In government, this kind of tool can be really effective – especially for people who do inspections for large organizations. Getting reports that are time and location -stamped with GPS coordinates helps decision-makers get a big picture view of the services they manage. It’s a vast improvement over having to wade through mountains of spreadsheets.

The US National Weather Service is a good example of a service that uses the Freeance Mobile app with BlackBerry smartphones. They collect data on storms and tornadoes, for use by scientists, academics, insurance companies and the public. Storm damage can be spread out over many miles, and inspectors use to have to take manual GPS readings and write them down. Can you imagine having to hand-map those coordinates to get a real picture of the disaster area?

But with the Freeance Mobile app on their BlackBerry smartphones, all the data collected at a site is now automatically stamped with GPS coordinates and sent to the back-end database. Back at the US National Weather Service headquarters, this data is mapped so decision-makers can get a quick, easy-to-understand view of how a storm affected the surrounding area.

For Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI), collecting GIS information using a BlackBerry smartphone with the Freeance Mobile app is about efficiency. NSPI monitors the electrical grid for customers in Nova Scotia, Canada. This means that field service reps must travel long distances between power stations and lines and having to come back to an office at the end of the day to upload information was far too time consuming. So when they started using BlackBerry smartphones with the Freeance Mobile app to automatically report the data collected with GPS coordinates, their inspectors found that they saved travel time. NSPI also found it gained accurate information about the health of the power grid, so they could better predict outages and deploy crews.

For the Canadian City of Vaughan, GPS mapping with the BlackBerry smartphone and Freeance Mobile app is about delivering better customer service. The City of Vaughan sends inspectors to help ensure businesses – such as restaurants, stores and even taxis – are meeting local by-laws. With the Freeance Mobile app, they discovered that seeing dots mapped on a screen enabled them to understand trouble spots better than they could before. A series of inspection reports, mapped together, gave them a unique perspective on areas of the city that weren’t meeting by-laws. Knowing this helped them deal with the issues, often before the public complained.

What makes all these solutions impressive is the volume of information that can be presented on a map without excessive work on the part of the inspector. Since data is already being collected, these BlackBerry solutions show just how easy it is to get more value from the data coming from the field.

Does your organization use GPS-enabled BlackBerry devices? Do you have apps that take advantage of geographic context? Tell us how you’re integrating location into your mobile application strategy.

Police forces around the world have to keep up with technology – the bad guys certainly are! Law enforcement also has to ensure mobile solutions meet stringent security standards – ones that involve extra levels of authentication and encryption that prevent sensitive police records from unauthorized access. And policing is no more immune to budget restrictions than any other level of government, so cost-effectiveness has to be balanced with the real returns of making the mobile investment.

Let me share how accessing police databases while away from police cars is helping to revolutionize three police departments across Canada and the US: The Baltimore Police Department (Baltimore PD) in the US, and Chatham-Kent Police Services and Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) in Canada.

Police departments can leverage BlackBerry® smartphones to access police databases, helping to cost-effectively enhance frontline policing:

• Baltimore PD has 2,000 officers who use InterAct™ PocketCop on BlackBerry smartphones
• WRPS in Canada deployed 300 BlackBerry smartphones with MPANiche
• Chatham-Kent Police Services, also in Canada, built a custom application for 170 officers with their partner Mobile Innovations

What’s interesting about these apps is the obvious benefit of having critical police information in the officer’s hands versus having to go back to a computer in the police cruiser. This means an officer can verify if a suspect has a criminal record and if they match the mugshot. This allows greater efficiency and safety for officers in their daily work. And while we’re talking about safety, all three forces use built-in BlackBerry GPS technology to help pinpoint and map an officer’s location while away from vehicles – just in case they run into trouble while on foot.

Having a way to more securely access police databases like NCIC, MVA and CPIC from a BlackBerry smartphone is a huge improvement over in-car computers and radios – and it’s all done with the kind of security police forces demand. Chatham-Kent Police Services even uses an enhanced BlackBerry security tool like the BlackBerry® Smart Card Reader as well as SafeNet® Smart Card technology to enable multi-factor authentication, which means that the officer must confirm their identity through multiple sources before the information can be accessed.

In some cases, BlackBerry technology may even lower operational costs as compared to outfitting vehicles with hardwired laptops.

When it comes to public safety, BlackBerry is making an obvious impact – for the officers, for IT teams who need to ensure security, and for the communities the police are sworn to protect.

Have you seen a police officer use a BlackBerry smartphone on the job? Share your story.

We’re very excited to have Malcolm Gladwell back to BlackBerry World as a keynote speaker! Malcolm Gladwell is the author of four books, a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine since 1996 and was recently named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. I was lucky enough to be able to speak with him in advance of BlackBerry World – I hope you enjoy it!

Can you give us a hint as to what you’ll be addressing during your keynote at the BlackBerry World™ conference?

And ruin the surprise? No way.

Last December you spoke at Research In Motion® (RIM®)’s CIO summit, during which you discussed the difference between Puzzles and Mysteries. In light of advances in areas like business intelligence, data mining, and predictive analytics, not to mention the increasingly dense social graph, how do you see Information Technology helping organizations deal with puzzles, and more importantly, ‘mysteries’?

In that talk, I spoke about this distinction that Gregory Treverton – the defense analyst – has come up with between “puzzles”– problems that can be solved through the accumulation of extra information — and “mysteries”, problems that begin with an excess of information. We are really much more in a mystery world these days than a puzzle world. And the real test of modern analytics, I think, is whether they can help decisions simplify and prioritize the maze of data in front of them.

