An online friend shared a story about his young daughter’s visit to the optometrist. The optometrist determined that the child was farsighted and needed glasses. My friend then wrote: “The only thing that bothers me is that optometrists not only tell you that you need glasses, they also sell them!”

Of course it bothers him. It bothers me, too, when I seek (and pay for) professional advice, only to find myself on the receiving end of a product sales pitch. Without fail, the “professional” stands to gain financially from the product sale.

Yet the same practice it prevalent in the GIS industry. “Independent” consultants are routinely partnered with software or service vendors. Big surprise, then, that the consultant recommends the product (and lots of it) whose sale they stand to profit from.

I was reminded of the optometrist story as a GIS press release popped up in my RSS reader – about a New Jersey town that just bought a technologically outdated web-based GIS, on the advice of their GIS consultant. As it turns out, the doctor in this case was also the pharmacist.

People: If you ask the GM salesman, he’ll recommend a Hummer (Hummer being sold to China as I write this).