Disruptive Egotism

I just read the VerySpatial post linking to Builder.com Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming via TheSteve0.  VerySpatial likes Commandment #3: No matter how much “karate” you know, someone else will always know more. 

I like this one too, but for very different reasons.  This rule, to me, is a signpost showing where ego can be put to use:  disruptive technologies.  In essence, if no matter how good you are, someone will always be better: then change the game. 

My other favorite?: The only constant in the world is change.   Keep your ego.  Lead.

Back in Black

Last June I noticed that most of my blog posts were comparisons, to which I attributed a sort of kitsch.

Kitsch, according to Milan Kundera’s book The Unbearable Lightness of Being, defined it as “the absolute denial of shit.” I hoped to poke some fun at the GIS programmers’ feuding over paradigms / languages / libraries by presenting a world-view like Kundera’s kitsch, where “all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.”  

Hence I embraced a cloying battle meme, and elevated my level of distasteful sarcasm.  Today, I’ve finally grown tired of this faux personality, and have accumulated a few ideas I’d like to post in a more traditional format.  In other words, I’m going back to normal.  Wish me luck.

PS:  WordPress’s spell check doesn’t recognize the word “blog”. “Biog” and “bldg” are suggested alternatives.  Just a note for anyone hoping my sarcasm would disappear overnight.

GeoCommons: James vs. Steve

Steve’s Little World and Spatially Adjusted are having a tiff over the usefullness of the GeoCommons services.

Need I remind you that “destruction” is one of the sub-topics of this blog?  Like a moth to a flame!!  I must weigh-in!  I’ve recently decided I’m old-school GIS, not one of those NeoGeography leotard-wearing types.  But tasteless sarcasm takes no prisoners — let the quips begin!

 

First of all, let me remind everyone of Executive Order 12906.  It has this little line “each agency shall document all new geospatial data it collects or produces, either directly or indirectly, using the standard under development by the FGDC.”  I’m a true American; I love my country, and hate my government.  If they say use FGDC metadata, I say metadata is for sissies pansies.

Bush needs to make that vital decision to privatize the FGDC, and throw the no-bid-contract at Google or FortisOne (who made GeoCommons).  We need more entrepenuers like FortisOne “applying its deep expertise in geographic analysis and visualization to the needs of clients such as the Department of Homeland Security.”  After all, Homeland Security isn’t a bunch of sissies… Name, Tags, and Descriptiton (GeoCommons’s fields) are metadata enough for those tough guys.

And besides, doing things right and following the rules is more than dull, its hard!  ESRI can barely do it, and we all love ESRI more than God.  Hell, OGC wrote the interoperability standard for cataloging and searching metadata (and by implication, data).  [There ain't no money in standards.]  Yeah, and OGC wrote it.  That means it’s a painfully long, stupid document–not worth reading.  So not only is the metadata schema completely ignored, but the cataloging protocol is too!

These specs are ignored because nobody really cares about details like spatial projections when we all know that Google only lets us use one.  And Google is clearly right, because they’re really popular and have a ton of money.  They don’t play by the rules, they are the rules.  I love them.  They’re getting the job done. 

And OGC?  Can’t we just privatize them too?

The Web Map Unit of Work

Last week I got a little depressed. I realized my client/stakeholders:

A) Primarily cared about a single dataset

B) Wanted a web page with a map on it

This is easy — it’s mundane. It’s Google Maps’s wet dream — 90% of the users have been brainwashed into thinking the earth is 2, maybe 3 datasets in Platte Carre. It’s a J O B. Whatever features I add to it, putting a single use, single projection, single datatype online still just makes me bored.

GIS has compuational complexities that make it interesting! Take those away… use a single projection, use a single map service, assume no repeat workflows… what do you have? A web map? A web map and some query logic? Perhaps the unit of work for a dull job?

I got into GIS to get away from the monotony of database/forms work. All that work is the same: UI -> validation -> database. Now I’m having visions of a GIS world that had remarkable similarities. Tile Cache + UI -> Map. The reduction in computation complexity necessary to achieve Google Maps style performance has resulted in a similar reduction in complexity of user expectations. Simple and fast is winning the heart and minds of our clients.

And it just might make our jobs suck.