[OSGeo-Discuss] Is GIS special?

Sun Apr 22 17:48:49 PDT 2018

Hi Patrick,

I fully agree on the importance of GIS for us to advance as a civilisation. GIS is a key educational tool for spatial thinking and global awareness.Spatial thinking and global awareness are fundamental to helping us find solutions for the climate change tsunami that is approaching . The innovative solutions to help mitigate climate change will need to come from the collective wisdom of everyone. It will be the students of today (from  Africa to Uruguay) who will help us find the answers to these climate change challenges and unless we provide opportunities for all students globally  to get quality education opportunities, we will not progress . Digital technologies provide great hope and opportunities for providing quality education  opportunities for all , so it is important artificial barriers like high cost properitery licences should not be used to build digital divides.

Students who learn to share their knowledge and  outputs for the benefit of the global good will learn to contribute to Open Principles in education for the future… It will then help spreading the importance of kindness and sharing values to help create a world that is more accessible, equitable and full of innovation and opportunities for everyone.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________
From: Hogan, Patrick (ARC-PX) <patrick.hogan at nasa.gov>
Sent: 22 April 2018 19:27
To: Suchith Anand; discuss at lists.osgeo.org; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: RE: Is GIS special?

Suchith,

We are newcomers to this planet, one of the youngest species here, less than 200k years old. And it took 3.5 billion to arrive at this sentient place. And where are we? That is the question that GIS helps us to answer. GIS not only helps us to see and better understand where we are, it is essential for us to manage the place.

Just like the old joke about mathematics. . .GIS is a core element for us to advance as a civilization. And maximum access to those tools and data are essential if homo sapiens wish to be more than a flash in the pan. That is GeoForAll.

[https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/purity.png]

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/purity.png

Maximum Education for all, is the most key element to advancing ourselves, no child is less than any other child, GeoForAll.

Then there is GIS of the body which allows us to see all of its parts and how they work in harmony. There is GIS of evolution, showing spatially how life evolved on Earth, how tectonics and plants together built the chemistry of today’s biosphere. We live in a 4D world and GIS reflects that.

GeoForAll advances open access to information, spatial and more. GeoForAll is essential if we are to live together, all of us.

-Patrick

From: GeoForAll [mailto:geoforall-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Suchith Anand
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2018 3:38 AM
To: discuss at lists.osgeo.org; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: [Geo4All] Is GIS special?

Dear colleagues,

Some years ago one of the Nottingham University staff asked me a question when we were talking that I still remember “Is GIS special if everyone becomes GIS Professional? “ I was bit taken back by the question esp. as it came from an educator and I replied “There is nothing special about GIS if it is for few rich people only but if it the learning opportunities for GIS are made available for everyone it is truly special ... “.

I was very lucky to get the opportunity to learn GIS. I still remember the struggles  I faced to just get access to learning GIS  (over two decades back!)  as very few universities had GIS that time in India. I spend nearly two years going around different universities and places knocking so many doors to just to get access to GIS . My dream that time was to get opportunity to do my final year undergraduate project using GIS. Unfortunately in spite of all my best efforts I failed that time . But that experiences made me realise years later when I did get opportunity to learn GIS that now I need to everything in my abilities to keep the doors of GIS education open to all and no student anywhere should go through what I went through.

When GeoForAll was started , I faced lot of ridicule and opposition from some but I also got lot and lot of amazing support and help from so many amazing colleagues at Nottingham and globally. Thanks to all our amazing colleagues, we have truly made GIS education opportunities open to all. Please share our resources with all https://www.osgeo.org/foundation-news/please-share-geoforall-teaching-research-resources-colleagues-students/

I am requesting all colleagues to keep the doors of education opportunities  open for all. For me, Openness is not just about open source or open data … It is about the Open mindsets  to help make education opportunities inclusive to students from  all economic and social backgrounds. So  “Is GIS special? “  I leave it to you to decide…

Best wishes,

Suchith

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