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| Subject: | Re: [gislist] FW: GIS Certification |
| Date: |
01/15/2004 09:00:02 AM |
| From: |
GISex* Technologies |
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GIS certification will help in long run some sort of standered will comeout and ISO type certification will clasify many GIS companies as on today all are GIS companies segmentataions and specailisation may be natural process of technology inherent quality.
Al Butler <jabutlerjr@worldnet.att.net> wrote:As an early member of the URISA Certification Committee and its successor
organization (GIS Certification Institute), I am always interested in the
perceptions and comments of others regarding the program. As a member of
this geocomm listserver, I have seen mail headings that ask such questions
as whether GIS has a professional association and others that suggest a
group of GIS-related persons is motivated by the acquisition of power or
some other sinister motive. (I only slightly hesitate to suggest that the
typical GIS user is a bit liberal politically and generally suspicious of
organizations.)
Each of us on the committee (now board) has his or her own motive for
participation. Believe it not, several of us joined because we thought it
was a bad idea to have yet another GIS-related certification program.
(There are presently two others, ASPRS and IAAO.) Personally, I was
motivated by my having one of those other GIS certifications (ASPRS mapping
scientist), which is test based and (apparently) very hard to get since
there are fewer than 50 of us. My concern was that the two programs would
overlap and make my existing credential less useful. Ultimately, the GISCI
program slotted in at a lower skill level than the one issued by ASPRS, with
the IAAO program being aligned to a property mapping specialization. The
new GIS Technician certification from ASPRS is somewhat below the GISCI
certification, although there is a bit of overlap since you can get the
GISCI a few years after qualifying for the ASPRS Technician certificate.
There are many things wrong with the GISCI program. The intent is not to
have a perfect program. The intent is to get something out there that can
be massaged over time to be better. Should we have a test? Absolutely.
Does anyone have a clue how to construct such a test today? Hell no. The
analogy I often use is that GIS is a tool to do something in a specialized
field of endeavor. Trying to test someone on GIS technical skills without
placing the test within the context of that specialized field won't work.
It's like trying to certify people who use hammers. How a carpenter uses
hammers is very different from how a blacksmith or an auto body repairman
might use one. You can't test auto body guys on how well they can drive a
nail since they don't do that, nor can you test carpenters on fender
reshaping. And try to develop a GIS test that doesn't use software, since
we should be testing GIS knowledge, not technical software skills. (Not
everyone uses ArcView, you know.)
The only level playing field approach is a theoretical one dealing with
projections, topology, scale, etc., and even that is outside the box of what
most people do with GIS today. How can you test map making abilities
without getting someone to make a map? And how can someone make a map in a
standard, testable way? Some might even debate, as the GISCI group did just
this week, that map making, per se, is not a GIS exercise without certain
other elements, such as analysis. What separates someone making maps in
AutoCAD from someone making maps in ArcView? Does the nature of the process
determine whether it is GIS or something else?
The bottom line was that we were left with two conflicting requirements. We
had to have a GIS certification program to address certain practical needs
(which we can debate separately) but could not devise a
platform/field-neutral test on which to base one. As a result, we decided
to use a proxy based on education (you successfully completed courses, which
shows you had to learn something) and had someone pay you money for many
years of GIS work (which shows you have some practical skills). The test is
conducted on the job, so to speak. The contributions to the profession
stuff is in there to show that you are giving something back to the
profession, which is sort of another test (they won't let you give
presentations if you are an idiot).
If you think GIS certification is a bad idea, don't participate. Maybe it
will just go away. But, IMHO, I don't see that it hurts anything to have
the option with a program we can adjust to be better as we get experience
with its operation and how it is perceived by the GIS community.
I look forward to a continuing discussion. Thanks for listening.
Al Butler
505 East Esther Street
Orlando, Florida 32806
(407)376-3258 cell
jabutlerjr@att.net
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