Product Overview and Direction

MapInfo Product DirectionSwedish User Conference: 

MapInfo Product Direction Swedish User Conference George Moon August, 2001

High Level Functional Groups: 

High Level Functional Groups

My Roles and Responsibility: 

My Roles and Responsibility Overall long-range direction of R&D Develop R&D policies and procedures Oversee research programmes Inform company of technology changes Participate in setting long term strategic direction Direct company’s TQM programme Help ensure staff is technically trained

Corporate R&D Highlights: 

Corporate R&D Highlights MIPRO 6.0.1. & 6.5 WIN 2K cert, 3D Glasses, Color docs ... MapXtreme NT 2.5 & 3.0 3rd party products dB Planner components, MapInHand, J Catalog... CRM: MapInsight 1.0 and Target Pro 3.5 & 3.6 Claritas - Munich, Janus - 3 Country Success

Corporate R&D Highlights: 

Corporate R&D Highlights MapXtreme Java 3.1 (2x performance increase over 3.0), 4.0 (Enterprise Mgr) Geocoding: MapMarker (11 Releases) and MM Java World Routing J Server 1.5 & 2.0 SpatialWare 4.5, SQL Server version miAware MapXtend

Corporate R&D Highlights: 

Corporate R&D Highlights Mobile Location Suite (miGuide, miConnect, miFriends) MarketMath, MarketLink, Modeling Location Management Platform (Alcatel) 24 X 7 Technical Support (Silver) Competent Enterprise Support Routing J Server code from OpCom Ellis-based MapX continuation

Corporate R&D Highlights: 

Corporate R&D Highlights XML interfaces to server products Localized MapX, MapXtreme NT, MapXtreme Java, MI Pro, ProViewer Localized version SpatialWare for SQL Server Matured performance lab benchmark reports for MapXtreme NT, MapXtreme Java and MapXtend and paid BT

The XML Phenomenon: 

The XML Phenomenon Last summer. Limited industry support for XML. Limited support in MapInfo product line. This summer. Widely used and supported by major industry players and standards groups. Oracle, Sun, IBM, MicroSoft. SOAP is emerging as XML protocol standard. MapInfo miAware is the industry leader provides a high level location aware XML API. MapXtreme Java 4.0, RJS 2.0, latest MM Java have an XML API.

The XML Phenomenon: 

The XML Phenomenon MapInfo participates in Open GIS Consortium web services testbeds Web feature server MapInfo provides hosted service for miAware milocate.mapinfo.com

J2EE vs. Microsoft .NET: 

J2EE vs. Microsoft .NET New battleground for pervasive, distributed computing The next WinTel Sun good position with J2ME but Microsoft NOT to be discounted

J2EE vs. Microsoft .NET …: 

J2EE vs. Microsoft .NET … J2EE ‘Standard’ / .NET Product Vendors: 30+ / Microsoft only Interpreter: JRE / CLR Dynamic WP: JSP / ASP.NET Middle-tier: EJB / .NET Managed Comps. DB Access: JDBC,SQL/J / ADO.NET Both have SOAP, WSDL, UDDI Both have implicit load balancing...

LBS with OGC Demands: 

LBS with OGC Demands J2EE / Sun ONE MapXtend miAware miGuide, miConnect .NET MapXtreme NT Ellis MapX Geocoding ?

Location Based Services: 

Location Based Services Last summer Some interest in Europe and Asia: Primarily WAP based applications Hard to use, low adoption NTT DoCoMo launch DLP Applications use compact html (Colour) NTT sells location as a commodity This summer Telco meltdown Money is tight, voice is the killer app Location Based Services are seen as a revenue opportinuty 911 phase II is around the corner

Location Based Services: 

Location Based Services Last summer Requirements gathering Early prototypes Oracle innovation award VoiceGenie - VoiceXML application This summer miGuide and miConnect are launched Support for 2G and 3G networks/devices European and North American data and language support Nortel voice application

Asset/Buddy Finder: 

Asset/Buddy Finder

Ellis Project: 

Ellis Project Modern C++ code base Encapsulated components, interface based Major data access enhancements Full query expression support Full client support Shared code - Map/X/Xtreme/Pro, loaders Full unit testing infrastructure Unix possibilities for data access Unicode, .NET support

Peer to Peer: 

Peer to Peer Distributed networking architecture Enables direct machine to machine communication Distributes processing power, file storage, and network traffic Distribute the control of the information you are accessing over a wide area JXTA / .net based

Groove P2P Architecture: 

Groove P2P Architecture Based on Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) specification Leverages OS specific functionality Reusable component architecture Rich set of reusable groove tool components provided

The Alphabet Soup: 

The Alphabet Soup

MapInfo Standards Strategy: 

MapInfo Standards Strategy Focus on OGC (Open GIS Consortium) OGC maintains official liaison relationships with many of the other organizations Specification and Prototype programs Membership: Government agencies, academics, large customers, competitors

OGC Consortium Specifications: 

OGC Consortium Specifications Last Summer 7 approved, 1 recommendation, 2 planned 3 conforming products, 0 implemented announcements This Summer 10 approved, 15 recommendations, 18 planned 8 conforming products, 44 implemented announcements

MapInfo OGC Conformance: 

MapInfo OGC Conformance Last Summer JCatalog OGC Catalog spec based Several products thinking about it This Summer MI Pro contains full OGC geometry model GML, used and planned for several products MapXtreme Java XML based on OGC OGC Geocoding Spec based on MapMarker XML

Priorities: OGC Specifications : 

Priorities: OGC Specifications 1. Advertise conformance 2. GML read/write for all products 3. Free downloadable thin servlet front ends to make web servers powered by MI products OGC compliant 4. Enable MI clients for OGC simple feature access 5. Guarantee ‘complex’ geometry interface is reasonable

Modeling - CompuSearch: 

Modeling - CompuSearch Neural network and AI methods are still in vogue Neural network models are increasingly considered as labour saving devices Spatial Statistics starting to be included in general statistics packages Discrete statistical methods rather than traditional continuous regression e.g. logit models and multinomial logit models...

Publishing and Evangelizing: 

Publishing and Evangelizing Technical papers are produced for input into MapInfo marketing literature and RFP support MapInfo Magazine, Sun JavaSoft web site Conferences Java One MicroJava network IQPC location based services