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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: GISList: Manifold 5.x vs. ArcGIS 8.x |
| Date: |
01/31/2003 10:07:09 AM |
| From: |
Jamie Snow |
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Bill's post below is exactly what I was taking from
the 'comparison' on Manifold's marketing site. I do
know the person who wrote the original comparison, so
that is what prompted my post. It was not a flame on
the person himself ... just a question of his ability
to adequately compare many GIS applications, with his
few years experience. Although anyone can compare
software, I thought that if a company is using this
comparison as a marketing blurb, it should be from a
more experienced user.
Dmitri's statement of "Every truly experienced GIS
person reading this list understands it is a far from
trivial matter to learn how to operate in detail any
one of these products, let alone to achieve a working
mastery of three of them". I couldn't agree more.
That is why I was questioning how much weight a
comparison of products would carry from someone with
less than a few years industry experience.
Then again, I guess I'm also questioning a company who
would use this as a principal marketing piece.
I too am sick of hearing from this unnamed company who
continues to use this list as their primary marketing
source.
And to use, IMHO, a poor comparison, written by a
relative new comer to the industry as one of their
main sources of competitive marketing tells me more
and more about the company itself.
Flame away…
Jamie
--- Quantitative Decisions <whuber@quantdec.com>
wrote: > At 08:10 AM 1/29/2003 -0800, Dimitri Rotow
wrote:
> >You would get more credibiilty for your two cents
> if you addressed the
> >substance of his post instead of engaging in
> character assassination.
> >...
> >This particular individual may have graduated
> recently, but nonetheless has
> >an immense amount of technical skill far and away
> above the "ground floor of
> >GIS" and great familiarity with the most recent
> editions of flagship
> >products from ESRI, AutoDesk and Manifold.
>
> There was a point to be made here. In GIS, there is
> practically no such
> thing as an "objective" review. How we evaluate
> software depends strongly
> on what we like to do with it and on our skills with
> it. Your reviewer was
> clear about that. That he was sensitive to the
> issue is clear from his
> opening statements which describe his work with GIS
> and the software he
> knows. Kudos to him.
>
> Thus, one always wants to know something about the
> perspective and
> background of a GIS software reviewer. That's not
> an ad-hominem
> attack. It's a part of critical thinking.
>
> In this case, your reviewer clearly admits only a
> passing familiarity with
> some of the software, ArcView in particular:
>
> "I have access to AutoCAD Map 5, ESRI ArcView 3.2a
> and ESRI ArcInfo 8.1."
> [We all know the difference between "having access"
> and "great
> familiarity," don't we? When you walk into a
> library you "have access" to
> hundreds of thousands of books, but how many of you
> are so "greatly
> familiar" with English literature that you could
> hold your own in a
> discussion of references to industrial development
> in nineteenth century
> novels, for example?]
>
> "I should also note that I am not a programmer,
> although I have been know
> to do some scripting and VB database front ends:
> therefore I will not
> comment on any scripting etc.." [That is the
> standard code for someone to
> say that they are only a casual user of these
> products.]
>
> What this says is that we are hearing from someone
> who has adopted Manifold
> for daily tasks but has only a passing, perhaps
> superficial, familiarity
> with the ESRI products. Fair enough, but that has
> to be kept in perspective.
>
> >...
> >Now, if you personally have configured
> sophisticated web sites and have done
> >other high-end work with the very latest products
> from these vendors,
> >perhaps you could contribute some specific comments
>
> I trust you did not intend this to be a
> comprehensive description of what
> "real" GIS professionals do!
>
> I feel rather well qualified to contribute specific
> comments, despite never
> having configured a sophisticated Web site (mine is
> anything but that, and
> many people seem to appreciate it that way). You
> can readily check me
> out on the Web: it should be clear my background and
> interests in GIS are
> broad and deep, but especially focused in using GIS
> to do interesting
> things: perform analyses, answer questions,
> manipulate data. It will also
> be clear I can speak to the capabilities of some of
> the ESRI softwar
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