Driving Around With A Purpose
For those readers who don’t already know it, I also blog actively ate www.satviz.com covering the world of GPS with a particular emphasis on using GPS to make a profit … getting a ROI (Return On Investment) in both the US taxpayer’s huge investment in the GPS and on business’ investment in their own efficiency. I very seldom cross post but I thought this subject had enough Philippines appeal to put it on line here as well. Any volunteers? Anyone with a better solution than a volunteer effort to get the job done?
I just posted Friday about a GPS road-oriented marketing event here in the Philippines. A question that might be in some people’s mind is, how to they know where to drive? Are there good maps available? And the answer is an unqualified yes, no and maybe.
Unlike the US and much of the rest of the world where the ubiquitous Google has broken open the floodgates … made available previously closely held, for profit, mapping data, the Philippines suffers from a lack of readily available GPS-generated mapping data. There are two ways to deal with this issue.
The first is the method demonstrated by the Philippines designated government mapping agency, NAMRIA (National Mapping and Resource Information Authority) On their website, http://www.namria.gov.ph/home.asp (skip the annoying and totally inappropriate silliness of their Flash into) they profess to being tasked to meet the needs of commercial users of maps. But, in fact, they don’t. No one asks that they do this for free, but their charter instructs them to do this. perhaps there is no one employed there who can understand the basic principle of commerce … make a product, charge more than it cost you to make and you’ll actually have profit (which can be plowed back into environmental projects they are also tasked with that wouldn’t be expected to earn a profit? Too much to hope for, I believe. In all my years in the business in the US I found that NAMRIA’s counterparts in the US were similarly anti-business. The ultimate refuge of the government employee who doesn’t want to do anything is just to whine, “there’s no money”, even when there are potential customers trying to give them money. So what other alternatives are there?
Well here’s one. A commercial concern here in the Philippines makes a profit from selling GPS tracking units and allowing users to see their vehicles live on a web-based map. But I just said, there are no adequate maps, so? Simple … or not so simple. Make you own. My friends at Starcomm Philippines have been driving the roads for several years now, GPS-verifying the roads for their own commercial purposes. In one respect it’s a shame they have to do it that way. In another respect, though it certainly proves my assertion that there is money in maps. The photo gives just a hint of the investment they are making in their own success.
Further proof that there’s money in maps is the afore-mentioned Google. The4y not only drive the roads of many of the world’s countries to make and update maps as a conventional business investment, according to my friend Yuga here they are making GPS mapping equipment available on loan for volunteers to drive the roads with. Frankly, I like it. I’m throwing my name into the hat, anyone else?
As always, I welcome comments, disagreement is encouraged, and you can also email me direct at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or call me on 1-719-423-8872. If you liked this article, please subscribe to my RSS feed so you get all my news and views.
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