Manager 3.14
• Configurable service failure escalation –if a map service fails you can configure how the application reacts.
• Utility REST endpoint to extract to shapefile
• Extract markup to shapefile
• Graticule display on print maps
• Default label visibility configuration on layers
• Configure scale dependant basemaps
• Performance improvements
• Support for ArcGIS Servier 10.1 Cached Image Services

Silverlight Viewer 1.9
• Into/welcome panel
• Toggle visibility of layer labels from Layer List
• Scale dependent basermaps
• User can reporject coordinate systems of mouse coordinates
• Improved support for added shapefiles (with Z & M values)
• Extract markup to shapefile

There is also going to be an HTML5 1.2.1 (bug fixes) release expected later this month.

To keep up to date with Latitude a monthly road ahead session run by Latitudes CEO. You can watch live if you get up early, or a recording is posted on Latitudes Support site a couple of days layer. The current video is here: http://support.geocortex.com/geocortex-solutions-for-arcgis-server-current-status-and-the-road-ahead

and you can register for next month’s here: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/866096990

• A new reverse proxy. We are implementing Apache to provide better security and more flexibility,
• An upgrade to the amount of CPU and RAM on the Database server,
• An upgrade of all geodatabases (file and enterprise) to version 10.1,
• An upgrade of all GIS servers to ArcGIS for Server 10.1 and Service Pack 1,
• An upgrade of Con Terra security.manager to version 4.1,
• An upgrade of Geocortex Essentials to version 3.12.

Another major change to the environment is the movement of the Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) away from Revera to theCloud – www.thecloud.net.nz . The growth of geoCirrus and the complexity of some of the requirements of our customers have forced us to look for new opportunities and flexibilities from our IaaS partner. While we have a fantastic relationship with Revera, highly respecting their services and value, we believe that theCloud offer certain advantages that will help us shape the future of geoCirrus.

As you can imagine there is some risk involved in implementing such a significant change and so we wanted to explain these and the mitigation measures we are taking:

• Most importantly NSG want to state that all of the existing (Revera) servers will remain during the migration and for some weeks after, this gives us a full roll-back position if needed.
• We have implemented changes within our test environment so that we can test the ‘new’ servers, viewers and services. This allows us to see the new as if we were consuming the old. We will not commit to roll-over until we are sure that the new is equivalent to the old.
• Once NSG are committed to migrating to theCloud environment we will do so outside of core hours on a Friday. This change over will be effected through a DNS update.
• Switching the DNS from Revera to theCloud allows for the roll-back discussed above. The two environments will be equal in terms of data, services and viewers, although on older versions of the software.
• The DNS update should implement instantaneously, but in NSG’s experience the process can take up to 24 hours to propagate.
• During this time, it may be possible that you could be using either Revera or theCloud’s infrastructure. Intermittent outages may, therefore, be experienced.
• We will complete a full system test on Saturday afternoon.
• These tests will take place in four different geographic areas of New Zealand, using different ISP’s.
• If there are any issues experienced on the Saturday that cannot be quickly fixed over the weekend (or early in the new week) then we will roll-back the DNS to the current Revera environment, which will allow that full rollback to kick in.
• Multiple NSG team members will be available to test and make remedies should that be needed over the weekend. We will make every effort to consolidate the update over the weekend, however, if it is not possible then we will attempt the following weekend.

NSG NZ has previously seen that Geospatial applications and services can become ‘cached’ in end-user machines. It is often necessary to use ‘CTRL+F5’ in browsers following a change of this magnitude. Organisations with an ISA server in their infrastructure should be aware that they may need to purge it in order to allow the changes to be reflected. In order to mitigate this we have reduced the TTL value on our servers to reduce the length of time our content is cached.

If you have any issues/questions around this upgrade then please email us at support@nsgnz.co.nz

What happens in USA? (911)

FCC E911 Phase 2 requirements

• 95% of a network operator’s in-service phones must be E911 compliant (“location capable”) by December 31, 2005. (Several carriers missed this deadline, and were fined by the FCC)
• Wireless network operators must provide the latitude and longitude of callers within 300 meters, within six minutes of a request by a PSAP. Accuracy rates must meet FCC standards on average within any given participating PSAP service area by September 11, 2012 (deferred from September 11, 2008).

