Welcome to Lesson 1 and a quick overview of what you should expect in each lesson.

• There will be a brief Introduction to the Lesson, a list of Goals, a checklist of Activities for the week, along with Deliverables and Due Dates.
• "Post comment," found in the "Where to Complete" column, refers to your post in the Canvas Lesson Discussion Forum.
• You may find it convenient to print this page so you keep on schedule.

Please notice that Deliverables are due Tuesday nights (midnight State College time). This will help keep the discussions timely, lively, and meaningful.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you are having difficulty navigating the system. Also, please alert me if any links are not working or if text needs fixing.

Instill in yourself - and practice frequently - an addage from the FranklinCovey group to "Begin [each day, assignments, GEOG 850 Lessons] with the end in mind". Alexander Murphy published a quick reader, Geography, Why It Matters, on the connections of our lives and geography with many useful figures, maps, and everyday geospatial examples. The author highlights the importance of learning geography to understand changes in the world around us (Murphy, 2018: p.134):

We are awash in data about the transformations taking place, but we cannot hope to gain a handle on them if the population at large has little sense of Earth's geographical character and the changes that are happening to it; if students and scholars lack the analytical perspectives and tools needed to assess the evolving spatial organization and material character of places and regions; or if policy-makers and planners are not equipped to think geographically about issues and problems - to think knowledgeably and critically about geographical patterns, to consider why things happen where they do, and to appreciate how geographical context influences what happens.

On March 23, 2021, a massive container ship, Ever Given, ran aground blocking the Suez Canal. Work immediately began with every tugboat nearby to attempt to free the ship and minimize the impact on shipping traffic in the Suez Canal. At that time, little did the public know that this event would have a global impact on supply chains, sea traffic management, and disrupting deliveries of most industries. BBC News. (2021).  Suez Canal: Wedged container ship seen in busy waterway. 24 Mar 2021.

• How many people knew the location of the Suez Canal?
• How many people learned new geospatial information of global ship traffic from this grounding event?

Container Ship Ever Given runs aground in Suez Canal, 23 March 2021.

Image credit: Ever Given runs aground in Suez Canal. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

What is due for Lesson 1?

Lesson 1 will take us one week to complete. There are a number of required activities in this lesson. For assignment details, refer to the table below.

Note: Please refer to the Calendar in Canvas for specific time frames and due dates.

Requirements for Lesson 1

Questions?

If you have any questions about course mechanics, where to do something, or how to do something, feel free to send me an email via the Canvas system at any time.

Today’s location-based situations or problems are complex and the information decision makers need is often obscured in their organization’s Big Data. There may be a quick, apparent solution found in an organization’s operating agreement, checklists, or previous decisions. Yet, tough business problems benefit from a systematic approach.

Location intelligence starts with a question. What location-based challenge or opportunity is my organization trying to solve? An American inventor and businessman, Charles Kettering, may have been the first to note that a problem clearly stated is a problem already half solved. (Kettering was head of research at GM from 1920 to 1947; also attributed to John Dewey, a 20th Century philosopher highlighting the value of an effective problem statement.) Most business data connects physical locations, dates, and times—linking business operations to place and time.

Geospatial analysts ground themselves in the problem. Then, through effective research and applications of geospatial science, analysts uncover patterns in data that link observations, hypotheses, and information to a solution. Understanding a scientific method of study or workflow method of analysis is foundational to examining and solving complex problems.

GEOG 850 focuses activities on location intelligence for business, dealing with sectors of an economy, business principles, location-based problem solving, risk assessment, and digital technology to enhance location analytics. This is not just about omni-channel marketing using smartphones. So, throughout the course reflect on how the process, technology, and output of location intelligence apply to all facets of business, e.g. developing strategies, local to global operations, manufacturing, even recycling and waste management, sales force alignments, and communications.

In a 2010 text Why 'Where' Matters: Understanding and Profiting from GPS, GIS, and Remote Sensing, Bob Ryerson and Stan Aronoff, welcome readers to the new economic era - the GeoEconomy.

