A couple of recent blog discussions reminded me of an age-old controversy around computers. Computers automate tasks and allow wider information access, making it easier for more people to do more things with more information. The computer tools continue to improve as more data goes online, thereby accelerating this ongoing trend. Clearly, this has changed [...]

With the popularity of online maps, personal navigation devices (PNDs), and GIS we can easily forget that it all started on paper. We can forget the trials and tribulations of those who made early geographic discoveries, those who labored to produce early maps. In a world of instant information about where we are, many of [...]

Has it really gotten this bad? Apparently so, laments Susan Jacoby in her opinion piece in The Washington Post this past Sunday, “The Dumbing Of America: Call Me a Snob, but Really, We’re a Nation of Dunces.”
She argues the U.S. has become anti-intellectual, using evidence such as decreased reading amongst the young and “the [...]

John Adams, the 2nd president of the U.S. and one of the first proponents of independence, knew the importance of geography. I recently finished the biography John Adams by David McCullough. While he didn’t leave his home state of Massachusetts from the time her was born in Braintree until he was an adult, Adams’ travels [...]

Agile GIS? Many would assert that’s a contradiction of terms. Not to Chris Spagnuolo, with whom I recently talked, and the leading evangelist for agile GIS. Chris is a manager at Data Transfer Solutions (DTS), a growing geospatial services spinout from Space Imaging, with headquarters in Orlando, Florida. Chris and some Ft. Collins cohorts, including [...]