software

Introducing our new service, “OASIS: Software Solutions for Climate Change Problems”

2022-07-31 by Deploy_Admin

The world needs software solutions for Climate Change problems.

In 2019 we set out to investigate if there is a need for a solution that gives citizens personalized help preparing for and recovering from climate change impacts and lets trusted authorities assist them and report on their results.

As part of this effort, a great deal of market and technical research was conducted over the last few years. Over 140 students have been involved so far, in dozens of academic institutions in Canada and internationally.

Our greatest finding is the willingness of citizens to take responsibility and use climate change impact platform to help themselves, their neighbors and community plan for, mitigate and recover from climate change disasters. We also confirmed that software solutions can be built to help.

Software can help respond to climate change issues - but the world needs a better way to build it.

Climate change software applications pose unique challenges that aren't always encountered in other areas. Climate change is causing impacts and disasters to occur more frequently, with little or no warning, and with increased danger and complexity. Each impact or disaster is unique and responding to it places complex burdens on individuals, communities, and authorities.

Custom software development is needed to meet the unique needs of each situation and it must be built in a way that is most useful to affected people and communities. But, building software from scratch is traditionally complex, time-consuming, expensive, and has a high failure rate.

A new software development approach is needed, that addresses the issues and challenges raised by climate change.

While there are many ways to build software, when you follow a standard approach, using common tools, resources, patterns and practices, you achieve better and more consistent results. This approach is called a "software methodology".

We believe solutions for climate change impacts are at their best when they are Open; Accelerated; in agreement with the latest Science (as stated by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change); Insightful; and meet SMART goals and objectives.

This is OASIS methodology!

Sharing Knowledge and Technology

But a software methodology without working software, or one that nobody uses, is completely useless.

So, we are currently building a working technology prototype to accelerate the creation of climate change solutions and demonstrate how this methodology works. It shows how software can address and help overcome common communication and other barriers that prevent individual and communities from preparing for, responding to, and recovering from climate change impacts and disasters.

Now we'd like to share our knowledge and progress with you.

Learn how software can help respond to climate change impacts.

Our free OASIS newsletter will hit your inboxes every Tuesday. As a sign up gift, we'll provide you our detailed 42-page report, "Why Won't People Act on Climate Change?" (read the excerpt, below). Become an OASIS+ subscriber for a monthly or annual fee, and unlock access to private webinars, premium resources and content, while directly supporting our ongoing R&D work.

Why Won't People Act On Climate Change? (An excerpt from our initial research report) from Deploy Software Solutions ("Deploy Solutions")

GeoIgnite 2021: Deploy Solutions Unveil New Citizen-Focused Climate Change Software Prototype

2021-07-01 by Nicholas Kellett

Deploy Solutions Founder & CEO, Nicholas Kellett presented the results of a multi-year research and development project alongside a demo of their brand new Climate Change Prototype at this year’s GeoIgnite — Canada’s National Geospatial & Location Technology Conference.

Following a careful review of the concerns surrounding climate change in Canada, Deploy Solutions steered their focus to the issues “on the ground”, drawing a conclusion that by resolving the gaps in communication between citizens and authorities, there would be a significant impact in curing the fallout, mitigating damage and getting people from a place of danger to safety at the time of crisis.

By means of identifying the specific problems facing Canadian citizens, Deploy Solutions undertook extensive primary research by interviewing several hundreds of citizens, NGOs, scientists and government officials to identify the top perceived climate change related communication problems.

The three problems identified were:

Citizens feel overwhelmed
Authorities have difficulty collaborating and sharing information with citizens
Citizens receive information that is not personalized

After establishing the key problems in communication, Deploy Solutions were then able to work towards identifying potential solutions.

Using information gathered from citizens who have experienced a flood, Deploy Solutions developed a new prototype which Founder Nick Kellett unveiled at the GeoIgnite workshop “Using Software to Prepare for Climate Change Impacts and Natural Disaster: Deep Dive on our Research Findings and Software Prototype”. Using space data and AI to help overcome barriers to misinformation, Deploy Solution’s Climate Change Impact Planner offers easy to use and practical guidance which enables life-saving information to be presented in a timely manner to help protect citizens before, during and after hazardous events.

After successfully exploring the climate change research project prototype at GeoIgnite, Deploy Solutions intend to communicate their message to a wider audience, offering their software solution to make the planet safer for citizens around the world.

