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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | Re: GISList: What to do? Internet or database. |
| Date: |
08/22/2001 12:17:24 AM |
| From: |
Brian Rusch |
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Very erudite of you to say that. There are many that will agree, however
there will always be a need for a geographic adapatation better or different
then what is currently in place, and geography itself is a science, unlike
data management. So while there might be Graphical Interface Systems as a
common GIS, I don't think it will wholly replace Geographical Information
Systems for quite a long while. After all there is a changing and evolving
world to map.
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Graeme Brooke" <gbrooke@shortech.com.au>
To: <gislist@geocomm.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2001 7:29 AM
Subject: RE: GISList: What to do? Internet or database.
> Extraordinary advice from Joseph Toland.
>
> I would like to add that that GIS is not an end in itself but a means to
an
> end.
>
> And now to digress - a note that might not gather popular approval - It is
> my opinion that it is quite probable that GIS may well "disappear" in the
> not too distant future as an art and science: consumed by the mainstream
> "applications". Mapping, spatial awareness and database technologies are,
> unfortunately, not enough to define a discipline. Every mainstream
> profession has aspects of these "requirements" in their own agenda for
> professional services. In my opinion what will happen (and what is
> happening) is that the "GIS aspects" will be consumed into EVERY
profession
> and that the acronym GIS may well disappear from the job postings as a
> profession and will reappear as a requirement in the academic requirements
> for these professions.
> Thoughts? ...
>
>
> Graeme Brooke
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Toland, Joseph [mailto:Joseph.Toland@fema.gov\
> Sent: Saturday, 18 August 2001 3:38 AM
> To: gislist@geocomm.com
> Subject: RE: GISList: What to do? Internet or database.
>
>
> My advice: In my experience, I have seen such a wide range of GIS
> backgrounds - from the bright high school graduate who falls into a GIS
> niche to the Post-Doctoral GIS professional working with famous
scientists.
> My advice is thus: GIS stands as the moderator and quantifier of almost
all
> fields of natural science and can not only serve as the communication
medium
> for these science but can bring together quantitative information in new
and
> insightful ways. The GIS community can be broken down into a number of
> segments - its use in the scientific community, sponsored by institutional
> and governmental interests, and its use in the business community through
> private investment. Many of the historically proficient users are located
> within the first category because of the learning curve and
> geostatistical/scientific knowledge necessary to run or apply some of the
> older programs (arc 7.x: erdas) which required a lot of technical
> proficiency, even for entry-level positions. As the interfaces have
become
> less command line driven, and more visually oriented, this has opened the
> door to users who may not have been willing or able to invest the time and
> energy in learning the more sophisticated platforms. And yet this new
turn
> in the industry does not affect the initial reasons for the development of
> GIS and the community of users who worked with the more sophisticated
> platforms. If anything, these newer platforms allow seasoned GIS
> professionals the opportunity to address even more sophisticated problems,
> in light of the optimization that the newer platforms can have for spatial
> analysis, and operations. Being a mathematician, I am sure you can
> appreciate the elegance. As far as education goes, I like the old maxim
> "there's never a free lunch", or in other words, you get what you pay for.
> If you go through a fast track program, your prospects are going to be
more
> tenuous than if you devoted a few years to getting a MS or Graduate
> Certification from a good 4-year school. Also, the business community is
> generally more unstable then the Institution/scientific or governmental.
In
> my opinion, and I have tried not to be too biased on the side of the
> scientific community, but I think the cool kids are using GIS and science
> together to explore and understand the world in new ways which are only
now
> possible with platforms like GIS. So, with your background in
Mathematics,
> I would hate to neglect to mention how close a leap from your background
to
> the sciences and GIS would be. I guess I just think that developing GIS
> based models for the Mars pathfinder mission would be an order of
magnitude
> cooler than predicting marketing indicators or something. Well, Good
luck.
>
>
>
> To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@geocomm.com
> __________________
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