Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Overview of Whereness
This chapter details some further background to the areas of ICT relevant to
Whereness and an overview of the main business application areas. An overview
of positioning technology is given. This chapter and also the paper [1] written by
the author are recommended for those who wish to grasp the gist of Whereness
rapidly before getting immersed in the detail contained in later chapters.
2.1
Whereness in the Changing Digital Networked Economy
2.1.1
Convergence
Converging businesses are common in the area of ICT, for example, the offering
by a single company of Internet services, fixed and mobile telephony, and TV. In
contrast, some more traditional areas relevant to positioning such as public
transport and motor industries tend to concentrate on their core businesses, the
product cycles of which tend to be much longer. Convergence is about a coming
together of activities that are separate and then diversification of the converged
whole into new areas. New opportunities exploiting Whereness are therefore
likely to be considered by organizations experiencing convergence in their
traditional areas of business, especially mobile and fixed telecommunications
operators, map content owners, and the electronic equipment market. Whereness
applications would be regarded as valid adjacent markets and would promote the
novel use of existing ICT products and services. It is likely that leveraging
existing infrastructure investments will be more fruitful than building new
dedicated infrastructures for Whereness services. The exception to this is the
deployment of publicly funded systems such as GPS and Galileo. As
internetworking spreads and the Internet becomes pervasive, the opportunities for
Whereness are likely to increase as all the necessary parts are converged into
efficient service offerings.
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