Geography today is far different from its popular—but very outdated—image as a discipline concerned primarily with remembering the largest cities, the tallest mountains, the principal waterways, and major products. This factual information (now called the discipline’s “declarativ

Geographic information science (GIScience), a maturing field representing advances from geography, civil engineering, landscape architecture, cartography, remote sensing, image processing, computer graphics, databases, and a host of application area developments, is rapidly expanding in academia, go

Maps make interesting instruments for negotiation.  The current round of
talks in the Israeli-Palestinian land-grab focus now on a map presented by
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.  This map is now the catalyst for a solution or cause for further delay in ta

I’ve been an avid user of United States Census Bureau data over the years, and really have been looking forward to getting my census form this year.

In school, they have even been giving children assignments that require them to get information off the census forms at home. This was quite a good

The recent announcement of yet another data conversion company acquiring one
of its competitors is a two-edged sword, for both the industry and the
customers it serves.  Over the past several years, the number of major
players in the AM/FM & GIS data conversion industry has dwindled
conside

Sometimes it is good to work within a tight budget. In those situations, you may discover creative solutions to problems out of pure necessity when you do not have funds to buy a resolution. That is my excuse, at least, and I stand by it.

I have been using some sort of spatial analysis tool since

In an earlier column (“ZIP Code Tables and Buggy Whips, Relics of the Past,”), I did more complaining than offering solutions… kind of like a teenager. Because I am way past the acne stage, it is time to repent.

There is no doubt that basing rating territories, or almost anything e

Geography is the science of everything.  There, I said it.  That’s right, I am claiming the high-ground for geography and GIS in the market space now being dominated by “IT” corporate lingo.  There is a reason the “G” comes before “IS”, and that is because without geography, nothing matters.  Who am

I recently attended an Executive Healthcare Briefing at Oracle where the new mantra was that the “Internet changes everything”.  I have thought a lot about that phase since I first heard it and have been trying to think of things that the Internet hasn’t changed…at least not for

It isn’t very often that events in the national news have any large impact on Business Geographics. Certainly, the latest chip or software announcements will affect us, but generally they are part of an evolution rather than a major change in direction. This recent announcement of AT&Ts’ a