Miller’s article calls for a change in procedure and thinking from place-based GIS to people-based GIS. His thesis stems from the notion that people are becoming more and more displaced from given anchor points in their lives. For instance, instead of using the telephone or connecting to the internet or exposing themselves to advertising at home or at work, more and more people are constantly connected and targetable due to increased use of their mobile phones and other forms of information technology. Miller outlines the current state of spatial-temporal GIS, its challenges, roadblocks and existing models.
I agree in large part with the need to change the focus from place to people. However there is a crucial component to his argument that he touches upon, but only barely: the importance of privacy and ethics in mapping the activities of individuals. The techniques described and discussed by Miller account for increasingly minute detail in a target’s activity. And furthermore, targeted advertising and location based services can be shown to require spatial detail down to the direction the target is facing. It would not surprise me at all if the greatest roadblock to using an accurate people-based, temporal GIS would not be in the technology, but rather in the policy that would make available (either publically or privately) all of the minutiae of an individual’s day. Where is the line? Where do our own personal freedoms end and commercial and/or governmental freedoms begin? These issues should be at the forefront of a people-based GIS every bit as much as technology and deserves more than a mere passing mention in a scholarly article.
– JMonterey