| You've just finished congratulating your marketing | | | | beast. It sits on a server somewhere and doesn't |
| team. After six months of concentrated effort | | | | move much, so at first glance it seems quite |
| you can now actually find your own company | | | | unplausible you'll need GIS Locational Data within |
| web site within the search engines. Everyone is | | | | your source code. On the contrary. One aspect |
| busy handshaking and back patting when a voice | | | | your web site represents is your business's |
| from the back of the room rises above the din. | | | | physical location(s) and if people are going to try |
| "Yeah this is great! Can't wait until we can find | | | | to find your services and products, shouldn't you |
| ourselves on wireless devices."All conversation | | | | at the very least, tell them where it is and how |
| comes to an abrupt halt. Eyes widen. Everyone | | | | to get there?Let's look at it from the other end |
| turns to the fresh-faced intern standing in the | | | | of the spectrum. The end user approach. Let's |
| corner with a can of V8 juice in one hand and a | | | | say you're vacationing in a new city for the first |
| PALM device in the other. You, being the | | | | time. Once you get settled into your Hotel room, |
| Department Manager, barely managing to control | | | | what's the first thing you want to find? |
| your voice not to mention your temper, ask the | | | | Restaurants? Bank machines? Stores? So you pull |
| now nearly frozen with panic intern, "What do you | | | | out your hand-held, wireless, device, log onto the |
| mean find ourselves on wireless? We just spent | | | | web and search for "Italian Food in San Francisco." |
| thousands on our web site visibility campaign!" | | | | Five Hundred results come back so you click the |
| "Well... Explains the sheepish intern, "There is no | | | | new "location" feature on your hand-held (which |
| GPS or GIS locational data within our source code. | | | | knows exactly where you are) and ten Italian |
| Without it, most wireless appliances won't be able | | | | restaurants, who were smart enough to code |
| to access our site."Guess what? The intern is | | | | their web sites with GIS data, light up on the |
| absolutely correct. Anyone interested in selling | | | | screen. Guess which restaurants didn't get |
| goods and services via the Internet will soon be | | | | selected? The other four hundred and ninety. |
| required to have some form Geographic Location | | | | Starting to get the picture?How does this affect |
| data coded into your web pages. There are | | | | you and your web site marketing? GIS Latitude |
| approximately 200 satellites currently orbiting the | | | | and Longitude co-ordinates will soon be a must |
| Earth. (even Nasa won't confirm the exact | | | | have on every web site operators and web |
| number) Some are in geosynchronous or | | | | developer's list and an absolute necessity for |
| geostationary orbit 27,000 miles above your head. | | | | anyone wishing to trade good and services via |
| The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the name | | | | the Internet. This data may relate to the physical |
| given to the mechanism of providing satellite | | | | location of the web site or where the site is being |
| ephemerides ("orbits") data to the general public, | | | | served from (if applicable) or where the actual |
| under the auspices of the International Earth | | | | business represented by the site is physically |
| Rotation Service Terrestrial Reference Frame | | | | located. There may be multiple web site locations |
| (ITRF). Sounds like Star Wars doesn't it? It's | | | | and coding involved, if for example, you have a |
| pretty close. The NAVSTAR GPS system is a | | | | franchise with multiple locations, each location will |
| satellite-based radio-navigation system developed | | | | probably need a page of it's own with the correct |
| and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense | | | | corresponding location data.If you run a |
| (DOD).The NAVSTAR system permits land, sea, | | | | home-based business, I doubt if the co-ordinates |
| and airborne users to determine their | | | | to your living room are going to be necessary, |
| three-dimensional position, velocity, 24 hours a | | | | but you should provide the latitude and longitude |
| day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, with | | | | of the closest city or town. Large corporations |
| amazing precision. devices, WAP, Cellular, | | | | such as banks may want to code the exact |
| SATphones and a whole host of newly emerging | | | | location of every automated teller machine across |
| appliances and indeed, new software applications, | | | | the country.Industry standards and the methods |
| will all utilize some form of GPS or more likely GIS | | | | of serving out this data are still in the |
| data retrieval. GIS stand for Geographic | | | | development phases but it's a safe bet to |
| Information System and relies on exact Latitude | | | | assume there are plenty of people working on |
| and Longitude coordinates for location | | | | the solutions right now and given the speed of |
| purposes.Several car manufacturers currently | | | | technology, implementation will probably be much |
| utilize GPS for on-board driver assistance and the | | | | sooner than later. Give yourself an edge. Find out |
| Marine and Trucking Industries have been using it | | | | where in the world your web site is...before your |
| for years. Obviously your web site is a stable | | | | web site is nowhere to be found. |