Living Map, the digital map and data platform, has raised a further £2.6m investment from Committed Capital, Mercia and other existing shareholders.

The funding will allow the business to launch a new software package that will enable its technology to be adopted by a much wider audience, including large indoor venues like airports, retail sites, hospitals and smart cities. The latest funding, which follows an earlier round in May 2018 through Mercia’s EIS Funds, brings the total raised by the company to £3.8m.

Living Map, which is based in Bath, specialises in the ‘location of things’. Its software allows companies to produce their own customised maps which, unlike similar services, can operate in both outdoor and indoor spaces. It can also be linked to sensors to locate and track people or assets in real time – for example to monitor high-value products moving along a production line or map air quality in different parts of a city.

The company, which was founded in 2010 by urban design consultant Tim Fendley, has produced systems for major visitor destinations such as Heathrow Airport and the MET Museum in New York. However the new, off the shelf software package offers greater functionality and will make the technology accessible to a much wider audience.

Adam Coxen, Living Map’s Chairman, said: “The funding will allow us to pursue our strategy to produce a fully integrated software as a service (SaaS) solution. The new software will provide hyper-accurate digital maps of complex spaces, allowing indoor and outdoor navigation and intelligent real-time location. It will open up new possibilities for use in smart cities, asset management, and industrial platforms.”

Else Thomson, Director of Committed Capital, said: `’Living Map has gone through a period of transformation and is now an outstanding, well-resourced SaaS business with a unique offering. Committed Capital is pleased to be continuing to support the company through its next stage of development, both in terms of a £2.1m contribution to this funding round and ongoing board support.”

Mercia was investing from its EIS funds under management. Julian Dennard, Investment Director at Mercia commented: “Customers expect to be able to use digital maps to find their way around but existing services do not work well indoors. This funding will help Living Map to roll out its new product which addresses this gap in the market and takes digital mapping to the next level.”

Press contacts

For further information, contact:

Katy Horrocks

Marketing Director

Mercia Technologies PLC

+44 (0) 330 223 1430

+44 (0) 772 521 8579

katy.horrocks@merciatech.co.uk

Pauline Rawsterne

PR Agent

Turquoise PR

+44 (0) 161 860 6063

+44 (0) 780 163 9816

pauline@turquoisepr.co.uk

About Mercia Fund Managers

Mercia Fund Managers provides both equity and debt finance to small businesses based in the UK regions. The Group has approximately 400 businesses in its portfolio, a strong record including 11 IPOs and has circa £0.5billion of assets under management including Mercia EIS Funds.

• Mercia Fund Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 524856
• Enterprise Ventures Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 183363
• EV Business Loans Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 443560

www.merciatech.co.uk

The post £2.6m opens up world of opportunity for Living Map appeared first on Living Map.

Living Map had the pleasure the be one of the companies profiled in the research report and here below you can read a short introduction:

—
It’s been a while, when first time the location based services (LBS) has been used commercially.

In 1996, things took an interesting turn when the US government made it mandatory for mobile network operators to find a way to accurately pinpoint the location of emergency callers. This first use has led LBS to finder services, to locate the nearby points of interests.

However, it was not as wildly successful as anticipated and therefore, these offerings were phased out for a while.

Advent of multiple connectivity technologies such as web 2.0, Bluetooth, 3G broadband services and integration of GPS in smartphone was a game changer for LBS market. The LBS technology has now re-emerged, to bring out numerous applications across the verticals. Verticals such as Defense, BFSI, Retail are the major adopters of LBS.

The major applications of LBS include Geo-marketing, Tracking and Telematics, Route Optimization, Disaster Management, and Geographic Event Alerts which are used in outdoor and indoor locations. The countries which could see the major growth in near future includes China, India, and Brazil. These countries invested heavily in LBS market and also witnessed the upsurge in smartphone users, owing to which the LBS market is growing significantly

The major vendors in LBS market includes Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM , Ericsson, Esri, Foursquare, HERE, Navinfo, Baidu, Geomoby, Ekhau, Galieo, Pitney Bowes, Living Map, Ubisense, Zebra Technology, and others.

Living Map has been cited as one of the key vendors of LBS and RTLS services in Marketsandmarkets research report named as LBS and RTLS market – Global Forecast to 2023.

Living Map offers unique mapping solutions for cities and complex buildings. It holds expertise in mapping of urban and interior spaces and has built a platform that support soft modes of transport. The company is expanding rapidly, along with developing and implementing applications for cities, campuses, and airports across the globe.

“The LBS and RTLS market is in the renaissance phase and gaining traction across geographies. Regions such as North America, South East Asia, Eastern Europe have witnessed the significant adoption of LBS and RTLS solutions in various verticals”, Said Kaustubh Bandewar and Jagriti Sinha, Industry Analysts, Marketsandmarkets.

