A Geographer at the State Department

At the GEOINT Conference, Dr. Lee Schwartz spoke about his job as the geographer for the U.S. Department of State, and, in particular, working with a new administration. "I"m often asked what is my job like with the change of administration," said Schwartz. He said that he is faced with making GEOINT relevant to the most senior policy makers because it is still a challenge. Not many of them appreciate the technology.

Schwartz also noted how the geospatial community is somewhat inward focused. "We as a community are far too self congratulatory. Too often we are moving things form GIS geek to GIS geek without following up on which applications are the best used." His department worked with NGA during the Tsunami in Bande Ache, Indonesia and with the Chinese for the Sichuan earthquake hailing these as landmark data sharing agreements. In the case of the Chinese earthquake there was a post operation celebration, but afterward Schwartz said he never found out how imagery was used indicating that cooperation was good but follow-up was poor.

Finally, Schwartz had an interesting observation about geospatial technology. "We shouldn’t forget the power of a good map," commented Schwartz. "The use of [the term] COP (common operational picture) drives me crazy because its really nothing more than a good map." His department also supports a variety of non-governmental organizations and Schwartz is particularly adamant that the depiction of international boundaries, maritime boundaries and the like are extremely important to field operations in far parts of the globe.