Sean Gillies Blog

"Thanks to somebody in the world, ... not any expert at all in formal terms, just an expert, just one of those real experts, that is to say, a human being thinking clearly and carefully about something of importance."

Eben Moglen @ Holland Open Software Conference 2006 (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Keynote_about_GPL3_at_HOSC_2006)

Experts aren't always where we think they are.

GIS is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. Old Testament, real wrath-of-God type stuff.

No, it's just going to fizzle out and become another desktop publishing application... :)

I just hope no one misses me. If so, feel free to paste my pic on a milk carton with the GeoVisualization blog.

Only a small percentage of GIS professionals actually have GIS certification. What matters more than formal certification is experience and fundamental knowledge. I've run across far too many people who claim to "do GIS" and don't know what a datum or projection is, don't understand the difference between vector and raster data models, aren't aware of scale issues, cartographic conventions, classification methods, etc...

I bring this up not to say that amateur mappers should have to pass some minimal knowledge test in order to create maps .. heck create as many maps as you'd like. I plot my favorite bike rides on google maps with very little regard for the "professional" quality of the data simply because I like to see where I've ridden. Hobby maps are fun!

But when it comes to critical applications (eg GIS data that may need to be defended in a court of law, published in a research paper, etc), you'd better believe that I expect a minimal level of competency in the people involved in the software and data used in my analysis. I don't need to see formal credentials, just some reassurance that those involved in the process have the background knowledge that is crucial for creating high-quality geospatial data and apps.