Comments on: GIS is Dead – Long Live GIS

By: _Blank_ Is Dead | FalseNorthing

_Blank_ Is Dead | FalseNorthing — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:38:33 +0000

[...] are so many blogs and websites declaring the death of this, or that. (PCs, Macs, Silverlight, GIS, Privacy, Google+, MySpace, SEO, Poerty, Facebook, As400 …) It’s like they want to be [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:25:38 +0000

“In no way is GIS a dying field.”

Yeah, it is growing like crazy in India. India must now be ESRIs number one customer. That is, if they are using legal software and not hacked copies.
The GIS field is dead or dying here in the U.S. I have never seen it so bad in my 23 years in the GIS industry. Pick a job that can’t be sent through a wire or learn to speak Hindu. I cannot recommend a GIS job to get into or a degree in.

Crazy times we are living in!

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:59:13 +0000

All the people that I know that are left working in GIS are in government jobs with the Feds and Cities. They are now worried that they are going to get let go from their easy and great benefit jobs in the next two years if Obama gets thrown out. VERY few private GIS jobs left for U.S. workers. The private sector pretty much offshored every GIS job they could back in the early 2000s.

Outsourcing now has killed off ALL growth of GIS job market in the U.S. First, it is an easy job to outsource because it deals with data and not people. For example, city planning jobs deal with people in city government and their community. GIS jobs follow a simple spec that any Tom, Dick, or Apu can do. Second, GIS is fairly easy to figure out. If jobs are going to be cut back the GIS people will get the axe first. The people in planning and other departments can do their GIS work or it will be outsourced. GIS workers and their departments usually fall under these larger departments which will absorb the GIS department in really bad times. And as we all know, it is REALLY bad job times. And if the Republicans win big in 2012 there probably will not be any government GIS left. They will have us using eche-a-sketches to do GIS work.

People need to step way back and look at where things are headed with GIS. I see more personal tablet and smart phone GIS apps and less large GIS project work.
I think the monopoly that ESRI has is dying due to the insane amount of money they still charge for the software. Government can no longer shell out $11,000+ for a full ESRI ArcMap license. The gouging the government days are over with big overpriced software contracts. They don’t have the money to pay for highend software anymore! There are free GIS packages out there that work really well like QGIS that can replace a lot of the low end ESRI Arcview licences. I would learn to use as many of these new GIS software packages, since some city and county governments may soon be forced to use them. Also, if Google decides to add free GIS related tools to Google Earth, it will be another nail in good paying GIS jobs and ESRI software.
As I have told many, it is better to just minor in GIS and learn as many GIS software packages as possible. Things are changing so fast and going more to a personal user level and the cloud.

By: GIS已死，GIS长存 | 温和的力量

GIS已死，GIS长存 | 温和的力量 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 05:13:19 +0000

[...] GIS is Dead – Long Live GIS — Don Meltz’s Blog [...]

By: Don

Don — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:29:50 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Brian. I like your analysis of the state of the GIS profession, and generally agree with your division of it into two roles. I will, however, note a couple of things from my perspective.
1- I prefer “GIS User” rather than “GIS Technician”. The use of the word technician implies a limited role of the GIS user in his/her respective main profession. The word user (for me, anyway) implies a role that is incorporated more fully into a larger profession.
This actually leads to my second note:
2- I do not agree that ALL GIS Users are ” …relegated to the mundane day-to-day data management and routine map production tasks…”. Granted, I have met many users that fit this description perfectly. However, as the GIS profession evolves and grows, more organizations are recognizing GIS is an integral part of their respective professions. They are incorporating GIS directly into their workflows instead of relegating it to a separate department.
I am very lucky to have clients that recognize this. My expertise with GIS is usually what gets my foot in the door, but my planning background is also viewed as valuable.

By: Brian M

Brian M — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:58:06 +0000

While I agree that the GIS profession as a whole is not dying, but rather evolving, it is the way in which it is evolving (or may have already evolved) that is of concern.

The role of Senior GIS Analyst, or any related title, is seriously threatened by changes in the education system. Knowledge that was once confered only in multi-year programs at a limited number of institutions, is now available as a 15 hour certificate in most major universities, and even as an online continuing education certificate for high school graduates and other professionals at many. The principal theories and analytical processes that have protected the role of the Senior GIS Analyst are now available for the low low price of a few hours and a few hundred dollars.