The GeoEconomy is how we define the economy that is increasingly being driven by, and dependent on, geospatial  or geographic information - inofrmation that is tied to or linked to a geographic location. This location based information is termed geospatial or geographic information or geo-information. In some significant ways the GeoEconomy is a throw-back to prehistoric time when individual and societal survival depended on them having a thorough understanding of the geography of the places in which they lived. However, in the past much of the geographic advantage was based on what we call geo-luck - those in ancient times that happened to have the advantage of being located close to water and good soil, or who had an easily defended home were lucky - those that did not, died or lived so close to the subsistence level that they could not develop more advanced civilizations.

Simply put: today those who "get it," those who understand the GeoEconomy and how to use it to their advantage, will do well. Those who do not will, as our ancestors did, depend on geo-luck. Luck, geo or otherwise, like hope, is not a strategy.

However, today individuals, businesses, and governments at all levels can now make geodecisions based on better information that is more easily accessible than at any time in history. Not only do we all have access to the data, we also have ready access to low or no cost tools that enable the non-specialist to use that data. Anyone capable of accessing  and using the Intenet can access and use geospatial information relevant to themselves, their community, business, country, or the global environment.

The authors outline a series of typical business questions corporations will ask relating location, geospatial technology, and information. Geospatial data scientists follow the scientific process and organized analysis methods to prepare geospatial data for use in business decision making. Reflexive inspection of an organization offers an insight to business questions from many categories to include marketing, resource management, consulting, or risk management. The objective of this course is to teach and reinforce critical thinking in geospatial business contexts; not to train graduate students on a particular location intelligence platform.

Contemporary professional journals include new references of location intelligence using various types of information and analysis methods, e.g. crowdsourcing, human geography, visual analystics, forecasting, geospatial modeling, risk assessment, sustainability, and decision making. As an introduction to Location Intelligence for Business, we offer an insight to business sectors and career fields relating to Location Intelligence:

• Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT)
• Geo-Marketing
• Urban Planning
• Environmental Concerns and Sustainability
• Cartography and Webmap Design
• Real Estate Management
• Remote Sensing
• Business Analysis
• Consumer to Customer Digital Transformation

Former Penn State student—now instructor—Rob Williams shares his Capstone work. Enjoy and process the presentation.

L1.07 Rob Williams Video Site Location Analysis for a New Metropolitan Airfield (10:32 minutes)

As you watch the video and read the selections, consider the following questions; apply your critical thinking to Rob Williams' approach to his location intelligence problem:

1. Video: What surprised you about the Capstone video?
2. Video: What did you take away from the presentation?
3. Video: Can you outline the process in as few key steps as possible?
4. Lesson: Regarding Horan's discussion on p. 13, Drivers of Location Analytics,
   1. Where may these drivers impact buisness operations and decisions?
   2. Which location analytic drivers have you encountered in your own work?

Businesses organize to provide a product or service to fulfill customers’ needs. Similarly, analytical problem solving starts with user requirements and needs. In the case of business problems, who are the users and stakeholders? A business strives to lead in its industry, to gain loyalty from customers who prefer and purchase that business’ products or services. Competition boosts innovation, spurs companies to develop the most favorable products, and drives creative pricing and delivery options for consumers.

Inventors and companies learn from observing and actively participating in a competitive environment. Imitation certainly occurs and some great ideas are stolen by dishonest people; however, commerce, business, and patent laws protect original ideas and support the free economy that thrives on vigorous competition. Businesses succeed when they develop desirable products and services, offer competitive pricing, and deliver on their commitments. Competition also creates opportunities for collaboration to optimize certain products/services for customer or market needs.

In Spatial Business, Competing and Leading with Location Analytics, Horan, et al (2022, p.7) introduce a case example of The Shopping Center Group (TSCG) integrating the use of location analytics to enhance the value of business decisions for customers. The core of their geospatial analysis relies on extensive GIS research and market specific data. Look for other examples of TSCG retail property management through lessons of site selection, trade areas, and creating value using location intelligence assessments. There are key geospatial business questions to ask with any location-based opportunity or challenge, and we'll examine these throughout the course.

Business insights—assessments to understand business situations—are connected to location, markets, and product distribution. Analyzing the business environment requires an understanding of the market, available products or services, customer preferences, behaviors, and expectations.

To produce location intelligence, one examines geospatial and business components to fully realize the situation, identify key factors, uncover patterns and relationships, and present possible solutions. Figure 1.1 depicts how Location Intelligence for Business is built on the principles of intelligence, geography, and business.

Figure 1.1. Location Intelligence for Business is derived from the principles of Intelligence, Geography, and Business.

