At the risk of being in the minority on this issue, I think the days of GIS
professionals having "command of the powers" of spatial analysis, as an
exclusive club, are long gone and the genie can never be put back in the
bottle. Is that a great thing, well, not necessarily for true-blue
geographers, however, it is a long, sought-after validation of the
profession. The general acceptance and mainstreaming of the technology, in
whole or in parts, is something that should be applauded as "about damn
time", and not cause dedicated professionals to retreat to the highest
points of the ivory tower.
"Is the GIS world becoming too complex ?" Hardly...
"GIS" is not, nor has it ever been the exclusive domain for so called
"environmental" applications, and the fact that "GIS" technology is finding
new and ever creative and innovative applications in domains other than
"environmentally warm and fuzzy" fields, is of tremendous value to the
industry, the profession and the overall growth and advancement of the
technology.
What would you have "GIS" do, remove itself from everything except watershed
analysis, habitat conservation studies, etc ? Is GoogleEarth that much of a
threat ?
The market "gets a vote", and if there is no value in a particular service
or product offering that using GIS technology, count on the market to
determine whether or not that product/service has a short life span or not.
The fact that there are still GIS professionals, foresters, wildlife
biologist, business demographers, analysts, developers, researchers and
academics involved, ever day in GIS theory, practice and innovation is both
cause and effect, that is, proof that we are still needed, and still
important to our own universe and the greater universe at large, regardless
of what your business card reads.
Anthony
-----Original Message-----
From: gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com
[mailto:gislist-bounces@lists.geocomm.com] On Behalf Of Fiona Gregory
Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 10:54 PM
To: gislist@lists.geocomm.com
Subject: [gislist] What is happening to GIS?
Internet map servers...
..spatial database engines..
..object oriented programming..
and all most end users really want to do is map our data. And maybe do a
little spatial analysis. Like we learned that GIS was supposed to be for,
way back in our first Intro to GIS class, except we never did get to
analysis part, because we spend the whole course trying to figure out why
the program kept hanging. Then when we got menus instead of command lines,
we thought the age of "GIS for everyone" was dawning. And now...
Am I crazy, or is the GIS world getting way too complex? Deeper and deeper
into the rarefied domain of the information technologist, and further from
the grasp of the forester, wildlife biologist, land use planner, who are the
ones who should be - and want to be- in command of the powers of spatial
analysis and mapping in support of better environmental management
strategies.
Are the huge expenditures of time, money, and professional expertise on
"enterprise GIS" these days really reaching and helping these people, or
more importantly, are they really the best use of the scarce resources in
the strained budgets of government agencies, non-profit groups, natural
resource companies?
I believe in the value of GIS, but I'm not sure I believe in most instances
of how I see GIS being used, and where the GIS resources are going, in
organizations that I have observed in my 10 years in the GIS/natural
resources field.
Have I struck a chord with anyone? Do you agree, or am I wrong, and can you
explain why?
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