This fall Speak Up for Geography, an effort to get funding for geography education, has a goal of sending 10,000 letters to Congress in support of the Act by November 18, 2011. How are efforts like this working to get geography back into schools? Are efforts like a recent Association of American Geographers press release citing former secretaries of state helping? What more can those who work in allied fields do?

Leslie P. Norton, writing in Barron's reports, "The United Nations projects that by mid-century, cities will be home to 70% of the world's 9.2 billion inhabitants, a figure that tops today's population by 30%." What does that mean for Smart Cities? And for geospatial job opportunities?

Last week the world began mourning the loss of former Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. There were, and will continue to be, tributes and reminiscences over the coming months and years as the world tries to identify the impact he and his company have had on technology and our lives. This week we explore what the geospatial industry can learn from Steve Jobs and Apple.

What tools are absolutely essential to doing your job well? Our editors took inventory and share their favorite hardware, local and cloud software they can't live without.

Do you remember when you had the “Aha!” moment with GIS? When all of the sudden it made sense? Do you remember the joy and excitement? On the flip side do you recall the most challenging time in your work with GIS? What did you learn from and what did you do next to take advantage of these situations? Our editors share their stories.

Last week the OpenStreetMap community came together in Denver, Colorado for The State of the Map. Our editors dig into the news from the event and ponder the future of this crowdsourced map of the world.

Our editors discuss thier lists of the top five skills needed to be successful in a GIS career.

What is the current state of free and open source software for geospatial? As many prepare for next week's FOSS4G event our editors share their perspectives.

Facebook "Places" was launched last year to much fanfare to allow users to "check-in" so that friends would know where you are. Facebook's foray into location based services fizzled and led the company to alter how location fits into its strategy. Our editors look at Facebook's second attempt at using location and whether this attempt will succeed.

The buzzword of the month is “the consumerization of IT” and while it’s not exactly true for geospatial, it’s very close. This more accessible implementation of IT tools impacts both GIS professionals and those who use the technology more informally. What are the implication of these trends? Our editors have different views of the future.