FANTOM PLANET

I’ve been intrigued with Lisa Parks’ presentation at Where 2.0 last week. Personally, I like the topic because I study the exact same stuff in my day job—when I’m not Twittering. Yet, it had an air of ignorance in it. It was observed from a cultural studies, almost post-modern view. It might be an observation from the outside that we don’t care for, but it is interesting and a needed perspective.

So, do we think of the effect of our media? Those media that are representations of real life in spatial terms.

We could put some deep thought into this for years and months, but for any geo-types who feel like Parks gave us a bum rap, and for those who may want to challenge her assumptions about geo as a medium, then start off by reading a paper by Daniel Sui and Mike Goodchild. It’s called, “A tetradic analysis of GIS and society using McLuhan’s law of the media.”

This paper argues that GIS are increasingly becoming media for communicating various crucial social and environmental information to the general public. By reconceptualizing GIS as media, the paper conducts a detailed tetradic analysis on the social implications of GIS using Marshall McLuhan’s law of media. The analysis reveals the paradoxical and ambivalent nature of GIS technology. To make GIS fulfill democratic ideals in society, this paper calls for a shift of perspective, from viewing them as instruments for problem‐solving to viewing them as media for communication. This shift from instrumental to communicative rationality enables us to examine more critically and holistically how space, people and environment have been represented, manipulated and visualized in GIS and thus promotes a more critical and democratic GIS practice. [Emphasis mine]

For all things GeoWeb, this starts you off with some perspective where Parks was trying to come from. It did for me, and it’s probably why I’m reading books on media ecology and cultural geography of media. It’s a crazy shift for a kind of paleo/neogeography guy like myself, but just its another way of studying geography and our impact on place and people.

Understanding geo as a medium will help you realize the impact and design of your applications… As well as debating the academic film and media department’s evaluation of your lifestyle.

Well, I’m not going to say much about the Planary Session from Monday at the ESRI UC.  Planet Geospatial Team pretty much took care of that one.  I must note the differences between Frank’s perception and Sebastian’s take was on it.    I got the feeling that this is Frank’s first UC.  So, somewhat two ends of the spectrum: a greenhorn and an a seasoned guy who has been here before.  (Correct me if I’m wrong please.)

This is my fourth UC in a row and I like the planary–I even sat in the front row this time trying to rattle off the events on IRC.   There are people who get recognized, awarded, interesting uses of ArcGIS are displayed, and ESRI treats you like family no matter how cynical you are.  I like it. Would have been better if the Wi-Fi hadn’t bombed on me too.

The things that get old year after year are the notes on the upgrades.  It’s not quite like watching grass grow, from year to year, but it’s about the tease of improvements that gets to me.  Sure, no software package is going to be perfect–ever.  But the anticipation is what I think eats at the dev community, or the early adopters of ESRI’s technology.  For instance, Geographic Weighted Regression, Frank talked about this, I’m stoked for it because it’s what I’ve been wanting. I’ve been cranking it out with somebody else’s tool that I don’t like.  Finally it’s in something that like to use.  When does it come out?  Dunno, but I’ll be bugging the hell out of my friends at Redlands for it.

So, the 9.3 upgrades, sure they’re good, it doesn’t excite me as much as it used to. At least they’re talking to you.  Plus, it’s been “user-ized.”  Tech discussions have been moved to the Dev Summit.  So, the devs who are here really should have gone to the Dev Summit, but with all the socializing going on, why not come?

I saw Glenn from Anything Geospatial in the Map Gallery last night.  We were discussing how different Where 2.0 and ESRI UC are.  At Where, everyone’s on a tear to get as much info to you in the shortest amount of time. Plus, everyone can fit inside the same room.

At ESRI, you get the Monday Morning Update. Then you’re off to a ton of paper sessions and to wander about the exhibit hall.  You may see someone who is doing similar work in one session and never see them again in another. So, as there is a relationship between users, there is no continuity of building a personal community. One user from one part of the country may have met someone from another part may not ever collaborate with the other.

So, Glenn and I thought about WhereCamp-like thing for the UC. . . Nah, that’s what the Dev Summit is for, right?

Thinking about it again, “why not have a JackCamp?”  You have about 15,000 people here, they might want to build a collaborative project and actually apply GIS while they’re here.  So, why don’t we do this next year?

I’ll talk to some people and see what I can get going.  It may be ripe for the time to get the professionals acting like the all of the amatures.   Might as well follow the folks who showed up in the geoworld describing their world using a geographic approach without even knowing it (which may be a mix of UC themes.)

T’was a place for IRC-blocked cubicle gnomes.

I forgot how awesome IRC is. I guess the lack of it in the office has made me forget about it.   Oh, well?  See you in the Frenode #planetgeospatial channel.