David Sonnen captures very well the current “State of the Nation” as far as the GI industry is concerned in his Directions Magazine article Spatial Information Management (SIM) – Then, Now, Next . I think David is right to see the disruptive effect of “big guys” on the established GI industry – funny to think of Microsoft as disruptive :-), and the move towards a mainstream SOA future for the industry.
But I think he may be missing the impact of what I would call the underground GI industry of google map hackers and the open geodata movement – here real innovation is happening. Look at how fast new datasets, OK of variable quality, appeared to track the progress of the Hurricane Katrina disaster – in some cases as the most up to date source of information.
Written and submitted from Cambridge, using a Starbucks T-Mobile 802.11 network.
One reply on “The State of the GI Nation”
Ed is right. A lot of big innovation is happening in the underground, way out of the establishment’s sight. As an industry analyst, I’m awed by the speed and spontanous results that the hacker community produces. Also as an industry analyst, I still trying to figure out how these results will change the geo-industry. But, change it they will.