the city’s website to see property and community information. Using the city’s CommunityView™ powered online maps, residents can:

• Get detailed information about the city’s facilities and parks
• Find their garbage and recycling collection dates
• Look up water and sewer utility data
• See bike routes and trails on a map
• Get zoning and property information
• Research public school locations and statistics
• Access information about bus stops, bus routes, and ADA cutout ramps

The results for Longview have been impressive. City staff receives fewer phone calls and walk-in requests for information. There is an increased awareness of city services and community amenities. Residents can find information any time day or night. And an added bonus for the city was that it actually saved money with the system, an important benefit in this tight economy.

If your city is doing innovative things with spatial technology and cloud computing, we’d love to hear about them and share those ideas with our readers.

To learn more about DMP’s local government solutions visit:

http://www.digmap.com/Campaigns/CloudGISHelpsCities.html

So, if you’re headed to Real Estate Connect next week and don’t have any plans for Thursday night at say 5:30 to 6:30 pm then why not stop on by for some free cocktails and a great time. Who knows, you might even learn a few tips about how to improve your real estate mapping. Here’s a link to more information: Real Estate Mapping Secrets Unveiled: Cocktail Reception at Inman Real Estate Connect.

Safe travels to San Fran for everyone attending Real Estate Connect, and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday evening!

5 Reasons to Try Cloud-Based Spatial Technology
1. The cloud removes many of the obstacles of traditional GIS. GIS has always held the potential to improve efficiency, collaboration and decision-making in business, but at a high cost in technology and skilled experts. What’s changed in the last year is that, for a number of reasons, the model for developing mapping applications has switched to a cloud-based approach. We’ll be talking about this a lot on this blog, but the most important point is this – cloud computing makes GIS more affordable, faster to deploy, more widely available, easier to use, more flexible and more secure.

2. Cloud computing makes mapping much easier to implement and maintain. While large enterprises used to spend countless hours developing and maintaining mapping applications, with the cloud all they have to do is “turn it on” and it’s ready to use. Developers are now creating apps for businesses, and since those apps are cloud-based, they can be rapidly deployed. Cloud providers are also taking over the heavy lifting of updating data sets, so that businesses can just pull the data they need from the cloud. Development time is compressed from years to weeks, and maintenance time disappears completely.

3. Mapping in the cloud is more affordable. The most expensive part of the old world of GIS was getting the data, making the data to work in the application you built, and maintaining the data. That’s all changed as developers take on the tasks of finding the data, making it work and keeping it updated. Since developers can spread their cost among numerous clients, the costs are shared, and that’s great news for businesses’ bottom lines.

4. Using cloud geospatial services frees time to focus on what really matters – the user experience. With cloud services, businesses are freed from the arduous task of simply making the spatial technology work, and can focus instead on their own core competencies and making the spatial technology work best for their users. Many of these companies, for the first time, are able to focus on creating an intuitive and customized user experience to fit the unique user needs of their customer base. That benefit of the cloud, along with the increasing demand for mobile applications, is turning the spotlight directly on usability and simplicity, which is good for both customers and for businesses who want to serve them.

5. Mapping in the cloud gives you more options than ever. Like I said, I think the tipping point for cloud-based mapping happened earlier this year. Now that we’ve tipped, expect the pace of cloud-based spatial technology to accelerate. Google predicts that over the next ten years, virtually all technology innovation will happen in the cloud. For businesses, that means looking to a new breed of cloud-native spatial technology developers for an increasingly steady flow of cool new apps. Like the app world in general, now that developers have entered the market and businesses are liking what they develop, there’s an explosion of new APIs for data and mapping. The marketplace is demanding more, and I fully expect cloud-based developers to keep finding innovative new things to do with mapping.

My advice if you’ve been wondering if its time for your business to take advantage of the cloud – don’t be afraid to dive in. Cloud computing is not a flash in the pan. It’s here to stay and there are many reasons to start using it right now.

