The guest speaker Wade Larson introduced UrtheCast Corp. and its upcoming launching today. UrtheCast Corp. is a Vancouver-based technology company, which will provide users with free high-resolution videos and imageries of Earth from the space. Recently, the company’s High-Resolution Camera has passed its first Acceptance Test and it has been to be shipped to S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation in Russia for further testing and improvements.
According to Mr. Larson, the company will have a competitive advantage in the business field since it will be the only company in the world, which provides near-live HD videos and images of Earth from the space. The images captured by the camera not only will show the environment of the earth, social events and agricultural lands etc. to registered users, but also can be used by businesses and governments for the purpose of forecasting the future. However, I think there are risks of doing this since those forward-looking information provided by Urthecast are subject to a variety of uncertainties and risks, many of which are beyond its ability to control and anticipate. And there might also be potential invasion of people’s privacy in some degrees.
Photo Credit:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/rae13/files/2012/11/urthecast-earth-in-hd.jpg
I agree with UrtheCast having a strong competitive advantage in this industry since it is the first of its kind to date. It has a very different and unique value proposition that appeals to multiple audiences from the common Earth or nature watcher, to software developers and government agencies. There is a great flexibility and versatility in the service provided that does come with potential threats, as you have mentioned. In addition to the invasion of privacy, there may be cases of misuse of such footage and information which may lead to countless complications.
Hi Clarisa, thanks for replying to my post. I think you are totally right, and to add on, another issue that UrtheCast management team need to consider is how to capture all the important events since there are many uncertainties of when and where things are going to happen 🙂