About MarketsandMarkets:

MarketsandMarkets (MnM) is a global market research and consulting company. They publish strategically analyzed market research reports and serve as a business intelligence and consulting partner to Fortune 500 companies across the world. MarketsandMarkets covers seventeen industry verticals, including advanced materials, aerospace and defense, agriculture, automotive and transportation, biotechnology, building and construction, chemicals, energy and power, food and beverages, industrial automation, medical devices, mining, , minerals and metals, packaging, pharmaceuticals, semiconductor and electronics, and telecommunications and IT.

The post Location-Based Services and Real Time Location Systems Market appeared first on Living Map.

In 1996 Ken Schwaber, father of Scrum, described it as a process that copes with unpredictability, creating a mentality of “doing what it takes” to reach a goal.
Rugby fans are used to hear this term since it was borrowed from the sport, and it describes a move when players from each team huddle closely together to advance down on the playing field.

To understand Scrum, one must understand the roles, artifacts, and ceremonies involved in the process.

Roles

There are three main roles that play a part in the framework – Scrum Master, Product Owner and the Development Team.

The Scrum Master is the protector of the team and the process. He has to make sure the team can focus on the work without any distractions. These distractions might be internal (e.g. the CEO wanting a work done, someone asking for help in something…) or external (e.g. noisy background). The Scrum Master is also the expert on the process. He knows how Scrum works and how it should be applied.

The Product Owner (P.O.) is responsible for defining and prioritizing the work because he knows what is expected to be delivered in the project and why the delivery of a certain feature is important. One of the biggest focus of the P.O. is ensuring the work being done aligns with the work that needs doing to reach a certain project goal.

The Development Team, normally composed of five to nine elements, has the functional roles required to complete the project – architects, testers, developers. The team works together to decide on how to achieve their goals and on how to self-manage.

All of these three have an important impact on the success of the agile method and should actively participate in the Scrum Ceremonies.

Ceremonies

Scrum has 4 ceremonies – Daily Stand Up, Sprint Review, Sprint Planning, and Sprint Retrospective.

1. Daily Stand-up

Every day during an iteration (sprint), the Development Team and the Scrum Master meet at the same place and at the same time, in order to have the Daily Meeting. Here, each member has to brief the team by answering to three simple questions: “What have I done yesterday to help with Sprint completion?”; “What will I do today to help with Sprint completion?”; “Is there any blocker impeding me to help with Sprint completion.”. It’s important for the Scrum Master to be in the Daily Meeting because he will make sure that it stays short (no longer than 15 minutes) and resolve any blockage that the team has.

2. Sprint Planning

In each sprint, the team has a ceremony where they plan what they want to take into next iteration – Sprint Planning. During planning, the Development Team establishes their capacity and decides on the Sprint Goal (what they want to achieve). In Living Map, we held a complimentary meeting every week, where the Scrum Master presents the tickets on the Backlog and the team asks questions, discusses what needs to be done and estimates the tickets. This shortens the Sprint Planning and makes it easier for the team to understand what is required for each task.

3. Sprint Review

Once every sprint, the team has a Sprint Review where it shows the work done in the last 2 weeks (our sprints are 2 weeks). In this ceremony, the team also gets feedback from the business on the features released. It’s also a great time where everyone from the company can understand the project that is being developed and the features that are being implemented.

4. Sprint Retrospective

This ceremony is held to evaluate the product whilst the Sprint Retrospective is held to analyse the process. After the Sprint Review, the entire team gets together with the Scrum Master. If allowed by the team, other people (like the Product Owner) may join. During the Retro, the team members speak frankly about what occurred during the sprint and how they felt about it. From this meeting, the team should get a list of actions that should be done in order to improve the process and help with the sprint success.

Artifacts

Adding to the Scrum Roles and the Scrum Ceremonies, we have the Scrum Artifacts. The primary artifact in Scrum is the Product Backlog. This consists of a list of the functionality that remains to be added to the product. The Product Owner prioritizes the backlog by the relevance of business value, so the team always delivers work that is more valuable first. During Sprint Planning, the Development Team creates another artifact – the Sprint Backlog. This can be viewed as the team’s to-do list for the sprint.
It’s important to understand the difference between the two. One is a list of the features that should be done so the project gets done, whilst the other is a list of actions that the team has compromised to finish during a sprint in order to release a functionality. We can see how everything fits together by looking at the figure below:

The project starts with a vision that the Product Owner had or got from a client and transforms into prioritized user stories that will compose the Product Backlog.
The Product Owner meets with the teams and explains what has to be done and why it aligns with the business desires.

At Sprint Planning, the sprint backlog (composed by small tasks) is created and the sprint starts. While the sprint is occurring, the Development team meets every day for fifteen minutes for the Daily Scrum.

At the end of the sprint, there is a Sprint Review where the team shows the Product Owner and the stakeholders the work that has been done. When Sprint Review is over, the Scrum Master holds the Sprint Review where he gets feedback on the process. After doing so the process repeats itself.

A set of features delivered every 2 weeks instead of long waits for the final product (which is never really finalised), doesn’t it sound great?

