A reader commented on our
podcast about $100/barrel oil regarding an aging workforce in the oil patch that he called "The Big Crew" change. Workers 50+ years and older, i.e. the baby boomers are about to depart a seat by the rigs for a seat at their retirement ranches. At the same time, the reader mentioned resurgence in the use of remote sensing as onshore exploration of oil sands and shale also makes economic sense. We've noted in the past that we have lost a generation of geospatial professionals, remote sensing scientists and photo interpretation specialists. So now, with both demand increasing in the exploration business as well as other burgeoning sectors such as intelligence, we are facing a resource crunch. We are simply not training enough geospatial technologists and more concerning is that it appears that so much of the technology applications being developed are going toward fluff apps and mashups in social networking and other location-based services. It's causes me to ask, "Where's the beef?"
I would urge our educators to consider updating their listing in our
Schools and Library section to support the ability of those looking for good information about educational opportunities and for those looking to hire to use our
Career Center to update their job listings.
From my professional perspective, I spent two years working as a GIS operator in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia ('The Goldfields') - from 1996 to 1998 - I enjoyed the job immensely because I was working with such rich and diverse datasets, utilising cutting-edge technology (at the time) for purposes of gold exploration - one of my most satisfying job experiences and one that I can recommend to anyone wanting to enter this sector
Cheers,
Wayne Tinlin,
Business Director,
GeoBiz,
Hanoi,
Vietnam
The "fluff" is here, either because the market has determined that there is a need for it (ie the fluff makes money) or investors have speculated that there may be need for it (the fluff might make money).
Obviously education is crucial and without needed skills the geospatial industry will grind to a halt. But to suggest that the whole industry is dammed because the young generation are too busy watching MTV and making mashups is crazy. These are the people who have brought KML, GeoRSS, OpenStreetMap, GeoCommons, OpenLayers, Facebook and so on. How many of these applications do you think are currently being used by "burgeoning sectors such as intelligence"? Well both GeoCommons and OpenLayers are products of parent companies with strong links to the intelligence services. Need I mention Facebook? Are those same intelligence services using GeoRSS, KML and OpenStreetMap? Probably.
There is enough information available to people choosing education today. People are able to choose whether they want to start another social networking site or become another imagery analyst. This is a good thing. It reflects a market-place in which people are increasingly aware of their value. If people are choosing to work in the "fluff" sector rather than the "serious" sector, its because they place higher value in their chosen career than they do in the career paths that you suggest.
I beleive that markets are always perfect and if locaiton-based social networking is what the market demands than there is intrinsic value in the application. However, I am extremely concerned that we are not educating the next generation of geospatial professionals and scientists that need to be aware of the potential of "other" careers as opposed to some that have received more attention and hype that I refer to as "fluff." If my post seems self promoting about our website's features, you totally misunderstand the value we offer to job-seekers, schools, and corporations to get the word out about the opportunites they have and the services we offer.
I think the fault lies in not just the media but the companies that post fluffy, almost daily, press releases, as well as ourselves for getting carried away in a technology without looking at how it fits a business case or how it solves a problem.
It's almost the same issue or problem wildlife biologists are having in expanding/filling their ranks with minorities. Can't make people interested in a field/career if they have no desire too.
Now, whether or not the no desire is born from never being exposed to that field/career path or they have been and it doesn't suit their "needs". "Needs", like high pay, glamorous work, fame, so on and so forth.
That is a different story.
KoS
There is far more potential in these, as opposed to any expectation that folks be interested in GIS just for the sake of GIS.