"I looked at the road yesterday afternoon. I had to drop the car into second gear. The GPS indicated the grade was over 20 percent. I went to Google Earth, and it showed the grade to Turnberry Place was 20 percent and the overall grade was 15 percent. "

- Putman County Commissioner Gene Mullins, in discussing a road the county would not accpet into its road system because it's too steep, quoted in the Herald-Citizen (Tennessee)

Brad Workman who has led Bentley's architecture practice for many years is taking a new chair at his alma mater, the Twenty-First Century Chair in Communications Technology in Construction at the University of Arkansas. He'll divide his time between the school and Bentley. Workman is a native Arkansan, something I didn't know, though he was a colleague when I worked at the company. Much of his work at the school will focus on integrated practice, including I suspect BIM and even GIS. Recall that Arkansas is strong in that arena, too.

Is this as good model for education? Is there a conflict of interest? Should we look at this sort of role for practicing GIS professionals including those working for vendors? (Disclosure: I ask this even as I get involved in a teaching capacity at my alma mater.)