About the founder

Built by a field mapper, for field mappers.

My name is Michael McDermott. I have more than 12 years of GIS and remote sensing experience and more than 8 years of in-the-field archaeology experience. I built Ology because I kept running into the same problem: the people doing archaeology, biology, geology, and environmental fieldwork need more than a simple map app.

Why Ology exists

Over the years I have made archaeological maps, biological maps, report figures, field maps, lidar visualizations, terrain models, site records, environmental layers, and offline field packages. I have also tried many of the available mapping apps and field collection tools.

Each app had something useful, but none of them felt like the complete field tool needed by the “ology” world: archaeology, biology, geology, and the related GIS and remote sensing work that supports those fields.

The field problem

  • One app for map viewing, another for GPS, another for photos, another for forms, another for lidar, and another for export.
  • Offline maps that are hard to prepare or do not include the right reference layers.
  • Field observations that lose scientific context once they become simple points on a map.
  • Terrain and lidar data that are powerful in the office but difficult to use in the field.
  • Sensitive archaeological data that need careful handling and better field review workflows.

The Ology approach

Connected tools for fieldwork and the office.

Ology now includes Recon for bids, research, and office review; the iPhone field app for offline survey and recording; and Intelligence for the long-term records and GIS master. The tools share deliberate, reviewable file handoffs.

GIS

Recon

Combine project boundaries, available records, terrain, access, crew logistics, and report maps before the fieldwork starts.

ARC

Ology on iPhone

Carry offline maps, transects, terrain views, site forms, photographs, and the complete survey record into the field.

BIO

Intelligence

Bring approved records and GIS into one master, keep their sources visible, check quality, and return usable outputs to future projects.

Mission

Make the entire field workflow easier to review.

Ology grew from the need to carry good project context into the field and bring complete evidence back. Archaeology is the most developed end-to-end workflow; the field app also includes tools for biology, geology, GIS, and LiDAR work.

See the archaeology workflow Explore the field app