What happens in Europe? (112)

DIRECTIVE 2002/22/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 7 March 2002 on universal service and users’ rights relating to electronic communications networks and services (Universal Service Directive) – Article 26 Single European emergency call number -

• 3. Member States shall ensure that undertakings which operate public telephone networks make caller location information available to authorities handling emergencies, to the extent technically feasible, for all calls to the single European emergency call number 112.

What happens in NZ? (111)

There are no such regulations in New Zealand and we continue to have incidents where the location of the mobile phone being used to call 111 would be invaluable!

A botched emergency services call centre incident which saw an ambulance for a choking toddler mistakenly sent to Southland instead of Lower Hutt has led to additional training for call takers.(Oct 2012)

A litany of errors by 111 ambulance dispatchers contributed to a Wellington man’s death after emergency services were sent to an area at least 100 kilometres from the scene of his motorbike accident. (Oct 2009)

Mr Fletcher was told an ambulance would be sent from Hawera to arrive in 90 minutes but, after the driver overshot their property by 60 kilometres, that time blew out to five hours.(June 2010)

The importance of this location information is recognised at both Police and Ministry level -

271. Similarly, the development of a Mobile Line Identification (MoBI) capability to identify the caller and location of a mobile or cellular telephone, should be investigated as a future long term opportunity –( New Zealand Police Communications Centres Service Centre Independent External Review May 2005)

106. The location of callers using mobile phones is not independently available at present to emergency service providers. This is a significant public safety issue since calls from mobile phones comprise the majority of 111 calls and are steadily increasing. (Ministry of Economic Development Discussion Paper (111 Emergency Calling Review Feb 2012)

A technical review is recommending objectives be set, so emergency services can get accurate and reliable caller location information (Communications and IT Minister Amy Adams Feb 2013)

Technical Solutions

Cell-ID

When connected to its network every mobile phone is in communication with at least 1 mobile phone tower. Therefore the approximate location of every mobile is “known” to its network. Accuracy is to approximately suburb or better in residential areas and to a larger area in rural areas –

all dependent on mobile phone tower density. Even so the approximate location is a great aid to confirm address or area given by a caller to 111

GPS

Most Smartphones now have Assisted GPS built-in which provides great accuracy when displaying your location locally on these devices via Google Maps for example. There are agreed mobile standard methods to enable mobile phones to be interrogated from a central point to provide their GPS Location

Privacy is not an issue?

In Feb 2012 Research NZ Ltd carried out a phone poll –

Some 92 percent of respondents agreed with the suggestion (to track the location of 111 callers), five percent disagreed and two percent did not know.

The Future?

I look forward to the telecommunications industry and the emergency services implementing a solution to obtain my location if I ever need to call 111.

The previous version of HTML, HTML 4.01, came in 1999. The web has changed a lot since then.

HTML5 is still a work in progress. However, the major browsers support many of the new HTML5 elements and APIs. HTML5 lays a solid foundation for the future open web. However third party plugins like flash and Silverlight are years ahead in terms of maturity.

As a developer I know it can be difficult and costly to develop to multiple native apps for specific devices. Enter HTML5 – It allows you to deliver applications across platforms and devices without having to worry about plugins or building native applications, which is especially applicable to mobile scenarios. GIS web applications developed using HTML5 can be viewed across desktop browsers, tablets, and a broad array of mobile devices with a just few changes to the CSS.

Although HTML5 is a young standard it seems to be rocketing in popularity… A survey of over 3400 developers across Europe, Asia and the USA [Developer Economics 2013] published by Vision Mobile found HTML5 rocketing in popularity. Over 50% of developers are now using HTML5 to develop for mobile, rapidly catching up iOS at 61%.

I think HTML5 development’s major benefits are its cost effectiveness and flexibility. I only see its use getting more popular and embraced by the open web. However, for some time, there has been an on-going debate over native vs. HTML5 app development. People talk about HTML5 saying that it doesn’t perform. Comparing native apps performance with HTML5 applications is like comparing apples with pears! Native apps are developed and optimized for one single environment. Whereas HTML5 is a web technology that should run independent of environment, display or technology. It has to be as flexible as possible in order to be a success on the web.

