I know that we’ve been conditioned to think that ideas are the gold of the entrepreneurial world. Those who succeeded did so because they had the amazing ideas, right? They succeeded because they thought of the widget, or the app, or the niche tool that changed the way the world works.
Hexagon Geospatial, put very simply, helps you make sense of the dynamically changing world. We create software and platforms that measure, quantify, and analyze data about the changing earth, providing information that helps you make intelligent decisions.
What is your background in the industry?
I spent eight years in the U.S. Marines as an Imagery Interpretation Specialist. There I was educated inthe techniques of deriving information from imagery, and was intrigued by just how much could be learned from analyzing a simple image.
After the Marines, I joined SAIC (an international systems engineering company). Then, I moved on to helping Colorado State University and BioMARC (Biologics Manufacturing and Academic Resources Center) to promote their newest developments in making biologics manufacturing accessible to commercial organizations that are creating treatments to improve global health. Through the hard work of all the personnel at BioMARC, the center was selected in July 2014 to support the defense department's research in creating an Ebola vaccine for use in human clinical trials. There is no better feeling than when you know that you played a small role in creating solutions that improve the world around us.
Both of these endeavors prepared me well for my current role with Hexagon Geospatial -- getting the word out about their Smart M.App platform.
Smart M.Apps is an app development platform which enables developers—even non-geospatial developers—to take the core geospatial-based technology and create world- and life-changing applications built upon the suite of Hexagon Technology.
The Smart M.App platform is how Hexagon Geospatial would like to change the state of geospatial technology and the world. They aspire to transform the map from a static image of how the world was when the map was created into a dynamic information service.
Can you give us an example of how this technology can work in the real world?
Sure. When we speak in terms of actionable intelligence, or providing real information derived from multi-source content, or data whether it is our own or combined from 3rd party providers, the possibilities are endless. The other day in casual conversation with an organization, they expressed the need to better understand how regional health can be monitored and improved. They noted that this could be achieved in a variety of ways through crowdsourcing, as well as simply monitoring and understanding how quickly diseases or illnesses were spreading, and how resources or targeted medicines could be quickly deployed to prevent the spread of those illnesses.
This is just one vivid example of the diverse applications presented in the world of geospatial technology. The key is really the dynamic connection to data that can be used to update your Smart M.App. The Smart M.App is all about communication: the translation of complex data into a meaningful visualization suited to both the user and the problem it is addressing.
You mentioned that ideas were great, but how does the Smart M.App platform help people make their idea into something that really conveys information?
The Hexagon Smart M.App is about making it easy to take your idea and build an application. Using the cloud-based development environment, you can connect to data, build a geospatial workflow using drag-and-drop operators, define your analytics, and display it on a map. It’s about streamlining that operation. When new data becomes available, you can connect it to the Smart M.App and it will automatically update, adding a new layer of information to the M.App.
And the possible applications are innumerable. In today’s Internet of Things world, everything has a geospatial component. Photos taken with your smartphone are geotagged. Streetlights have locations. Purchases are made at a specific location. All of this can be harnessed and used.
So really, it’s about giving us the tools to take the data and build solutions to problems that we are passionate about?
That’s it, exactly. We recognize the endless possibilities, which is why we are running our $260,000 IGNITE challenge. We want these powerful developing capacities to be discovered and utilized by everyone. Businesses, universities, non-profits, media conglomerates, conservation groups, farmers financial institutions as well your average consumer. All of them. The world is full of creative people with good ideas, if only they had accessible tools to build upon.
We want your idea to come to life; we want to foster new businesses and income for the creators of these Smart M.Apps. When you create your Smart M.App, you retain your IP, you build it, market it, sell it, and make money from it. To help you, we offer support to designers and creators through the entire process.
This is my true job: to empower others to execute on their idea or innovation and to introduce the public to the Smart M.App platform as the sandbox that can bridge concept to creation!
To this end, the Hexagon Geospatial team will be traveling around the world to host IGNITE Sessions where communities can receive a personal introduction to creating Smart M.Apps . My team and I will help attendees with ideation and design while connecting you with technical experts.
If you’re interested, the next IGNITE Session will be at the Rockit Burger Bar in Chicago, IL on March 9th. Sign up here.