The post Scrum Methodology appeared first on Living Map.

The software development industry faces the need to develop products in a steady and adaptive way. Companies have to deal with Agile on a daily basis, and the benefits of the methodology are visible for the industry.

Although Agile is a very prominent methodology that helps companies deal with the market’s uncertainty, this particular theme has been studied since 1990. When PC computing started to proliferate, software development faced a crisis. Back then, experts estimated that the time between a validated business need and an actual application in production was about three years. Within three years requirements, systems and needs were most likely to change.

Software development companies had to face rapid changes in requirements of the products they were developing. At the time, the business used traditional methods of project management. These methods are known to be rigid and having strict plan-driven processes. Traditional methods failed to provide the software desired because they couldn’t adapt to the quick changes.

Agile Manifesto

In 2001, a group of developers, frustrated by the unproductive software development activities led the Snowbird meeting in Utah. The main focus of this meeting was to find the best way to quickly build software and deliver it to users. From here, the “Agile Manifesto” emerged, with 4 main values emphasised:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

The first value shifts the focus from the processes to the people. This change is important because the ones who respond to business needs and that drive the development process are the people working in the company.

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

With traditional methods, a significant amount of time was invested on documenting the product for development. All the phases would be planned, documented, approved and released. This caused long delays in development. Agile does not say documentation is not necessary, but builds it in a practical way, giving the information required to the developer in the form of user stories.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

In traditional methodologies, customers negotiate requirements for the product, with a high detail level, before any work starts. This means that the customer was active in the process of development before and after the development began, but not during the process. Using agile means that the customer is involved through all the development process. This makes it way easier to develop the product that the client wants and had envisioned because the client can send feedback and ask for modifications of the end deliverable.

4. Responding to change over following a plan

Before Agile, traditional software development labelled change as an expense, hence it should be avoided at all cost. For this, one should develop detailed plans, with defined features and dependencies on delivering in a specific order. Agile has short iteration, meaning that priorities can be shifted, and new features can be added. Changes create value – not only for the client, but for the business as well.

Although the values of the business changed focus, this does not mean that the previous values should be eliminated. The main difference rests upon on what carries more value.

Besides the four mains values, written in the Agile Manifesto are also 12 principles that describe a culture in which change is welcome, and the customer is the focus of the work.

1. “Customer satisfaction through early and continuous software delivery” – customers are more satisfied when they are able to receive working software at regular intervals, rather than receiving the final product at once;
2. “Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process” – the ability to avoid delays when a requirement or a feature changes;
3. “Frequent delivery of working software” – one of the Agile frameworks that integrate this principle is Scrum, because it works in sprints that ensure a regular delivery of software increments;
4. “Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the project” – If the business and the technical team are aligned, they are able to make better decisions;
5. “Support, trust, and motivate the people involved” – The business must trust their teams and understand that the teams are the best people to make decisions on software issues. The team must feel like it has support from their company;
6. “Enable face-to-face interactions” – Communication is more successful when development teams are co-located;
7. “Working software is the primary measure of progress” – One of the ways to track progress is by the delivery of functional software to the customer;
8. “Agile processes to support a consistent development pace” – Teams decide a repeatable and maintainable speed at which they can deliver;
9. “Attention to technical detail and design enhances agility”
10. “Simplicity” – Teams should develop just enough to get the job done;
11. “Self-organizing teams encourage great architectures, requirements, and designs”
12. “Regular reflections on how to become more effective”

The success of Agile

Agile methodologies used in projects have a significant impact on project success when measured by efficiency, stakeholder satisfaction and perception of overall performance. Adding to this, the complexity and experience do not influence the project success, meaning that Agile can be used for complex projects or projects with members on different levels of knowledge (Serrador & Pinto, 2015). Adopting Agile methods in software organizations is beneficial for fast and high-quality deliveries.

Agile has been growing, and here are some stats to prove it:

• Based on the Project Management Institute, almost 71% of organizations report using Agile approaches;
• Microsoft Project is the most popular management software, and Atlassian Jira is the most popular Agile-tool;
• The average Agile project manager salary is $84,134 in the United States;
• In the “Agile Project Delivery Confidence”, PwC states that Agile projects are 28% more successful than traditional projects;
• Atlassian’s post about teamwork says that 50% are more motivated by team success than company (27%) or individual (23%) success

The post Agile Software Development appeared first on Living Map.

Living Map — the digital map and data platform that creates a seamless interface between people and places — is pleased to announce new investment of almost £1.2 million of new equity from Committed Capital, Mercia Fund Managers and existing shareholders.

The investment will be the catalyst for a significant expansion of the fast-growing technology company’s product team to meet increasing demand for its map technology services as it scales across several core sectors during 2018.

The global digital map market is expected to reach $7.2bn by 2023*. This growth is fuelled by the emergence of map technologies as an essential enabler of multiple consumer and business applications, from navigating cities to visualising live asset data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) sensors.