Credit: Daniel Steiner © Penn State, licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Note: Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) and Business Intelligence (BI) are separate areas of information and intelligence which should be recognized and not confused with Location Intelligence. GEOINT and BI are not examined in detail during GEOG 850, Location Intelligence for Business.

These three disciplines of intelligence, geography, and business have some unique foundational principles and share other, similar principles. Prunckun, Bacastow, and Lowenthal describe first principles as the fundamental concepts on which a theory or discipline functions. Fundamentally, geography is a spatial study of the earth’s surface; however, in practice, the science examines physical geography, human geography, and the environmental relationships of both.

Tobler was modeling urban growth in Detroit, MI from a global perspective; yet analyzing growth patterns in the local urban study using relative measures rather than a global scale. If one determines there are better locations for a stated purpose, what is the best location for that purpose? Distance hinders interaction between places, events, and entities. Often described as the friction of distance, a consumer’s choice to purchase products locally rather than travelling a further distance can be measured in time and transportation costs. (Tobler, 1970: 234-240)

Geography is involved overtly and intuitively in business planning and operations. Geographic data, describing the location and attributes of things in the world, comes in many formats for use in analysis, creating maps, solving problems, sharing observations and insights.

Todd S. Bacastow, Professor Emeritus of Geospatial Intelligence, Penn State University, introduced first principles of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) that form a knowledge paradigm of the profession. Geospatial intelligence as a human process follows a methodology, is conducted in secrecy, and seeks to achieve an information edge or decision advantage. Integrating imagery, imagery information, and any available geospatial information, GEOINT reveals how “human behavior is constrained by the physical landscape and human perceptions of the Earth.” The discovery of relationships in space and time improve our understanding and anticipation of human patterns of life. (Bacastow, 2016)

Both human geography and census geography contribute to location intelligence. It’s a branch of geography studying patterns and processes that shape the human society; modeling human, cultural, societal, political, and economic factors.

Most business data points are linked to physical locations and times. Ryerson (2010) highlights the geoadvantage which an entity gains from analysis of geographic phenomena, human activity, and economic productivity.

A location-based research process starts with gathering all relevant internal business information and enriching it with relevant geographic information.

• Ask pertinent questions to identify key factors, data gaps, drivers which will influence the decision process.
• What business information relates to the problem?
• What business objectives are impacted by the problem?

To enrich the data for analysis, obtain geospatial information from within the organization, open sources, and reliable third-party vendors. Research geographic information, georeferenced data, specialize data, statistics, and references, in this case, business information. A geographic information system (GIS) is often used to manage, analyze, visualize, and gain an understanding of geospatial data. Relate how and where location is linked to the business information.

Conduct data enrichment to expand a resource of consumers, customers, demographics, market segmentation; often suitable to uncover customer patterns, behaviors, and trends.

An effective analysis process begins before an organization faces a problem or opportunity. Approach the situation with an educated, experienced process to develop relevant business questions, collect and enrich data, perform geospatial analysis, prepare to present findings with mapping and visualization.

A foundation for geospatial thinking in commercial settings begins with educating analysts and establishing a base for subsequent technical training in specific location intelligence applications.

Intelligence is the result of information analysis and an organized process to make sense of situations. Information alone does not drive decision-making or inform leaders of the optimal course of action necessary to achieve strategic goals. An analyst or group of specialized professionals collect, analyze, and evaluate information to produce intelligence which benefits their organization.

Competitive Intelligence

Information, human behavior, and geopolitical forces are in constant flux. The timeliness of intelligence significantly impacts the outcomes of a leader’s decisions. Thus, intelligence is a formal process, a continuous cycle, as information is gathered, accessed, and resulting outcomes are disseminated and used to set new collection requirements. The cycle is a framework for competitive intelligence, conducted in secret to gain a decision advantage over adversaries.

An entity conducts intelligence when competition exists, and power is the leverage to maintain security against an adversary’s threats. The key is to develop and apply intelligence to achieve strategic objectives; converting power to an advantage for the nation or organization. National intelligence supports policymakers and exists to avoid strategic surprise and maintain the secrecy of information, needs, and methods. (Lowenthal, 2015: 2)

First Principles

To Prunckun, secret research is founded on the first principles of intelligence. Competition between adversaries drives decision makers’ priorities and defines the intelligence requirements. The result of intelligence analysis must be that “Intelligence enables the analyst to present solutions or options to decision makers based on defensible conclusions.”

