Conversations Redux

Glad to see that this topic generated some thought, comments and “conversations” around the GIS blogs.

For me, I’m somewhat suprised that GIS people have not jumped on blogs as much as the developer community. In many ways the two are similar – many people are asked to accomplish complex tasks, with many dynamic variables to the problem, typically working in smaller groups or individually. Since I straddle both communities, and I get so much value from the .NET blogs, it is interesting that this has not been widely adopted in the GIS arena.

From the comments and other blog postings, I think that those who are blogging on GIS should make an effort to not only bring more people into blog / rss / aggregator awareness, but to suggest that people start their own blogs so we have wider diversity. In addition, we should compose posts such that they invite conversation. I’ll be trying these approaches, but for those going to the ESRI user conference – try encouraging people to jump into blogging. There are soooo many places where people can start blogs for free, so there is very little barrier to entry, and so much value to be gained – both at an individual level with How-To… and How-Do-You type posts, and as a community with wider participation in the larger conversation.

re: posting in the future – this is just a bit of fat fingers – I’m at a client site this week, and I’m not too great with the track pad on my notebook!

also – I tried to post this comment over at AllPoints, but I’m on an open wireless connection and the IP has apparently been used to spam in the past so I was denied, so I posted it here…

Comment to AllPoints Posting – Chiming in on the Conversation

Hello Adena!

I’m out at a client site this week and I’ve been asking around about blogs in general, and GIS blogs in particular. And it for the most part, GIS people are just beind the adoption curve. Heck – I think that general internet users have yet to really grok blog / RSS / aggregation etc.

I think the main reason I asked the question was that I get so much value out of conversations on niche blogs related to non-GIS development, that I would expect that the relatively niche area of GIS would latch onto this same technology. In both cases, blogging and rss helps bridge gaps between relatively isolated individuals working on complex problems, so it would seem to be a great match up. Maybe we’ll see wider awareness and adoption as ESRI puts more effort into blogging.

Cheers,

Dave