It’s also worth mentioning here that a middle ground has been emerging – hybrid app development. This offers a compromise between the two approaches and offers a blend of native and HTML5 app development features.

So various questions need to be raised if you’re a business looking to harness the potential of the mobile web, how do you know which route to take. Do you go full native? Do you go for HTML5? Or do you take a hybrid approach to your app development project? The answer depends entirely upon your business model.

• a subset of layers within the service (e.g. one
  role can see 10 of 50 layers, another can see 20 of 50 layers, while another
  can see all of the layers)
• a prescribed geographic area for that role (e.g.
  one role can see the North Island, another can see the South Island, while
  another can see both)
• a subset of records within a layer, through a
  where clause (definition query)
• the records but only for a specified period of
  time (e.g. a user may only be able to access the data on a trial basis for a
  period of Monday through Friday next week)
• defined operations (maybe a role will be allowed
  to see the map, but be restricted in terms of identifying or querying the map,
  while another role has access to all ArcGIS for Server methods/operations)

security.manager can be configured to allow numerous authentication types, the most exciting of which is SAML2[2]. This is an open standards based methodology for authenticating against federated services. A good example of this is New Zealand’s igovt logon service[3]. The government has created a way of storing user credentials in an identity store, in the SAML 2 model this becomes the‘identity provider’. Government then exposes multiple services (Service Providers). Each service provider when accessed by a user will redirect the user to the ‘identity provider’ to authenticate. Once authentication is established the user can use ‘any’ of the government services. This gives an implementation model of ‘One Identity Provider to Many Service Providers’.

While this may sound complicated it basically means that a user can perform a single sign-on and use multiple services, in the same way as we have come to expect when using many back-office applications in an intranet environment.  The difference is that this works across the ‘internet’ where there is no Active-Directory present.  This opens up all sorts of opportunities for using ‘cloud based services’.  A really good example of this SAML2 usage is in connecting to services in Office 365[4].  If your organisation uses O365 Exchange or SharePoint with Single-Sign-On, then you are using SAML2 through a MS product called ADFS, which adheres to the SAML2 standard.  This gives an implementation model of ‘One Identity Provider to One Service Provider’.

The primary use of security.manager for NSG is in its geoCirrus environment.  Here it will be possible to connect our security.manager instance with its many ArcGIS for Server resources to any number of identity providers.  This will allow customers who want to use their own authentication methodology, maybe their Active Directory (through ADFS) to connect to NSG’s cloud infrastructure and use their services in a secure manner through trusted protocols.  This could also allow a single customer of geoCirrus to share its own web services with multiple organisations.  This gives an implementation model of ‘Many Identity Providers to One Service Providers’. It can be seen, therefore, that there are many opportunities for SAML2. security.manager can be deployed in any of these scenarios, so:

• security.manager could be deployed by a
  government agency for NZ SAMS authentication[5]
• an organisation could serve its data to multiple
  trusted organisations
• an organisation could host its data in a ‘cloud
  environment’ and connect to it as if it was part of its own back-office
  environment
• an organisation could use a multi-tenancy
  geospatial environment, like NSG’s geoCirrus, and seamlessly access its own
  data safe in the knowledge no one else can access that data across the web

The following diagrams shows what’s going on behind the scenes:

As a manager and leader, I want to know early if the proposed plan is failing; not at the end.  Further, if I’m going to fail, I want to fail fast and for minimal effort so that other options can be explored before I blow my whole budget and resources.  What stops us doing that?  And what other options do I have besides best practice?  An alternative approach that can stand uncertainty, even disagreement around the nature of the problem intended actions and the expected outcomes Such approaches can be called Discover-Based.