Engineers, Landscape Architects, Urban Planners, Transportation Planners, Environmental Scientists – they now have the ability to log on to a certain GIS software company website, and register for any one of a wide variety of GIS training programs designed to instruct the masses – exactly as said GIS software company intended. Couple this with the aforementioned GIS continuing education certificate, and these professionals are now armed with enough basic knowledge to be relevant in the field of GIS. And contrary to what we all want to admit, they’re doing it! What these professionals have, that the straight-up GIS professional does not, is the additional knowledge of their primary career. Not only does an urban planner know how to perform a particular spatial analysis, but he/she knows WHY. Senior GIS Analysts can not claim this.

Thus, we are left with two clear roles in GIS:

-The GIS technician, who, by design or lack of professional opportunity, has not developed any programming skills. These sorts are relegated to the mondane day-to-day data management and routine map production tasks that (1) others don’t want, and (2) probably isn’t what drew them to the field of GIS in the first place. The result is rampant job dissatisfaction and high turn-over.

- The Developer – I purposefully left “GIS” out of the title. The Developer now is someone who, like the Analyst, chose an entirely different career path and has now supplemented their original knowledge with that required to program GIS. This is no different that how developers have kept up with the rapidly evolving development world, so it is foolish to assume GIS is too much for them to learn. Anyone who can learn C++, Java, Javascript, .NET, PHP, ASP, and how to develop in a variety of APIs, can learn ArcObjects, which ever platform flavor. Developers may also be someone who began in GIS, but these types are having to invest an increasing amount of time and effort in development training to acquire all the necessary knowlege on that side. But I haven’t even discussed the rising threat of offshoring development positions!

So, IMO, if you’re in GIS and don’t plan to acquire additional training outside GIS, be prepared for a career of menial work.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:14:49 +0000

So what I’ve gathered is that GIS is too complicated for most people to learn so there’s no future in it. Interesting. Maybe understanding GIS is difficult because everybody thinks they already know what it is. Yes, it IS a bunch of different things and yes, there ARE other ways to implement individual aspects of GIS through other avenues. However, GIS is not ArcMap, it is not GeoMedia, it is not GRASS or another software program; it is an entirely distinct and free-standing discipline that has been unable to be fully accepted as an extremely useful and powerful tool because…everyone obviously knows what it is…except that it’s too complicated to understand unless you’ve been doing it for long enough and have had extensive training…? I don’t understand the details of nuclear physics, so it’s obviously useless.

There were mathematicians before there was an abacus, there was a slide rule before there were calculators, there were calculators before there were supercomputers able to process mathematical problems and concepts no human could ever do in a lifetime. These computers process enough data in an hour to make someone’s head explode. On this train of thought, computers, or programmers/technicians etc. will no longer exist because we have computers.

See where this doesn’t track?

By: trekker007

trekker007 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:26:03 +0000

In no way is GIS a dying field. I work in Global Census and every govt office is strapped in terms of GIS expertise. I think people that do not understand GIS (unfortunately often statisticians) tend to say it is dying. Ive been in the field for 15 years.

BTW…I can do any calculation SAS SPSS can do using GIS.

My 2 cents

By: Reports of the Death of GIS are Greatly Exagerated « Spatial Explorations

Reports of the Death of GIS are Greatly Exagerated « Spatial Explorations — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:54:19 +0000

[...] [...]

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:20:03 +0000

I cant say i agree that GIS is a dying profession but more a profession that continues to develop as do all professions.

I recall my job 15 years ago to my job now and how much being a GIS professional has changed in those times. I recall using GIS when there wasnt a GUI interface… my how times have changed.

Just because the tools of a profession are seen to be becomming simpler and facets of GIS are being incorporated into daily lives doesnt mean a profession is dying, nor does it mean that one shouldnt pursue a future with it. Tools of almost all trades develop, become simpler and make their way into the public arena but there will always be a need for those who really know what they are doing. Any one can make a map but that doesnt mean your working in GIS it just means you have the basic skills to use some of the tools GIS professionals use.

Very interesting to hear different points of view. A great discussion.