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| Subject: | RE: GISList: NPR, CNN, Iraq & the elusive "GIS" |
| Date: |
04/04/2003 07:45:00 AM |
| From: |
Richard Hoskins |
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Totally right-on comment. When I show up at community meetings with cool maps and statistical models of why the such and such death rate near a toxic waste site is higher than elsewhere, I sort of have my feelings hurt because the community passes right over the technology, GIS, computation, and statistical effort that it took to produce the results.
Then I remind myself that is exactly why we are using the technology in the first place, that is, so citizens and policy makers can focus on the problem and not on some arcane process outside their scope and interest. When technology becomes transparent - we have done our job.=20
Richard E. Hoskins WA State Dept of Health
-----Original Message----- From: Michael Gould [mailto:gould@lsi.uji.es]=20 Sent: Friday, April 04, 2003 5:27 AM To: gislist@geocomm.com Subject: Re: GISList: NPR, CNN, Iraq & the elusive "GIS"
Anthony seems surprised that people on the street i.e. the press, do not
talk about GIS.
This seems strange to some of us deeply embedded in the GIS field, but in=20 the end "normal" people care about results, not the technologies behind the=20 scenes. I can imagine that experts in tire rubber compounds are amazed that=20 Formula-1 commentators only talk about speed, positions, how much drivers=20 get paid, etc. and do not focus enough on how well a certain tire seems to=20 be adhering :-)
Earthviewer lets people see Bagdad. They don't care how many GISs it took=20 to produce each view or which SUN server is driving the web site.
Just an observation. cheers Mike Gould sig below
At 16:22 03/04/2003 -0500, Anthony Quartararo wrote: >Just listened to an NPR report on the media's use of various=20 >graphic-intensive tools to illustrate the ongoing war in Iraq. It was=20 >a nice piece, Keyhole's CEO had a few blurbs, and DigitalGlobe got a=20 >few plugs too. I've seen the new coverage and the celebrity anchors=20 >and talking heads use the "John Madden War Telestrator" tools (aka.=20 >Earthviewer with Digital Globe). Not once though, did Keyhole's CEO or
>even the NPR commentator mention "GIS", "spatial information",=20 >"geography" or even the ambiguous "location-based services". My first=20 >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=20 >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=20 >available to bring information (the good, the bad and the ugly) right=20 >into their own homes in near real-time. Keyhole's CEO admitted that=20 >they had never really anticipated Earthviewer.com would be used in the=20 >way the TV media has for this war (hindsight on this would scream "why=20 >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=20 >business, as the claim of subscription's doubling in the last 2 weeks=20 >is no doubt good for business, it is also good for the industry, and=20 >further solidifies growing evidence that GIS is mainstream. If going=20 >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 > > > > >To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@geocomm.com=20 >_______________________________________________________________________ >_ >GeoCommunity GeoBids - less than $1 per day! >Get Access to the latest GIS & Geospatial Industry RFPs and bids >http://www.geobids.com > >Online Archive of GISList (and numerous others) available at:=20 >http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/community/lists/ > >Setup a GeoCommunity Account and have access to >the GISDataDepot DRG & DOQQ Catalog http://www.geocomm.com/login.php
---- Michael Gould Depto. Lenguajes y Sistemas Inform=E1ticos (Information Systems Department) Universitat Jaume I E-12071 Castell=F3n (Spain) mailto:gould@lsi.uji.es http://www.mgould.com Vespucci summer school http://www.vespucci.org
To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@geocomm.com ________________________________________________________________________ GeoCommunity GeoBids - less than $1 per day! Get Access to the latest GIS & Geospatial Industry RFPs and bids http://www.geobids.com
Online Archive of GISList (and numerous others) available at: http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/community/lists/
Setup a GeoCommunity Account and have access to=20 the GISDataDepot DRG & DOQQ Catalog http://www.geocomm.com/login.php
To unsubscribe, write to gislist-unsubscribe@ge
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