Tim Fendley, Founder and MD at Living Map remarked:

“The world around us is getting busier and more complicated every day. Our map-based applications, which provide access to timely, relevant location-based information about any environment, are the key to enabling consumers and businesses to find their way.”

Adam Coxen, Living Map’s new Chairman, noted that:

“This is a very exciting time for Living Map as the real-time visualisation of geospatial data on mobile devices becomes ubiquitous and a day-to-day necessity.”

Living Map’s platform combines rich, interactive, digital map technology with intuitive information design and powerful features and integrations to create a seamless interface between people and places.

The company’s map technology has already been rolled out at global visitor destinations such as the City of Cleveland and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Living Map is also developing a proprietary indoor positioning system, which is designed to provide accurate location services to users of its map applications in GPS-denied and challenging environments. The development of this technology was the basis for a research partnership with CERN during 2017.

In the rapidly growing B2B mapping sector, Living Map has a global partner in Engie (formerly GDF-Suez). The two organisations are developing bespoke map applications on a Software as a Service (SaaS) basis, to enable greater efficiency in building and estate management operations.

Else Thomson, Head of Finance at Committed Capital, commented:

“The company has been through significant change over the last quarter, strengthening the management and board with new chairman Adam Coxen, significantly improving the finance and sales functions, and streamlining strategy.

Julian Dennard, Investment Director at Mercia Fund Managers, commented:

“Mercia is pleased to back Living Map at this recent investment round. With its experienced management team under the leadership of Tim and Adam, its key partnerships in place and an already impressive customer base, we’re confident that the business will grow and scale as it moves into this exciting next stage of development.”

ENDS

References
* https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171229005194/en/Global-Digital-Map-Market-Analysis—Expected
https://map.thisiscleveland.com/
https://maps.metmuseum.org/

Further Information

Living Map

• Living Map’s digital map and data platform creates a seamless interface between people and places, enabling city/site managers to transform user-experience, reduce costs and generate revenue.
• As relationships with major business partners develop, the company is using its platform to provide SaaS multi-function mapping services to its clients.
• Transformative map projects have been delivered across consumer and business sectors:
  • Consumer: City of Vancouver; City of Cleveland; the Metropolitan Museum (New York); Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (London); Waltham Forest (London); Heathrow Airport (London)
  • Business: The British Library (London); Kew Gardens (in-progress); A leading UK automotive manufacturer.
  • Team of 30 across offices in Bath (HQ) and London.

Committed Capital

• Committed Capital specialises in investing in and providing corporate finance advice to fast growing UK based technology companies.
• Committed Capital Financial Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference 192203.
• Committed Capital Limited is an Appointed Representative of Sapia Partners LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference 550103.
• Find out more: https://www.committedcapital.co.uk/landing/

Mercia Fund Managers

• Mercia Fund Managers provides both equity and debt finance to small businesses based in the UK regions. The Group has more than 300 businesses in its portfolio, a strong record including 11 IPOs and manages in excess of £350.0milllion of third party funds, including Mercia EIS Funds.
• Mercia Fund Management Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 524856
• Enterprise Ventures Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 183363
• EV Business Loans Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA under firm reference number 443560
• Find out more: www.merciatech.co.uk

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Destination Cleveland — the Convention & Visitors Bureau for Greater Cleveland — wanted to stimulate community vitality and create a better urban experience for its visitors and residents. The Living Map platform provided an interactive digital map of the city that gives every visitor and resident instant access to everything the city offers, as well as a single source of truth for all print map artworks.

A collaborative approach to developing a unique visitor map experience

In 2013 Living Map’s sister company — Applied Wayfinding — was commissioned to provide a comprehensive strategy for physical wayfinding for Destination Cleveland. It implemented monolith and minilith signage around the city, but Destination Cleveland also wanted to develop a digital map platform for improving visitor and resident experiences that could be made available on mobile and desktop devices.

Living Map worked collaboratively with Destination Cleveland to define how a digital map platform could help connect users to everything the area offers, from restaurants, hotels and venues to walking and cycling trails.

First, it had to be available and consistent across multiple formats. Living Map’s proprietary CartoEngine software enables multiple map formats to be output from a single master geodatabase, giving Cleveland the ability to manage and update their geographic assets from one place. From this ‘single source of truth’ interactive digital formats are made available via mobile and desktop devices, and the myriad print map outputs required by Destination Cleveland are generated.

Next, it needed to be designed so that it felt like a natural extension of Destination Cleveland’s brand. The development of the digital map’s assets and overall aesthetic was therefore informed by the organization’s brand guidelines, but Living Map went further, applying its in-house expertise in information hierarchies and city wayfinding to design the map in a way that draws attention to natural navigational landmarks.

Finally, the living map of Cleveland needed to provide specific functionality that enables residents and visitors to connect to the city more powerfully. To promote active travel the map features a ‘Bikes’ layer, which can be toggled on to show cycling routes and associated information access via interactive popouts. To increase mobility, users can click on any RTA mass transit stop to access live transit times for trams on that line.

