I went to my son’s first-grade class today to observe as part of their Columbus Day open house. During math, they were doing patterns, e.g. finish this pattern: 0, 6, 12, __, __. The kids seemed to get it, with most of them quickly filling in the blanks. Then she asked what the “pattern rule” was. The pattern rule? The kids had no idea what she meant. She explained it was the language used in an upcoming standard test – language for what the kids would do to move from one number to another in the sequence - +6 in the above example. “You know the math,” she said. “But you need to be able to describe it too, using the language of the test to describe what you do.”

This got me thinking. Do geographers and GIS practitioners use the language of business when describing what they do? Can a business person understand the value of geographic information if they don’t know at least the basics of the “language”? As with the math problem, it’s great to solve the problem, but can you explain what you did in a way most others can understand? I believe there is a gap between the technicians and their customers in business. Yet, it’s a two-way street. Those familiar with the problems and technologies used must convey what they can do and what they have done. Likewise, non-technical people need to try and learn the basic concepts involved with GIS and spatial thinking.