Denn,
Your comments are absolutely spot on.
The MAJOR problem with MapInfo is that the upper hierarchy has not the
vaguest clue about the engineering/legal/professional land use of their
product. I would wager, with gracious odds, that most folks in the decision
process in Troy could not get any significant output from MapInfo...as
contrasted to ESRI's Captain Jack who is on professional mapping councils
around the world.
ESRI's problem is resolving how to make a useful desktop product without
killing their ArcInfo cash cow. I would imagine the delays in the much
promoted release of 8.1 are directly tied to this basic dilemma.
John Haynes
Director
Geodata Consultants, Inc.
1-800-838-6661
www.geodataconsult.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2001 11:49 AM
Subject: MI-L skills and markets
> It seems to me that part of the problem with the perceptions of
> MapInfo are due to what I would consider very poor marketing decisions.
To
> me at least, it seems that MapInfo has left the government market to ESRI.
> Many states are establishing standards for GIS data and work. The state
> decisions on standards are likely to be heavily influencied by senior
> people in planning and public works departments who have a relatively high
> probability of having grown up on ESRI products that were around earlier
> than MI. The state decisions will then affect local government decisions
> and eventually also influence decisions in private industry so that they
> can use government information and interact with government entitites.
The
> worst example of ignoring government with which I am familiar is in the
> field of criminal justice. There are far more police departments who need
> to know where crimes occur, probation and parole departments who need to
> know where their clients are, corrections departments who need to know
from
> where and to where prisoners come and go, state county and city attorneys
> who need to know where warrants need to be served, protection and
probation
> orders monitored than there are Fortune 500, Fortune 1000, Top 5000, or
> Top10000 corporations.
> Even though MI will cost less than any ESRI product to put into
> operation, and this is a critical issue for government agencies, MI
skilled
> people and MI products are not even getting a hearing. It's unbelieveable
> how slow and expensive it is to get even an ArcView operation running
> compared to MI, but if they don't market, it's their own foot that they'll
> be perforating. MI was so superior to the first version of ArcView, that
> it was unbelievable. MI developed a great crime analysis system for the
> LA cops, but didn't support or develop it extensively for other PDs. MI
> even has ignored little ditsy stuff that would enhance their market like
> providing cutsy little symbols that could be used for different types of
> crimes. On criminal justice listserves, gis crime analysts are always
> asking about different types of symbols like different shapes of cars or
> guns to use to indicate the locations of different types of crimes.
> ArcView made a whole pile of these avaiable and MI just sat on it hands as
> far as I can tell. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'd like to use any cutsy
> symbols that are available too. In the university market, MI made a
little
> step forward by linking with SPSS, but hasn't gotten anywhere near
> providing the statistical capability that can be linked to ESRI products
> particularly for spatial analyses problems.
> The failure to market to the government sector effectively is, in my
> opinion, what leads to denigration of MI. As far as I can tell, and maybe
> I'm wrong,
> the quality of what happens with the mapping software is heavily dependent
> on the quality of the map. Use a crummy map and you won't be able to do
> much with it. Inherently, and correct me if I'm wrong, so I can humble
> myself before ESRI types if necessary, that there aren't any inherent
> reasons one couldn't
> use land parcel files with MapInfo or make engineering quality drawings.
> If there is something wrong with MI algorithms that affects its
> reliablility in handling precision maps, I guess I'd like to know so that
I
> don't get upbraided by the ESRI devotees. Sorry, I guess that was more
> than my 2 cents worth, but I sure wish MI would wake up before more states
> try and cut them out of the picture.
>
> Denn Roncek
>
> v. 402.554.2610
> e [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
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