There’s also rich information about things to do, where to eat and where to stay in the city, all accessed via interactive layers from within the same digital map.

Outcome

Cleveland’s living map has been live since 2015 and has evolved to meet the needs of the city, with layers for amenities information, transport data and cycling paths. The city is seeing the results and they recognise that ‘this wayfinding system provides a seamless experience for users.’

Maura Garven, Manager of Strategic Initiatives at Destination Cleveland, describes how this tool has given the organisation the ability to “share detailed information about our neighbourhoods in real-time, helping visitors explore attractions, restaurants, and hotels along with other points of interest.”

We continue work with Maura and the team at Destination Cleveland to develop new features and identify new ways to strengthen the destination through wayfinding to drive economic impact and stimulate community vitality.

Check out Destination Cleveland’s living map

The post Case Study: Destination Cleveland appeared first on Living Map.

“The purpose of visualization is insight, not pictures” – Ben Shneiderman

Today’s technologies make exploring data with visualisations an incredible valuable tool for gaining insights. Let’s examine what ‘data visualisation’ is, before focusing on ‘exploratory data visualisation’ and diving into some use cases to see how it transforms our everyday life.

Data visualisation in the time of Cholera

Over the past 150 years, different forms of data visualisation have become an essential part of academic dialogue. Graphic representations like maps or line, bar and pie charts are used to highlight specific data points and explain complex information in a simple and accessible way.

One of the best examples of a seminal early visualisation is this map (snippet), created by the British physician John Snow in 1854:

The map shows cases of cholera deaths in the Soho area of London with a bar for each case appearing at an individual address. More bars equals more cases of cholera. Adding the geographical dimension to the data enabled Snow to identify the source of the epidemic: contaminated water from the Broad Street Water pump.

With this graphic evidence, he was able to convince other scientists and doctors of the time of the link between the water system and the outbreak of the disease – and eventually revolutionise their approach to hygiene.

Explore and explain

The case above is a textbook example of a  data visualisation: a visual representation of numerical data used to analyse and examine complex datasets and communicate their meanings.

Data visualisation commonly serves two goals: to explore and to explain.

• Exploratory visualizations help users analyse a dataset to uncover the patterns and trends. It is closely linked to statistical analysis – but with visual methods.
• Explanatory visualizations surface specific stories the data points towards, depending on the creator’s choice of view point. They are instruments for explaining and reasoning about real-life relations.

Even though hybrids of these types of visualisations are common, the construction of exploratory visualisations of datasets has up until recently been limited by the technical tools available.

Trends towards exploratory data visualisation

Recently, data visualisation has become a very active area of research and development again. Advances in technology are making the benefits of exploratory visualisation accessible to a broader audience.

A corresponding increase in both first-party, third-party and open data has led to a Cambrian explosion in visualisations: The widespread use of digital devices in all parts of life creates more data than ever and open data projects make this growing resource easily available.

Meanwhile, the availability of low-cost computing and digital tools make visualisation simpler for people, even without having a data science background. The popularity of applications like Tableau, R, D3 or Vega (just to name a few) help to make the visual exploration of huge datasets accessible to anyone with a computer.

As a result of the increased availability of datasets and easier access to visualisation tools, the ability of explore data becomes more democratic. It allows more people from various fields and industries to interact with data and gain new insights.

Let’s explore some use cases of exploratory and hybrid visualisations in real life:

1.    Dashboard-based Monitoring

What gets measured, gets managed: Measurement is always the starting point of optimising operational processes. But data alone doesn’t guarantee insights. This is why more and more organisations are investing in dashboard visualisations to monitor their businesses.

The example above shows a dashboard developed for the Deutsche Bahn. It enables the railway company to inspect the masses of transport and passenger data that are gathered every day in great detail. Visual tools such as animated maps, stacked histograms and path-time-diagrams help identify peak times and manage the passenger loads more efficiently

A dashboard display of data can be useful in almost any organisation where big amounts of data from IoT sensors are involved. Visualisation help organisations react to problems immediately, but also discover patterns over time and inform decisions on where to improve.

2.    Visual Models

Visual models can make physical environments accessible and enable people to explore them safely. These virtual representations are especially helpful for big-scale geographic and meteorological data or sensitive medical data.

Medical education is one of the fields, where there has been a significant boost in the amount of data in the last decades. Visualisation tools can give clarity, meaningfulness, and utility to the data.

The example above shows a digital autopsy. The high resolution and interactive visualisation is making sense of raw data from a CT scan. The visualisation aids criminal investigation without the use of a scalpel or any other invasive instrument. Ultimately, it increases the quality and efficiency of autopsy procedures.

3.    Data journalism

Even until now, journalism tends to be primarily associated with explanatory visualisations. But like no other discipline, it has become the forefront in developing new ways to work with and communicate data.

