URISA: 1967 New Haven Census Use Study

If you didn’t get up on time for this session, the second plenary of the conference you really missed out. It was touching, insightful and most importantly, very entertaining. Most of the team that did this work that ultimately created DIME files and reinvented the census and geosopatial data were all on one stage telling their stories. I sure hope someone recorded this!

I want to share some of the “pearls of wisdom,” the subtle advice the panelists shared with the attendees. I am most dispappointed so few young people were around to hear the stories; they really set the stage for anyone just setting out a new job, knowing almost nothing and not being sure where it will lead…

Don Cooke - (1) The term he offered, paralleling the key term “plastics” in The Graduate: 3D. (2) Be passionate about whatever turns you on.

Bill Maxfield - (1) Luck favors the prepared mind - we needed to solve a problem and DIME did that. (2) Moore’s Law is your friend. Don’t worry too much about getting the algorithm to be fast; get it right. The computers will get faster soon. (3) Public vs. Private sector choices. The team had much freedom working for the government, but in the end, the private sector pays. (4) Grab software and make it do what you need; don’t wait for the “perfect” solution, it will not come.

Marv White - (He’s the guy behind Sportvision - the folks who put the first down line magically on the TV football field, among other things) (1) “Routing algorithms are no match for just a good map.” Early navigation algorithms were no big benefit (he was at Etak which provided Albequerque Ambulance with a nav system); just having the map and letting dispatchers assign ambulances where to go was a huge step forward. (2) Study and use applied mathematics (that’s what GIS is and that’s what Sportvision is!)

[Disclosure: URISA covered my lodging for this event.]