Certainly this consultant has very limited knowledge of the "GIS World."
Having started my GIS career with "High End" software and after four years
took a job where MI is the shop standard. After being deprogrammed from the
retoric and marketing of the ESRI cult it became apparent that the myth of
GIS software that meets all the GIS analyst's needs does not and will never
exist. I fail to see the point of GIS snobbery, the well trained GIS Analyst
will succeed because they understand GIS concepts, not just software. The
best GIS software, measured by cost or functionality, is useless if there is
not a good analyst managing the entire system. The consultant that claims MI
is as easy to learn as a word proccessing program never spoke to some of the
geologists I know who tried to train a secretary in MI and make her a GIS
analyst - The result was appalling. In all fairness if I'm publishing a 300
page long document with graphics and special formatting I will be looking to
a secretary that knows word processing. Really, I have seen GIS shops w/
hundreds of thousands of dollars in GIS software that could have
accomplished the same GIS tasks w/ MI and a few hundred dollars worth of
add-ons.
Perhaps the consultant's analogous comparison of learning MI to learning
word proccessing would have been better compared to programming languages.
Some programmers prefer Delphi over VB and still others would prefer Java -
each provides a method by which the programmer can get their job done.
The ease of learning how to accomplish GIS tasks in MI is a plus; I suppose
that tasks MI handles easily are "low end" because accomplishing the same
task in ESRI software is difficult, if not impossable - but the ArcView and
ArcInfo user can still hold their nose high because they have been told by
the marketing staff at ESRI that they are on the High End.
-----Original Message-----
From: CDR Group [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 9:35 AM
To: GIS Clerk; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: MI-L mapinfo skills
GIS Clerk
We also have to put up with "GIS Snobbery".....!!!
In the UK we have hundreds of users using MapInfo
for engineering, layout and legal mapping.
Is the HR Consultant comparing MapInfo with CAD or GIS.?
All software has more functions than you ever need.
Match the requirements of the task with the appropriate
software and the skills of the user.........
Regards
John Ievers
-----Original Message-----
From: GIS Clerk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 15 June 2001 16:22
Subject: MI-L mapinfo skills
>my job is to maintain a casastral base using MapInfo.
>in the context of a wage/job comparison, i received the following comments
>from a human resources consultant and would appreciate feedback:
>
>1) "MapInfo is described in the GIS world as a low end program compared to
>other GIS programs e.g. ARc Info. Unlike the higher end systems it is not
>being used to manage data for engineering, layout or legal mapping."
>2) "The off the shelf MapInfo program does not have anoffset tool to enable
>layout of property lines."
>3) "Skills required to learn and use the MapINfo system are similar to
using
>word processing systems such as MS Word. There is no significant training
>required to enable use of the system as would be required for layout for
>engineering or legal tie in."
>
>thanks
>
>
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