So for my first official post I decided to dive a bit into education...or standards.....or just go full nerd and call it Episode IV: A New Hope (for GIS).

So how did I get into GIS? I just kinda fell into it. A stint with a government agency led me from folding maps to digitizing roads off a 1:24k topo sheet. Unfortunately for the rest of the geospatial world, they left me with a full set of Arc/INFO 6.00 manuals and my fate was sealed. From that I went on a tour of the department from producing orthoimagery to creating DEM's (or DTM's) to troubleshooting every GIS problem that could possibly occur. It was fun...it was interesting......It drove me nuts toward the end and I quit and started consulting .
One of the things that has intrigued me over the last 18 years was watching how people got into GIS. I was absolutely positive that by 1995 schools would be turning out GIS students right and left and I would become a fossil. A relic confined to my SPARC 2 under a single lightbulb cranking out very angry scripts. It didn't happen.

Flash forward and I found myself sitting as the education chair at GA URISA in January 2010 after a three year affiliation with them. So now I'm "in Charge" so to speak of providing educational opportunities to the professional community. I need to provide training that is useful and interesting. One of the things that being in GA URISA did was introduce me to Gainesville State Community College . They went from a two year degree in GIS to a four year Bachelor's program. They are also a Geotech Center . If you are in the Atlanta area - make a side trip. Go visit.

Anyway, I kept hearing about something called a DACUM and a competency model. Someone was working on one - GA URISA was involved but I was a bit new and didn't understand exactly what was occurring. Apparently it was going on at all the Geotech centers. This past January I was invited to a "summit" where GA URISA, the Geotech Centers, and a host of other people from the area sat down and talked about education, students, and a Competency Model that was running through the Department of Labor. It became pretty clear then what was happening.

Standards are a great thing. Probably the closest the GIS community has had for a standard display of competency is the GISP and the ASPRS certified tests . I know before the flame war starts - there are problems with both. I'm a GISP and will hopefully test for the ASPRS certification shortly.  These two things are great for those who have been in the field. What do you do if you're just starting out? You pick a school and run with it....and do a bit of hoping in my opinion. I have seen great GIS Programs....and I have seen programs so bad they should be dragged out behind the library and shot.

Well today (July 8th 2010) the Department of Labor today released a Geospatial Competency Model . So what? This what: we have a education plan for GIS people. We are, more or less, a defined field now (I know - do the job and you'll see how defined it is). In my opinion this is a large step for the Geospatial community. From being able to communicate effectively to knowing when to use the right spatial model - it's all laid out. I saw a bit of the work going into this - just a small piece - this was detailed and took some time to roll out. This was by no means a rushed job.

To quote: "The model will serve as a resource for career guidance, curriculum development and evaluation, career pathway development, recruitment and hiring, continuing professional development, certification and assessment development, apprenticeship program development and outreach efforts to promote geospatial technology careers."


Check it out - take a look at the website . Visit the Geotech center's website - read up on these guys. I know it's probably not that exciting, but for a small business owner and a GIS Practitioner who is in this for the long haul: this is excellent.

How excellent? Probably not this excellent but close!