3 replies to this topic

[Robert2009]

I have a question for you all.

In the old days, GIS was consider for Geographers to create maps, spatial study, etc...Now I am seeing many different jobs that are starting to steal GIS to apply their work. I was wondering why and what can we do to stop it ?

For example, a soil science would work on spatial analysis to apply with the soil work while there is GIS person in the
same office just sits and provide the data for them to use it.


Please advice ?

[François Goulet]

I don't think anyone could "steal" GIS... For me, more users = better! (doing occasional consulting work, they're clients so...). That means our field is growing and eventually, that could mean more job for us! (BTW, I don't know if there's other Cartotalkers in the Laurentides (in Quebec), but we bought our first house in that region and I'm looking for a new job )

We see more and more easy-to-use GIS specifically for those who aren't specialized in the field. So as long as there's software designed for them, they will use it (why shouldn't they?).

Maybe that person (the one who's sitting) should just show the others how much better and faster he would be for the job (and what more he could do) instead of being "just" a technician preparing data (and there's nothing wrong with data structuration since data structure is really important for working with them)...

My 2 cents...

[Hans van der Maarel]

I have a question for you all.

In the old days, GIS was consider for Geographers to create maps, spatial study, etc...Now I am seeing many different jobs that are starting to steal GIS to apply their work. I was wondering why and what can we do to stop it ?

For example, a soil science would work on spatial analysis to apply with the soil work while there is GIS person in the
same office just sits and provide the data for them to use it.


Please advice ?

I don't think we can, or even should, stop it. To continue on your example, if the soil scientist has GIS tools at his disposal, he will be able to do a lot of the work himself. IMHO, this makes sense. Since it's his field of work, he will be able to determine whether or not the results are good. The role of the GIS person would be to support him in doing this. I.e. being there to help out with any tricky analisys, give information about data quality and accuracy issues etc.

I seem to recall we've had similar discussions before about GIS and cartography ("should GIS people be allowed to make maps?")

[Gretchen Peterson]

There's always the debate over whether GIS is a tool or a science. (Personally, I like the term "geospatial analyst" more than "GIS.") If it is a tool then most people should be able to use it to help their respective job. If it is a science then people who practice it need to have a solid foundation of the fundamentals, at the minimum. So which is it? I would argue that it is what you make it to be. As in, both. We need people who know geospatial science but we also can derive a huge benefit from non-GIS people who apply it to their work. I can think of several clients who I really wish I could just install a GIS on their machine, load it with data, and let them at least click things off and on and zoom in, and explore the data interactively. I think it would help them out tremendously.