At this point in time in the immature development of geospatial technology, just a mere 40-year old, Jack Dangermond and Dr. Roger Tomlinson are remarkably paired forever in history. Rare that you have both the recognized "father" of anything alongside the individual that is arguably to biggest success story in any particular industry. Hence the two are inextricably joined in the annuls of technology history.

"I admit it, I got the lady pregnant," said Tomlinson, at the Senior Executive Summit (SES), an event just prior to the ESRI UC, in referring to the oft made comment that he is the "father" of GIS. "But Jack brought up the kid," Tomlinson further remarked referring to Dangermond's success in promoting geospatial technology through ESRI's products and services.

Dangermond's comments during the SES focused on applications and the widespread use of geotechnology. "GIS is beginning to wire up our sensors so that we see processes in real time...the common operating picture (COP) is not unique to homeland security. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a COP for any agency," said Dangermond. He also discussed how IT professionals are beginning to integrate GIS into the wider IT infrastructure. "Roger, do you have an IT system in your consulting business," asked Dangermond. “We use an abacus,” said Tomlinson, not missing a beat.

Dangermond and Tomlinson aren't quite that old, perhaps "slide-rule" age, but each can remember when GIS was in its infancy and each has helped nurture it to middle age.

Speaking at the ESRI UC Senior Executive Summit in San Diego, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, announced that the 35 years of archived Landsat data will be made available over the web free to the public by the end of the year. The EROS Data Center (EDC) of the USGS will be the lead center to implement this initiative. Though not mentioned specifically, it's likely that some of the data may be released through EDC's EarthExplorer portal that was a pilot project begun last year for Landsat 7 data.


Listen to my interview with Secretary Kempthorne and USGS Director Mark Myers regarding the announcement of the Landsat data and a follow up questions I asked regarding the USGS's roll in providing policy-makers information about the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and offshore drilling.

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