Off topic: Wikimapia

I heard a little blurb about Wikimapia on NPR’s All Things Considered on Dec. 28. Atanas Entchev blogged about Wikimapia last May when it first came out. It’s a site that lets you enter “stuff about places.” When I reflected about the site’s name, I had to chuckle a little bit. The word “geography” derives from the Latin words that mean “describe the earth,” which is exactly what this site is about. But I guess a site titled “geography” wouldn’t really fly in this age of cool-e-names. (Besides, geography.com, .net and .org are already taken…)

Should GIS folks study surveying?

The January issue of Professional Surveyor (I used work for the company that publishes it) includes an article by Robert Schultz on Geomatics Undergraduate Recruitment. One paragraph gave me pause:

The gender issue in geomatics needs to be addressed because the area is dominated by male practictioners. Many women who are college graduates of geography schools are entering the field through their training in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), but they lack the field data knowledge they need to become licensed professional surveyors.

Now geomatics is a term that I’m still fuzzy on, so I looked it up. Says wikipedia:

Geomatics is the discipline of gathering, storing, processing, and delivering of geographic information. This broad term applies both to science and technology, and integrates the following more specific disciplines and technologies:
geodesy
surveying
mapping
positioning
geomatics engineering
navigation
cartography
remote sensing
photogrammetry
geographic information systems
Global Positioning System
Geospatial

I wonder if men getting into geomatics via GIS also lack field data knowledge? Is surveying mentioned in today’s geography/GIS curricula? Should it be?

I think it’s also worth noting that surveyors are working hard to work with GIS practitioners (see for example the extensive coverage of GIS in surveying magazines). While there is some outreach from GIS practioners to surveyors (ESRI’s ArcGIS Survey product and annual Summit connected to the User Conference) I’ll offer that surveyors for now see more to gain connecting to GIS than the other way round. I’m not saying that’s accurate, but they seem far more motivated.