<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Tim,</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">IMO:</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">A good analysis.</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
I've interpreted your argument to be: "GIS (spatial) is so successful
that everyone wants a piece of the action." </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Taking this further 'spatial' is now
taking over the (IT) world. This is a far cry from being dead.
;-)</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">wrt "walled in gardens", I
can understand why organisations want to protect their turf (and investment).
Even one of your 'open' examples, Google likes to play in its own world.
Consider how long it has taken for them to support WMS.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">It will take some time for some organisations
to appreciate that they could get benefit by allowing interoperability.
It will also require purchasing organisations to specify 'open standards'
as a pre-requisite in their tender specs before the message is really listened
to.</font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">wrt 'traditional' GIS. This is also
far from dead. It will be a long, long time before everything spatial can
be done in a browser. What it comes down to is to choose the appropriate
tool for the job.... and make sure that it doesn't tie up your data.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Bruce </font>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif"><br>
<br>
</font>
<br>
<br>
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<td width=40%><font size=1 face="sans-serif"><b>Tim Bowden <tim.bowden@westnet.com.au></b>
</font>
<br><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Sent by: aust-nz-bounces@lists.osgeo.org</font>
<p><font size=1 face="sans-serif">08/10/2007 11:14 PM</font>
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<div align=right><font size=1 face="sans-serif">To</font></div>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Aust-NZ OSGeo <Aust-NZ@lists.osgeo.org></font>
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<div align=right><font size=1 face="sans-serif">cc</font></div>
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<div align=right><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Subject</font></div>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">Re: [Aust-NZ] GIS is dead</font></table>
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<br><font size=2><tt><br>
On Mon, 2007-10-08 at 09:09 +1000, Bruce.Bannerman@dpi.vic.gov.au wrote:<br>
> <br>
> Tim, <br>
> <br>
> IMO: <br>
> <br>
> <br>
> In a world of climate change and water shortage issues just begging<br>
> for some good spatial/image/temporal analysis, I find it difficult
to<br>
> understand that 'GIS is Dead'. <br>
> <br>
<br>
Ok, so the GIS is dead claim is a little tongue in cheek, but only<br>
slightly. If we look at traditional GIS, we see a bunch of tools
that<br>
are designed for use by highly trained experts. We see vendors creating<br>
GIS ecosystems that are closed environments; "walled in gardens"
for<br>
want of a better expression, that try and limit interoperability with<br>
other vendors tools. We see a big disconnect between GIS systems
and<br>
general IT systems.<br>
<br>
Now compare that to what's happening in the wider spatial world. Google<br>
maps and similar offerings (for all the technical shortcomings of the<br>
various systems) have helped create a mindset change about how spatial<br>
data is being used. The big advances in integrating spatial data
into<br>
everyday IT systems mostly isn't coming from companies like ESRI. If<br>
you want to have a look at what's happening, you're better of turning to<br>
companies like Nokia, who are taking spatial data and integrating it<br>
into everyday systems.<br>
<br>
There are people doing "GIS" now who haven't even heard the term.
Think<br>
accountants doing spatial analysis on asset management systems,<br>
insurance brokers doing spatial risk analysis, transport managers using<br>
mapping capabilities build into their scheduling software. They don't<br>
know what GIS is, and they don't need to know. They just need the
tools<br>
that allow them to make use of the spatial data they have, and that's<br>
happening. Look at the spatial capabilities of python, java, perl
or<br>
whatever your favourite development environment is. All the standard<br>
"GIS" capabilities are available there. It's our responsibility
as<br>
"GIS" professionals to try and make these tools as "idiot
proof" as<br>
possible, and help guide people in the best use of them, but for good or<br>
ill, there are probably more people using them who don't know GIS than<br>
who do. There will increasingly be more spatial activity outside
the<br>
traditional GIS space than inside it.<br>
<br>
OK, so mostly it's not high end GIS analysis by any means, but that type<br>
of integration between spatial data and general IT systems is where most<br>
of the action is, rather than traditional GIS. In other words, we're<br>
seeing spatial become just another component of enterprise solutions.<br>
Traditional proprietary GIS vendors from what I've seen by and large<br>
haven't moved with the times (ok, I'm thinking of one vendor in<br>
particular here...). They're still pushing the "walled in garden"<br>
closed ecosystem, which doesn't make for a good enterprise spatial data<br>
management approach. Enterprise solutions need to be able to manipulate<br>
data using any number of tools, and have the data available in open<br>
accessible formats. Spatial data then becomes just another attribute
in<br>
bigger enterprise wide data sets, rather than being in a separate<br>
specialised system that only GIS experts can access.<br>
<br>
That's why traditional GIS is "dead". <br>
<br>
Sure, there will always be a need for specialist GIS services, but heavy<br>
analysis tools are increasingly going to be a smaller and smaller part<br>
of the spatially enabled enterprise solution set.<br>
<br>
<br>
Anyone want to chip in on this? If you think I'm wrong, I'd like
to<br>
know!<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Tim<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Aust-NZ mailing list<br>
Aust-NZ@lists.osgeo.org<br>
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/aust-nz<br>
</tt></font>
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