Discovery-Based planning acknowledges at the start of a new venture that little is known and much is assumed.  While conventional planning will seek to come up with a ‘final’ plan right at the start, a discovery-based approach, while still starting with many questions and assumptions, will systematically convert these into knowledge as the venture unfolds. While a conventional planning will endeavour to eliminate change, a discovery based approach embraces change, accepting that is how we learn.  In the event challenges prove insurmountable, the endeavour can be terminated with minimal resource burn.  Such approaches can tolerate less than perfect execution, so are well suited to human endeavours and in fluid, complex scenarios have an immense capacity for responding to continuous change.

So is best practice wrong?  Absolutely not, I use it all the time to make ANZAC biscuits.  We just tend to use best practice as a delivery panacea regardless of the situation; like using a hammer for every building scenario; using a perfectly good tool in the wrong situation.  We have other tools at our disposal.  Let’s start using them.

Essentials 3.12 and Silverlight Viewer 1.8 was released in the middle of January.  This has been a substantial release with three major features; Fine Grained Component Security, Site Inheritance and Esri webmap integration.  In addition Latitude have also released HTML5 Viewer 1.2 which now supports offline data provision and editing.

Fined Grained Component Security (FGCS)

Imagine that you have three sets of users, an advanced user group, a standard user group and a specialised user group.  All three groups have requirements for an Essentials Viewer, however the requirements differ slightly.  The advanced users want to see many different map layers, print at A4 and A3, run specific workflows and have access to particular hyperlinks.  The standard user group only wants to see some layers and print at A4, use only one workflow and have no need to access layer hyperlinks.  The specialised user group need access to a restricted map service and workflows but generally need the same functionality as the advanced users.

In this scenario under previous versions of Essentials you would need to have three separate sites to cater for the three different user groups.  Although Latitudes SAI approach does mean that having three sites isn’t necessarily an onerous task it is nevertheless an overhead that the administrator may do without.

With FGCS the administrator can create three roles; advanced, standard and specialised and then grant or restrict access to map services, map layers, print templates, workflows and hyperlinks based on those roles all within the site.

The administrator could then choose to create only a single viewer to which all three groups logged into.  The users experience of that viewer would be different based upon the role that they belonged to.  Advanced users would see the map services and layers that they need with extended workflow functionality augmenting their experience.  Standard users would only be able to see certain map services and layers and would only have access to a smaller number of workflows and print templates.  Specialist users would have the same experience as the advanced uses but with additional specialised layers and workflows.

This is all achieved through simple configuration, no programming is required.

Site Inheritance

In this scenario we have many different sites to cater for the needs of different departments within an organisation.  Each of the sites consumes a common map service and other common components like print templates.  With site inheritance the administrator can create one or more parent sites, the parent site is configured with the appropriate searches, map tips, feature hyperlinks for the map service as well as print templates and reports.

Child sites inherent configurations from the patent so by referencing the parent all the configurations made in the parent appear in the child sites.  Child sites can still be altered with other map services and any other configuration to ensure that it meets the needs of the users.

Site inheritance is smart; a change to the parent passes down to the child automatically.  The administrator has added a layer to the map service which all child sites use.  In the past it would have been necessary to go into each child site and alter the configuration, adding a feature description or a map tip for example, with site inheritance those changes only need to be made once to the parent site.  Users require a new map template or report, ad it once to the parent site and it is automatically available in all child sites.

Site inheritance isn’t just a parent child relationship; it is a parent, child, grandchild, great grandchild and so forth relationship.  It makes managing sites a breeze.

WebMap Integration

Esri’s webmap is an exciting new offing made available through ArcGIS Online.  If your organisation chooses to use ArcGIS Online then it is likely that you will create WebMaps to share your data.  With the latest Essentials release you are able to consume the WebMap that you created in ArcGIS Online and then augment it with the usual configurations in Essentials.  For organisations where the current functionality of Esri viewer api’s is not advanced enough or where the management overhead is too burdensome Essentials enables organisations to take advantage of ArcGIS Online and yet still provide users with fully functional viewers.

In addition there have also been performance boosts to workflow, the addition of batch geocoding, reverse geocoding and a time slider.  There have also been numerous UI enhancements to improve the user experience.

