"GIS for Dummies" Due in November

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Friday, June 27. 2008

"GIS for Dummies" Due in November

The author touted completing yet another chapter on Twitter. I found the book on Wiley's website. It's due in November and is by Michael N. DeMers.

Does having a "Dummies" book means GIS has arrived?

Posted by Adena Schutzberg at 09:52 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

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Even more interesting, what are the core concepts considered necessary for a GIS Dummies book? Should be interesting, as with any summary/survey work: by what they omit, you shall know them.

#1 Paul Ramsey on 2008-06-27 10:49 (Reply)

Its really a good idea to start something called GIS for Dummies, As i strongly believe that explaining what GIS is to a non-GIS is the most toughest job ever for any one.forget about software, installation bla-bla. The book should relate the CORE gis concept such as what does a GIS do,relate some sort of carton map, which shows a ducky the way to its home. So that they know...wow its a path which leads them to destination, on their way they might get across so many information or POI's relate them so that it reaches the reader or a dummy.
Hope that gives an idea on the subject for you

Cheeers!!!
Kalai Selvan
GeoEdge Technologies Pvt Ltd
Coimbatore

#1.1 Kalai Selvan (Link) on 2008-07-01 02:34 (Reply)

Probably not the kind of comment you are seeking Adena, but I've long been offended by the "... for Dummies" series. Brilliant marketing for sure, but I simply refuse to buy a book that insults my intelligence even before I buy it. I take that back - I once did buy a For Dummies book on something, I forget what except that it was the ONLY book available on the subject. But I immediately found some blank labels to put over the Dummies word on the title and wrote in "for Novices".

Ok, I'm probably extreme, but I firmly believe that if we surround ourselves with garbage words, we become garbage.

As for this book, I assume the content will be great. They actually do a good job covering basics. But how will they do it without defacto endorsing some of the software players? Does the author have any prior connection with any firms?

#2 Darrin Clement (Link) on 2008-06-29 06:22 (Reply)

I studied one of his books (google his name and you will see some good links from amazon.com) called "Fundamentals of G.I.S.", in college some years ago. It is one of the easiest reads on GIS I have come across till date. It was also totally vendor-neutral.

#2.1 Sanjeev on 2008-07-03 01:14 (Reply)

I though Google Earth was the GIS for Dummies ? At least that's the way it it appears on CNN, FoxNews, etc. when talking heads like Blitzer, Cooper, and the rest of the journalist-wannabe celebrities "oohhh" & "aahhhhh" and blabber on and on about "geoinfo" or other misplaced and misinformed features of the [GE} application and their like. Google has delivered a double-edged sword to the masses with GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth: at once, making geospatial technology both mainstream and hip, but removing any barrier to entry for anyone wanting to pretend to be a professional. GIS for Dummies, or Dummies in GIS.

#3 Anthony Quartararo on 2008-06-30 04:01 (Reply)

Google Earth is the MS Access and Visual Basic of the GeoSpatial world.

What I mean is that it is having the same effect on the GeoSpatial world that those technologies had on mainstream IT. As you stated; it allows anyone to pretend to be a professional; e.g. Microsoft's marketing PR - "Now anyone can create a database." And unfortunately, many of them did and we are still and continually facing the outfall of this mentality.

A user may be able to develop their own home video library system, but that doesn't mean that know what it takes to build a system for a nationwide chain of video stores. But try convincing them of that.

As a mainstream IT professional becoming more involved with the GeoSpatial, I encourage you to do all you can to develop strategies for convincing upper management that despite these user friendly applications; there is still a need for rigorous analysis and design work done by professionally trained staff. Tools like Google Earth definitely have their place, but they cannot replace sound system design principles.

#3.1 Brian Jones on 2008-06-30 14:35 (Reply)

I hope the first chapter notes that installing a GIS application on your computer doesn't make you a GIS analyst, and that a polygon drawn on GE and then emailed in a PDF does not constitute GIS data.

#4 Brian Cantwell (Link) on 2008-06-30 11:53 (Reply)

Love to see how he explains geodesy, semantics, topology, map algebra, perception viz cartography and so forth to a novice with no background in any discipline related to GIS/geographic theory. Hats off to the author if he can!

#5 Carl Reed on 2008-07-01 14:28 (Reply)

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