Postgraduate Course: Business Geographics (PGGE11210)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Growing utilisation of spatial information in the commercial and governmental domains is moving GIScience outside its longer-established and more traditional roles in cartography, facilities management etc. This course introduces participants to different types of corporate structure and to the use of GISystems and GIScience in business, government and third-sector organisations.
We examine the purpose and structure of companies, internal/external service provider models, business ethics, processes and professionalism, GIS consultancy and the role of the adviser. The course concludes with a discussion of current issues surrounding Big Data, open data, open source software, legal frameworks and opportunities for company formation and growth.
The Business Geographics course comprises these core activities:
- A series of lectures and workshops on key topics.
- Role-playing exercises and writing designed to hone professionally relevant skills.
- The AGI/EEO professional seminar series which students should attend. |
| Course description |
1. The what, why and how of business: What is a company? Does it have to be a company? How to set up a company? Fundamentals of Business Geographics: Space and Time. Atomic and aggregate analysis. Data, Software, Consultancy.
2. Data and projects: Census. BARB/ISBA. Postal Geography. Administrative Geography. Profiling. Market Research. Target Group Index. Business mapping. Walk-through of past, relevant projects.
3. Software and development: Databases, Systems and Software development. CenSys bespoke mapping and profiling system. Software design methodologies. Walk through of past, relevant software development projects.
4. GIS in Business: Ethics and professionalism. Client confidentiality. Data and process value. Products or services?
Example applications / use cases: Who is using GIS? Maps everywhere. Future employability.
5. Issues of the moment and future opportunities: Desktop, Web and Mobile applications. Spatial SQL. Open Data. Open Source software. Virtualisation. Big Data. Social Media. Sensor data. Software/Platform as a Service. Cloud computing.
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2019/20, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 16 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
78 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Individual write-up: Car Manufacturer Advertising Tender (30%)
Due Monday week 3
Software development project plan and presentation: Geodemographic/GIS analysis system (30%)
Due Monday week 4
Practical Exercise Social Media Data Analysis Exercise (40%)
Due Friday week 6
|
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand typical UK private sector Company structures, ownership and governance characteristics and be able to set up a new business (Limited Company) or partnership (LLP) understanding rules and reporting responsibilities.
- Consider different models of shareholder ownership and professional responsibilities within business (and analogies within government/third-sector) through group work and to consider how and why ethics and professionalism are important whether as an internal or external GIS Expert or Consultant.
- Understand the value of different types of geographic information in various settings and consider ways to exploit its use and to be able to project plan a number of scenarios involving open source, public sector and other types of geographic information
- Encompass future possibilities for use/analysis of geographic information as it gets bigger, potentially more open and certainly more pervasive
- develop communication, management and interactive skills (including argument!) making use of alternate organisational structures, pricing models or service delivery.
|
Reading List
Bahir, E., & Peled, A. (2013). Identifying and Tracking Major Events Using Geo-Social Networks. Social Science Computer Review, 31(4), 458-470. doi:10.1177/0894439313483689
Boyd, D., & Crawford, K. (2012). Critical Questions for Big Data. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), 662-679. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878
Church, R. L., & Murray, A. T. (2009). Business site selection, location analysis, and GIS. Wiley Online Library.
Companies House. (2013). Incorporation and names. Retrieved from http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/pdf/gp1.pdf
Cottrill, C. D. (2011). Location Privacy: Who Protects? URISA Journal-Urban and Regional ..., 23(2), 49-59. Retrieved from http://ares.lids.mit.edu/fm/papers/Cottrill.URISA.pdf
Crampton, J. W., Graham, M., Poorthuis, A., Shelton, T., Wilson, M. W., & Zook, M. (2013). Beyond the geotag: situating 'big data' and leveraging the potential of the geoweb. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 40(2), 130-139. doi:10.1080/15230406.2013.777137
Credit Suisse. (2013). Big Data Taking a quantum leap. Retrieved from http://globalinvestor.credit-suisse.com/FlashApi/AssetDataView/ff5c4615-129e-417c-88c9-e8fb8ac5c422
De Souza e Silva, A. (2013). Location-aware mobile technologies: Historical, social and spatial approaches. Mobile Media & Communication, 1(1), 116-121. doi:10.1177/2050157912459492
Dommett, K., & Temple, L. (2018). Digital Campaigning: The Rise of Facebook and Satellite Campaigns. Parliamentary Affairs, 71(suppl_1), 189¿202. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsx056
Douglas, B. (2008). Achieving Business Success with GIS.
