The Geo Factor recently interviewed Matt Ball, founder of Vector1Media, a new media company with a mission to “promote spatial design for a sustainable tomorrow.” Matt answered questions about what drove him to start the company, why sustainable living is important, and how spatial analysis is important to its achievement.

TGF: What is Vector1Media?

Vector1 Media is a new media offering with a mission to promote spatial design for a sustainable tomorrow. This new venture is an alliance between Jeff Thurston, formerly editor of Geo:Connexion and GeoInformatics and myself as former editor of GeoWorld.

The intent of our coverage is to promote the use of spatial tools for sustainable development. Sustainable development balances economic, social and environmental considerations when planning communities and infrastructure investments. The focus is on green issues, but also on areas where minimal investment in spatial tools can provide considerable financial returns.

Our content is delivered through the Vector1 Media website, daily Blog posts and the weekly V1 Newsletter. The content is a mix of news items, interviews, reviews, columns, features and opinion pieces.

TGF: Why did you start it and why now? What do you hope to accomplish with the site? What have you already accomplished?

Jeff and I have known each other for nine or more years and have shared a similar outlook on the geospatial industry. We both were experiencing a frustration at the state of mainstream geospatial press where the technology focus tends to spin the thinking toward the flavor of the moment.

While there’s a growing market for consumer-oriented GeoExploration tools, map mashups and location-based services in our mobile phones, these products and applications stray from the core promise of the geospatial toolset. Our decision to focus on sustainable development was a conscious effort to take a process-centric approach rather than technology-centric.

In addition to goals related to the use of geospatial tools for sustainable development, we’d like to see more use of spatial analysis, more realism and additional dimensions (3D and 4D), an increase in real-time data by harnessing sensor networks, and a more holistic and multidisciplinary approach to solving spatial problems.

Our site has been active since mid-September and we’re pleased that we’ve seen more than a 30% increase in traffic each month. We’ve also subscribed more than 6,000 people to our weekly e-newsletter and have seen significant traffic to our Blogs. We’re happy that our message is resonating with readers, and we’re eager to see what we can accomplish in the new year.

TGF: What is your professional background?

I worked for GeoTec Media for ten years. I started out with conferences, and was the manager of the GeoTec Event, Canada’s largest geospatial conference and tradeshow. I was also the editor of GeoWorld magazine for six years, and Business Geographics magazine for a little under a year.

Prior to GeoTec Media, I was the exhibits and marketing coordinator for the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. I worked on a special software fair that presented a number of geospatial technologies to geologists, and made the connection with GeoWorld (then GIS World) at that event.

I’m a journalist by training, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. I also studied magazine publishing at New York University, and worked several years for a consumer publication in New York City prior to moving to Colorado.

TGF: The site promotes sustainable environments. Why is spatial analysis important to this?

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have a huge role to play in the stewardship of our planet. GIS have already contributed a great deal toward understanding and quantifying what is meant by sustainability, and will continue to contribute to our understanding of Earth systems interaction.

Sustainable development is at the confluence of economic vitality, healthy communities and sustaining the environment. Sustainable development also must relate to meeting present needs with a great deal of forethought to future needs.

There are a lot of metrics to follow and quantify at all scales of sustainable development, and there’s a need to integrate information from disparate systems and sensors in order to understand the large picture. A robust data handling and visual communication system is the most efficient means to arrive at a consensus, and this is where GIS shines.

To date there hasn’t been much geospatial community or GIS vendor action to create multidisciplinary workflows or toolsets that specifically address sustainability. I’m sure that this will change, and we’re hoping that our focus will shed light on the effective impact of spatial thinking to address global problems.

TGF: How does the concept of sustainable living relate to the “Green” movement?

Sustainability is tied closely with “Green.” I think of “Green” as more of a personal responsibility. Going green within a corporation means that you’re taking an environmentally-friendly approach to how you design, manufacture and distribute your product. Going green on a personal level has to do with individual choices on reducing consumption, recycling and acting responsibly toward the environment.

