July 23, 2009
This month, Directions Magazine
conducted a poll of our readers, asking who they believe are, and will
be, the most influential people in the geospatial industry over the
next five years. The choices were compiled from a list of nominees
selected by our readers and our editors. We believe that the nominees
represent a fair cross-section of influential people from the
geospatial industry. There were over 1,000 votes and of the 22
nominees, the top 10 are listed here. The person receiving the most
votes was Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI, closely followed by Steve
Coast, founder of Cloudmade and OpenStreetMap, and the founders and
current chief geospatial technologist from Google. Though some may
question the use of polling to ascertain who is influencing our
profession, it represents a snapshot of current impressions from the
community. Of equal importance are the comments written by survey
respondents, which provide an even deeper understanding and
appreciation of the accomplishments of these individuals. A selection
of those comments is provided here. We hope you enjoyed participating
in the poll and if you have any comments, please write to us at editors@directionsmag.com.
Here are some representative comments readers left:
Steve Coast and Carl Reed because they lead efforts
that will open up GIS to radical innovation with their advocacy of Open
Systems. Jack Dangermond just because of the shear mass of ESRI. Jack
has always had an eye for innovation, but ESRI has become more insular
lately. However, the success of efforts such as OGC and OpenStreetMap
will (or is beginning to) push ESRI to a more open standard. That will
then push open GIS solidly out into the mainstream.
[Kipal] Sibal: As the technology leader for the
largest democracy and one of the fastest growing economies in the
world, Mr Sibal really "gets" geospatial. He understands it equally as
an academic science and as it is implemented in practical industrial
application. Geospatial professionals around the world would do well
going forward to pay attention to his vision, as well as India's
direction in these areas. So, while there have been more influential
individuals in the past, he is a leader of today, and especially of
tomorrow.
Frank [Warmerdam] is absolutely amazing. The amount of
time he devotes to GDAL and OGR2OGR and its users is mind-boggling. The
tools are my #1 to get my work done, and also are to a large number of
professional software, including ArcGIS. And of course Jack. I had
the pleasure of seeing him in action in a meeting. A tough guy who
knows how the industry works, and how to move it and his company
forward.
[James] Fee: He is the standard-bearer of the
geospatial blogosphere, and leader of this generational revolution in
the way we share information about technology. James is as equally
adept with the big picture as he is with the nuts-and-bolts of how
current and developing geospatial technologies work. To have advanced
knowledge of both is rare. Being vendor-neutral and fair (not that he
doesn't quickly and easily share his candid opinions), he attracts
communities of users who all benefit from this mutual exchange of
ideas. Above all, he is always "in the know", and because of this we
are also.
David [DiBiase] continues to lead and shape GIS
education for the next generation of GIS professionals and works to set
standards and achieve acknowledgement of our field by other industries
and the government. He also works to define our roles and
responsibilities as GIS professionals in the greater business world.
Jack will continue to be an influential icon in our field for as long
as he leads ESRI.
[Steve] Coast, as OpenStreetMap and the concepts of
collaborative data development are going to revolutionize how we use
and manage data. Like politics, all data is local. Dangermond, as
ESRI continues to embrace change and expectations of user community and
has managed to maintain dominance as a GIS vendor. Fee, because
voices from the trenches can have very prolific effects on development
practices.
Steve Coast: I believe user sourced map content will
continue to grow in importance, and Steve and OSM are in the vanguard
of that movement. Jack Dangermond: ESRI is, and will be the 900lb
gorilla in the geospatial field, and it will continue to have a huge
influence on how much of the work in this industry is done.
Sergey/Larry/Ed: Google has, and will continue to push the boundaries
of mapping as part of the common man's experience and relating
geospatial to search. I would have also given honourable mentions
to James Fee, Paul Bissett, and Carl Reed.
Learon Dalby has effectively carried this message to decision-makers in
Washington and will continue to advocate on these and other issues. He
has the effective communications and management skills of a true
leader, and has worked across all sectors to champion a new vision for
the NSDI. His vision is clear and to the point, and he always looks
for a shorter, more realistic path to achieve NSGIC’s goals.
For many years Mr. Palatiello has been one the most
influential people in the geospatial industry. There is no one in my
opinion that has had more influence on promoting government-funded
programs that have and will create and maintain accurate and reliable
geospatial data. He is currently and active member of the National
Geospatial Advisory Committee and has appeared before Presidential
staff and Congress many time promoting geospatial programs. He is a
person that will be instrumental in supporting and promoting programs
such as "The National Map".
Google has made everyone a budding GIS consumer.
Dangermond is Mr. GIS. At the ESRI conferences, his love of maps is
infectious. John [Palatiello] brings the community together.
You cannot talk geo without mentioning Jack Dangermond,
love him or hate him you have to respect his passion, the colossus he
has built and his vision. The quantum shift in awareness of location
in the consumer market has been driven by Google more than any other
company. Hats off to Sergey and Larry for taking a punt on geo. OSM
is changing the way we think about and collect geodata. Steve Coast has
turned what some (myself included) considered a wacky idea into a game
changer which is influencing the mainstream players.
