Project SWOTing

This post presents a SWOT analysis of the SPACER project

Strengths

• Expertise in OGC standards, including Catalogue services.

• Several years Java programming experience.

• Participation in the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) which extensively uses Catalogue services.

• Several years in developing XML and web-based applications for Geographic Information Systems.

• Participation in AGILE/EuroSDR/OGC Persistent Testbed offers potential volunteer developers.

• Situated with other Android and Location Based Services projects i.e. D-Scent & Horizon.

Weaknesses

• Project duration includes the month of August which is typically ‘holiday season’.

• Promotion amongst developer and user communities may be hampered by duration of the project.

• According to an AdMob report for April 2009, the iPhone and Symbian continue to dominate the market; however, Android is seen as gaining popularity and has caught up to platforms such as PalmOS (http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/admob-mobile-metrics-april-09.pdf)

Opportunities

• Use of Android offers the possibility of accessing in-built GPS.

• Vodafone is currently offering unlimited internet packages with HTC Magic phones(running Android).

• Rapidly growing developer community behind Android.

• Showcasing at the 2009 Location Based Services and TeleCartography conference in Nottingham.

Threats

• HTC Magic has entered the market around the same time as Apple iPhone 3GS so they are likely to share the market.

• Potential limitations in the ability of the selected catalogue services or mobile devices to realise the proposed use case.

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Tags: JISC, JISCRI, progressPosts, rapidInnovation, SPACER, SWOT