I view sustainability as a more community-oriented approach. The need to balance economy, society and environment is played out on a larger geographic scale and involves balancing community-scale objectives such as energy, transportation and urban planning.

The two are definitely intertwined. Europe has been making great strides on sustainability issues for more than a decade. The United Nations has a Decade for Education for Sustainable Development starting in 2005. North America is waking up to the idea of sustainable development and we intend to promote the role of geospatial tools in this endeavor.

TGF: What are the issues of getting those involved in the management of infrastructure to consider the issue of sustainability?

The builders and managers of infrastructure realize that they have an inefficient process, but it’s going to take a great deal of effort to fix it. The BuildingSMART Alliance is one of the thought leaders addressing this problem. A number of initiatives are underway to develop industry standards and toolsets that can improve building and infrastructure modeling so that we have long-standing and energy efficient structures.

There’s a strong focus on intelligent models with Building Information Modeling (BIM) that tie into the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification process. These guidelines for energy efficient buildings and sustainable communities will go a long way toward retooling the industry.

There are some pain points within the infrastructure workflow that are going to require cuts and unfortunate job loss. It’s going to take courageous action and time to sort these things out.

TGF: What drives sustainability from a business perspective, i.e. what is the business justification for thinking about infrastructure from a sustainability perspective?

There’s an excellent video on YouTube from a captain of industry that has seen the light (Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface, a large carpet manufacturer). In the video there’s a focus on the detrimental outcomes for inaction, rather than the bottom-line benefits. I think that’s the right approach to take with this line of thinking. What are the harmful outcomes if we don’t change how we do things?

If you use the parametric modeling approach of BIM to design your building or infrastructure, you get a full intelligent model that allows you to cut down considerably on material cost. The model also allows you to check the design for energy efficiency before you build to significantly reduce the cost of operation.

Clearly there are benefits from a more efficient process and more holistic thinking, but the timelines are often long for the return on investment to be the driver of change. We need to look to greater responsibility for the stewardship of our planet as a primary driver.

TGF: What do you think makes the site unique or different from other media sites about GIS?

There’s not much innovation that can be done with delivery mechanisms, so we’re focused more on content as a differentiator.

Both Jeff and I are rather prolific writers and we’ve ramped up our editorial output by writing a weekly column where be both address a question related to the industry. These Perspectives pieces have proved to be quite popular, and really enjoyable to write. They allow for dialogue between the two of us, and we get a good deal of comments from readers. By addressing the same question weekly, we’re gaining a good understanding of each other’s perspective and strengths and hopefully establishing ourselves as thought leaders within the community.

TGF: What are potential new feature areas for Vector1Media?

There are a number of different focus areas for upcoming features. Our editorial calendar has a three-pillar approach, with technology, environment and infrastructure.

In technology, we’re very interested in the CAD/GIS/BIM integration projects that are ongoing, both with integration within product suites of large vendors and with an upcoming Open Geospatial Consortium testbed. In environment, we’re taking a look at environmental indicators and large-scale monitoring and modeling. In infrastructure, we’re interested in urban planning and energy uncertainty.

These topic areas are just a sample of what we have planned. We’re actively talking to a number of contributors and have a good slate of features that we’ll be circulating early in the new year.

TGF: What is the business model for the site? How will it support itself or make money?

We’re advertiser-driven, so we’ll support ourselves through the delivery of banner and text ads. We’ve also discussed the possibility of research reports and focused conferences.

TGF: What are your favorite blogs and Web sites for geospatial information? Where should those without much knowledge go to learn more about maps and sustainability?

The geospatial blogosphere is very active, and I appreciate a wide number of writers. I watch the aggregators Planet Geospatial and SlashGeo a fair amount. I also visit all the sites on my blogroll at www.vector1media.com/spatialsustain on a regular basis.

Due to our focus on sustainable development, I spend most of my online time on sites that are outside of the geospatial focus. I cull news from a number of sites, and try to incorporate research results as much as possible. I find that there are a number of exciting projects and ideas in academia right now, particularly related to the use of geospatial tools for sustainability.