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You are exactly right but unfortunately most of the training I
have been involved in from vendors has been way over priced( several hundred
$'s/day) and not very good, if not awful. Some tech person talks in a monotone
and reads line by line from a poorly prepared instruction manual that has an
example dataset that has nothing to do with what the student needs to be working
on. Effective training has to have an evaluation component to see if the
student is understanding or retaining the material so that they can move on
to the next topics in the course with confidence. I have never seen this
done in commercial courses.
I have found that the local community college does a far
better job and charges for a 10 week course $100 or so.
The GIS industry, as like the rest of the software world,
needs to re-invent training programs. I'll bet if a serious study were done of
current programs that the effectiveness would be rated at less than 10%, that
is, the student retains less than 10%of the material 1 day after taking the
course. But the responsibility is not all the vendor's. Companies send staff to
software training and their management puts nothing in place to evaluate the
effectiveness of the training or do they attempt to measure whether their
investment paid off, and seldom do they give the staff member time to just sit
at their terminal and go through the manual chapter by chapter. ESRI is
putting affordable courses on the Internet, I have no idea if they are any good
or not.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2000 7:46 AM
Subject: RE: MI Best GIS for dollar
First the disclaimer - I work for a MapInfo VAR
and we have an ATC (Authorized Training Center).
With
that said, whether ERSI, MapInfo, Maptitude, Mamifold, etc.... if you intend
to be a power-user, or need a team of strong users,
it
is essential to budget in training as well. I've taken and taught
training on both sides (MI & ESRI). GIS, however convincing the
marketing blush,
is a
complex and difficult field for new users. Just understanding the
concepts (and limitations) of geographic analysis takes time to
digest.
Its only user friendly if the user has a
clue.
Where time is money and a limited
resource, good training class can save you hours of
wasted project time
with
an ever-approaching and unforgiving deadline. Even if you later switch
products, a firm grasp of GIS concepts makes
learning
competitor software much easier. Will any of us
be using the same software in five years? Doubtful.
Eventually the GIS user is powerful, and the software
just a tool.
When
budgeting for software, budget for GIS training as well. It will
pay for itself tenfold regardless of the final product
choice.
Dick,
Perfectly put. Very few of us use anywhere near the potential of
any software; we learn what is necessary to do our tasks and complete our
mission.
It is great to be innovative but a couple of old expressions sum up the
risk..."The first guy on the beach gets the bullet" and "The leading edge of
the sword has the most nicks."
I like to remember the lesson of Levi Strauss. As thousands
gallumphed into the western horizon to grab the first chunk of gold, Levi
loaded his goods in a slow wagon team and followed to sell them the standard
commodities they would still need.
My cost of maintaining various editions of MI, with V
Mapper and data versus Maptitude and Surfer 6 and 7 and both product's
programming languages is 8 to 1. MI is around because my users had MI -
although no longer - ESRI made them a deal they couldn't refuse. So maybe
I won't upgrade. However if you have a job to do, saving money on software
and upgrades can certainly be a false economy. It of course depends on the
job.
However, not every GIS user is a developer, or ever
cares to make a GIS app beyond using the programming language to automate
their own task to support. There are a lot of people who need almost
industrial strength GIS tools to work on particular problems and get
things done. Maptitude and Manifold could fill this void. What I hear from
Manifold and Maptitude sure indicates that they are not exactly stuck ...
new things are going to appear which I don't think ESRI or MI are capable
of doing now because they are "stuck" in a GIS paradigm that won't be here
in 5 years.
Of courser, it depends on what you need to do, and I
would submit that a whole lot of people are spending $1400 when they could
be spending $400. Seems that MI is not exactly preparing for when folks
figure that out.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 3:06 PM
Subject: RE: MI Best GIS for dollar
> For what it's worth -
>
>
Overall, I have to agree that Maptitude is the best generic GIS
value. Great
> data set, good functionality, fabulous
import/export capability, built in
> routing, etc.
>
>
But there are still plenty of reasons to go with other more expensive
packages.
>
> A major factor in deciding which GIS use for
many of us is the 3rd party tools
> available. Mapinfo and
Arcview both have hundreds of free public domain
> utilities and
programs available, and dozens more for sale. Practically
any
> vertical market need a user has, from site selection to
watershed analysis, has
> been covered by the third party developer
and VAR channel.
>
> Maptitude is really deficient here, even
though the package has a good
> programming language.
Maptitude's sale price is so low that Caliper can't
> afford to have
a decent reseller program (nor have they ever tried hard to
>
cultivate one), which forces them to try to do everything in-house.
Hence, they
> have a good generic package, but very little vertical
market tools or
> penetration. Routing applications are the
one exception, which Caliper has
> developed in-house.
>
> And there's something to be said for critical mass. ESRI
and Mapinfo have most
> of the market share, most of the trained GIS
users, and most of the installed
> base. If your company is making
mission critical decisions with GIS, and you
> need to find trained
GIS users with experience in your particular industry, the
> extra
expense of going with an established market leader is
inconsequential
> compared to the risk of making bad operational
decisions by trying to save a few
> bucks up front.
>
>
Berk Charlton
> Geographic Marketing Solutions.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
Behalf Of Leore, Robert
> > Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 9:41
AM
> > To: MapInfo-L
> > Subject: RE: MI Best GIS for
dollar
> >
> >
> > Maptitude by Caliper is the
best GIS for the dollar. At US$395 it is the
> > cheapest
path to a full-featured GIS. I used to use MI but I now use
>
> Maptitude and its big brother TransCAD exclusively. Check these
programs
> > out at www.caliper.com.
> >
> >
Bob
> >
> >
> >
> > > > Hi
Everyone,
> > > >
> > > > I have been
reading the threads on MI and ArcView in the same office and
> >
> am
> > > > interested in peoples opinions as to
value. I am considering purchase
> > > of a
> >
> > GIS but would like info on value vs functionality.
>
> > >
> > > > Can anyone suggest a GIS system that
gives the best 'bang for your buck'
> > > > for business
applications such as demographic studies, network analysis
> >
> and
> > > > has decent spatial modeling capabilities?
Map Design and layout
> > > > capabilities are important
also.
> > > >
> > > > I have used ArcInfo
and ArcView but realise there are other systems such
> > >
as
> > > > MI, Esri Atlas GIS and Manifold.
Unfortunately, as everyone knows many
> > > > systems lack
basic functionality required to complete a project and
> > >
either
> > > > you need to buy expensive 'add-on' modules
or use a different program to
> > > > complete the
project.
> > > >
> > > > For example, what
does the Esri Atlas GIS give that you cannot do with
> > >
> ArcView and a business add-on? Manifold claims it does way more than
MI.
> > > > Are there users experienced with several of
these systems that could
> > > shed
> > > >
some light on the relative strengths and weaknesses of these
systems?
> > > >
> > > > Is one of these
systems head and shoulders above the rest?
> > > >
>
> > > Thanks in advance,
> > > >
> > >
> Shepherd Stewart
> > >
> >
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>
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> >
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> >
>
>
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