Kipal Sibal is one of the leaders coming from the east.
India has made a great leap in geospatial technology recently. The
newer cheaper GIS software, advancement in the education programs are
few to name whose credit goes to Kipal Sibal, directly or indirectly.
Jack Dangermond will remain influential as the the ESRI
will be leading at least for another 5-10 years. However, after a
decade, new open sources and cheaper and better versions of similar
products will hit the market. There is nothing that can compare the
research and developments that ESRI is doing at the movement, but it is
limiting its horizon because of its price (very expensive for ordinary
users). Jack Dangermond will remain one of the most influential leaders
for decades if ESRI is taken to an affordable directions with the
upkeep of recent development. And yes, at some point, integration of
Google products instead of Microsoft (current initiative) with ESRI
might become vital.
Dale [Lutz] & Don [Murray] (Safe Software) because they provide the
ultimate "pain-killer" for the world's geospatial interoperability
needs on the desktop, server and in the cloud! ...and having fun doing
it :-) What a fantastic value proposition. The guys at Google
because they continue to make the "nerdy" world of geospatial very
tangible, compelling and pervasive for the masses!
Learon Dalby will have you think he's a simple guy from
Arkansas, but many of us know the real truth. Learon is bright,
well-spoken advocate for the geospatial community with an energy level
that is unmatched. I am continually impressed by Learon's ability to
build relationships, and quickly get to the core of GIS coordination
problems we've faced for years.
#1 Frank Warmerdam is my choice for #1 because his hard
work over many years developing GDAL and OGR (the "swiss army knives"
of open GIS data format translation) and his recent efforts in leading
OSGEO have started to tear down the vendor stack traps of proprietary
commercial GIS software and will continue to expand the democratization
of GIS software globally. #2 Steve Coast is my choice for #2 because
Open Street Map has been and will continue to be such a huge success on
the right side of ensuring that critical GIS base data layers can
remain free and open, and owned/contributed to by all. They've got a
good start on breaking the vendor strangle-hold on road network data
that, up until now, have been locked up by Navteq and TeleAtlas and
were unaffordable to so many applications and users. #3 James Fee
does the GIS community a great service by maintaining one of the best
GIS blogs and news feeds in the world. We all get an opportunity to
learn about very interesting and relevant projects that would have
otherwise remained off our radar screens. He also does pretty good job
of stirring up community debate, and publicly prodding the commercial
behemoths on their software failings and lack of openness.
Number 1 - Frank Warmerdam. GDAL & OGR enable so
many pieces of software, and getting the job done so much easier.
Outstanding leadership at OSGEO, as well as valuable contributions to
so many other non-FOSS software, under the hood. Number 2 - Steve
Coast. Freedom from the tyranny of GDT/TeleAtlas/Navteq - finally!
Enabling the entire world to take back ownership of one of the most
important foundation spatial datasets there is. Number 3 - James
Fee. Planet Geospatial is one of the prime hubs of the geo-social
networking world. James makes us think, brings us all kinds of news
about stuff we'd otherwise not have time to find, and provides such a
challenging and useful forum for discussion, and a lot of fun too.
My vote for Learon [Dalby] is expressing influence in the short term. I
don't know that he will be influential 5 years from now, but he has
been at the helm of NSGIC while it has grown to be a very effective
voice for statewide geospatial activities and concerns across the
country. If NSGIC continues on this path, it will be a very influential
organization in the government sector, and its president 5 years from
now may be on this list. However, Learon did lay an excellent
foundation for NSGIC's effectiveness. I don't know
the Google people, but Google will continue to drive the geospatial
world in terms of display of information. As everyone knows, they have
brought geospatial information and technologies beyond the
"priesthood." This is what we've wanted as GIS professionals for a long
time. As long as the potential users of geospatial information
continues to grow, geospatial technologies will grow in unforseen
ways. I think this list is missing a couple of
people. No reps from Microsoft? I think Vivek Kundra will be very
influential.
Steve Coast - OpenStreetMap is the most significant democratizing event in the Geo Industry.
Frank [Warmerdam] is the incarnation of a new business
model based on merit, competence and thoroughly realized Open Source
methodology. Carl [Reed] integrates all and that really means all
views on geospatial without losing sight of openness in standards
processes. Ed Parsons brings tons of experience and real expertise
into the shallow waters of Mass Market geospatial and (hopefully) boils
the perceived unlimited powers of Google down to a bearable level.
Read the rest of the comments.
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| The result of that survey confirms my overall intention. Public agencies are nowhere. While having harvested a rich amount of geospatial data - for more than a half century - they seem unable to serve the public with really usable geospatial information and services. This is especially true for Europe, and I am interested if the initiatives on Spatial Data Infrastructures (i.e. INSPIRE) will have an influence on that. |
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