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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | RE: [gislist] Do GIS Professionals Have A "Professional Association?" |
| Date: |
01/08/2004 01:50:02 PM |
| From: |
RICK GRAY |
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Wow. It worked! I threw in my 2 cents earlier because I felt the list
was a little too quiet. Nothing like a bit of controversy to get
everyone talking.
Before I get into the meat of this email, I'd like to say that Bill
Medina hit the nail on the head with his last email when he commented
that this list is helpful. It is my experience that GIS folk, like no
other group I have dealt with, are an exceptionally friendly and sharing
community. I would go as far as saying "family". Every family has it's
black sheep - this one is no different. But for the most part I am proud
to brag about the helpfulness of the folks on this and other GIS lists.
I was introduced to GIS in 1991 when I went back to university after 20
years "in the real world" and have been hooked ever since. I focused my
undergraduate courses around GIS. I used GIS as the principle tool in my
Master's degree. I followed up with the intense GIS certificate offered
at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Ontario - a college with a fantastic
reputation in the GIS industry. I have been "doing GIS" for many years
now.
One of the challenges in this whole certification process, as I see it,
has been alluded to by many. Other than a very generic definition - GIS
means very different things to very many people. My title is GIS
Specialist at my place of employment. That's exactly what I am. But I
specialize in a small subset of the GIS potential. (In my first lecture
of the Intro GIS course I teach, I tell the students the whole black
board is the world of GIS, I draw a square at one end and tell them this
is the part I feel competent in, then draw a little tiny box in one
corner of that and tell them this is what we will cover in the next
semester!)
A couple of undergrad degrees in GIS (one with a science focus, the
other in social sciences), an engineering degree, a computer programming
degree, a couple of Masters degrees in different disciplines, and at
least one PhD in GIS, combined with some community college GIS
certificates to give you the hands on experience you need to go with the
theory, then a few years in the work force, might make you well
qualified to call yourself a GIS Expert. Or a GIS "professional". If
you haven't got all that, then your "expertise" is definitely going to
be limited. You will always find someone who can poke holes in your
knowledge base because they have done GIS related work in an area you
don't know much about.
Each of us knows where our own expertise lays. Some of us know a little
bit about a lot. Some of us know a lot about a little. (Only a few
intellectually blessed souls know a lot about a lot.)
We have many kinds of engineers in the world. Some are electrical
engineers, some are mechanical, some are computing and systems
engineers. These folks have one thing in common - the iron ring. They
may not have much of a clue about the other's field - but they are all
engineering professionals (when they pay their membership dues).
To say that all GIS folks need to pass elaborate exams covering the
whole "blackboard" of topics in order to qualify for certification is
ludicrous, not to mention impossible. I believe that a certification
process is valuable, but for all the reasons that have been discussed so
far, it either has to be quite generic or impossibly complex. As I
said in my earlier email, the process of deciding who is qualified to be
certified will improve as the process matures. You've got to start
somewhere.
Condemning the process because it is unwieldily is a bit like saying
finding a cure for cancer is too complex, so we shouldn't bother. In my
opinion (for what it's worth) our energies, if we think it is important,
should be spent trying to devise a way to make our chosen "profession"
into a Profession.
In the meantime, I'd better get back to work.
Rick Gray
GIS Specialist, Ontario Weather Network
http://www.ownweb.ca
GIS Instructor
Ridgetown College, University of Guelph
http://www.ridgetowncollege.com/
Tel. 519-674-1554
E-mail: rgray@ridgetownc.uoguelph.ca
Ridgetown: -81.883 W, 42.450 N
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