HTML5 1.2

The other major release was version 1.2 of the HTML5 viewer.  In many ways much of the release has been architectural and hidden from the end user, however from a developer and administrator perspective the changes have been very positive.

For administrators and users the ability to go offline is perhaps the biggest draw card.  This means that the administrator can provision an offline capability which enables the user to cache data to go offline.  The user can then go into the field and record information which is synced once the user goes back online.

Administrators also benefit from better integration with REST Manager with a new management pack providing greater control over the application via configuration.

Latitude have an ambitious release schedule planned for the next few months including a companion application for iOS and Android which will further extend the HTML5 1.2 capability.

Jeremy was nominated and supported through the selection process by Scott Tansley who has mentored him since joining NSG, from Canterbury University in November 2011.

Jeremy who was living in Canterbury during the earthquakes is now supporting Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) through his GIS Analyst role at NSG. He has also undertaken the responsibility of product lead for Esri’s 3D Geographic Modelling solution, CityEngine.

Our booth this year featured our relationship with Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Association (CERA). NSG’s involvement with CERA represents a true Geospatial Enterprise model, bringing together many participatory organisations, with respect to agency integration and data providers leading to the provision of a cloud based delivery via the NSG geospatial cloud – GeoCirrus.

David Pimblott, Executive Chairman wishes to extend his gratitude to the many clients, partners and long standing acquaintances that he re-engaged with at APUC. David says “I am most appreciative of the support and encouragement I received and I would like to assure everyone that this level of engagement will continue to enable NSG to meet the needs of its clients and partners.”

David also wishes to extend his thanks to all NSG personnel who contributed to the success of our attendance at APUC.

Congratulations to Chris White from Horizons Regional Council for winning the 1TB hard drive in the jigsaw puzzle competition at the NSG stand.

The CEO position has been incorporated into David Pimblott’s Executive Chairman role.

Existing roles of General Manager – Operations and Delivery, Senior Programme Manager and Business Development Manager, have been replaced with Chief Operating Officer and Sales Manager, with a greater customer focus.

Neil Calvert and Robyn Stewart have decided not to apply for the new positions and will be leaving the company, today on Friday 26^th October 2012, together with David Swann. NSG is grateful to David, Robyn and Neil for the contribution they have made to the development of the company over the last two years. In particular we acknowledge their strong contribution to increasing NorthSouth GIS NZ Limited’s capabilities in a growth period, through extensive recruitment of GIS professional staff and nurturing relationships with our key technology partners including; Esri, Latitude Geographic’s, Voyager, Conterra and geocom.

We are pleased to announce that Frank Simmons has been appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Frank hails from an engineering background and has worked extensively overseas managing very large technology projects through interaction with the sales team, tendering life cycle, portfolio and programme delivery teams, stakeholders, investment managers, customers and vendors. These projects were often mission critical with high revenue stakes. Franks most recent position prior to joining NSG NZ was as Programme Director for Alcatel-Lucent NZ Ltd, a global telecommunications corporation.

In this role Frank’s responsibilities will include delivery of the portfolio and programme of company projects which provide fully integrated service solutions focusing on business outcomes, in accordance with NSG NZ’s vision and strategy. He will manage the performance of services to clients as per agreed contracts to ensure that service levels are achieved.

Frank will also coordinate with the NSG Group with respect to NSG NZ’s delivery of projects to the group.

Please do not hesitate to contact Frank at: 04 234 7832 phone, 027 552 9704 mobile, or by email: frank@northsouthgis.co.nz

The company has commenced a recruitment process to appoint a new Sales Manager realistically an appointment is unlikely to be made until early 2013. While the company goes through the appointment and selection process Martin Erasmuson, Senior Consultant will coordinate the company’s business development activities. Martin has a good relationship with many of our existing clients and, working with our team of business consultants, will maintain regular contact with you.

Please do not hesitate to contact Martin 04 234 7832 phone, 027 552 9712 mobile, or by email martin@northsouthgis.co.nz if you have any enquiries.

From an operational perspective, these changes in no way alter our ability or commitment, to deliver to you, our clients, quality GIS implementation products and services.

Finally please do not hesitate to contact David Pimblott if you require any clarification on the content of this.