[Aust-NZ] GIS is dead

[Tim Bowden]

On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 11:49 +1000, Bruce.Bannerman at dpi.vic.gov.au wrote:
> 
> Tim, 
> 
> 
> IMO: 
> 
> A good analysis. 
> 
> I've interpreted your argument to be: "GIS (spatial) is so successful
> that everyone wants a piece of the action." 

I can only surmise as to _how_ the transition from distinct GIS to
integrated spatial IT has happened, but as a one sentence summary that's
probably as good as you'll get.

> 
> Taking this further 'spatial' is now taking over the (IT) world. This
> is a far cry from being dead.     ;-) 
> 

Spatial is very much alive.  It's the traditional GIS business model
that's "dead", if we stretch things sufficiently.  It's also a good way
of stimulating conversation and development of ideas.  ;-)

> 
> 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. 

True, though we are at least moving in the right direction.

> 
> 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. 

Ah yes, balancing long term interests with short term expediencies.
Always a difficult road.

> 
> 
> 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. 
> 

Have you seen the latest integration between open layers and mapguide?
Very impressive editing stuff is being done in a browser environment
now, though I do take your point that the heavy GIS type lifting will by
and large be confined to powerful desktop environments for the medium
term at least.

As you say, the trick though is to make sure your data isn't tied up.
That requires that we examine our tools from the viewpoints of GIS
software as data manipulation tools _and_ data storage tools.  It's the
latter that we get trapped with.

> Bruce 
> 
> 

Regards,
Tim Bowden