Data journalism is a growing field that uncovers stories by analysing data. The Argentinian newsroom La Nación started its with a small team and limited budget.

For one of their visualisation projects they worked with volunteers to collect public data about the assets of statesmen and public officials from the scans like the one shown above. They digitised the information and turned it into a visual and interactive presentation, that allows users to search and read a large volume of information and do comparisons. Even though the possibility of exploring every original PDF document is still included, the digital interface is the key to understand the data and making it truly accessible to the public.

There are plenty of other great journalistic visualisation examples out there – ranging from a visual introduction to machine learning to and in-depth analysis of every line in Hamilton.

Not every form of data journalism does have to include visualisation. But the strength of interactive visualizations is that they can show findings by guiding the reader through datapoints of interest, but also encourage them to interact with the complete dataset. This changes the readers’ relationship with the data. It gives them more independence from the author’s bias, empowering them to ask their own questions and discover the answers in an intuitive way.

Data visualisation in the future

The ever-expanding breadth and depth of data has lead to a re-discovery of data visualisation. Moreover, the increased accessibility of visualisation tools and technologies has opened up the field for anyone, not just data scientists.

Explorative visualisation practices will be a huge part of this, enriching all sorts of industries with insights to inspire more considered and data-driven decisions. With data being the most valuable resource of our time, the role of visualisation will increase to make sense of it, unlock its potential and make its benefits more accessible.

The post Exploring data – a new approach to visualisation appeared first on Living Map.

In March 2018 the Smart Sustainable Cities event brought together delegates from European cities to showcase and review smart city projects in the UK. The two day workshop in London invited city officials, startups and academics to discuss solutions for transport, environment, public health and smart living.

Data and distribution – the challenge

One of the biggest problem all city delegates are facing, was finding an easy way to manage and distribute their geospatial information. While there is a growing amount of geo data on transport, accessibility or waste disposal, the challenge is to make it available in a user-friendly manner.

Eamon Kerrigan, Living Map Head of Sales:

“A lot of cities have a GIS team that can develop an effective visualisation of local services, but it ends up just sitting there on their website. We need to find a way to make that information easily available to the public and encourage them to interact with it.”

The case studies presented at the event demonstrated best practice cases and created a dialogue about how to makes the most of smart city data.

Best practice examples

One of the local case studies featured was our work with Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The vibrant and complex site is full of attractions, but significant redevelopment has made it difficult for visitors and residents to keep up with everything the park has to offer.

With a snowstorm compromising our planned field trip to the park as part of this event, we were forced to rearrange and explore the space virtually: Our digital and interactive map  enables users to see what’s going on at each of the park’s attractions, explore areas of biodiversity and find transport information and lit routes at night on all mobile and desktop devices.

Since its launch mid-June in 2017, the park map encourages greater utilisation of the park by residents of neighbouring boroughs and promote healthier lifestyles. Our collaboration with the local stakeholders continues and discussions to enrich the platform with new features such as activity booking services, live event APIs or digital guided tours are ongoing.

Other case studies included SenSat’s work in Cambridge, which aims to build a Smart City in a week. Sensat uses various data capturing tools – including a fleet of autonomous drones – to develop high-resolution 3D models. The result is an interactive visualisation of geographic information, which makes useful insights available very quickly and helps managing the diverse datasets in a single, easy to use platform.

Another interesting project called Finding Places was presented by Matthias Wieckmann from Hamburg. ‘Finding Places’ utilised smart data and mapping technology to find housing for refugees. It’s a collaborative project that engages with the local community to create a sense of ownership among all participants. With 44 locations being found in the city, the approach turned out to be so successful, that it’s likely to be transferred to other European cities.

Cases like this enable cities to make more informed decisions and to react and adapt according to the needs of its citizens.

If you are interested in any of the case studies discussed at the workshop, you can find more information on the event website.

Better decisions through visualisation

 A recurring topic of the event was the problem of visualising data across space. We got some valuable input concerning the challenges city officials face and gained a better understanding of how we can help overcome them. It was inspiring to explore different solutions from all over Europe and see how effective data management can inform better decisions for smart sustainable cities.

The post Living Map at Smart Sustainable Cities appeared first on Living Map.

It’s a mindset that illustrates just how many opportunities IoT technologies can create. As the technology can be applied to almost every vertical, possible use cases are only limited by our imagination.

The internet of things (IoT) is a term for cyber-physical systems that link physical devices to the web and to each other. IoT platforms can connect all sorts of physical devices and process the data generated by their different sensors. The analysis of IoT data enables decision makers to reveal new insights and helps automated ecosystems become smarter.

Transport, logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, retail or smart homes, everything is connected. Here’s how the IoT is put to use in different industries:

Logistics

Transportation and logistics need as much information as possible for accurate and error-free management. Timing is of the essence – especially when relying on a combination of different transport modes such as rail, road, and sea transport.