Learn More:

• Watch our recent webinar, The New Rules for GIS Success
• Read our article about high performance computing in the cloud

Mapping, and its use in viewing, analyzing and interacting with data, used to be important business tools only for the largest organizations that could afford in-house GIS experts. Today, spatial technology has become pervasive across many business sectors from local government to real estate to the utility industry. As consumers become more “spatially literate” and especially as the cloud makes location technology faster-to-implement, easier to use and more cost effective, mapping technology is becoming a core business tool for large, medium-sized and small businesses, alike.

The paradigm shift for mapping began with Google and Bing Maps, when the whole world suddenly saw the power of finding directions, looking for nearby attractions and otherwise organizing information in a visual format. The move to “spatial literacy” began overnight and hasn’t slowed down since it started. Now many types of businesses and government agencies have incorporated spatial technology into their core business operations as a means to improve their efficiency and decision-making.

At Digital Map Products, our mission is to help businesses of all sizes leverage and succeed with spatial technology. We were excited when mapping hit the public radar, and we’ve watched with enthusiasm and more and more people saw the light about spatial technology. But its only now that we think the universe is aligned for spatial technology to become what we’ve always imagined it becoming – a basic building block in the way businesses gather, organize and share information, analyze trends and make important decisions.

Why do I think the stage is set for a spatial technology revolution? Here are just a few of the reasons:

• Several key economic sectors already count spatial technology as a core business tool and they are being joined by new industries and government users every day. For example, the real estate industry has always been on the forefront of using mapping information. Real estate associations and developers began displaying information about property in a location-based form – on a map rather than in a list. As the industry has used spatial technology, its sophistication has grown. Now, multiple listing services (MLSs) and forward-thinking real estate organizations are using interactive trend maps, advanced data visualization tools and the analytical power of location-based technology. Other sectors look to the real estate industry for innovative ideas around mapping applications.
• Developers are creating exciting location-based apps to fit the needs of specific business sectors. Spatial APIs, basically mapping in the cloud, exploded in 2010 and will continue to grow in importance. Savvy developers are turning out exciting new sets of geo-data and mapping features that are ready to plug and play directly into your siteFor example, if your customers want to know about the school district that serves a particular piece of property, there’s an API for that (in full disclosure, we have an API for that!).. Not only are there more data and feature options from which to choose, but businesses no longer have to process, maintain and update their mapping additions themselves because their cloud provider takes care of that. Not only does the cloud help them develop a more advanced mapping application, but with the time they save, developers can focus on applying mapping to their unique business needs. The cloud breeds innovation in mapping.
• Governments face an increasing demand for location-based services even as they face recessionary budget cuts. While the recession has slowed down some parts of the economy, it’s actually sped up the development and adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. We’ve seen local governments turn to the SaaS models to help them offer do-it-yourself services to their residents: users can look up their trash day, research crime statistics and even report potholes. I think as the recession abates, companies that tried out SaaS services because of their cost-effectiveness with stay with them because they tend to be user-friendly and easy to maintain.
• Data is coming from new sources, both experts and ordinary folks. Major disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti have shown us all the power of crowdsourcing, or using spatial technology to pool our information, keep conversations flowing, and solve problems. Volunteers are mapping roads, buildings, and other location information and finding new ways to share it everyday. This seems to prove the public has embraced both “thinking in maps” and their new role in creating location content.
• Developing spatial applications is becoming more affordable and more interesting. In the early days of GIS, building an application took a lot of experience and a major time commitment. The new robust cloud-based spatial development platforms reduce the cost and collapse development timeframes. As key players like Google and Microsoft provide base map layers, cloud-based development platforms allow developers more room to dream up novel uses of location information and creative ways to combine information to allow us to see it in ways never before possible.

We’ll keep watching the trends in this blog, and I think we’ll continue to see new industries embrace spatial technology, new frontiers open up in the way mapping applications are used by businesses and consumers, and entirely new sectors joining those that already understand the power of location-based information.