How Simplicity Will Save GIS

It’s 2014 — we have consumer robots and electric cars, private spacecraft, planet colonization projects, and the Higgs Boson is confirmed, but GIS software is still a mess. You might be able to make sense of it all if you’re a GIS specialist with an academic background, but other creative individuals — designers, developers, tinkerers of all kinds, each with a vision and desire to create meaningful and beautiful maps and visualizations — are constantly losing battles against bloat, clutter, and complexity.

How do we reverse this GIS entropy? What does it take to turn complex technology into something that anyone can use and contribute to? An attempt to answer by the creator of Leaflet, a simple JS library that changed the world of online maps forever.

Transcript

1. how simplicity
   will save GIS
   Vladimir Agafonkin
   10.09.14
   

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2. Vladimir Agafonkin
   

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3. how simplicity
   will save GIS
   

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4. how simplicity
   will save GIS
   

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5. GIS is hard
   

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6. 6.5 years building
   map apps
   

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7. author and
   maintainer of
   

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8. by far the most used
   open source map library
   

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10. still clueless
    about GIS
    

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12. typical FOSS4G talk
    

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15. clueless about GIS
    exactly the reason why
    Leaflet succeeded
    

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16. story recap
    now with animated GIFs!
    

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17. April 2008
    

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18. 22 years
    old
    

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19. so I’m doing maps now,
    how hard could this be?
    

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21. maps huh?
    • image tiles involved
    • pan and zoom with a mouse
    • maybe put some stuff on top
    

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22. PFF
    

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23. Lets build a JS API
    from scratch!
    

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24. NO
    

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25. — don’t reinvent the wheel
    — there’s a mature established
    open source solution
    — lets build a wrapper
    

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26. OpenLayers
    >100,000 lines of code?
    hundreds of features?
    megabytes of JavaScript?
    

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28. building an API wrapper
    

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29. #osmdev: hey guys, what
    do you think about making
    a simple, lightweight OL
    alternative?
    

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30. no way you could do that
    

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31. wasting time instead of contributing
    

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32. community:
    worthless idea
    !
    boss:
    don’t reinvent the wheel
    

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34. oh wait
    

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36. building from scratch;
    didn’t tell anyone
    

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38. a couple
    weeks later
    

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39. Web Maps Lite
    

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42. born as a protest
    against bloat, clutter
    and complexity
    

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43. 3 years later:
    open source!
    

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44. now
    

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55. but how?
    

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56. simplicity
    

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57. thought process of an
    aspiring map app creator:
    

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58. I want to learn GIS, reading books and
    academic papers and articles about
    geospatial data, map projections, server-side
    technologies, databases, different geospatial
    standards and protocols and their
    implementations in available range of server
    and client software, perform analysis of my
    data and use cases, preferably involving other
    GIS specialists and do a lot of other research
    so that I can make sensible decisions about
    the required technology stack, adjust it to the
    needs of my application and finally make а
    f**king map (maybe in a couple years)
    

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59. I want a map
    right now
    

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61. get the tech
    out of my way
    

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62. application
    development is a
    creative process
    

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63. technology should bridge
    the gap between creative
    thinking and the end result
    

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64. dr ken robinson
    I believe this passionately:
    that we don’t grow into
    creativity, we grow out of it.
    Or rather, we get educated
    out if it.
    

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65. you must
    unlearn what
    you have
    learned
    

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66. let me create,
    explore,
    experiment,
    and learn along the way
    

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67. we spend so many years
    learning things before we get
    the chance to understand
    how to apply our knowledge
    

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68. creative learning:
    create
    learn
    

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69. “The true sign of intelligence is
    not knowledge but imagination.”
    —Albert Einstein
    

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70. dead simple to get started
    dead simple to understand
    dead simple to use
    

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71. don’t force me to think about
    unimportant things until I’m
    ready to address them
    convention over
    configuration:
    

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72. complexity fills your mind,
    makes it slow and inert,
    it dumbs you down
    

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75. simplicity frees your mind,
    unleashes your creativity
    and learning potential
    

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78. simplicity enables you to do
    more with less
    

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79. decision process of a
    company that’s looking to
    add a map to their service:
    

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80. so lets hire a GIS consulting firm to do
    some research for us and choose the
    right technology stack and then help
    us set it up and consult our developers
    so that they could get more familiar
    with it and maybe also buy some
    enterprise support plan and…
    

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81. hey front-end guy!
    make a map!
    

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83. the most successful
    tech companies have
    the tinkerer culture
    

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84. creative +
    productive + happy
    => awesome apps
    

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85. lots of awesome apps
    => community growth
    & tech exposure
    

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86. simplicity attracts a
    vibrant community
    

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87. simplicity means focus
    on the essentials, which
    leads to higher quality
    

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88. “Simplicity is prerequisite
    for reliability.”
    —Edsger Dijkstra
    

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89. thou shalt not try
    to cover all the
    use cases
    

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93. feature need
    complexity
    simplify
    

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94. simplicity means easier
    profiling and less
    bottlenecks, which leads
    to better performance
    

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95. RBush
    

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96. simplify.js
    

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97. seidel + earcut
    OSM building (15 vertices)
    earcut x 707,439 ops/sec
    pnltri x 227,890
    seidel x 77,236
    poly2tri x 29,354
    libtess x 21,875
    !
    monkey (1204 vertices):
    seidel x 608
    libtess x 342
    poly2tri x 239
    earcut x 219
    pnltri x 112
    dude shape (94 vertices):
    earcut x 33,620
    pnltri x 13,626
    seidel x 10,037
    libtess x 4,362
    poly2tri x 3,773
    

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98. simplicity makes
    people less hesitant
    to contribute
    

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99. simplicity makes it
    easier to concentrate
    

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102. simplification is how
     the technological
     progress happens
     

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103. hard problem
     

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104. manageable
     problem
     

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105. simple problem
     harder problem
     

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107. binary code
     assembler
     C
     scripting languages
     

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108. jQuery
     

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109. Ruby on
     Rails
     

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110. node.js
     

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111. “Simplicity is the outcome of
     technical subtlety. It is the goal,
     not the starting point.”
     —Maurice Saatchi
     

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112. “oh but we’re not paid
     to do simple things!”
     

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114. people who resist progress,
     unwilling to learn and adapt
     continuously, are in denial
     and always fail
     

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115. you don’t think about
     simplicity when complexity
     is taken for granted
     

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116. paradox of fitness:
     you don’t realize the benefits
     of regular exercise until you
     become more physically fit
     

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117. simplicity is a muscle,
     it needs to be
     exercised consistently
     

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119. lets make a collective
     conscious effort to
     simplify GIS technology
     

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120. so that we can be
     happy and build
     more awesome stuff!
     

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123. thank you
     

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