Chichester, England: Wiley.
Drakonakis, K., Ilia, P., Ioannidis, S., & Polakis, J. (2019). Please Forget Where I Was Last Summer: The Privacy Risks of Public Location (Meta)Data. ArXiv. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.00897
Fuchs, C. (2017). Social Media: A Critical Introduction (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications. Retrieved from https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/social-media/book250870
George Washington University Libraries. (2016). Social Feed Manager. Zenodo. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.597278
Haklay, M. (Muki). (2013). Neogeography and the delusion of democratisation. Environment and Planning A, 45(1), 55-69. doi:10.1068/a45184
JISC. (2012). The Value and Benefit of Text Mining to UK Further and Higher Education. Digital Infrastructure. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/jisc-textm
Jones, B. (2014). Communicating Data with Tableau. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Koopman, C. (2019). Information before information theory: The politics of data beyond the perspective of communication. New Media & Society, 146144481882030. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818820300
Leventhal, B. (2016). Geodemographics for marketers: Using location analysis for research and marketing. Kogan Page Publishers.
Longley, P. A., & Clarke, G. (1995). GIS for Business and Service Planning. Wiley.
Manyika, J., Chui, M., Brown, B., Bughin, J., Dobbs, R., Roxburgh, C., & Hung Byers, A. (2011). Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/big_data_the_next_frontier_for_innovation
McKee, H. A. (2011). Policy Matters Now and in the Future: Net Neutrality, Corporate Data Mining, and Government Surveillance. Computers and Composition, 28(4), 276-291. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2011.09.001
Muhammad, S. S., Dey, B. L., & Weerakkody, V. (2018). Analysis of Factors that Influence Customers¿ Willingness to Leave Big Data Digital Footprints on Social Media: A Systematic Review of
Literature. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), 559¿576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-017-9802-y
Public Accounts Committee. (2008). Report on Use of Consultants. Belfast: Information Office, Northern Ireland Assembly,info.office@niasembly.gov.uk. Retrieved from http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/public/2007mandate/reports/report16_07_08r.htm
Rogers, R. (2012). Mapping and the Politics of Web Space. Theory, Culture & Society, 29(4-5), 193-219. doi:10.1177/0263276412450926
Scott, J., 2013. Social network analysis Third., Los Angeles, Calif. ; London: SAGE.
Tufekci, Z. (2014). Big Questions for Social Media Big Data: Representativeness, Validity and Other Methodological Pitfalls. ICWSM ¿14: Proceedings of the 8th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, 505¿514. Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.7400
Warf, B., & Sui, D. (2010). From GIS to neogeography: ontological implications and theories of truth. Annals of GIS, 16(4), 197-209. doi:10.1080/19475683.2010.539985
Webber, R., 2008. Geodemographics, London: Henry Stewart Talks.
Wilken, R. (2012). Locative media: From specialized preoccupation to mainstream fascination. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 18(3), 243-247. doi:10.1177/1354856512444375
Wyly, E. (2014). The new quantitative revolution. Dialogues in Human Geography, 4(1), 26¿38. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614525732 |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Business processes,finance,tendering,contracts,professionalism,business ethics,consultancy,la |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Bruce Gittings
Tel: (0131 6)50 2558
Email: Bruce@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Heather Penman
Tel: (0131 6)50
Email: heather.penman@ed.ac.uk |
|
|
University Homepage