This is a presentation I gave in a keynote at WASSIC 2012 (http://www.wassic.org.au/) looking at innovation in the industry, by looking to our past, the impact of existing innovations and how we innovate at Gaia Resources

1. GAIA RESOURCES
Innovation in our Industry
Piers Higgs
Gaia Resources
Presented at WASSIC, 18th May 2012

2. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Topics covered
• What is innovation?
• What is our industry, and what role has innovation
played in it over time?
• Where does innovation come from?
• What can you do about all this to get value from
innovation?

3. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
I am paid to do only one of these things

4. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY

5. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Invention Innovation

6. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
The greatest Innovation?
• First sold in 1928
• Took 16 years to perfect
the machine to make it
• Was banned in 1943 as a
wartime conservation measure
• Now present in just about every household
in the Western World

7. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
What about Innovation in our Industry?
• Maps – dating all the way back to 16,500 BC
• Surveying – has a history dating back to 3,000 BC
• IT hardware – has a history dating back to 2,400 BC
• Spatial Analysis – first in 1832
• Geographic Information Systems – 1960
• What about SSSI? - 1966

8. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Maps

9. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Surveying

10. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Spatial Analysis

11. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
IT Hardware

12. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Geographic Information Systems

13. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
SSSI Itself? Remote Sensing and
Photogrammetry Association
of Australasia
Institute of
Surveyors

14. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
The only thing constant is change…

15. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
So, what did all this Innovation do?
• Did Telstra’s 4G network end
circuit switch connections for RTK?
• Did the advent of integrated circuits
kill cartography?
• Has open source and cloud
computing made traditional GIS
software licencing redundant?
• Did video kill the radio star?

16. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
So, what did all this Innovation do?
• Did widespread computing resources kill the typing
pool?

17. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
So, what did all this Innovation do?
• Will computer science and software engineering
swallow up spatial science?
Spatial
Science
Spatial Software
Engineering
Spatial Analysis

18. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
What have been the most ‘profound’ innovations?
• On screen digitising, mobile technologies, Global
Positioning Systems, Open Source, Google
Maps, Cloud Computing, Crowdsourcing, Social
Media, Augmented Reality, Remote Sensing, Open
Data, Open Standards
• Workspaces, Projects and MXDs, getting rid of AML
and using Python, template files, Excel
macros, projection files, transformation
tools, ergonomic keyboards, gaming consoles

19. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Is this really significant?
• 1913 – Born in UK, 10 years
after first flight by Wright
Brothers
• 1914 – World War I
• 1939 – World War II
• 1967 – Emigration to Australia
(by boat)
• 1969 - Moon landing

20. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Keep in mind the magnitude of the innovation…
102 years

21. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
So, what did all this Innovation do?
• Can be disruptive, game
changing
• Especially if it turns up
unexpectedly
• Can also provide an
opportunity that you
didn’t see before
• How do you prepare?

22. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Where did these innovations come from?
Global Positioning Systems
• Started in the 1960s, developed in 1973,
fully operational in 1994
• Developed by the United States Department
of Defence, with a bunch of physicists
leading this project
• Innovation continues on it – size, shape,
use, other systems coming along…

23. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Where did these innovations come from?
Google Maps
• Developed in Sydney in 2003 by Rasmussen
brothers, Mathematics & Computer Science
backgrounds
• Acquired by Google, launched
in 2005, 1 year after IPO, along
with Google Earth
• Rasmussen brothers went on to
innovate with Google Wave…

24. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Where did these innovations come from?
Mobile technologies
• 1946 saw the first mobile phones, in
automobiles, by Bell Labs, using radio
• Cellular technologies developed in
the 1960s with the advent of
integrated circuits
• First true mobile in 1973

25. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Where did these innovations come from?
Mobile technologies
• 2011:
494m phones
353m PCs
69m tablets
• 2016:
1161m phones
518m PCs
198m tablets

26. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
So, where do you find Innovation for our industry?
Not here

27. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Seek out Innovation outside our Industry
Be systematic
Be opportunistic

28. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Seek out Innovation outside our Industry
Do something about it

29. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Seek out Innovation outside our Industry
Engage with Innovators

30. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Seek out Innovation outside our Industry
But don’t leave others behind

31. INNOVATION IN OUR INDUSTRY
Why bother?
Innovation can make you better…
…and it can also make you different

32. GIS IN THE REAL WORLD
Questions?
• Ask away, or drop me a line…
Piers Higgs
Email piers@gaiaresources.com.au
Twitter, Skype piers_higgs
Mobile 0411 754 006
Phone (08) 92277309