The logistics industry was among the first adopters of IoT technologies in operations: It introduced handheld scanners to digitise the delivery process and multiple sensors to monitor cargo and delivery truck performance.

Now everything is connected, from flexible warehousing operations to supply chain management: Assets, carriers, storage facilities, parking lots, trucks, and other types of infrastructure. This helps in pinpointing underused resources and making plans for enhanced optimization. As a result, IoT-enabled operations save money, help ensure more reliable scheduling and increase delivery punctuality.

For example, DHL makes use of IoT technologies for freight transportation. It allows them to gain clear visibility of the movement and status of goods at all stages of the logistics journey. Sensors monitor the freight location, but also container openings, vibrations, strokes, or any damage to the cargo. This ensures the transported goods arrive on time, at the right place and intact.

Manufacturing

The industrial Internet of things (IIoT) uses both supply chain management and smart logistics. But it shows its real benefits in predictive maintenance and asset tracking:

A mix of temperature, HVAC and chemical sensors helps to control the conditions of working environments. Location tracking with RFID tags helps identify crucial assets and enables a whole new level of transportation automation in smart factories. Ultimately IoT implementations improve the factory’s operational efficiency and save time and costs.

One example of how IoT can enrich manufacturing processes is with digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical object, which can be an individual item, a machine or a whole manufacturing plant. With the help of digital twins the production line can be monitored digitally and in real time to detect flaws as soon as possible.

Agriculture & Farming

 IoT data is revolutionising agriculture by taking the guesswork out of growing food. The study of weather conditions to forecast ice, rain, drought, snow or wind changes enables farmers to take necessary measures in advance. In a greenhouse environment temperature and HVAC sensors allow for control over micro-climate conditions.

In addition to that sensors built into to production processes monitor machine performances and the status of the content in trucks and tanks. Results are higher crop yields, increased efficiency, improved quality and less water usage.

The ‘Internet of cows’ shows how IoT can be applied to the pastoral farming sector. By implanting sensors in selected cows, farmers can gain a valuable overall picture of the herd’s health. This can help them identify problems at an early stage and act quickly to resolve them before they impact the efficiency of milk production.

Smart Cities

On a city level, IoT technology can help municipalities to organise their cities more effectively and sustainably.

Sensors can be used to monitor urban noise and air quality in problematic areas. Smart traffic solutions can redirect drivers to different routes to release pressure from high-traffic-areas. This way IoT can drive optimal space utilisation.

With smart lighting systems, street furniture can be programmed to adjust to their surroundings with the help of light and motion sensors.

An example of creative IoT use is the smart parking solutions in  Montpellier. With data from motion sensors the location of free parking spots can be communicated to drivers in real-time. This eliminates the time spent on driving around in search of available parking and makes the city more eco-friendly in the long run.

Shopping & Retail

 The internet of things has numerous applications in a retail environment:

On one side it can create a more immersive shopping experience for customers. The technology can connect a customer’s mobile to a store window, help them finding what they need, offer valuable information or special concessions for loyality.

On the other side retailers can use IoT platforms to improve their store operations. RFID labels attached to items helps to monitor stock levels, sales and customer behaviour. The data generated with this technology enable managers to plan ahead and work more efficiently.

A fully automated checkout is already a reality at the Amazon Go store. The convenience store uses a set of sensors to detect which items are added to a shopper’s basket. Customers can then simply walk out of the shop without queuing and their digital accounts are automatically charged.

Healthcare

Healthcare organizations make use of IoT technologies to improve their workflow and patient experience.

As in other industries IoT technologies streamline asset tracking and improve supply chain management. With an inventory management system, employees can locate crucial equipment quickly.

But in addition to that, wearable devices can also collect and analyse health data from patients in real time. Systems like glucometers, blood pressure cuffs and other devices can collect data on the vital signs of patients. The data can be used for proactive and connected monitoring, early detection and diagnosis.

Neal Ganguly, Vice President and CIO at JFK Health System in Edison, N.J. gives his outlook on device integration:

“We’re also just beginning to scratch the surface there in integrating those devices to collect the data directly into the EMR [electronic medical record], giving us at least some improvement for the clinicians in terms of workflow and ease of documentation”

Smart Homes

In domestic homes, smart meters are becoming increasingly common, allowing residents to monitor and control their energy consumption. A connected system of smart home sensors can for example automatically adjust the thermostat to change temperature or turn off the lights when a room isn’t occupied.

Home safety and security systems connect sensors like cameras, motion, fire and smoke detectors with alarm systems.

Voice assistants on devices such as Amazon Echo or Google Home can provide additional services. They can connect to mobile phones or entertainment systems to make phone calls, schedule event, play music or control a smart TV remotely.

The internet of   ___________

This list is by no means comprehensive and can be expanded to different industries and use cases. Looking at the variety of sensors, some fields have only just started to discover their potential. With this “superpower” at hand, the utilisation of IoT data can create opportunities for sustainability, energy efficiency, health and safety.