Recently in your article “The revolution will not be tweeted”, you somewhat infamously paint a less than glossy picture of social media – can you expand a bit on what value you see social media providing to individuals/organization/countries?

In that article I simply disputed the notion that social media is or can be a crucial factor in social revolutions–in aiding those who engage in high risk activism. Successful revolutions require a number of things that social media cannot provide – principally tight-knit trustworthy social networks, strategic direction, and disciplined behavior. But there are a whole host of things for which social media is beautifully positioned: like sharing ideas, coordinating mass, informal activities, and sponsoring “weak ties.” That article I wrote was considered controversial. I have no idea why.

Looking at your articles on the ’10,000 hours rule’, Genius vs. Precocity, etc., it seems that you place great value on ‘sweat equity’ and the long/slow road to success. The BlackBerry® solution has always focused on utility and helping users achieve more. What role do you see technology playing in helping people achieve — can I get away with less than 10,000 hours, or is it just a different way of spending those hours?

The great promise of technology, I think, is that it can so improve the efficiency of our learning that we can reach mastery in less time that it took those of previous generations. A great example is chess. Much of the 10,000 hours research was based on chess grandmasters: you simply couldn’t find someone who could reach the top tier of chess playing who had not first put in at least 10,000 hours (or ten years) of practice. Today, that’s not true anymore. There are lots of chess players who reach the top level more quickly than that. Why? Because kids can now play chess online–and find a steady diet of challenging players. And there is now chess software, which makes it possible to learn the game far more efficiently than before. I suspect that many fields will see a similar acceleration in learning in years to come.

You spoke at WES 2007 and WES 2009, and you’re back now for BlackBerry World 2011. What do you see as the major changes in the industry during this time?

Have I really spoken that many times? I feel old. Well obviously, the smartphone world has gotten far more competitive in the intervening years. But I still don’t think anyone can top the BlackBerry brand.

You must be on the road quite a bit with your various speaking engagements, other than your BlackBerry smartphone, what’s your ‘must have’ travel tool?

One of those high-end sleep masks. It’s amazing how much easier they make sleeping on a plane.

It seems that you’ve written on an incredibly diverse range of topics – where do you get your ideas and inspiration?

I’ll never tell!

Thanks for this great interview! Readers, you can check out Malcolm Gladwell for yourself when he speaks at BlackBerry World, so be sure to register today!

October is a key month for the education sector. Not only are students settling in to their first semester, but it’s also when the largest Education Industry show, EDUCAUSE, takes place. EDUCAUSE showcases the latest technologies in the education sector. As the Inside BlackBerry® for Business Blog’s Education Subject matter expert, I’m going to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about digital technology – and the role played by BlackBerry® smartphones – in the education sector.

Why do we need to embrace technology in this industry?

In a word: mobility. The use of smartphones with today’s students is growing at an astonishing rate. With so many students bringing this technology to the classroom, professors are beginning to embrace and use mobility to their advantage.

Cell phones and smartphones had been previously waved off as merely a distraction, and ‘no cell phone’ policies began to creep into many classrooms. This was understandable – when these devices were capable of only voice and texting. But now, smartphones have come a long way, and students are using the functionality to the full potential. Instead of asking students to power down, educators are beginning to embrace technology by speaking to youth in their native language – the digital language. Speaking to students in this language helps connect their learnings to practical use in the workforce – and that’s the goal: To prepare them for a career where they will most likely be handed a smartphone to use.

Why BlackBerry solutions in the classroom?

In the last couple of years I’ve seen firsthand how quickly students adapt to this ever-changing mobile environment. They crave new advancements and new ways to use these powerful devices. And after seeing an entire MBA program equipped with BlackBerry smartphones, the use of BlackBerry smartphones in the education sector seems endless. They provide a basic structure with access to email, calendars, and contacts; they allow access to course content; and the most innovative instant messaging platform – BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) – gives students and faculty the tools they needed to collaborate effectively and provide academic value on a mobile platform.

With the ability to access email, calendars, and contacts, students and faculty were able to stay organized, stay in touch, and have access to the information they needed, wherever they happened to be. Using the Chalk Pushcast Software, professors are able to push course content to students, track downloads and, based on the collected information, restructure their class-time to be more collaborative in nature by discussing the content and reviewing materials that students were lacking knowledge in.

The use of BBM has been by far the most impressive, especially when it comes to creating groups for each class, study groups, and even for an entire program. Students and professors can stay in touch, work on a group project from any location, share files and calendars, and send out notifications to the entire class. A simple message can provide everyone with the update they need and, due to the instant messaging format, students review the material more regularly than other formats.

Using these simple yet robust functions makes integrating technology into the learning experience second nature to everyone involved. And with the large variety of applications available, students and faculty have simplified access to information and tools they need in their academic lives – not to mention the hundreds of social networking, gaming, and personal apps. This includes campus life apps providing access to campus maps, news, and course calendars; mobile learning apps providing access to media-rich content and integration with learning management systems; and campus safety apps giving everyone peace of mind, just to name a few. The use of technology inside and outside of the classroom is expanding, and by providing a powerful and versatile platform that students take with them wherever they go, will shape the future of education.

Let me know how you use BlackBerry within the education sector, or if you have some interesting ideas on how it could be used with students and/or faculty.