Dr. Christopher Sutton, professor of geography at Western Illinois University, was the speaker at the ninth annual John Hallwas Liberal Arts Lecture. His talk was entitled, “Geography Matters! The Importance of Geographic Literacy in Liberal Arts Education.” During his talk, Sutton touched on the geospatial industry, noting that “It’s estimated that the geospatial job market right now is growing by 35 percent annually.” He also observed that, “We’ve crossed a threshold where geospatial technologies are no longer interesting, but essential. You need them to survive as a business, as a government, and, in many respects, across the spectrum.”
Read more: Geography still matters at lecture – Western Courier
Not having heard the entire lecture, it may be that the following comment to the published quote is out of context “We’ve crossed a threshold where geospatial technologies are no longer interesting, but essential. You need them to survive as a business, as a government, and, in many respects, across the spectrum.”
In my view GIS technologies are just now becoming absolutely facinating. Not only in a technical nuts and bolts sense, but also how people are applying them to facilitate their jobs. We create solutions using GIS technologies today that were completely unheard of and simply impossible only a decade ago!
I would agree that geospatial technologies, tools, and systems are now at a tipping point of being mainstream in many business sectors. I would however argue that uptake varies between sectors, and between organistations in sectors.
In my view, geospatial technologies are a core element of any business that asks the question ‘where’, and to this end, geospatial solutions can be enabled to support effective business decision making at all levels of a business.
I certainly expect the industry to expand in coming years as more business realise the potential of GIS to support, and enhance, business operations.