First principles of intelligence research and analysis coexist in the intelligence cycle and production of assessments to meet policymaker requirements:

“The theory’s six propositions state that intelligence research is: 1) conducted in secret, 2) identified within the intelligence cycle process so that data collection and analysis can be problem focused. In this regard, intelligence analysis can be 3) offensive as well as 4) defensive, but 5) it must be timely, and 6) its findings need to be defensible.” (Prunckun, 2015: 31)

Intelligence is typically conducted in secrecy to conceal information, uncover hidden information, and identify other governments' methods of espionage or discovery. Denying an opponent’s access to key information is critical to maintaining secrecy and is as important as exposing that adversary’s hidden information, capabilities, and intentions. (Lowenthal, 2015: 400)

Propositions can also be referred to as conditions in Prunckun's theoretical work.

We're not emphasizing a need for secrecy in all location intelligence activities. An organization (or government) determines the needs for protecting information - and there are significant advantages for transparency and openness.

A formal intelligence process forms a cycle of identifying requirements, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, dissemination, consumption, and feedback. Requirements and priorities focus the effort of an organization or intelligence agencies and, ostensibly, improve the effectiveness of intelligence production.

Lowenthal describes collection as the bedrock of intelligence; influenced by the variety of collection means, intelligence methods, and effective feedback from policymakers. (Lowenthal, 2015: 87) We will review methods of collecting geospatial information and business data in Lessons 3 & 4.

Throughout the course, I encourage you to note examples of geospatial, intelligence, and business principles in the development of location intelligence. Businesses leverage spatial patterns and relationships in data to improve their operations and marketing. Business leaders also have a responsibility to optimize the spending or costs of research, operations, marketing, sales, and distribution. Analysis results and assessments from Location Intelligence provide advantages relating to business costs, return on investment, and profits.

Creating an Advantage

Businesses depend on creating an advantage for their organization or disadvantaging the competition. Location intelligence produces insights for a business to optimize their performance, leveraging advantages of geography with their product or service. Enterprise-wide databases now link geospatial attributes to assets, product features, operational tables, and customer relationship management (CRM) data. The next steps for integrating mapping services with key functions include web GIS, APIs and SDKs, multiple mapping visualizations (2D, 3D, webmap), dashboards, connected sensor data collection, IoT with real-time services, field data collection for asset management, and interior space mapping.

Location intelligence is not a formal discipline, nor universally defined or presented. It is also not a new concept since it is estimated that 80% of all data may have a location component. A key point to understand is Intelligence is not collected; it is produced after collected data or information is evaluated and analyzed. There is growing momentum for commercial applications in geospatial technologies, geospatial intelligence, and widely incorporating GIS into operations and databases. Beyond traditional site planning, location intelligence is now a blend of science, location data, human geography, and business information. Location-based studies begin with these elements and go on to identifying principles at work in a business problem.

Location Intelligence has applications in many disciplines and is generally considered to consist of five fundamental components:

1. clearly stating a location-based analytic question
2. data management, georeferencing, web mapping of key information
3. geospatial analysis for patterns or significant factors
4. visualization, presenting, reporting for decision making
5. integration into the organization’s strategy and operations

Location Intelligence provides insights for businesses on markets, consumers, product adoption, relative location information, and customer needs, behaviors, interactions. Analysis is performed to identify and understand patterns; not solely to provide use cases to support planned courses of action.

Using location intelligence gives a business a decision advantage to achieve business objectives; results of the geospatial analysis provide insights for the business to organize, operate, and/or perform better than their competitors. Understanding and applying a scientific method of study or workflow of analysis is foundational to examining geospatial data for patterns, solving complex problems, and anticipating threats.

We are discussing the practice of location intelligence, developing assessments from location analytics or geospatial analysis that provide additional information for decision making. In Lesson 2, we introduce spatial analytics tools and methods of modeling business scenarios.

Horan (2022, pp.13-15) describes eight drivers of location analytics use. I encourage you to read these and tab the pages for future application during Location Intelligence for Business or your own career responsibilities. The Global Outlook for Location Analytics (Horan, 2022, p. 15) highlights the growth of markets that expressly use location analytics and apply location intelligence to optimize results.

