Penn State's GIS lab helps uncover mysteries from the ancient world
I think I might print this out and hand it out around the my office. Not so much that they can see what Penn State's GIS lab is up to, but to show how modern GIS actually works. Take this quote:
"Originally, researchers used GIS for very simple tasks: recording site locations and coordinates much like they would on a normal map."
This is one of the biggest misconceptions that I deal with as a GIS professional. People often think I use the software like it is a paper map. I do not, I use the software to analyze. I do not determine what is inside or outside a specific location using a visual inspection, I use analysis tools to geometrically determine it. It is true that early GIS software was just a digital version of what people normally did by hand, but these days GIS does so much more. Add some creativity and every day tasks take seconds and high end research is suddenly at your fingertips.
Domino's Pizza gets customer specific using geospatial analytics
If Domino's can do it, anyone can. Dialing in your understanding of your client/customer/research/resource, will inevitably lead to increased efficiency and success. It might be true that people like Ford made a populace think they needed a product, but that comes along far more infrequently than people would like to think. This is where innovation and creativity comes into play for the rest of us. If you are not pushing forward on the next methods or technology you are already behind. Successful companies/researchers understand this and will integrate with the times instead of insisting that things should always be 'as they were.'
What impact will Google’s new mapping phone have on our digital realities?
I am quickly finding out that I am in fact a Google fanboy. I do not try to be and I fully recognize that they might be the first company to obtain corporate sovereignty. You have to admit though that they can focus their fan base like no other. Their push for crowd developed mapping is terrific. It is a lot like Wikipedia. Wrong in so many areas, but so much involvement and interactivity is bound to provide some real information.
And SDKs! I am strongly behind any technology that provides a software development kit. Getting it in the hands of hungry and talented people is kind of how the U.S. got where it is...or was really. The time is now more than ever to learn how to exercise these technologies.