The post The Internet of everything: IoT use cases appeared first on Living Map.

A lot of our everyday mobile services are enabled by location data. This is part of a wider trend in an interconnected world, where data is the key currency. But location data holds a special place within the mix of big data. More than anything it can reveal sensitive information about an individual user.

To adjust current privacy rights to the digital age, the EU is implementing the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018. It defines an extended set of data privacy rights for EU residents. With an increasing number of mobile internet users, location data will be one of the key elements the regulation is aiming at.

First things first: What is location data?

Location can be a broad term. In this case we will take a look at the data that is generated by the use of mobile apps. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), which sits alongside the Data Protection Act, offers a useful definition.

PECR defines location data as:

“any data processed in an electronic communications network or by an electronic communications service indicating the geographical position of the terminal equipment of a user of a public electronic communications service, including data relating to—

(f) the latitude, longitude or altitude of the terminal equipment;

(g) the direction of travel of the user; or

(h) the time the location information was recorded”.

In other words, it is information collected by an app or service provider about where the user’s phone was located at a certain time.

Why does location matter?

Access to location is typically granted by accepting the terms & conditions when first installing an app. But what is the service provider doing with the data? While many apps wouldn’t work without location data, it is not always clear why the information is necessary.

For instance: Mapping applications use GPS to show a phone’s current location; Uber uses location data to connect drivers and passengers; and fitness apps track running routes and pace to help users monitor and improve their athletic performance.

But for applications that do not fundamentally rely on location data, the value for the service user is often debatable. Facebook and Instagram track location by default – even when the app is not in use. For the user this means more accurate suggestions for friends or events in your area. But the benefits for companies prevail, since they are able to use this geo information  to deliver targeted advertisements for stores or places to visit.

Persistent tracking and limited transparency about what this data is used for has raised privacy concerns among both users and regulators.

There are three main traits of location data that make it stand out:

1. Location can be an identifier

The major concern about the use of location data is that it might be linked back to an individual. That’s why anonymization is key. But to eliminate every way in which individuals can be identified is a technically complex task – especially when it comes to location.

It is not enough to store the information without identifiers, such as a name or an ID. Daily routines give away a person’s home address and place of work easily. If a mobile device captures these movements over time, it can be enough to identify a user with location data alone.

2. Location carries sensitive information

Furthermore, the analysis of an individual’s location data can reveal highly sensitive information. Sensitive Personal Data is the term that’s used with GDPR to describe information that needs special protection. It includes data revealing a person’s ethnicity; political, religious or philosophical beliefs; and data concerning health or sexual orientation.

Data on places a person visits can contain information on sensitive traits. For example, frequent visits to a church, a hospital or a trade union can give away information that is not intended to be shared. The intimate nature of these personal details adds to the importance of effective anonymisation.

3. Location creates patterns

Patterns of accumulated geospatial information can give away crucial information – even if it is successfully anonymised. These patterns are highly valuable for organisations and companies, but they can be misused.

This dimension of location data got into the public eye in early 2018, when Strava’s global heatmap revealed the location of military bases in remote locations. The fitness app’s map visualised running trails of athletes all over the world – including soldiers – and made US bases clearly identifiable.

This case created a global controversy about the impact location data can have, about companies’ responsibility, data security protocols and the scope of user consent.

How will GDPR change the way location data is processed?

GDPR acknowledges location data’s unique position as identifiable information by making it part of its definition of “personal data” in Article 4 (1). Under GDPR subjects of personal data are granted extended rights, including a right to access and a right to erasure.

With the right to access users can obtain confirmation about whether data concerning them is being processed, where and for what purpose. The right to erasure can put an expiration date on the data already collected.

GDPR consequently describes requirements for data processing companies and organisations. Processors are required to offer explicit and transparent notification about their data practices. A “Privacy by Design” approach should ensure that data processors take the measures necessary to collect, process and store data in a secure way.

GDPR also states special rules that apply to the processors of sensitive data. This will include guidelines for data assessments and the mandatory appointment of an official data protection officer to inform and advise the organisation.

Furthermore, the regulation emphasises the importance of consent. In future it will need to be clear and affirmative, putting an end to pre-checked checkboxes when installing or using apps.

With regard to the recent discussions about the Strava map, the question arises if giving clear consent is even possible. Given its immense potential it is difficult to foresee the many ways location data could be used and misused in the future. If its implications are unclear – to both users and companies, how can anyone give effective consent?

This problem highlights the need for research and education about privacy rights as well as data science.  Organisations can use GDPR as a guideline to evaluate their data practices and to ensure their external communication gives users all the information they need to provide consent.

Conclusion: Understanding location matters

If there is one thing to take away from the examples above, it’s that personal location data is extremely valuable. GDPR will increase the pressure on organisations that process data (that’s most of them), improve security standards and create transparent communication about how and why data is used.

Greater understanding and transparency about different types of data and the consequences of its use is something both companies and users will benefit from in the long term.

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