Location Intelligence Workflow

Fundamental to Location Intelligence for Business, the process of location intelligence is a problem-solving and discovery process. You will apply a conceptual model or workflow to develop Location Intelligence for each activity and your term project. Your ability to communicate results, recommendations, or decisions is as important as your skills in research and analysis. For each deliverable, apply effort to provide effective visualization and presentation of your discoveries.

Location intelligence has different meanings, purpose, and terminology. Depending on context, location intelligence is a definition, a method of geospatial analysis, a subset of business intelligence, or software application for business analysis. It is an intelligence activity, conducted confidentially to gain an advantage for the business.

A succinct definition of location intelligence must also be sufficiently broad to apply to many disciplines. The foundation lies in principles of intelligence, geography, and the discipline under investigation—in this course—business. Location intelligence is the collection and analysis of many sources of geospatial data that are transformed into strategic insights to solve a variety of business challenges.

Location Intelligence Definition

Location intelligence in business is the practice of collecting, enriching, and analyzing business information, georeferenced data, and geospatial information to discover contextual insights for location-based challenges or opportunities. The process of location intelligence is often conducted confidentially to gain a decision advantage for the organization or to disadvantage competitors. Selection of an effective problem-solving methodology enhances identification of patterns, trends, and relationships.

Human geography factors into location intelligence to recognize and appreciate relationships between human behavior and our environment. In a similar manner, dynamic visualization of the location intelligence process, geospatial analysis, and results leverages our visual cognition skills to infer assessments from spatial and non-spatial data.

Location intelligence is both a process to collect, organize, and analyze geospatial data and its outcome to derive and present business insights.

Throughout this course, a major activity is a location intelligence project that you will develop and research on your own (with some input from everyone else taking the course). To ensure that you make regular progress toward completion of the term-long project, I will assign project activities for you to complete each week.

The topic of the project is completely up to you, but you will have to get the topic approved. Pick a topic of interest and use the different methods applied during this class to better understand the topic. Some topics considered include:

• Location intelligence, Resources & Synergies Development (R&SD), operations, services, sales and business development, marketing, C-suite decision making, procurement, supply chain management, or telecommunications;
• Not just digital customer experiences, also optimizing the use of building and manufacturing space;
• Production machines talking to one another through connected sensors and IoT;
• City infrastructure sensing activity or phenomena, reporting the occurrence locally, and responding with safety, efficiency, recommendations for correction.

You will need to demonstrate what you have learned throughout the course. Your grade will be based upon demonstrating an understanding of:

• demographic and market segmentation;
• trade areas; natural and man-made features affecting business opportunities; sales forecasting/market penetration;
• site characteristics typically investigated in the site selection process;
• solving or contributing to the solution of a business problem using geospatial analysis methods; and
• tools such as reports and maps; and how they inform market research, site selection, or support business decisions.

Take time this week to consider the following:

1. What would you like to focus on—a broad market analysis, a site selection problem, leveraging indoor or digital location analytics, or something else?
2. What level of geography would you like to work with? What location?
3. What steps might you take in your research? Is the data readily available (or can you gather it and incorporate it, using the tools at our disposal)?
4. Start a journal of your Term Project to use as you progress through project steps. Include a Reference section to record all pertinent information for properly citing the published works you include. A well organized LIterature Review leads to your Bibliography and in text, footnote, or endnote citations.

This week, the project activity is to become familiar with the weekly term project activities and to think about possible topics. Each week, the project activity requirements for that week will be spelled out in more detail on a page labeled Term Project, located in the regular course menu.

Note: All Term Project related work and deliverables will be submitted in Canvas during weeks 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10.

Approach to a Location Intelligence Project

Design and follow a systematic approach to your project as you examine the problem, objectives, and decision making process. Lessons 1 – 4 will introduce geospatial and business principles used to form location intelligence. The lessons build a case for solving your location-based problem by asking a relevant business question, gathering and enriching data, applying geospatial analysis, uncovering factors, patterns, and contributing phenomena.

Week by Week Activities of the Term Project

Below is an outline of the weekly project activities for the Term Projects. You should refer back to this page periodically as a handy guide to the project 'milestones'. NOTE: I highly recommend keeping a regular journal of your activities on the Term Project. If you do this carefully enough, then the final report for the project should almost write itself!