Want to learn more about Deploy Solution, our “software factory”, and our climate change work? Watch our 2-minute overview below:

Space Apps in Canada: 2020 and Beyond

2020-12-19 by Deploy_Admin

As a proud Canadian and lifelong space enthusiast, Deploy Solutions Founder Nick Kellett recently took the opportunity to present at the Canadian Space Society’s Annual Space Summit — Canada’s foremost space science, research and technology conference.

Nick’s presentation, “Space Apps in Canada: 2020 and Beyond”, gave conference attendees an overview of Space Apps hackathons, annual events which unlock the potential of space data by bringing together the innovation and creativity of passionate creators, coders, thinkers and tinkerers.

Space Apps — software applications which make use of data from space — have been growing in popularity since NASA’s first Space Apps hackathon in 2012. Local versions of the international NASA hackathon have sprung up over the years and Deploy Solutions has been instrumental as an organizer and sponsor of the annual Ottawa event.

Planned Space Apps hackathons —like so much this year— were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the unique challenges of the pandemic also presented unique opportunities to make use of space data, and a consortium of space agencies hosted an online COVID-19 Space Apps Challenge. NASA, ESA, JAXA, and CSA joined forces to host a virtual hackathon with about 15,000 participants in 150 countries taking part.

As well as the COVID-19 special edition, this year’s ‘’regular’ Space Apps Hackathon migrated online. The event organizers —NASA, ESA, JAXA, CSA and CNES— hosted a virtual hackathon in October for 26 000 participants in 150 countries — with 341 participants in Canada. This worldwide collection of participants created 2300 projects between them, addressing a range of creative and technical challenges.

Despite the challenges of hosting an online event, the Canadian version 2020 Space Apps Hackathon was a resounding success. As well as bringing together like-minded space hackers, the event also offered an opportunity to take stock and plan for future hackathons. For example, the online event lowered barriers to entry, helping to make this year’s event more diverse. Another welcome development was the first nationwide sponsorship of the event by pioneer national sponsor MDA.

As well as the successes of the virtual Space Apps Hackathon, the online setting posed some challenges. Despite synchronous and asynchronous communications channels, it was still difficult to connect with all participants. The “one-time event” structure of the Space Apps Hackathon is also challenging, with little support for ongoing processes and follow-up after events. And, even with online access lowering barriers to entry, the events still struggle with diversity and inclusion.

In his presentation, Nick Kellett addresses these questions and proposes a way for the Canadian Space Society to provide pivotal support for Canada’s Space Apps hackathons. By coordinating at a Canada-wide level, Nick argues for an annual event which promotes diversity, innovation, and STEAM skills while benefiting Canada’s space industry and the country as a whole.

Want to see the full video? You can check out Nick’s presentation below:

GeoIgnite 2020: New Horizons in Space Apps Development

2020-11-30 by Deploy_Admin

We are proud to have participated in GeoIgnite2020, the first-ever virtual version of the Canadian national Geospatial event, to showcase Deploy Solutions’ strategic importance to the future of the Space sector.

Last July, during the two sessions held, our Founder and CEO Nick Kellett talked about the benefits and potential of space apps, the business problems and technical challenges they can solve and how organizations can leverage them to achieve commercial success.

Nick began his talk delineating the emerging trends in the space industry, more specifically in the satellite launch and Earth observation markets, and continued acknowledging the rising tide of space data, as well as the urgency to meet the needs of end-users by providing value added service, rather than just raw data.

Nick also discussed the emergence of space apps hackathons – events where participants form teams to collaboratively tackle various challenges by designing solutions using open source data.

Space Apps and the Software Factory Approach

With the scene set, Nick introduced the concept of “space apps“, software applications that use data from space to achieve business goals and objectives. He compared them to traditional software applications, emphasizing the need for data processing pipeline, report visualization and good supporting infrastructure elements.

Nick concluded his talk by talking about the various challenges with custom development and how Deploy Solutions is tackling these with its Space Apps Software Factory approach – designed to rapidly produce turn-key business applications using Earth Observation and other data sources to meet business needs and put space data in the hands of end-users.

Our unique and proven software factory approach can help satellite data providers, governments, GIS developers and ISVs unlocking the true potential of space data.

Want to learn more? Watch the full presentation below:

“New Horizons in Space Apps Development” by GoGeomatics Canada on YouTube