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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | GISList: NPR, CNN, Iraq & the elusive "GIS" |
| Date: |
04/03/2003 03:25:00 PM |
| From: |
Anthony Quartararo |
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Just listened to an NPR report on the media's use of various
graphic-intensive tools to illustrate the ongoing war in Iraq. It was a
nice piece, Keyhole's CEO had a few blurbs, and DigitalGlobe got a few plugs
too. I've seen the new coverage and the celebrity anchors and talking heads
use the "John Madden War Telestrator" tools (aka. Earthviewer with Digital
Globe). Not once though, did Keyhole's CEO or even the NPR commentator
mention "GIS", "spatial information", "geography" or even the ambiguous
"location-based services". My first reaction is one of yet another
opportunity lost to plant the "GIS flag" firmly in the public's view, but
after a few minutes of reflection, I can't seem to make the case for why
this is truly a "lost opportunity". The public is well aware, now at least,
of the ability and tools available to bring information (the good, the bad
and the ugly) right into their own homes in near real-time. Keyhole's CEO
admitted that they had never really anticipated Earthviewer.com would be
used in the way the TV media has for this war (hindsight on this would
scream "why not..."), and so the Keyhole engineers have been swamped with
trying to keep up with traffic generated by coverage on TV. It's good for
business, as the claim of subscription's doubling in the last 2 weeks is no
doubt good for business, it is also good for the industry, and further
solidifies growing evidence that GIS is mainstream. If going mainstream
means that "GIS" loses it's relative identity, that may be a small price to
pay for realizing the full potential of a global market. Food for thought.
Anthony
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